# Why isn't the Photography forum more active?



## octopump (Apr 26, 2008)

I just displayed the forum threads by number of replies and even the most popular threads generate only a modest amount of responses.

Why is that?

I know preparing the pictures, blanking-out the license plate, putting them up online, creating the thread here and linking to the pictures is a lot of work but still.


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## BIMMERUSAM5 (May 20, 2007)

I guess people are here more to talk about cars. OT is very busy but that's where people go to shot $hit.

BTW...I like your sig. It looks like a photo from some action movie.:thumbup:


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## octopump (Apr 26, 2008)

You are right.

I am sure, plenty people already have pictures on their computer thought; put them up!

Thank you about the signature. It's taken from a night photo shoot. I created a thread for nocturne shots: here.

Perhaps from a movie like Heat?


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## BIMMERUSAM5 (May 20, 2007)

v12 said:


> You are right.
> 
> I am sure, plenty people already have pictures on their computer thought; put them up!
> 
> ...


Exactly...or something like the Transporter. You're the getaway car just waiting for your fellow robbers to hop in with the loot.

Those pictures in your nocturne shots thread are great. The 6th one with the door open is my favorite.

Well done.


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## octopump (Apr 26, 2008)

Really? I liked the ones with the passing head/ tail lights best.










Thank you for the kind words. I'd like to do it again but this time by the beach, hopefully on a foggy morning.


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## BIMMERUSAM5 (May 20, 2007)

v12 said:


> *Really*? I liked the ones with the passing head/ tail lights best
> Thank you for the kind words. I'd like to do it again but this time by the beach, hopefully on a foggy morning.


It's something about the color combos in that pic that caught my eye the most.

Btw.. If I'm not mistaken your last avatar was :jawdrop:


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## octopump (Apr 26, 2008)

The girl on the Porsche? :lmao:


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## BIMMERUSAM5 (May 20, 2007)

v12 said:


> The girl on the Porsche? :lmao:


Yes Indeed


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## octopump (Apr 26, 2008)

Ah yes, she is captivating.


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## mathjak107 (Apr 1, 2006)

I guess the primary focus is cars.... i do post quite a bit and try to keep it interesting here.


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## octopump (Apr 26, 2008)

Hello mathjak107,

I know, I have seen your shots.


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## Solidjake (May 10, 2007)

Buy me a DSLR please?


I'll post up some nice pics with my point and shoot whenever I can.


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## chicagofan00 (Feb 10, 2008)

I just don't get out shooting often enough to post pictures all the time. Although I hope I can get some time in with my new camera this next week since I have off from work.


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## octopump (Apr 26, 2008)

I agree, finding the time is tough. In fact, I had put the tripod in my car to motivate me to shoot some and finally got around to it for those nocturne shots.

Perhaps the DSLR is just too big to carry around all the time.

I am now looking at adding the Canon S90 to complement my gear. 
Had a SD450 and gifted it a year ago. I had it on my all the time though and shot more pictures/ more often.

As the saying goes, the best camera is the one you have with you.


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## mathjak107 (Apr 1, 2006)

Im looking at the s90 too. for those days when i dont want to carry the real gear....

i have the sd880 but since my wife shoots we really need 2 point and shoots


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## Chris90 (Apr 7, 2003)

Never sure if this is a car photography or just photography forum.

Here's one I took this summer near Lake Tahoe. No car though.


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## mathjak107 (Apr 1, 2006)

nice capture.... nice color balance too... i like to envision if i were editing it what i would do... about the only thing i would have done is gone into the bottom left where the trees are dark and i would have brought that spot out more by spot adding a little brighness and a tad contrast putting the green back in that side to match the right side.... a little touch of contrast right in the center would pop that mountain out of the haze as it gets lost in the tree line.

thats just my personal taste and style... everyone has their own touch....


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## Chris90 (Apr 7, 2003)

mathjak107 said:


> nice capture.... nice color balance too... i like to envision if i were editing it what i would do... about the only thing i would have done is gone into the bottom left where the trees are dark and i would have brought that spot out more by spot adding a little brighness and a tad contrast putting the green back in that side to match the right side.... a little touch of contrast right in the center would pop that mountain out of the haze as it gets lost in the tree line.
> 
> thats just my personal taste and style... everyone has their own touch....


Yeah, I haven't touched it up at all - I have like zero post processing skills.


