177 replies to this topic

[Brian Luenser]

I thought I might start another Topic here in General Photography. I take some pictures with my big telescope but now supplement my magnification obsession with a big lens on my camera. I have posted several already in various areas that have some other (like architectural significance) but these pictures are just purely for the sake of "how far can I see?"

This shot is with my Rebel XSi with a Canon 400mm 5.6 and a Canon 2X converter on my tripod from my 34th floor balcony of my place in The Tower.
I took these pictures yesterday when I got home from work as the storm was approaching from the Northwest. At that point Fort Worth and Arlington was deep within the clouds, but Dallas was still bright and sunny. really stratified the landscape by distance. I like the effect. And though far from "Tack sharp" gets me pretty close to Dallas. Closer than I would have imagined without using my telescope. The near foreground is the Loop 820 area (See Luby's on left) the intermediate ground is North Arlington and then of course Downtown Dallas. Take a look.

[cajunmike]

Great shot and some kind of high power.

[John T Roberts]

A couple of years ago, when I attended the Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum Meet, the event was held in one of the penthouses in the Kirby Building. You could see the skyline of Fort Worth from that location. It would be really interesting to have a high powered shot from the Tower clear enough that you could place the Kirby within the Dallas skyline.

[Brian Luenser]

A couple of years ago, when I attended the Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum Meet, the event was held in one of the penthouses in the Kirby Building. You could see the skyline of Fort Worth from that location. It would be really interesting to have a high powered shot from the Tower clear enough that you could place the Kirby within the Dallas skyline.

I am thinking it would be in this shot I it can be seen in this set. Stand-by for some good shots in the fall as the north wind and rain blows the particulates down to Houston! Now what I really want to do, is go to Dallas and find a tall building I can get outside of, and take a picture of Fort Worth! My guess, is I can't be stopped. (Do you know where I can get those big suction cups for climbing up the side of tall buildings?)

[360texas]

Some of that distance blur might be coming from the mirror flapping up/down when you take the image.

Tripod
Camera remote shutter release cable
and set the camera for "Mirror Lock UP" position. The shutter will just accept the image without the mirror moving.
no wind

See if that helps

[Brian Luenser]

I have been wondering this for 3 months but did not have time to experiment. When I bought my last lens (Canon 400mm 5.6L) I also bought a Canon 2X focal length doubler. It is a quality little piece of optics, so it seemed. ($299. at a big discount)

I Used it and liked it, but had this question that I could not find an answer to. Rather than turning my 400 into an 800 with my 2X, might I be better with just my really high quality 400, and then crop to twice the size? I looked hard for an answer and found none. I finally did my own test. I think it a good one. I think a fair one. I took 3 pics in a row of 3 different things in the distance. (Courthouse, up high, Courthouse clock and the cab of the crane at the TCC site. ) I then put on my 2x and took the same three pictures. Same time of day. same lighting, wind etc...
I then left all un-adjusted in ANY fashion. Did not tweak contrast, color or sharpen etc... I then cropped both sets of pics to just get down to an area of interest. (Learned this from the Photo sites that compare big lenses etc...)

The punch line to all this... 2X YES!!!! Far better quality than no 2X and cropping to double size. Included here are my originals and side by side comparisons I did in Photoshop. I am presenting just 2 of my 3 tests as the third test seems repeditive. But same result.

360Texas, put away your graphs and gamma correctors... this is a down home newbie eyeball test. (BTW, 360 has pointed me in the right direction all along my young photo obsession.) He is why I have my current lenses, why I do mirror lockup etc, etc... Here are the test photos. And I do know there me be other variable that could skew the results, like amount of light, availability of a good tripod etc... That's OK as far as I am concerned because the 2x wins by a large margin.

Original with 2x on. (no cropping or adjusting)



Extreem crop of Courthouse clock side by side



Original pic of crane cab with the 2x on. (Close up)


Test results. Look at A/C vents! And wiper blades!

[Recyclican]

By "crop to 2x size" do you mean increasing the size of the image by 100% to make it twice as big as it was? Nice comparison, by the way. Some day I'll be able to afford to dabble in photography again!

[360texas]

Monee you might want to try this approach.

With camera, 2x, long lens. Find a well lighted object. Manual focus. manual settings. On a sunshiny day like in the above images, 1/125 sec take sequence of images from Wide Open 5.6, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20. Concept: open all in photoshop zoom to 100% then visually judge which fstop setting at 1/125th combination is the sharpest. One setting combination will be your lens 1/125th "f/stop" sweet spot.

If you are using a Canon (unless its a full frame sensor) you camera/lens combination for the 400mm L is already a 400 x 1.6 crop factor = 640mm. A 2x doubler makes it a 1,280mm but also reduces the f/stop light passing through the lens by 1 or 2 f/stops? IF you do some cropping.. take the cut from the center axis of the lens area. Outside the center, the lens probably is experiencing issues with sharpness and contrast towards to outer areas where the glass meets the metal housing.

