Uzumaki NaruTo, very cool shot!

Mikeshashimi: I had the Minolta 35-105mm F3.5-4.5 RS - not such a good lens. Quite weak in resolution. The 35-105mm F3.5-4.5 Original I hear is much better.

signither: Missing 24 megapixels already ah? Though nothing beats 71 gigapixels in terms of Let's Enhance-ability.

National Geographic pictures are more of the real thing and have more substance compared to camera magazines. Haven't flipped through a Discovery though.

zstan: Yes it does, but you could be closer. It feels very... scattered, y'know?

Over a year ago, 10th July 2009 to be exact, I built my own ring flash light modifier! One can either stick a lens of 77mm diameter through the hole, or turn the modifier upside-down to become a directional light, looking very much like a beauty dish.


This is how it looks, straight on, through the ring.


Enche Ted the lighting guru with the directional light.


Muzzammil against the wall.


Muzzammil not against the wall. I have to say I really like the directional light mode!


Through the ring.


This post has been edited by albnok: Aug 5 2010, 12:13 PM

smashpOp with a light from the side.


Isz, camera salesman, through the ring...


...and Rames with that beauty dish-like effect.


How about some macro?


This was a far more difficult shot (thanks Kevin Wong for taking this!) Two flashes with wide-panel diffusers pulled out, and one flash with ring flash light modifier from above.


My inspiration to build this came from another lighting modifier master, Templar! His far more refined version is on the right. Trust an engineer to make precision look easy!


There was, also, this O-Flash RF175 light modifier - it was significantly heavier, but gives one stop better light transmission. Did I mention that the light modifier sucks power and decreases range significantly?

The bottom left picture with with the O-Flash; the bottom right, with my version, which had a warm cast.


Version 2, built on the 1st of August 2009, transforms and holds a Sony HVL-F58AM flash. However I'd rather lug around the Version 1 because the collapsed Version 2 doesn't fit in much smaller bags.

Someday when I am freer, I shall revise this into an even smaller design, I hope. It would be too easy to make a collapsible beauty dish - but ring flash?


Left is Version 2 next to a Metz Mecablitz 15 MS-1 Digital. Powered by 2 AAA batteries, that ring flash amazingly packs a punch - it can even be triggered by your camera's pop-up flash! Now, if only it would fit lenses having a filter thread size bigger than 72mm... (though, you'd want to stick a medium telephoto through this, so you'd probably zoom your lens through it.)

zstan: True that; however the ring flash has a much larger surface area, which is why the flash is nowhere as harsh as a direct off-camera flash.

signither: Nice sig and shot!

Kul | Mo0: I'm all for Sigma 20mm F1.8 as a wide on APS-C and perhaps something moderately longer (keep the 50mm.)

ahpingko: For #1 if you stop down to F8 or F11 you might find it sharper. Still, well done, and I see you've concentrated on getting maximu bokeh out of your lenses and succeeded.

linkinstreet: Nice!

ahpingko: Whichever you want - sharpness or shallow depth of field?

Street Birding, with the Sony 18-70mm F3.5-5.6 DT kit lens at 18mm! (On the A700.)


EXIF is included.


Yes, I was indeed...


...chasing birds.

More here:
http://glaringnotebook.com/default.asp?id=1442

This post has been edited by albnok: Aug 8 2010, 02:36 AM

Mikeshashimi: I've already informed the site owner, who will look into it.

shootkk: Somehow, the 6-flash thing is a bit subtle. More could've been done.

cjlai: Real nice one with the olive-backed sunbird #1!

ahpingko: Nice clean waterdrop shot! I also like the blue version.

zstan: Ah Eneloops work great - they certainly outlasted my Uniross Hybrio low-self-discharge AA NiMh batteries. Still working till now.

zstan: I've been using my GP 30 minute charger to charge my Eneloops with no problems.

8tvt: It's gear stripping. Send it back to the shop where you got it from.

Boon3: The Alphanatics domain expired and macdude is looking into the matter.

macdude says the site is back up - but the DNS servers haven't all gotten updated yet. You may be able to access it without the www. (my case) or with the www. in some other cases.

