StarDestroyer.Net BBS

If you've got some stuff you want to SDN to see, but don't want to make a thread for it, this is the place.

This isn't a serious thread for people to be serious about art. All subjects and skill levels are welcome, and people can comment and compliment as they please. Snapshots? Great. Napkin doodle? Fine. Song you made on while on hold and played on your phone's keypad? That's pretty neat, actually.

(If you have serious art or are serious about learning, and want other people to give their serious opinions on something you made, head over to the Critique Thread.)

Our photographers are very prolific, but this is a multi-media thread. Drawings, paintings, renders, photos, music, movies, sculptures, models, you name it - if you made it, and you want other people to see it, post away!

Rules

1. Please limit yourself to three photos/drawings/whatever per day, so no one person starts to overwhelm the thread. If you have many more than that, consider giving them their own thread.

2. It would be courteous to post images 500 or 600 pixels in size, but you must thumbnail or link images larger than 1000 pixels on the longest side. Larger images will be de-inlined for collective convenience.

3. If it's not safe for work, tag it and don't inline it.

To start this off- some photos, pre-processing, from a recent roll. (Reala 100 in 6x7).

The first shot up there, with the pipe spraying water, is quite pretty. Some post-processing to lighten the shot and make the pipe stand out more would be nice.

I initially thought the first photo was a bucket dumping water onto the rocks, and I was thinking how the fuck did he setup and time that shot? It was only after a few seconds that I realized it was a pipe.

---

Anyway, I rigged up a handlebar mount for my digital camera a few days ago and went filming on the local trails.
Unfortunately I can't blast the trails at full speed or the camera gets too shaky.

sIMPLICUS: P1: Very nice pic, but the main element in the picture needs tightening up - the branches on the tree detract for example. It would be improved by being physically closer/getting the brances out of the top of the frame, even by physically pruning them. Nice shot, of the water spraying. Did you play with shutter speeds for effects?

P2: Good colours, good composition, love the effect of the bright flowers and gravestones combined with soft warm lighting. A.

P3: Meh. Really meh. Might be that i'm overreacting to the sky and lack of "textures" in the composition.

Lonestar: Nice view, where's that from?
P1: Best shot. Good light, how early where you up there? It's not amazing (I'd have taken a few more shots in that area till I found something that showed the curves of the land best), but looks like a lovely spot.
P3: Weak. The rocks look like fun, but the shot itself holds nothing.
P2: Is that the other end of the valley shown in the first shot?

Gah. Forgot this was the "non serious thread". Ah well, too late . Any policies on critique "Brownie points" transferring over?

@ Lonestar - that's some really handsome terrain. Where were these taken?

Ace Pace wrote:The first shot up there, with the pipe spraying water, is quite pretty. Some post-processing to lighten the shot and make the pipe stand out more would be nice.

Does it really look dark to you? It needs work to improve contrast, especially in the midtones, so if you mean it needs a bit more 'punch' then I definitely agree. But the exposure is pretty good as-is, and increasing it starts creating problems in other aspects. If it looks dark, that might be a display issue.

The Grim Squeaker wrote:Gah. Forgot this was the "non serious thread". Ah well, too late . Any policies on critique "Brownie points" transferring over?

It's a moot point because none of those comments are substantive enough to count as a good critique. But no, they don't.

Simplicius wrote:

Ace Pace wrote:The first shot up there, with the pipe spraying water, is quite pretty. Some post-processing to lighten the shot and make the pipe stand out more would be nice.

Does it really look dark to you? It needs work to improve contrast, especially in the midtones, so if you mean it needs a bit more 'punch' then I definitely agree. But the exposure is pretty good as-is, and increasing it starts creating problems in other aspects. If it looks dark, that might be a display issue.

Yes, I meant 'punch'.

Perfect thread for me.

I'm showing off my bread, I made Challah today for the first time.


This photo is current, as I type this it lies cooling, I'm going to make a BLT right now (so much for kosher!).

Oh and assembled:



And while I am at it I made this one earlier this week, it's a taco pie with a rye/wheat crust:


This is pretty much all I take picture of nowadays, my camera is also at deaths door (Casio Exilim EX-5 something, very old..)

That's a pretty nice shot of the bread, I wouldn't say your camera is at death's door going by that. Looks like a food magazine shot.

Well, except for the crumbs

Lonestar, are you doing anything special to get those greens to pop so much in your photos? It looks gorgeous.

THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!



