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The Old Ruminator

Well-known member
Personally I dont like attachments. They dont showcase images as well as hosted pictures. Hosting sites are PostImage ( free ) , Flickr and Photobucket. The last two by subscription though they act as storage as well. Now what happens when you no longer pay subscription I really am not sure. PostImage is free but in the early days rewrote the coding losing millions of posted images. Here I use Photobucket . Images posted as medium. My other forum I post large. Oddly they both appear the same size. Photobucket had a poor reputation originally but has vastly improved under new ownership. Steve Clarks image comes via Flickr. If you click the link it takes you back to his Flickr account where you see all of his other photos. Now that may be a good or bad thing. Dont bother with mine there are 8,120 images going back 60 years. ( The question at the Mendip quiz ). Flickr shows image stats and images can be set for various privacy levels.
The other good thing about Flickr is that you can use a screenshot programme to create a collage view.
 

Fulk

Well-known member
OK, I'll try again:
Straws, Shuttleworth Pot.jpg
 

The Old Ruminator

Well-known member
Elephant Down. Am I cheating again though its a single upload ? The Elephant ( in the room ) has been hanging in the roof for over 200 years but somehow you could never trust it. Recently a large section of wall under it collapsed. A small dedicated crew ( in much trepidation ) brought it down yesterday by non mechanical means. Green cross bottom centre shows it in situ.

 

ChrisB

Active member
All done on the move. TG6 on programme.
I'm new to cave photography and have recently bought a TG6 (originally for kayaking). Please could you post a bit more detail of the programme you used?
 

The Old Ruminator

Well-known member
The TG six is a fantastic tool. Given practice you can use the Olympus Live Composite mode for large areas though it does tend to flatten the scene. Originally I was using Yongnuo slave flashes either on I Auto or Programme. I then decide to simplify matters by using Programme with lighting by LED Torches. The Skyrays are one type. Additional fill in with Scurion headlamp. You can blank off the camera flash using a bit of old 35mm film when using slave guns. Its become sort of second nature now working to avoid the dreaded back scatter. I can set the torches up as back light or any other angle. Best to try variations as usually something works well. Sometimes the torches are in shot at the edge but they can be cropped out. Ultimately most of the work is done with the editor at home but dont " overcook " it. So obvious now in many shared images. Develop your own style and dont be afraid to be innovative. So much is formulaic now and probably already on Google Image. Ultimately its the " moment " that counts. You cant repeat that. Share what you do. Never be afraid to be differant. Maybe I overdo the former but so what ?

" Some " images here



Dont forget the video mode. If only for a laugh. I dont even edit those. They can be shared via Flickr or other sites but keep them short. Dont bob about and watch for the camera shadow in frame. I use a hand held torch for those.
 
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ChrisB

Active member
Thank you. I'll experiment. I've been doing very quick shots with the 'Handheld Starlight' mode that takes 8 images and stacks them, using just my own headlight, and am now very aware of camera shadows!
Ultimately most of the work is done with the editor at home but dont " overcook " it. So obvious now in many shared images.
Understood. It's easy to overcook when trying to get the darker areas up. It's the first Olympus I've had that uses raw and I haven't put the time in to learn the editor yet.
 

pwhole

Well-known member
Definitely shoot in RAW if you can - there's way more latitude in both shadows and highlights, and many 'HDR'-like images are possible with only one shot, though stacking them is still an advantage in really extreme scenarios.
 

The Old Ruminator

Well-known member
The one reason I dont use RAW is that the res. is too high for emails and social media. Of course you can reduce that in editing but its another step. Mine end up around 2mb which is fine for sharing etc. Horses for courses.
 

mrodoc

Well-known member
It's why you rarely see OR's photos in the press as the deletes the originals. I keep saying shoot RAW and jpg which is what I do then I can edit the RAW and store it as an improved jpg but with the option of modifying the original in the future.
 

Steve Clark

Well-known member
There should really be no need to be deleting raw originals. The post-processing technology is developing all the time. You would be amazed at what can be recovered in the shadows of old raw data. As an example, it's now technically possible to build a 3d model of an underwater cave by extracting individual frames from old underwater video taken in the early 90s and processing with photogrammetry software.

A 4TB 2.5" external drive is about £90 and the size of a fag packet. A typical raw file is 20mb. That's 200,000 raw files. 22 images stored for 1p.

I think Mark Burkey told me that his entire catalogue of raw images fits in 8TB, including backups.
 

Steve Clark

Well-known member
I do take your point about avoiding over-processing though. Once you start using flashguns and adobe lightroom it's very easy to make a cave look like a film set. Nothing whatsoever like a cave with normal helmet lighting. All good fun, lots to try out.
 

mrodoc

Well-known member
I have resuscitated many of my old slides scanned as bitmaps at high res and been amazed at how much detail there is in shadow areas. Colour correction and haze removal works well too. They won't win prizes but as record shots they are fine. This photo was taken in 1968 in Festival Cave in Devon using Boots Colour transparency film (64 ASA) with a cheap Russian 35 mm camera.
 

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The Old Ruminator

Well-known member
It's why you rarely see OR's photos in the press as the deletes the originals. I keep saying shoot RAW and jpg which is what I do then I can edit the RAW and store it as an improved jpg but with the option of modifying the original in the future.
Funny as I regularly write for magazines other than caving. Somebody once said " RAW " is for people who dont know how to take photographs " .In any case my images are for other media rather than The Sunday Mail.
 

The Old Ruminator

Well-known member
Probably not the place to argue about editing and photo res. The first important thing is to capture a moment in time. Then display it or share it in a way that suits you. Chase perfection if you like or show cavers having a bit of fun. Does it really matter if the end result gets shared for all to see ? Not far away this might all become academic as mobile phone camera technology improves with AI assisted inhouse software to give you the results it has learned that you like to see . Becoming too " technical " on here might put people off from posting images. Yes its described as a " Showcase " but for what ? Your brilliant professional skills or moments captured in a cave? Showing a cave as other cavers see it or making it look like a well lit filmset ? Sure if you want a Descent cover go for professional but remember the time and effort it may have taken to get that shot. Quite likely it is well posed detracting from the " moment ". I do it my way because its fun. Who wants angst worrying about how well its set up, posed, edited and saved for some posterity that might not exist. Like I said. Horses for courses. Enjoy what you do. Dont heed peer pressure. Then of course lets see the results here.
 
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