Digital photography

So as it turns out, this aerial photography thing is actually quite tricky. Many pics, they all look wonky somehow. Anyway, three less-bad ones from the weekend.

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Last one looks really high up. Where is this? Bath?

Yep, spot on. A morning floating over Bath.

Is it possible that it's the world that's wonky, not your photos?

Thanks @MisterMikkel & @mi7rennie!

I need to get back into taking some outdoor portraits, particularly now the sun is out.

Nah, it's relatively flat round here. When the horizons 20 degree out... it's me.

l'homme,,what man ?

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That's what the skew tool is for 😉

googles

New toy - nice.

It’s partly because of how you’re leaning, partly the extremity of your focal length, and partly cos we don’t build things in perfect grids.

Do you have access to do it more frequently? What’s your setup? Traditionally you needed a hole in the bottom of the aircraft so you could use levels to get the camera dead straight. I think a lot of stuff way way back also had grid markers to allow for distortion.

Egg-sucking question, are you using a spirit level on top of the camera?

It's all drones these days surely...

....I’ll see myself out.

I've got an Olympus e-p2 and 17mm f2.8 that I use for photos cycling to/from work and during my lunch break. Looks as though the lens is borked however (see the darker circular mark on the telegraph pole photo). There is a mark on the lens, I take it nothing I can do to salvage it ? I'll probably need to learn how to clone in Photoshop in the meantime I guess

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Looks more like dirt on the sensor.

Honestly, this was opportunistic photography rather than a dedicated trip. My partner got us tickets for a hot air balloon, so I took the camera!

Don't have access to do it more frequently, setup was a mirrorless camera leaning over the side of the basket (as below), and I do not have a spirit level. Just an enjoyable day really, and I felt like sharing.

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No no, don't take my remarks the wrong way, just aerial photography is super particular - it has a real history thanks to surveyance as much as military. There are probably lots of resources out there on what (not) to do, had you been in a position to repeat for photography's sake. I think it's an incredibly difficult task to take a satisfying aerial photograph, because we are spoilt now by the proliferation of images. Definitely better to have enjoyed the view than stressed about with a camera, or that's what I tell myself.

So you were right and it wasn't a drone! Take that future!!

Well it just didn't look like drone. Besides when someone does drone photos they don't shut up about their little cockcopter thing.

Yeah, fair enough. Tbh it's one of those areas I'd like to be good at, but realistically am never going to commit the time/money to get good! :) So I snap when I can, and browse national geographic to see what the pro's can do.

Half of me would quite like a drone.. but them I'd be the type of person who owns a drone. And I'd never feel comfortable flying it over a city to get pics.

You seem to know a bit about aerial photography - background in it? Know any good reading for the history/techniques?

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It was just a topic that came up during the degrees in photography, mostly during the second one at UAL because people were going mad for buying drones and attaching full frames to do video/photo stuff.

I did a bit of research into it way back when, because one of my 5x7 film cameras was built for aerial photography, and there were a lot of large format lenses built specifically for that purpose (mostly with military markings) that I was trying to source for having nice wide apertures on big negatives. I can't remember any of the links, but it crosses over with the stuff ATLAS gallery once showed about the photos from the moon with Hasselblad cameras... because they used specific grids to correct for the curvature and (lack of) atmosphere.

I'm looking for a way to add a title and sequential serial number in the metadata "description" field as I export my photos from LR.

Squarespace picks up metadata Descriptions as titles and this would allow me to automate the naming of each image and make it identifiable on my site.

If I can't do it in LR does anyone know if windows can do a batch metadata edit to include a serial identifier?

Experimented with Olympus' Moriyama mode (Grainy Film) in suitably post industrial Wolverhampton today, quite like the results. @WillMelling - Cheers it does look like it was just dust on the sensor after looking at the RAWs of these

Edit - Although having just printed one out at A4 I don't think it's an effect that holds out above internets/gramming size

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You’ve made me want to experiment with the same settings on the Fuji, though. Be a nice way to shake off the temptation to take cliches about sunshine, which is most of what I’ve done in the nice weather...

It's not something I do with every shot as it slow's the ageing e-p2 right down, but it's fun to do . Especially when you've got the RAW to back it up as well

Pin hole mode isn't too bad either

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