How to Photograph a Pipe
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I built my own darkroom in 1969 and did a fair amount of film processing and printing. Only B+W, as by the time color became feasible, I had no room for a dark room nor the time to devote. FF to the dawn of the age of digital, I helped develop Lightroom and was a beta tester for a couple of versions of Photoshop. I had three digital bodies, 5-6 good Canon lenses, and shot RAW files from dawn to dusk some days. That was put aside 4-5 years ago.
I too like the control and feel of an SLR, but have nothing but love for my iPhone's camera.
If you wax nostalgic over film cameras, I doubt we'll ever see eye to eye!
But shoot what you like, how you like, when you like. Just no reason to knock small sensor cameras that take great photos.
I too like the control and feel of an SLR, but have nothing but love for my iPhone's camera.
If you wax nostalgic over film cameras, I doubt we'll ever see eye to eye!
But shoot what you like, how you like, when you like. Just no reason to knock small sensor cameras that take great photos.
jpmcwjr pipe photography takes up a very small fraction of one percent of the shooting that I do which is walkabout style in towns, countryside, and scenic areas of the west where toting a tripod is not very practical. Therefore good image stabilization is necessary so I don't always have to shoot at 500th of a sec. or faster. I just acquired a Sony RX10 Mk. IV which has upped my keeper rate dramatically in low light situations, plus it has a very sharp 24-600 mega-zoom. It doesn't have a huge sensor but it's more than enough for what I like and need. Two recent pics below.
This is quite a fun thread. It's amazing what advances have been made in photography since Henry Fox Talbot came up with that damned paper negative!
Now you're taking pictures with a phone! And I'm impressed with how good those images are considering the lens used. Pretty good software onboard!
One of my friends is a still photographer who works on movies. The guy is an absolute genius at what he does. Canon hires him to photograph some of their line. He can make exceptionally great looking images and it's not because he's always shooting with the finest equipment. It's because he knows how to make an image. When we're on a trail he's not lugging one of his "pro" cameras. He's shooting with his phone, and he's getting great shots. Phones, within their limits, are great picture taking tools.
I shoot both RAW and JPEG. RAW gives me the most to work with when editing images and I appreciate that later flexibility when shooting under adverse conditions. Otherwise, I try to get the image as close to right as I can at the start.
Now you're taking pictures with a phone! And I'm impressed with how good those images are considering the lens used. Pretty good software onboard!
One of my friends is a still photographer who works on movies. The guy is an absolute genius at what he does. Canon hires him to photograph some of their line. He can make exceptionally great looking images and it's not because he's always shooting with the finest equipment. It's because he knows how to make an image. When we're on a trail he's not lugging one of his "pro" cameras. He's shooting with his phone, and he's getting great shots. Phones, within their limits, are great picture taking tools.
I shoot both RAW and JPEG. RAW gives me the most to work with when editing images and I appreciate that later flexibility when shooting under adverse conditions. Otherwise, I try to get the image as close to right as I can at the start.
Each generation of phone means an upgrade in camera and software. They are impressive, on par with many SLRs of a couple of generations ago.
As observed above, photography is all about light. How the light is to be used or manipulated is totally dependent on the photographer's vision of the shot and the intended end use. I've sold files taken with phones, mostly scenics, today's iPhone excels for this. Other phones may also, can't speak to them.
Cell phone cameras are certainly more than adequate for pics to be posted on-line, if the light is used to advantage. Eliminating "hotspots" is as easy as diffusing the flash or, dispensing with flash totally. Check your settings prior to the shot to minimize "post" time. See the light!
If I had but one piece of advice it would be, stabilize the camera and use the delay for the shutter.
Perfection is tough without the proper monitor, printer, video card, etc. all correctly calibrated to the color scale used in the camera. Most are not going to spend a few grand to achieve this. There is no reason to do so as most are not viewing the small, on-line files with a monitor calibrated to what the poster was using. My monitor, on the computer I'm usually on is calibrated to sRGB. I suspect most of you haven't given such calibration a thought or, have a monitor that can be fine tuned.
So, in a nutshell, do the best you can with the equipment at hand and, post away! Not all here are viewing your pics with a well developed eye on large, calibrated monitors.
As observed above, photography is all about light. How the light is to be used or manipulated is totally dependent on the photographer's vision of the shot and the intended end use. I've sold files taken with phones, mostly scenics, today's iPhone excels for this. Other phones may also, can't speak to them.
Cell phone cameras are certainly more than adequate for pics to be posted on-line, if the light is used to advantage. Eliminating "hotspots" is as easy as diffusing the flash or, dispensing with flash totally. Check your settings prior to the shot to minimize "post" time. See the light!
If I had but one piece of advice it would be, stabilize the camera and use the delay for the shutter.
Perfection is tough without the proper monitor, printer, video card, etc. all correctly calibrated to the color scale used in the camera. Most are not going to spend a few grand to achieve this. There is no reason to do so as most are not viewing the small, on-line files with a monitor calibrated to what the poster was using. My monitor, on the computer I'm usually on is calibrated to sRGB. I suspect most of you haven't given such calibration a thought or, have a monitor that can be fine tuned.
So, in a nutshell, do the best you can with the equipment at hand and, post away! Not all here are viewing your pics with a well developed eye on large, calibrated monitors.
ssjones RAW mode can allow some amazing things if you have Photoshop or something similar that can handle the files. Manipulating RAW files with Adobe Camera Raw works especially well at rescuing overly dark images. However a good dedicated camera image, even a jpeg, usually needs less work to get to where you want to be because it can resolve a significantly greater range of tones than most phone cameras. Ya gotta want the flexibility pretty bad though because learning to use PS requires a fairly steepish learning curve.
Just noticed this last reply.... Shooting a stationary pipe should be like shooting fish in a barrel. No need for RAW format, HDR, bumping exposure on dark areas, etc. Just good lighting and mostly in focus!
But RAW is the bee's knees for flexibility. Love it.
But RAW is the bee's knees for flexibility. Love it.
Right on.
It's almost difficult to take a bad photo with a new iPhone (or other phone, I guess). But mediocre? I'm guessing more than a million are taken every hour on average, in the U.S. alone.
I will upload some photos in the future. I don't use a smartphone. Only a Nikon D90 or a Nikon Coolpix P7100.
Very nice photos btw.
Very nice photos btw.
I'm really suprised of the high quality a smartphone can create. But of course it's not true... it's the photographer who HOLDS the smartphone who is the biggest creator. 
A lot of good tips. I do it the hard way and transfer the photos to my computer and the edit them in photoshop.
I feel this should be stickied, so we can refer to it when needed. The lens in my tablet is not the best but I'd like to squeeze all I can from it.
We are now in the era of the new site, and it looks like photos uploaded to the old site's album are not currently available, but this site can accept photos directly.
Nothing fancy, just a little care with the lights:
And a shameless plug for Ken Barnes while I'm at it.
And a shameless plug for Ken Barnes while I'm at it.
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