If you cannot wait, then you could change your hosts file.

How to change your hosts file in Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7:

1) Press Start button + R
2) Type this in: "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc" and press Enter. If any security prompt shows, press Allow (not sure what it is, I can't see it)
3) Right-click on the "hosts" file and click Properties
4) On the window that opens, click on the Security tab
5) Click "Users (###YOURCOMPUTERNAME###\Users)"
6) Click Edit...
7) Click "Users (###YOURCOMPUTERNAME###\Users)"
8) Tick the Full Control box and press OK
9) Press OK again
10) Press Start button + R
11) Type "Notepad" and press Enter
12) Drag the "hosts" file into the Notepad window
13) At the very end of the file, press Enter and add this "202.190.179.20 www.alphanatics.com"
14) Save the file
15) Open a new browser window (not a tab) and try to load the site

P.S. Knowing how to access this hosts file can really help for a lot of other things.

edwardgsk: Since you have both the D90 and the NEX-5 - how would you say video quality is, comparing both? Is there a difference in rolling shutter severity? It does seem a lot less pronounced on the NEX-5 but I haven't seen my colleagues' D90s in a while.

Also, a Nikkor G to E mount adapter is quite worth it!

This post has been edited by albnok: Aug 9 2010, 04:18 PM

lwliam: Nice! Love the almost unnoticeable lizard.

kevinwcw: I've posted before, but I can't find it. Yes it's worth it. But wait, don't you have one already?

Here are some other shots with the 16-35mm on the A850/A900:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat...85&changemode=1

I personally love how the Zeiss makes subjects pop out with a 3D glow, even at the 16mm F2.8 end.

This post has been edited by albnok: Aug 10 2010, 12:43 AM

d4rkholeang3l: Honestly? No.

The 30mm F2.8 DT SAM Macro makes a cheap and good add-on which is wider.

hiansitt: Use double-sided tape.

ahpingko: Those were not crows LOL.

lwliam: I prefer your colder WB shot. It's very pastel-like in a nice way.

Given a choice between lwliam's cold shot and vikingw2k's warm version, I'd pick the cold one. In the warm version, her teeth have an unsightly warm cast and the color on her top is quite... disharmonious.

I tried overlaying the warm one on the cold one, and changed the opacity of the warm layer to 31%. That would be where I'd say it looked best - still closer to the cold one.

This post has been edited by albnok: Aug 11 2010, 04:04 AM

ahpingko: Closeup filters use Diopter Ratings.

It means, if your lens is originally focused to infinity, and you add the filter, it focuses to 1 meter divided by the Diopter Rating.

So:
+10 = 1000mm/10 = 100mm = 10cm maximum focus distance

I don't know the formula for minimum focus distance though.

e-jump: Nice use of a snoot! And hey, congratulations, your primes will be even more loved!

Str33tBoY: Not quite hungry. If you're using flash, you can use a darker aperture and get the fries in focus too.

NekoRacing: Yes, both Minolta MC lenses will work sweet on the NEX-5 with a Minolta MD adapter from cjlai.

shootkk: Am liking the clarity of your shots. Good white balance too!

tanjq87: None of them LOL. The black level is not known to Lightroom! Of course, you could change the Zone in Creative Settings to adjust black levels in JPEG. Contrast also affects black levels.

lwliam: Black levels at 0 means the black is uncompressed and unclipped - if you increase black levels, you make the shadows closer to #00000 black. Nikon does this to make JPGs look less noisy.

lwliam: No - black level is a RAW concept.

If your raw has 15 15 15 in the shadows, and you increase your black levels, the 15 15 15 will become darker.

Underexposing does work, but it also causes noise (if you were to brighten the midtones and highlights). Less photons mean more noise. So I'd rather expose enough to avoid clipping highlights, and then use the black levels to put whatever should be black, in black.

DRO does affect the camera's metering - the stronger DRO settings will cause a faster shutter speed. Less photons saturating the highlights, and more midtones get brightened. The black level is also turned down for the JPG.

electron: I like the Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4.5 EX DC because it can focus very close - 20cm from the sensor to object at all focal lengths. You can even focus on a finger touching the lens!