FloppyPoppy is learning Photography

FloppyPoppy

FloppyPoppy

FloppyPoppy

Soldato
Joined
27 Jan 2012
Posts
8,060
Location
The king of the north!
I have been interested in photography for quite a long time now and have had cameras in my online baskets on multiple occasions but never bit the bullet. I think on no less than three occasions i was seconds away from buying a Nikon P900 just based on the moon and Saturn shots it can produce. However i knew it was a severely limited camera given it doesn't have interchangeable lenses.

Have decided to make a thread in here to log my pictures and look for advice/opinions ect where and when necessary.

I will keep the below kit list up to date :) if you believe something i am using is severely causing issues with my photos please let me know so i can address the issue.

21/2/21 : Everything with (en route from uncles surplus :D) was generously donated to me by my uncle and he is currently packaging it all up to drop it off next week and i will update this list with some more details where necessary as to exactly what the equipment is. Extremely grateful and excited to get my hands on it!
  • Camera: Sony A7ii
  • Lens #1: Sony FE 1.8/50 Prime ( the nifty fifty )
  • Lens #2: 80-200mm m42 (en route from uncles surplus :D)
  • Lens #3: Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Lens MC S 1:3.5 F=135 M42 (en route from uncles surplus :D)
  • Lens Adapter#1: M42 to Sony E by K&F Concept These don't seem like to great quality so might upgrade as don't want to cause any harm to the mounting ring on the camera body
  • Lens Adapter#2: EOS to Sony E by K&F Concept
  • 2X Sony NP-FW50 batteries
  • ND, Grad & Star filters with filter holders (en route from uncles surplus :D)
  • A manfrotto Pro tripod (en route from uncles surplus :D)
  • a manfrotto pistol grip camera holder for the top of the tripod too (en route from uncles surplus :D)
  • lowepro camera rucksack (en route from uncles surplus :D)
  • Strobe light (en route from uncles surplus :D)
  • Mem card #1: 128GB Sandisk extreme pro SDXC 170mb/s class 10
  • Mem card #2: 32GB Sandisk extreme plus 90mb/

Here are some of my first photographs i have taken. They are far from being great and it's going to be a while until they are better but i am enjoying the learning process a lot! any pointers would be massively appreciated and thanks again for the advice given to me in the willy waving thread!

HFd9hgLh.jpg
idnamaFh.jpg

Millhouse is the most handsome dog on earth... no exceptions.
zdwLSpLh.jpg
iqgDalTh.jpg

Fun side note regarding the Whispa Gold... it did quite well on the Casual UK Subreddit :D

I have installed lightroom and photoshop so looking forward to learning the basics on those! I have already tried a little and made a complete mess so have to watch some videos and read some articles.
 
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Buddy said:
Very generous uncle.
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Couldn't agree more. I have offered to pay him what i was looking to invest in other equipment but he has outright refused to allow me to do so. I have now however told him he doesn't have a choice in that he has to let me take him for a nice meal and a pint after lockdown. The equipment is all spare to him now having upgraded to top of the range equipment but from his review they are still cracking bits of kit and especially great for beginners.

Buddy said:
It's a great hobby. I would just carry the camera with you all the time get a handle of how to use it.
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I do plan to do this, anytime i leave the house baring going to work it will be coming with me.

Buddy said:
Once you've got that starting looking back at pics you've taken and ask yourself "what is good about it? What could I have done better or differently?"
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That is an interesting idea, to review/evaluate your own work. I like the idea though i will certainly do that going forward.

Buddy said:
Look at some known photographers to get some inspiration. It's important to eventually experiment and create your own style. You'll naturally gravitate to one genre.
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I have been looking at lots of photographers via their videos ect some of them take absolutely fantastic videos and pictures and explain how/what they are doing. It will certainly be nice to follow along with some of their tutorials initially just to get the concepts into memory and after that hopefully have the capability to photograph any subject to a high standard in my own style.



Do you, or anybody else have a recommendation for

A: A good memory card holder/sorter for inside my bag. Currently have two mem cards and can see me easily buying more.
B: Is there anything recommended for storing spare batteries so they are just going to be loose in my bag?
 
Captain said:
Get yourself a multi battery charger, nothing more annoying than charging one at a time.

Might not be an issue if you’re not going to be taking a lot of pictures but something worth thinking about.
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Im not sure exactly how many pictures i am going to be taking but i am already finding that one battery wasn't enough, so i got another. I suspect that i will end up having several more. I opted to get the official sony ones. Whilst im 99% sure the third party ones are perfectly safe for use i just don't want to risk damaging the electronics of such an expensive camera to skimp on an extra £30 to go OEM. The battery sleeve i have ordered can hold 4 batteries, so i have the capacity to have 5 in total. I will look at a multi charger as swapping the battery into the camera just to charge it is bit of a pain!

Thanks for the suggestion!

A bit random but my dad asked me to take him some pictures for his Ebay of some simpsons board game characters.

