Camera Labs

MARCH 21ST - As there haven't been any new votes and as I am leaving for London early tomorrow, I will close the poll early and warmly congratulate our winner this month: Lensbaby!


MARCH 1ST - Submissions are now closed, and it's time for you all to pick your favorite entry!

IMPORTANT NOTICE: During the transition to new forum software, some of the poll options got removed, as kindly pointed out by Ivan Manko. In trying to resolve this issue, all existing votes got removed. If you have already voted, I am counting on your honesty not to vote again, unless you previously voted for djfsolo (who was most affected by the software change, sorry for that djfsolo). If you haven't voted yet, please do so, and I will add the new votes to the previous votes.

Here are the votes that were previously submitted:

Hi everyone! Welcome to February's Assignment!

The theme for this month is "Wings", as suggested by Bob Andersson who won the December 2011 competition. Be sure to read the whole post for the rules.

In Bob's own words:

"It's time to decide on February's subject. Some of the old-timers here might remember that I was an airline pilot for some thirty years so my choice should be no surprise.

February's subject is "Wings". That could be anything from insects to birds to aircraft - if it has wings and we can see 'em then it's fair game. Everyone should be able to find a suitable subject so the real challenge will be getting that jaw-dropping shot that makes us all go "Wow". Post-processing is allowed. Good luck."

The rules!

1: You can only submit one image and it MUST be taken during February 2012. Photos taken earlier will be disqualified!

2: All images submitted must be no more than 1024 pixels on their longest side, although you can include a link to a full resolution version if you like. Flickr users must link back to the original version to comply with its latest rules.

As always, please exercise good judgement on what is suitable for the forum. Keep it clean and family-friendly or it'll be removed. See the Forum Rules for guides.

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 like, for example, any special exposure or lighting setup.

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 29th February 2012. The final poll will follow.

Please remember this thread is for submissions only. If you'd like to comment on any of the submissions or ask any questions, please do so in the February 2012 Comments and Questions thread!

Thanks and good luck!

Bjorn

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Street and documentary photographer | Google+ | Twitter | Blog | Tumblr

Leica M9-P (my article on Camera Labs) | Leica D-Lux 5 | 50mm Summilux

I'm a sucker for a big moon, and on a glance outside I noticed it was both extremely low and that there was a gigantic murder of crows hanging out in a tall tree in the same line of sight. I rushed to grab the longest lens I had, and after waiting patiently in vain for them to fly by, I got a friend to launch a couple of snowballs into their midsts giving this opportunity.

While I love the handling of the MF 100-300mm, it can be a little weird on a digital crop body. Besides recording odd figures in EXIF (28mm and f/2? Yeah right) it isn't the sharpest and produces some uncomfortable fringing. B&W and a little fake grain over the noise at ISO 2000 were my attempts to hide this. Still, I'm pretty happy with what I got.


Camera: D7000
Lens: Nikkor MF 100-300mm f/5.6 @ 300mm
Aperture: 5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/640
ISO: 2000
PP: In Lightroom adjusted tonal curve, switched to B&W, and added a little grain to compensate for some not so pretty noise

Note: the outline of the tree & other crows in the background is hard to see if your contrast is turned up too high.

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Photostream

Out in Sri Lanka with only the Canon G10 Powershot and therefore unable to harness the potential of a long lens on my Pentax DSLR for some bird shots ... so have to cut my cloth accordingly. A small moth obligingly expired in my bedroom last night so here he/she is, shot handheld with the moth on a leaf in my left hand and the camera in my right!

The longest dimension on this frame = 9mm in reality. I'm astounded a) that it came off at all and b) at the amount of detail revealed. About 50% of the image area was cropped away to leave that which you see.



PP: Crop, sharpen a little, adjust brightness and contrast slightly

Bat on a hanger.



Camera Model: Nikon D7000
Lens and focal length: 18-200mm VRII @ 200mm
Aperture: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/500
Sensitivity: ISO 200
Exposure Bias -0.7 EV
Post processing: Crop, shadows, contrast and unsharp mask in PSE 8


Cheers

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Nikon D7000, D40X, Nikkor 18- 200 VR II, f3.5-5.6, 70-300 AF non VR, Kit Lenses.

... a birdwing butterfly laying an egg...