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## mathjak107 (Apr 1, 2006)

even a bigger feather in your cap....


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## illrooster132 (Nov 19, 2009)

please show the tools your using to take the picture. lens, body , flash etc...


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## Missmodena310 (Oct 9, 2008)

v12 said:


> Really? I liked the ones with the passing head/ tail lights best.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


oo that is a great pic i love it!


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## Missmodena310 (Oct 9, 2008)

Chris90 said:


> Never sure if this is a car photography or just photography forum.
> 
> Here's one I took this summer near Lake Tahoe. No car though.


:jawdrop: o my...that is amazing, so beautiful.


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## octopump (Apr 26, 2008)

Missmodena310 said:


> oo that is a great pic i love it!


Thank you.

When I was a kid, I would see pictures like these and wonder how to make the lights stretch? :lmao:


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## Dave 330i (Jan 4, 2002)

Chris90 said:


> Never sure if this is a car photography or just photography forum.
> 
> Here's one I took this summer near Lake Tahoe. No car though.


I think the natural scenes are more beautiful than pictures of cars. Keep it up. We may turn this forum into general photography where car pictures are "tolerated".


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## octopump (Apr 26, 2008)

I'd like that.

I have an idea: why not put together members meetings to go shooting together. Unless this has been done and I missed it.

That's easy to pull-off in a place like NYC because the urban settings offers so much to capture.
But I would think any other natural setting would offer almost just as much.

If you guys/ girls like the idea, I'll create a thread for the first Bimmerfest members photography meeting in the tri-state area.


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## mathjak107 (Apr 1, 2006)

Im interested


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## Dave 330i (Jan 4, 2002)

v12 said:


> I'd like that.
> 
> I have an idea: why not put together members meetings to go shooting together. Unless this has been done and I missed it.
> 
> ...


You want us looking like a herd of Japanese tourists in Europe? How about each going out and seek his own venue, and put together a picture story, short and to the point. No HDRs.


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## Tom Nguyen (Mar 15, 2009)

Its probably because not everyone has a $1000 DSLR and don't want to post crappy pics on a _*photography*_ thread. Like me.  I'm very interested in the car photography though. Taking classes for it next year.  Planning to start out with a point n shoot digi. 10-12 mega.


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## octopump (Apr 26, 2008)

Dave 330i said:


> You want us looking like a herd of Japanese tourists in Europe? How about each going out and seek his own venue, and put together a picture story, short and to the point. No HDRs.


:lmao:

That's rather cynical. Besides, it'd be Chinese not Japanese nowadays.

It'd be a pretext to get together too.

But your idea is good: mini contests with a deadline. Let's pick a theme.

Winter sports come to mind right for me but I am open to pretty much anything.

Agreed: no HDR and post-processing at all!



T0M~NGUY3N said:


> Its probably because not everyone has a $1000 DSLR and don't want to post crappy pics on a _*photography*_ thread. Like me.  I'm very interested in the car photography though. Taking classes for it next year.  Planning to start out with a point n shoot digi. 10-12 mega.


You don't need a DSLR to take good pictures. Any point and shoot is enough these days. But you have to understand what's going with the camera and the way it works.

Have you heard of a book called Understanding Exposure? Highly recommended.

Check www.dpreview.com to compare cameras and get reviews.


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## mathjak107 (Apr 1, 2006)

i have posted point and shoot pics i have taken right out of the camera from time to time here . you dont need an expensive camera. its all about lighting, your creativity and understanding your camera no matter what it cost


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## Dave 330i (Jan 4, 2002)

v12 said:


> :lmao:
> 
> That's rather cynical. *Besides, it'd be Chinese not Japanese nowadays*.
> 
> ...


I believe they are Japanese, in Salzburg, May, 2008.


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## octopump (Apr 26, 2008)

Yes, sir.

In Paris, NYC and couple of other major cities, I, now rarely see Japanese tourists as often as in the past. However, the Chinese are now taking-up tourism and they are everywhere.

Here on Wall St, they literally arrive by bus loads.


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## Dave 330i (Jan 4, 2002)

v12 said:


> Yes, sir.
> 
> In Paris, NYC and couple of other major cities, I, now rarely see Japanese tourists as often as in the past. However, the Chinese are now taking-up tourism and they are everywhere.
> 
> Here on Wall St, they literally arrive by bus loads.


