chit chat thread

[patsbimmer1]

straight6pwr said:

i don't think i'd buy a house built after 1980. less and less pride in workmanship over the years combined with homeowners wanting a million square feet at the cost of using low quality materials and construction.  bad recipe!

Having owned a house built pre-1890 and now being in a house built in 1988 I can say that I much prefer my current home but there's something to be said about a house that's over 100 years old and for it's age our last home was in great condition but I had my fair share of 130 year old home issues and they were not cheap because the homes are so "unique" at that age.  Outside of a custom home my skepticism line is pretty firmly placed in the late 90's early 2000's and newer for build quality.  I've seen too many "new" homes that were absolute trash or had friends replacing roofs, window's and frames, etc. in houses less than 20 years old.

[HipMF]

Went to Devil's Lake yesterday. Wasn't feeling it, and never even took the camera out of my bag.

Took a 10 minute walk tonight, and got these pics at the dentist's office down the street...

[Jdesign]

Those are epic.

[SteelBlue]

HipMF said:

Went to Devil's Lake yesterday. Wasn't feeling it, and never even took the camera out of my bag.

Took a 10 minute walk tonight, and got these pics at the dentist's office down the street...

Tripod? or post processing?

[straight6pwr]

very 'close encounters' -  i like it.

[HipMF]

SteelBlue said:

Tripod? or post processing?

handheld, wide-open on the 1.8. a bit noisey because the ISO was cranked way up.

I do all my post-processing in mspaint.

[SteelBlue]

HipMF said:

handheld, wide-open on the 1.8. a bit noisey because the ISO was cranked way up.

I do all my post-processing in mspaint.

What body are you shooting on? and what ISO and shutter length?

I guess I haven't tried much night photography, but what I have is usually not well balanced.

[HipMF]

SteelBlue said:

What body are you shooting on? and what ISO and shutter length?

I guess I haven't tried much night photography, but what I have is usually not well balanced.

Nikon D3100, f/1.8, ISO-3200 first pic was 1/160 sec, second was 1/40

I normally use aperture priority, but if you're shooting with lights shining straight in the camera like in the first picture, you have to switch to full manual to get the exposure right. I've gotten a lot of nice pics shooting that way though.

[HipMF]

Been thinking about it, and I think the biggest reason some of those pictures shooting at lights turn out the best is probably because I'm forced to use manual mode. It takes longer to get set up, and the process of doing it doubles as experimentation with different exposures and things until you get it right. Maybe the lesson here is "always shoot in manual mode"

Obviously, composition also makes or breaks any photo. Reverse angle on this one has no flow and the lights and whatnot in the background are just a distraction. Being in the right place at the right time also helps. The wet asphalt and fog were pretty nice.

[patsbimmer1]

If anyone doesn't feel like sleeping go ahead and try this diagnostic game.  I love it!

https://simulator.electude.com/game

[B C]

I only messed around with the sandbox mode but that is really cool. It doesn't seem very realistic though. In real life dont the customers usually come back and threaten to sue because you tried to kill them ?

[Nick_F]

Well better late then never. Finally installed my springs and struts/shocks I've had for a couple months. No more xi rake

[GB-335xiCoupe]

Nick_F said:

Well better late then never. Finally installed my springs and struts/shocks I've had for a couple months. No more xi rake

Two weeks ago I replace mine too, and did the rear shocks. The rears were soooo easy to do after battling the fronts. Car was still on the originals after 206k miles! They were trashed!

Only thing that freaked me out was using the spring compressor. Looks like you had whole new units to drop in so you didn't have to deal with the compressor.

[Nick_F]

Yea, I was only at 70k so nothing was too hard to take off. I used the compressor since I reused the top hats and your right, I felt like I was diffusing a bomb haha

Surprisingly the drive feel is much smoother than stock but I haven't hit any huge potholes yet so time will tell

[straight6pwr]

HipMF said:

Been thinking about it, and I think the biggest reason some of those pictures shooting at lights turn out the best is probably because I'm forced to use manual mode. It takes longer to get set up, and the process of doing it doubles as experimentation with different exposures and things until you get it right. Maybe the lesson here is "always shoot in manual mode"

@HipMF

Mike - there a couple ways you could handle this faster than guessing exposures in manual mode.

1. with exposure compensation in Aperature Mode

Set your aperture like you normally would, most likely wide open in dark conditions. take your shot. use the exposure compensation to dial in more or less exposure. it is a +/- button near your shutter button. hold it and rotating the dial should change the cameras automatic compensation. (range from -5 to +5) turn it down to darken the photo, up to brighten. the camera will change the shutter speed accordingly, and possibly the ISO depending on your camera settings to achieve the different exposures. don't forget to set it back to 0 after your all done with your session.

I shoot this way 99% of the time. the automatic exposure on nikon is good for even light conditions, but not as good for contrasting or artistic lighting. 

2. with exposure locking in Aperature Mode

That AE-L/AF-L has a couple of features. AE-L (auto exposure lock) is the one you want to set the button to here. It also has settings for how you want the 'press' to function. Set it to AE-Lock and 'Toggle'. What this will accomplish is when you point your focus point at something in your view and press the AE-L button once it will set the exposure based on the brightness of the area you selected. Normally, the camera is attempting to expose everything in the scene properly, so it picks an average. For example, in your light pole photo you can point the focus point at the ground, press the AE-L button, then recompose your framing and it will expose based on the ground, not the bright light. the darker the scene, the harder it will be to get this right, but it can work. The best scenario for when this is useful is like a parking garage with sunlight shining in where you have very dark areas of shadow and very bright areas of daylight. you can force the exposure on the dark area of the bright area depending on your preference.

hope this helps!

[HipMF]

Thanks @straight6pwr

I think I've used the exposure compensation before. I know I've read the section of the manual about the AE button, but it sounded too complicated to me. 

I usually just look at the shutter speed in the viewfinder while in aperture priority, then switch to manual and adjust it from there. I can see the advantage of letting the camera get it dialed versus the guess and check method though, so I may have to give those features another try.

[straight6pwr]

HipMF said:

Thanks @straight6pwr

I think I've used the exposure compensation before. I know I've read the section of the manual about the AE button, but it sounded too complicated to me. 

I usually just look at the shutter speed in the viewfinder while in aperture priority, then switch to manual and adjust it from there. I can see the advantage of letting the camera get it dialed versus the guess and check method though, so I may have to give those features another try.

i suppose its all 'guess and check', its more a matter of which method is most efficient/intuitive for you.

[patsbimmer1]

Anyone work with any freight couriers regularly that they could recommend?

[SteelBlue]

patsbimmer1 said:

Anyone work with any freight couriers regularly that they could recommend?

What are you trying to move?

[patsbimmer1]

SteelBlue said:

What are you trying to move?

Tires on a daily basis.  Im increasing volume at a rate faster than my warehouse can deliver and we're working with a freight courier now but they've been in place for years with no competing bids.