Camera Model: Canon 500D
Lens and focal length: Canon EF-S 18-200 mm F3.5-5.6 IS @200mm
Aperture: F5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/2000
Sensitivity: ISO 3200
Post processing: crop, adjusted white balance, color, noise, added a little vignette, on Photoscape

Wings of a Heron



Sony A850
Sony 70-200 f/2.8G at 200mm
F/2.8
1/1600
ISO:200

PP in LR3 and ColorEfexPro3

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Sony A850 | Sony Battery Grip | Carl Zeiss 24-70 Vario-Sonnar T f/2.8 | Sony 70-200G f/2.8 SSM | Lensbaby Composer Pro | Sony HVL-F58AM

Alienbees B800 (x3) | Alienbees Cyber Commander | CSR+ Receivers | Grids, Softbox, Gels, Manfrotto/Century/Avenger stands

www.flickr.com/frankiewithers
www.fkwstudio.blogspot.com
www.fkwstudio.com

Taken with 7D and 100Macro 2.8L
f8 1/250 flash used.

changed to this bee shot, I think it shows up wings better.


beewings by maxjj, on Flickr

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Canon Powershot S95, Canon 7D, 15-85, Canon 85 1.8 USM, Sigma 30 1.4, 50mm 1.8, Canon 100 2.8L IS Macro, Canon 70-300L IS USM+Kenko 1.4 Pro 300DGX, Canon 430EX II and RS 4 Classic

Canon 40D
EF 70-200 f2.8 IS @ 195
IS0 200 and F 5.6
1/640
M mode And M WB( 4700 K)

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Nikon D800
Nikon AFS 50mm F1.8 G
Sigma APO 70-200 F2.8 EX DG OS HSM
Sony H50

this was kind of hard to get. i had to hand feed this Kookaburra to try and get him close enough to take a macro shot.

Camera Model: 5D mkII
Lens and focal length: 24-105L, reversed and held against the body
Shutter Speed: 1/160
Sensitivity: 2500

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No guts, no glory
Canon 5D mk II, Canon 70-200 f/2.8L USM, Canon 24-105 f/4L IS USM, Canon 50mm f/1.4, Sigma 24-60 f/2.8, canon 430EX II, 2x Yongnuo YN560, Cactus v4 triggers

Flickr

Folded Wings by chadpope, on Flickr

It was a cold and dreary day and I saw this crane on top of a light pole hunched up trying to stay warm. I was attempting to achieve a cold and solitary feel.

Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Mk II
Lens and focal length: Canon EF 100-400 F/4.5-5.6L @ 400mm
Aperture: F/6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/160
Sensitivity: ISO 200
Post processing:
Converted from RAW by Canon DPP into three exposures (under, normal, over) and converted into black and white; then combined the three exposures with Photomatix Pro into an HDR image. The HDR was to bring out the details in the clouds and to give a bit of depth to the shot.

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Canon 5D Mk II * 17-40 F/4L * 24-105 F/4L * EF 70-200mm f/4L IS * Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 * EF 50 f/1.4 * Lensbaby Composer * EF 100-400 L * EF 100 F/2.8 Macro * EF 1.4x Extender III * Speedlite 430EX II * Speedlight MR-14EX *

Lumix GH2, 100-300mm, 100mm @F6.3, 1/320

Not the most exciting or rare subject, but I liked how it came out. Notice the blurred gull in the background, just wish it was bigger. Post Processing - Some raw sharpening & BW mix in photoshop with yellow areas cropped out.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/57543036@N ... otostream/

D300
F4.8
EX 1/1000
ISO 200
FL 50MM

These fly around my place quite often.

Auto Contrast and Cropped.

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Siva
owns SONY H-20

[url]<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/75508665@N08/6780505668/" title="feathers 2 (2 of 1) by e=mcstudios, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7195/6780505668_bfa8e695ed.jpg" width="500" height="332" alt="feathers 2 (2 of 1)"></a>[/url]

Went in to feed these fellas and discovered there had been a cull...

Nikon D5000
18-55mm @ 40mm and f 5.3
1/8 second
ISO 1600
Picture Control Monochrome

Dove on wavy sea by Elmore Photography, on Flickr

Shutter speed 1600
f/4.5
150 mm
Sony A700 DSLR
Minolta 70-210 lens

This was taken through my window as the doves came in late in the afternoon to feed. Processed with Photoshop, waves and clouds added with brushes over original background.

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Sony Alpha 700, Minolta 70-210 f/4 and some other stuff