Some people for scale
Those are polished marble floors with mosaic inlays, and yes, that's gold leaf on the ceiling, about $870,000 worth of gold.



This is a mosque in Toronto


Actually that's not true, it's the inside of the Canada Permanent Building but if the columns were round it could pass for a mosque.

Phantasee wrote:
Lonestar, are you doing anything special to get those greens to pop so much in your photos? It looks gorgeous.

Pretty much as-is. Photos were taken in Shenandoah National Park.

The Grim Squeaker wrote: P2: Good colours, good composition, love the effect of the bright flowers and gravestones combined with soft warm lighting. A.

I have to agree here (also on the other shots). A question to Simplicius: did you know that the lens flare would give you reduced contrast? Because I think it is actually very advantageous for this shot; without it some of the dreamy quality of the light would probably be lost.

The Grim Squeaker wrote: Lonestar: Nice view, where's that from?
P1: Best shot. Good light, how early where you up there? It's not amazing (I'd have taken a few more shots in that area till I found something that showed the curves of the land best), but looks like a lovely spot.
P2: Is that the other end of the valley shown in the first shot?

I actually like the P2 more, because you can see the shapes better. There are also some relative foreground elements, but since they are not places centrally, they are not distracting at all. Both pictures suffer from the sky being too white in the direction of the sun. A polarizer would probably cure that, but slightly lesser exposure might also help. Or shooting "underexposed" RAW and using digital exposure compensation, if you use a RAW capable digital camera.

My apologies to Lonestar and Simplicius for offering further critique in the wrong thread

Ah yes, insert Clint Eastwood line about punks feeling lucky here



Picked up at the post office today, from Germany with love. I think this photo shows my cameras limitations though, very grainy, despite the ambient lightning being good, I also cleaned it up in photoshop.

His Divine Shadow wrote:Picked up at the post office today, from Germany with love. I think this photo shows my cameras limitations though, very grainy, despite the ambient lightning being good, I also cleaned it up in photoshop.

Maybe at full resolution, but the version you posted here looks pretty clean to me. Nice layout too; it's a good use of the frame.

Marcus Aurelius wrote:I have to agree here (also on the other shots). A question to Simplicius: did you know that the lens flare would give you reduced contrast? Because I think it is actually very advantageous for this shot; without it some of the dreamy quality of the light would probably be lost.

I got way more flare than I wanted, and ended up cropping around most of it. There were trees that were supposed to screen the sun so I'd just get bands of evening light filtering in, but the exposure had to be a bit long because most of the cemetery was out of direct light.

My apologies to Lonestar and Simplicius for offering further critique in the wrong thread

Critical comment is fine - you can say what you like - but it's not required, and it might not be expected either.



I found myself with a good subject and absolutely the wrong equipment to treat it appropriately, so this is sort of a 'lemonade of lemons' photo. Only marginal PP.

How would you have done it differently, if you could do it in an ideal world?

Simplicius wrote: I found myself with a good subject and absolutely the wrong equipment to treat it appropriately, so this is sort of a 'lemonade of lemons' photo. Only marginal PP.

Principally a nice shot. What i find really bothersome, though, is that the vertical edge of the buldings corner in the center of the image isn´t straight. It would be really simple to fix that by distorting the image in PS.

In an better world I would have had a reflex camera (I'm not very good at composing with rangefinders) and a wider-angle lens (at the distances I had to stand to keep cars etc. out of the way, 43mm was a bit too tight.) In a perfect world I would have had a view camera with a wide lens for mad perspective correction.

This is the entryway that I was playing with, for reference:



Some nice geometry there, but a wider angle would have let me do more with it.

salm wrote:Principally a nice shot. What i find really bothersome, though, is that the vertical edge of the buldings corner in the center of the image isn´t straight. It would be really simple to fix that by distorting the image in PS.

Noted, and thanks.

Simplicius wrote:

A bit more about this shot: I'm not a huge fan of super-saturated "Velvia" colors, but this might look better with more color saturation. Or not, I did not bother to try. For optimal candy-color results it probably should be shot with a higher saturation film such as Ektar 100, E100VS or ... Velvia

Didn't take this picture specifically; but I did find it and scan it at the U.S. Navy's Photographic Archives in the Navy Yard in DC:

CGN-41 Arkansas at Sea, looking over the forward Mk 26 Launcher

Some pictures from a friend's wedding:

The gorgeous bride:



Outdoor flash is fun kids!

Action shot of our cat playing:

*Tags HAB*