Here is one of them

kK6JIuQh.jpg

looking forward to getting a lens that will allow me to be much closer to the subject preferably a 1:1 macro would be amazing

have been looking at reviews of the Sigma 105mm F2.8 Dg GN Macro but i will hold off on that for a few months at least until i can give the equipment i already have a good test drive to see what it's capable off.

Really happy with how sharp the 50mm 1.8 is though! Hope to do an outdoor shoot sometime soon pending on the weather.
 
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Just received a few goodies :D

Memory card case another battery and a battery sleeve.

IGTsBRfh.jpg
Mv2sYR5h.jpg
Will help to keep things organized that is for sure!

External battery charger is arriving tomorrow! ended up getting a single cell one however from sony as i don't want to risk a cheaper one damaging batteries ect. If i need i will get a second one and build a little holder to convert it into a single unit.
 
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So poked my head out of the window today ( i know im a dirty lockdown breaker my head was a full two foot out of the window :D) wanted to take some night sky pictures hopefully with a few stars. Before setting up i managed to capture this lovely blue sky behind my bushes.

KGvSvuHh.jpg
FLj5ZB4h.jpg

Anyway done a bit of tinkering and managed to grab a picture of the night(ish) sky from my window and it's absolutely driven me to want to go into the middle of no where with a nicer lens and tripod to take some really really nice pictures!

I know the photo isn't great and that the whole foreground ect is a complete mess but i can't stop smiling at this one

ScVEUGrh.jpg

an almost full moon is just out of shot behind the gazebo roof, that is where the light is coming from mainly, and that pesky street lamp.
 
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Captain said:
It’s amazing once you get good at it.

Get yourself a nice wide aperture, 1.2/1.4 and prey for a clear night.

I’ve just looked outside and I can see a full sky of stars which I haven’t been able to do in months.

I would go out tonight but unfortunately I’m up for work at 5am most days so I’m limited to when I can get out. :(
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Maybe my eyes are bad but i can barley see a star outside!

This was shot on a 1.4 50mm.

Just threw it in lightroom to try and get that light pollution out and got this result.

dYn3vYRh.jpg
 
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Captain said:
Sony A7Riii. :)
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0w5UAMX.gif

Captain said:
Still waiting for my 24mm F1.4 GM to arrive, i have a feeling it may have ended up in someone else's hands. :(
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By someone else you mean someone in the delivery system?

No doubt it would have been thoroughly tracked and traced and signature/photographic evidence required? which courier firm did it go via?
 
Captain said:
Ordered it from E-infin, they are good with missing orders though so i shouldn't be out of pocket whatever the outcome. :)

Just took this shot, 8 second exposure, ISO 64, F1.8, set the WB to 3200K, give those settings a go and see how you get on. :)

DSC00110 (1) by kieran, on Flickr
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didn’t see the picture earlier,
looks great will have a look at those settings when the skies are clear again :D
 
Well i have just gotten my supply from my uncle :D

1m8ejurh.jpg

He has also borrowed me his canon 1.8 85mm prime to have a play with for a couple of weeks but that will be going back to him :)

There are lots of different filters including variable ring ones, nice set of step up rings too though i need to order a couple more for some of the larger pieces :)

Extremely happy and hope to god it's clear skies tonight so i can get some better images with the tripod!
 
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Captain said:
Nice :D

I would recommend adding a h in front of the .jpg when you post pictures, it resizes them for you. :)
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I was wondering about that, i thought one of the "upgrades" of the zen 2 forum was that it automatically sized images appropriately. I guess i misunderstood that part.

Thanks :D

Have edited all of my previous images in this thread to resize them
 
Went for a hike (purely for exercise of course) on Sunday with the better half,

Ended up taking a few hundred pictures :D

Here is a couple ( only showing pictures from the back as don't want to be posting pictures of her on these forums :D ) but i am thrilled with some of the portraits i have gotten and she is thrilled for her instagram :D

HwcZMzjh.jpg


cN8VIiLh.jpg

was using one of the ND filters from my uncles gifts, i need to get a couple more step up rings so i can properly fix it to the lens as i was holding it in front for all of my shots. I have also got a 49mm filter on the way so that will fit straight on the 50mm prime.

I foresee a very expensive hobby.
 
chef-borjan said:
Nice first shots!

The expensive hobby part is why I’m trying just to stick to my phone to take photos. At least then I get other use out of the device and I won’t fall down a rabbit hole of lenses!
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Thank you :) i am still learning an awful lot but kind of understand the basics now.

I have absolutely fallen in love with the hobby though! I don't think anything has hit me this bad in over a decade and the last thing to do that was building pcs and gaming. That was about 10 years ago when it really really hit and i am only now becoming a little fed up with it.

can foresee a similar future for the photography but doubt it will fade as soon due to the creativity element.

Going to get a lot more portraits shot in the coming weeks i do think and looking at picking up the Sigma 85mm f1.4 art DG DN lens as it looks like an absolute gem for portraits.
 
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