Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] Ă—

Took a break to play with the $99 camera


Smee Again

Recommended Posts

First image (of course) is a dandelion which is edible.

Second image is of the flowers of red russian kale plant.

Third image --- the one that looks like a hairy egg in a thorny nest --- is a thistle plant going to seed. The stalk is edible and tastes much like celery.

The last image is of a flower that my wife says it related to the "sweet pea" family --- yeah, the one sticking its tongue out at the camera.

DSCN2530.jpg

DSCN2564.jpg

DSCN2534.jpg

DSCN2557.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, John Rostron said:

Nice. What was the $99 camera?

The last pic looks like a Dig Violet Viola.

Thank you!

The camera is a Nikon L340. It was $99 from Target about 2 years ago. Was all I could afford at the time when my Canon EOS Rebel went down for the count.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This post shows what can be done with a smartphone. I have just installed Open Camera onto my Android Tablet which has a number of bells and whistles. I will try it out asap.

John

Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC

CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello @John Rostron  I have Open Camera on my phone (currently Galaxy S8) along with several other camera apps. 

I tend to use the stock camera mainly however after reading your post(s) I thought I'd blow the cobwebs off Open Camera and have a play with it ... It's very capable! :)

Not far from where I live is a kind of derelict area that was going to be developed into a multi townhouse complex however 'neighbourhood power' won the battle and the area will be turned into a nature reserve (mainly for the benefit of the Koalas that are native to this neighbourhood).

The light was crap this morning when playing with the app however here's some test images that are straight out of Open Camera/Galaxy S8 (no post editing deliberately so you can see what the originals look like). The desk and weeds in front of the building are .png that I converted to .jpg (as I don't know if .png are able to be uploaded to the forum). The other two are in camera .jpg. I exported all from APh at the original pixel size with a 85% quality to reduce size.   

The HDR mode is quite good however I found (with these images) the in app finals were a little bit lacking in contrast (to upload without some post editing).

IMG_20190404_104702_1.jpg

IMG_20190404_094329.jpg

IMG_20190404_094806.jpg

IMG_20190404_105559_1.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, PedroOfOz said:

The desk and weeds in front of the building are .png that I converted to .jpg (as I don't know if .png are able to be uploaded to the forum)

You can load png images to the forum with no problem. I use it for screen captures.

6 hours ago, PedroOfOz said:

The HDR mode is quite good however I found (with these images) the in app finals were a little bit lacking in contrast (to upload without some post editing).

What I noticed about your images was how contrasty they were. This is probably the Australian sunshine! Were these processed  HDR images, or were they the original OOC images?

Thanks for the demonstration. I am still reading the help file for Open Camera. I will give it a go today. I am using a Samsung Tablet, a lot cheaper than a Smartphone.

John

Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC

CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Aaron Martin, thanks for the example images. It does show what can be done with a Smartphone. Your images looking up or down a tree gives me a thought for trying a focus stack of a similar subject.

Is the flower in the last two a Japonica Quince or Chaenomeles?

John

Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC

CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, John Rostron said:

#1 What I noticed about your images was how contrasty they were. This is probably the Australian sunshine!    #2 Were these processed  HDR images

#1 Yes! Australian/New Zealand/South Pacific/Southern Hemisphere light :)

#2 No. They are .jpg images. The two contrasty images I shot using the HDR mode—three exposures with a 2 stop bracket ie ...  -2, 0 and +2. I've been shooting in this light for 40 years so usually I'll reduce the 0 exposure by 1 stop or so ... ie expose for the highlights and let the shadows take care of themselves. I used the 0 image for the upload ...

... Knowing full well I pulled the exposure. However, as mentioned ... no post editing! :)

Note: Even though RAW can be set in preferences (ie recorded with .jpg or .png exposures) Open Camera doesn't record RAW in HDR mode ... it's closed off for the bracket (I'm surprised about that!) 

What also surprised me is with the contrasty images the shadow detail is still there so it would be quite easy to bring detail out in post editing! (not that I'm going to do anything with the images—just test shots for the app).

The other two images were shot in flat, non direct light ... yet, if I wanted to work with images shot in this light from this app there wouldn't be any issues bringing out the goodies! ;) 

It's a very good app! I initially bought it ... oh, when I had the Samsung Note 2?—It's grown up a lot since then.

Recommended :)  

 

Edit: John, you mention contrasty light! Here's a 'soft' light image from my film days ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@PedroOfOz

Quote

Edit: John, you mention contrasty light! Here's a 'soft' light image from my film days ;)

Yes, I see what you mean.

John

Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC

CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

Link to comment
Share on other sites

These two images were captured using the Dynamic Range Optimisation (DRO) mode in Open Camera. They're singular .png images (converted to .jpg at 85% quality to lower the file size for uploading). The light conditions was quite similar to the images above (captured at approx 10am—the images above at approx 11am). 

The exposures were auto (ie I didn't minus the exposure to obtain more highlight detail as per my standard practice when shooting in contrasty Oz/NZ light).

As per the above images ... both OOC—no post processing!

I'm quite impressed how the DRO mode handles both direct contrasty and indirect flat light :) 

IMG_20190405_095020_DRO.jpg

IMG_20190405_095224_DRO.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.