Live data from Hacker News

Photography for geeks

lcamtuf.coredump.cx

111–120 of 150 posts

Re: Photography for geeks

#111
post #67
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think for learning photography today, using a film camera will very likely wasteful, unless you are pursuing a photography degree, for example. Get a digital camera. Instant feedback and histogram are very useful for judging your exposures. Once you are comfortable with that, you may pick a film camera.

Using a film camera will force you to take the picture with your mind first. You will understand exposure and light in a fundamental way. You always can use your phone, computational photography will give you the best result, algorithmically speaking.:)

That would make the whole learning process way slower.

I remember a few old lecturers saying they learnt programming on punch card computers, which you have to wait a few hours just to get a simple code running. Usually, you are not lucky enough to get it right on first time. Fix some errors and compile... repeat until it runs. More waiting time.

Re: Photography for geeks

#112
Best pictures of the article: the first four.

Why are they the best: their composition is interesting with great use of vertical lines, background colors and well positioned windows.

First line of the core of the article: "It is said that composition is the most important aspect of a photograph. I disagree."

Well, let's agree to disagree then.

Re: Photography for geeks

#113

Best pictures of the article: the first four. Why are they the best: their composition is interesting with great use of vertical lines, background colors and well positioned windows. First line of the core of the article: "It is said that composition is the most important aspect of a photograph. I disagree." Well, let's agree to disagree then.

Those are the best photos because he took all the other photos for demonstration purposes.

Re: Photography for geeks

#114
Unrelated to the content: I'm curious about the domain! It's the first time I've come across a Christmas Island (.cx) domain since the infamous one back in the '00s.

Re: Photography for geeks

#115
post #6

This is very well done for a new-to-photography audience. Will be sharing around to people who say all their things look like snapshots, what's up with that. Great use of examples, except for one: kid on bridge. > At the same time, it must be said that color and tone can be what separates a mediocre photograph from a memorable one. To illustrate, let's look at the potential evolution of this vacation shot deliberatel…

Straightened and exposure adjusted is good. They should have stopped there. White balance tweaking is often a bad idea; what you want is to get as natural colors as possible.

Re: Photography for geeks

#116

If anyone wants to move beyond using the "auto" setting on their camera (or phone), I would recommend the book Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson, the first edition of which was published in 1990: * https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/142239.Understanding_Exp... The principles involved haven't changed much in the intervening decades; the current fourth edition was publish in 2016. If all you have is a phone you…

Is there any good book on photo editing.

Re: Photography for geeks

#117
Good advice and good writing. But the title is misleading: this is photography for aspiring photographers, not esp. geeks. I was expecting more geeky things.

For example, I have recently been toying with making a kind of photobooth / selfies machine for parties by connecting a DSLR with a Raspberry Pi; people take pictures of themselves with a remote (the excellent Yongnuo RF-603 which is radio, not infrared); the Pi downloads the images (with gphoto2), resizes them, prints the date, and uploads to a server.

People can see their images on their phones less than a minute after it was taken. It's a lot of fun.

Re: Photography for geeks

#118
post #96
post #34

The things I’m drawn to in life is where art meets science. In hindsight, so much of the secret is knowing how to avoid failure. Baking bread? Build the intuition over time and you’ll realize baking is forgiving so long as you don’t do these “5 bad things.” Gardening/farming? Yeah, there’s a big list of bad things. Brewing beer? Another list of things to avoid. The basic rules (rooted in science) are like guardrails…

wait what are the five bad things in baking bread?

Too much or too little energy when baking (burned or raw in the middle), too much or little water (hydration), too much or too little rise time (loaf density). Just off the top of my head.

Re: Photography for geeks

#119

If anyone wants to move beyond using the "auto" setting on their camera (or phone), I would recommend the book Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson, the first edition of which was published in 1990: * https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/142239.Understanding_Exp... The principles involved haven't changed much in the intervening decades; the current fourth edition was publish in 2016. If all you have is a phone you…

A quite technical but fascinating book on lighting and photography: "Light Science & Magic" by Fil Hunter and Paul Fuqua (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/290153.Light)

Re: Photography for geeks

#120
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any specific recommendations?

Would recommend the X-Tx range over the X-Ex range, as they have an ISO dial on the top at the cost of being slightly bigger and heavier. I have an X-T2 and it's great, but obviously the X-T4 etc will have more features. One BIG caveat with Fuji though is that the X range use an APS-C sensor instead of full frame, so if you get into vintage lenses (really good fun) your effective focal length is times by 1.5. Your ni…

If your camera supports it you can shoot RAW + jpeg and get best of both worlds.
Post reply on HN