Camera Labs

UPDATE: 1ST JANUARY 2008 by Bob Andersson

Submissions are now closed for December's 'On Assignment', with the last entry being DD_nVidia.

I've created the poll to allow you to vote for your favourite entry, and disqualified Gordon from inclusion as he's the Editor! As always, you must be logged-in to the forum to be able to vote.

Please get your vote in before January 21st so the winner can consider the topic for the February assignment.

Bob.

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Hello everyone, this is the thread for December's submissions.

The theme for this month is 'The Holidays'. IE - an image of what the December holiday season means to you. Festive, cynical, traditional, it's up to you! Please do be sensitive to other members though.

Please include a sentence or two with your photo describing what you were trying to achieve and if there were any particular challenges in doing so.

We're all enthusiasts here, so it's also great to see what equipment you used and the settings too. So please also include the following:

Camera Model:
Lens and focal length:
Aperture:
Shutter Speed:
Sensitivity:
Post processing:

Submissions will close at midnight GMT on 31 December 2007. The final poll will follow.

Please remember this thread is for submissions only and that posted images should be around 500 pixels on their longest dimension. If you'd like to comment on any of the submissions or ask any questions, please do so in the December 2007 comments thread!

Thanks and good luck!

Gordon

Hi folks,

Well, someone has to be first so here's an easy target for you all to improve on!

The village Christmas tree was "switched on" this evening so I thought I would see how well my 40D would cope. The metering did a great job but the floodlights to the left of the tree for the carol singers gave the sensor an impossible task. I'm pleased with the noise performance at ISO 1600 though

The Village Tree

Camera Model: EOS 40D
Lens and focal length: EF 85mm f/1.2 USM
Aperture: f/1.4
Shutter Speed: 1/100 (hand-held)
Sensitivity: 1600
Processing: Large Fine JPEG, PS CS2: Smart Sharpen (27%, 5.9 pixels), Shadow detail boosted slightly with Curves
Camera was in "P" mode, autofocus used, no flash.

_________________
OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Christmas in New Zealand



Camera Model: Nikon D300
Lens and focal length: Nikkor 17-55mm f2.8 at 55mm
Aperture: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/1250
Sensitivity: 400 ISO
Post processing: none

Coming from the UK, I'm more used to a Northern Hemisphere Christmas with a dark and chilly December - and don't get me wrong, I love it! But down here in New Zealand, December is fast-approaching the height of Summer and we're experiencing hot, bright sunny days which stay light until well-into the evening. So I thought I'd post an image to represent Christmas down here - not a barbie on the beach, but a close-up of the flower of the beautiful Pohutukawa: the 'New Zealand Christmas tree'. Technically speaking I wanted one flower in focus and the others blurred, so selected a reasonably open aperture in aperture priority mode - had I used f2.8 on the Nikkor lens, hardly anything would have been sharp! And in the far background, the blue sky of a Summer's day! (note, this tree is most common on the North Island, and this shot was in fact taken in Auckland).

Happy holidays everybody!
Cheers!



Camera Model: Canon EOS 400D + Hama Star 63 tripod
Lens and focal length: Canon 18-55mm at 55mm
Aperture: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 4 Sec
Sensitivity: ISO 100
Post processing:
DPP [RAW (-0.33 exposure, custom WB, faithful style, saturation +2, sharpness +6); RBG (saturation 110, sharpness 250)]
PS (crop-angle adjustment, resize)

_________________
Canon 400D + 18-55mm | Hama Star 63 | Lowepro Off Trail 1
Nikon D80 + 18-135mm
My Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17959284@N03/
My Sony H1 gallery:
http://picasaweb.google.com/DrazenGall

Here's my festive entry. Christmas isn't such a big thing in China. In the big cities like Beijing and Shanghai everywhere is decorated for the seasonal festivities, but here in little ole' Taiping...it's non-existent....except in my house



Camera Model: Nikon D80
Lens and focal length: Sigma 10-20mm @ 10mm
Aperture: f16
Shutter Speed: 30 Sec
Sensitivity: ISO 100

For this image I had a bit of fun with my new Sigma 10-20mm. To add a bit of Chinese flavour to my Christmas image, I put my little statue of a Terracotta Warrior (more famously used as the Immunity Idol in Survivor China!) at the base of the tree on a box with a bit of tinsel around it and shot from the ground upwards.

Processing wise, shot in Raw, adjusted exposure, straightened and cropped the image then levels and curves, saturation and contrast. The biggest processing part was adding a gaussian blur layer mask to blur the background to make the statue and tree stand out more.

Hope you like it, the Sigma is such a great lens for playing around with perspective.

Happy Christmas everyone

(Edited to add camera info)

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Mark
Nikon D300 / Sigma 10-20mm / Nikkor 17-55 f2.8 / Nikkor 18-200mm VR / Nikkor 50mm f1.8 / SB600 Speedlight
Mark Amy Photography
My Squidoo lens - Images of China

I was surprised when I checked out the assignment yesterday, I had just been out snapping Christmas displays, like I knew what the assignment would be. Anyway, my suburban Calilfornia town has gone crazy with lawn displays this year -- you'd never know we were in an energy crunch. Every block has at least two or three of these crazy displays.

This picture was taken around 6:00PM with a Nikon D50 using a 70-300 VR lens on tripod (with VR off).


ISO: 200
Aperture: f/8
Shutter Speed: 1/2
Focal Length: 70mm

The image was cropped, sharpened, and saturated.