BTW, you don't need to read a book to understand exposure. Here is some simple reading... It uses camera for reference, but the information is the same.

http://www.cs.mtu.edu/~shene/DigiCam/User-Guide/4500/EXPOSURE/EV-overview.html


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## mathjak107 (Apr 1, 2006)

what that article lacks is what most articles lack, i didnt see anything in that article pertaining to "what constitutes a good exposure."

thats the most important part. its like you dont need to know how a baby is formed and the biological facts as to what the dna goes thru but you do need to learn to be good parents and that is the most important part and thats missing from typical articles that ramble on about ev.

there is nooooo exact proverbial correct exposure, there is only a correct range of exposures for a given scene. thats an important point missed by most beginning photographers.

im a big follower of the ETTR theory ,expose to the right.


ill push my histogram as far right as i can for the scene if i can capture the entire range in matrix metering or ill push my subject in spot metering as far right as i can if the range is wider then i can capture.

in sound recording its called recording for maximum signal to noise.

i want my photos as noise free as possible and thats the way to do it.

a proper exposure will actually appear to bright and washed out on the lcd. thats why watching an lcd and not histogram isnt the best way to do it. film had much greater latitude then digital so watching a histogram wasnt an issue.

i can always tone it down later in processing but trying to increase exposure after the fact to a picture exposed to far left is like raising iso higher , it creates more noise.

there are times the scene requires a darker exposure too, i wouldnt expose to the right shooting sports or anything where i couldnt get a 2nd chance if i blew out the highlites of a subject...

like i said there is no correct exposure, only a range of exposures for that scene... most articles never talk about that fact.

the books dealing with the zone system are pretty interesting as well.


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## Chris90 (Apr 7, 2003)

Missmodena310 said:


> :jawdrop: o my...that is amazing, so beautiful.


Thanks! 

Funny thing is my wife and I walked down to the water's edge, and this was the first shot I took, handheld. Then I spent like 10-15 minutes setting up shots, with timed shutter release etc etc - took a bunch of shots, annoyed my wife - but the handheld one was still the best. Oh well. 

To someone who asked, it's a D50, 18-200VR, f/11, -0.7 EV.


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## octopump (Apr 26, 2008)

Dave 330i said:


> BTW, you don't need to read a book to understand exposure. Here is some simple reading... It uses camera for reference, but the information is the same.
> 
> http://www.cs.mtu.edu/~shene/DigiCam/User-Guide/4500/EXPOSURE/EV-overview.html


Or Wikipedia... Yes, I know, resources are widely available on the web.

But I liked that book and its author knows what he's talking about. 
He also shows what could be achieved before the advent of Photoshop, digital cameras and the MP consumer-driven race (with the increase of its corollary when cramming such sensors in small packages: image noise).

mathjak107's note is also spot-on.


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## Vanos4:12PM (Apr 20, 2007)

Winter and single digits lately that 3/4 of the country has experienced I'm sure has something to do with people not posting pic's. Wait until about April/May/June.


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## octopump (Apr 26, 2008)

People visit this site from all over the world... or at least all over the USA. It's got to be warm(er) somewhere!


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## bjsbuds (Nov 20, 2004)

v12 said:


> I just displayed the forum threads by number of replies and even the most popular threads generate only a modest amount of responses.
> 
> Why is that?
> 
> I know preparing the pictures, blanking-out the license plate, putting them up online, creating the thread here and linking to the pictures is a lot of work but still.


What I really appreciate is that you included your camera settings for people like me that are trying to learn how to use a DSLR, and take great shots like yours.


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## octopump (Apr 26, 2008)

Glad you found that useful.

When I was a neophyte, I often looked at pictures and wondered how on earth they had managed to capture it.

Later-on, I found-out that there are many ways to "get there" and that one set of parameters which make a great picture, could have been tweaked/ different and produced an equally good or better picture.

But you are right, the data helps a lot.

I was told recently on these boards that there is an free extension to Firefox (if you happen to be using it) which, once installed, will let you right-click on a picture within the browser to see its meta-data ; if the picture hasn't been stripped of it.

FxIF: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5673

And here is another one: PhotoME: http://www.photome.de/firefox_en.html which I got via Google just now while searching for FxIF.

Don't forget to share some pictures with us!


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## illrooster132 (Nov 19, 2009)

too many words but no pictures. that sucks b...s


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