Photography Thread

[Steffo]

Glad to see the forum live on and figured I start a photo thread.

I just got started about 4 years ago, so no pro by any means, but spend a lot of hours following other photographers etc. Hope some of you younger dudes can contribute. In the old folks forum I was pretty much the only one posting for the past 2 years or so. If you have any beginner questions, I'll try to answer to the best of my abilities

I'm still with the old tech and got all my gear second hand. Using a Nikon D850 camera, and my lenses are Nikon 300 mm /f2.8 VR, Tamron 90 mm/2.8 macro, nikon 24 mm/1.8. The editing program I use is on1raw.

I got back to this old hobby when trying to think back what I got joy from earlier in life and needed to find something new. When was 14-15, I got into it, borrowed some gear and had my own dark room made in a closet. Read up and learned how to develop pics with these various chemicals etc. But then got away from it in high school with partying and so on.

Been trying a few different things, but so far like shooting mammals, and flowers+insects the most.
Tried macro and it's cool, but like close ups better where you can see some of the environment.

Have been enjoying restoring some family photos as well. Got some good results with AI to restore faces etc 2 years ago, but it was unreliable so waiting, watching and letting that tech get even better for now.

Anyhow, please share anything!














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Just found this pic in my sister's album. She passed away this summer. So edited it a bit and figure I send it to my dad who is in the pic as well, 88 years old today. I know he was proud of me in this 1994 pic as I had just passed the beret test – 2 days marching without food and 40 kg on your back, plus several tests on the way. AVI I put up for now is that old pic from way back, so ofc I look much better now.

[Wasp9166]

You took all of these ?

[Steffo]

Just joined, so barely know how to reply, lol. Yes, took these...just wanted to post a small sample from this past month.

[Getter_done]

Awesome dude.

[Wasp9166]

Where were they taken ,you in Australia or something?

[AnaboLecter]

Nice pics, the penguins pic is the best one IMO

[Goobrah]

Damn mirin hard

[Steffo]

Gothenburg, Sweden. Has a few parks and botanical gardens. The small monkey was indoors at Universeum (Gothenburg.) The place was so dirty I had to write the CEO. She was nice in the reply though that they would try and do better.

[GuineaDago585]

[Wasp9166]

Ayyyyyy

[Steffo]

Ah yes, have to go back and see these little monkeys again.

[NEETvestor]

Have been enjoying restoring some family photos as well. Got some good results with AI to restore faces etc 2 years ago, but it was unreliable so waiting, watching and letting that tech get even better for now.




Just found this pic in my sister's album. She passed away this summer. So edited it a bit and figure I send it to my dad who is in the pic as well, 88 years old today. I know he was proud of me in this 1994 pic as I had just passed the beret test – 2 days marching without food and 40 kg on your back, plus several tests on the way. AVI I put up for now is that old pic from way back, so ofc I look much better now.

I'm very sorry to hear about your sister.

Coincidentally I'm also going through a lot of old family photographs. (I don't have the skill to restore them, though.) There's something magical about rediscovering old photos and looking at them with new eyes.

Anyway, it's great that you've resurrected the photography thread. That was one of my favorites on the old site, and you're a really talented photographer.

[Guest]

Mirin' photos

[Steffo]

Thank you, Neet and others. Hope to find some good locations this winter and next year. This year wasn't that great. Here are some pics from last year. I can already see how I would edit differently and better today, but it is what it is.

[Steffo]

Neet, found 2 I was happy with the AI restore face results back then. Was some page on huggingface. This was from small old pics – my grandma at 17 in 1933 by the lake, and my mom and grandma in about 1946 or so.

[vsauce]

Bro nice pics. II’ve only picked up a proper camera for 2 months so i don’t really anything worth sharing. But i find this hobby really fun and its been changing my life perspective on a lot of things i appreciate it. Will continue watching this thread, def post more

[thaifoon90]

mirin nature shots

[Steffo]

Just went back to see how I would do things differently with a photo today compared to 2 years ago, and to have something more to put up here for the moment.

This was with my previous gear which was decent – Nikon D810 and the 200-500/5.6. Many praise this lens, but for me it always lacked that something, so after testing vs a sigma 500/f4.5 prime I got my hands on I sold that one. And then later traded that Sigma one as well (plus other gear one as well) for a nikon 300 mm/f2.8 VR – which I can clearly tell is better in every aspect, except the range. Has more 3d pop somehow, and with being able to open up so much more and let more light in it also expands the hours you can go out and get good shoots – no longer restricted to daytime, but can get some decent ones when other ppl give up and go home.






Original RAW file vs Edit 2 years ago vs edit tonight.


So will try and go back to some of the same locations as before, with new gear, a new eye, and better editing skills. The 300 mm is a bit on the short side sometimes for sure, but upgraded camera this winter to the D850 with 46 MP sensor, so hoping that will compensate a bit as it lets you crop in a bit more. A used 600 mm/f4 would be great later on as well.

On a side note: Got rid of all zoom lenses, as those are not for me, but sticking with a few primes from now on. To my eye it makes a big difference although some others may not see it or care as much.

So with editing, which seems overlooked a lot by non photographers, I think I have improved gradually. I feel the biggest difference is that compared to just 2 years ago, I no longer test all the options and sliders as much, but rather see right away from the original picture what could be done (within my program – on1raw)  and just do those few things. My intention is to just make it look like the way I saw it with my own eyes and perhaps enhance some aspects by a small amount.

Ok enough text, here a few more from earlier.

[Steffo]

Regarding restoring old photos, I'd love to get more into it, just waiting for better AI tech.
I did get great results on some faces before though, as with the pic of my mom here, around 1950.
It was a really dirty photo I cleaned up and cropped in a lot, so was amazed at the result I got that time.





Included a photo of grandads's dad (Born 1860) – his face just look like he's been through alot.


[url=https://ibb.co/tp61v5Z]





Then found an older album with ppl who made it over to the states, so cleaned up one of a young dude looking a bit like chad, and a bit like a miscer who made it

Anyways, have good evening misc.

[Steffo]

Bro nice pics. II’ve only picked up a proper camera for 2 months so i don’t really anything worth sharing. But i find this hobby really fun and its been changing my life perspective on a lot of things i appreciate it. Will continue watching this thread, def post more

Aye, it has done something to me as well - opening up my eyes to many things and details here and there. Stuff I wouldn't have noticed before.

Hope you post some stuff later - you only compete againsts yourself in this field in a sense.

[Steffo]

Faces from the past – restoring some old ones


From an old family album we got as some ppl passed away. It doesn't give names or anything, but belonged to my grandfathers' mother Sofia. It has some pics of ppl who made it to the states etc.

I will show the 3 steps for each one here. The first one is the original, the second one is a fortunate good result from a huggingface beta. Search Huggingface and face restore and you can possibly find it. Was 2 years ago so forgot exact link. The third for these pics is what I did with the AI improved one in the on1raw editing program tonight. Just wanted to revisit these with a new eye. Had to remove hundreds of dust particles etc, and do the regular process.

















He made it over to New York.

[Steffo]

This one freaked me out a bit as I don't know who he is, but could be my double or twin brother. Some relative tho on mom's side of the family.





Skipping the first 2 pics from here as you get the point already. 4 strong wamens.



This one stood out to me as they look a bit more asian. Thinking it may be from some influx from the sami population in the north (and east before that): Ppl always say they are the original population, but that is wrong from looking at genetic resereach – they came in 2k years ago, and there has been ppl here for 10k years after the ice melted away.

[Steffo]

Incredibel poor and dirty pic to begin with, but can see that they made it over with the american flag in the background.

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