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BrianS
D50, 70-300mm VR, 50mm f/1.8

aperture:f/8
Shutter: 0.4
focal: 200mm
ISO:400

I went into bored mode and this is the result hahaha



Edit: forgot to mention that post processing was: minor crop, minor saturation, minor contrast, minor sharpening and warming filter.

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Nikon D80+Nikkor 18-200mm VR f/3.5-5.6, Manfrotto tripod-190XDB/Head-804RC2
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hero_of_the_jay/

Back when I was a Kid



Camera Nikon D80
Lens: Nikkor AF-S DX 18-70mm
Exposure Program: Manual
Exposure time: 1/10 sec
Iso: 640
Max Aperture Value: F4.2
Focal Length: 34mm

_________________
I've upped my Iso, now up yours.
Nikon D700, Nikon D80, Micro Nikkor 105 f2.8 AI-S,Nikon 85mm 1.8D, Nikon 50mm 1.8D, Nikon 35mm F2D, Nikon 16-35 f4 VR, Nikon 24-70mm F2.8 AF-S, Nikon 70-200VRII, Nikon 70-300mm VR, 300mm f2.8 AI IF ED, SB-800, SB-900. Noiseware pro,NIK Dfine, Nik Colour Effex, Nik Sharpener Pro

I live in California now, but I grew up in Canada and Christmas was always full of snow, which was so magical to me as a child. The other night this snow globe caught my attention and brought back some childhood memories of playing out in the cold with snow falling. I always remember snow falling on Christmas Eve while looking out the window; epic in hindsight. That may sound corny, but in Northern Alberta, it always snows at Christmas... so I tried to capture the memory.

The only challenge, albeit minor, was dealing with how fast the snow fell after being shaken. It took a few times.

Title: It's Snowing Inside



Camera Model: Canon 30D
Lens and focal length: Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L at 40mm
Aperture: f/5
Shutter Speed: 1/60
Sensitivity: ISO 320
EV: -1
Flash: Did not fire
Exposure Program: Normal
Metering: Spot
Post processing:
Adobe Lightroom processed the CR2 file. I left the sliders alone on this one and suprisingly the WB is 'As Shot' at 3550. Lighting comes from a lamp that is right next to the globe on an end/tea table.

_________________
Jim Hawksworth Flickr
Canon 30D | EF 17-40 f/4L | EF 70-200 f/4L USM | EF 50 f/1.8 II | 580EX II | Berleback 2420 Tripod | and other various tools

December is the month of snow and ice, although not so often anymore.
When I got up last saturday and looked outside, I had to go out and take some pictures (and go skating of course).



Camera Model: olympus E500
Lens and focal length: 14-45 27mm
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter Speed: 1/200 sec
Sensitivity: 100
Post processing: none

Hans

Thanks for the hint, Gordon. So here you go...

Well, I love reflections of light, actually "ray-tracing"!
I love dark and moody pictures!!
I love red and gold!!!
So this was the chance of a lifetime to get all this in a single shot
The challenge was to get the exposure right, between the light from the candles and the ambient light.

Camera Model: D80 (yeah!)
Lens and focal length: Nikon Vr 18-200mm (what else!)
Aperture: F/5.6 (no exp. comp., aperture prio.)
Shutter Speed: 1/10 sec (handheld!)
Sensitivity: 1600 (!)
Post processing: cropping, exp. correction -1EV, darkening background, D-lighting 1
-------------------
Warning: the link goes through to the original (3627 x 2267) sized image. All layed out for you to see how an ISO 1600 pic from a measly Nikon D80 looks like...

_________________
Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Peace and quiet.



Camera Model: Nikon D40
Lens and focal length: VR 18-200mm at 130mm
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/60 sec (I think the flash forces this)
Sensitivity: ISO 800
Post processing: very slight straightening.

This was my first attempt at using the built-in flash of the D40 as diffused light (for this, I placed a piece of white paper in front of it, to try and have some of the light bounce from the ceiling).

December holydays remind me of peace and quiet, next to a roaring fire.

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Nikon D90 + MB-D80 + SB-600 + AF-S VR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 + AF-S 35mm f/1.8 + AF 85mm f/1.8 | My photos on Flickr.

I just ran out and took this tonight with my new camera. Nothing special but I just wanted to make sure I got one in for this month.




Camera Model: Nikon D40
Lens and focal length: 18-135 at 20mm
Aperture: f/3.8
Shutter Speed: 1/6
Sensitivity: ISO 800
Post processing: crop

_________________
Nikon D40 + 18-135
My Flickr.

Merry Christmas !!!

My holiday picture is a close-up of my family's Christmas tree. In this shot I simply wanted to try and capture its beautiful detailing and lighting.



The hardest part was to get a shot which I liked and I think this one is my favorite. I was also happy to discover that by using a large depth of field and slow shutter, it gave the lights a star-like appearance. Hope you like it

Camera Model: Nikon D40x
Lens and focal length: AF-S 18-55 at 35mm
Aperture: f/20
Shutter Speed: 15s.
Sensitivity: ISO 100
Post processing: slightly higher contrast & sharpening, modified the color balance a bit since the shot was on Auto WB and added white border

_________________
Nikon D40x | AF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II | AF-S 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 VR

Hi all

I'm new around and I wanted to contribute a little, posting one shot from a very particular place in my home city. This is a garden of light flowers with a huge gardener figure on the side of a main road that has been placed every Christmas for the last 2 years. It just turned a dark place into a very nice spot.
The other issue is that I shot this picture with my Cybershot W90 since my EOS 40D is on a plane right now in a tour around the United States. It was made without a tripod and believe me, it was a tough one. I hope this counts too.



Cybershot W90
ISO 100
1" F2.8
0EV
AWB
Some cropping in CS