[Brian Luenser]

By "crop to 2x size" do you mean increasing the size of the image by 100% to make it twice as big as it was? Nice comparison, by the way. Some day I'll be able to afford to dabble in photography again!

First, for those that might not know what a 2x adapter is, it doubles the focal length (power) of your lens. So when I say, "with the 2x" I am talking about after I screw on the "2x doubler" which goes between the camera and lens.

By "Crop to 2x size", I mean adjust the picture not using the 2x adapter to equal the scale of the pics that use the 2x. For example, the cab of that crane should be the same apparent size in both pictures to make a fair comparison.

I am really happy to find the answer to my riddle. Yes. Use a 2x adapter rather than use a smaller lens and "blow up" electronically. (Crop) Or... buy a smaller cheaper lens plus a quality doubler. You then have 2 great lenses for less cost!

BTW. I am enjoying photography so much more than I thought I would. If times were tight for me financially I would sell my car and walk to work before I sold my camera. I am hooked good!

[texastrill]

That first pic looks like East FW in the middle of West Dino.I would like to see magnified pics of DTFW from DTD.

[Brian Luenser]

That first pic looks like East FW in the middle of West Dino.I would like to see magnified pics of DTFW from DTD.

My thoughts exactly! I have lots of Downtown Dallas pics (100 I took this morning as the sun is coming up through downtown Dallas) and surely somebody in Dallas has sunset pics of Fort Worth. I have been thinking about joining the Dallas Forum long enough to get somebody to trade pictures. I would entice them with my best Dallas pics with a big grid over it or something. (Rendering unusable)

I have all my best Dallas pictures taken these last 2 days in the Hurricane washed air, now on my hard drive while figuring my strategy! I will let them out of the bag in a few days or sooner.

Pretty crazy, but from Downtown Fort Worth, the sun comes up with Downtown Dallas in the background just 2 days! (it travels an apparent several blocks a day from my viewpoint through magnification.) Stand by on those!

[360texas]

To quote a review of the Extender http://www.the-digit...ter-Review.aspx

"The Canon EF 2x II Extender mounts between the compatible lens and body, and multiplies the focal length settings of your lens by 2. That's the good news - the bad news is the 2x decreases/narrows your lens' aperture setting by 2 stops. The lens aperture still opens to the same width, but the ratio of the aperture opening to the focal length is reduced - by 2 stops.

For example, the Canon 2x makes a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS Lens into a 140-400mm f/5.6 IS lens - and yes, IS still functions normally. A Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L Lens mounted over a 2x becomes a 140-400mm f/8 lens. A Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS Lens becomes a 600mm f/5.6 IS lens."

The above is true if you were using a full 35mm frame sensor with those lenses. However, [yet 1 more math trick]

You are using a Rebel XSi with a Canon 400mm 5.6 and a Canon 2X converter. You might also have to start at the beginning.. and use the sensor crop factor of 1.6. then add in the affect of the 2x making your set up an overall whopper 1,280 mm combination. A stable tripod and Mirror UP combination is required to get sharp image.

I wonder what your 1 single image EXIF meta data files are reading... for focal length and lens mm. Photoshop [INFO} can show you that information.

[John T Roberts]

Monee, I found the Kirby Building in this photo. It is the shortest building between the Renaissance Tower and Bank of America Plaza. It is the little dark building behind the West End Hotel (formerly Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn). When I was up in the penthouse of the Kirby, the Fort Worth Skyline fit between the Davis Building and the top of the West End Hotel.

[Brian Luenser]

Texas Stadium during the Monday Night Football game. (Eagles and Cowboys.)

Was looking for a blimp but did not find. As it is a windy night, the Tower is on the move limiting my ISO choices to 1600 or 1600. (And even still a 3 second exposure.)

Therein lies my dilemma. The skies are clean when it is windy, but when it is windy my building is swaying. Life is tuff. I guess I will just sit back and enjoy the clean view.

[cbellomy]

You'll get clean and not-windy this winter. Promise.

[Brian Luenser]

As I was technologically embarrassed by my fuzzy Texas Stadium pic last night in the 4th quarter of the Cowboy game (not me or my festive party beverage... swaying building in the wind!) I offer two pictures I just took tonight. Let's take a look, shall we?



Sorry. Have posted many pics of a distant Dallas. Will just post improvements and I think this is one.



My first picture of Midlothian TX. (These are the famous pollution plants we hear about frequently.)

[John T Roberts]

Monee, those are really great! I can actually see detail on the buildings in Dallas and recognize them.

[360texas]

agreed. Great

The tiny blueish lights below are flourescent.

Noticed that most all the lighting seems to be incandescent "orange". Wonder what the orange lights would look like if you set the camera's white balance from auto to incandescent?

Not done with camera.

[Brian Luenser]

Forget the orange, 360. You're supposed to tell me why all my lights had a star pattern last night. (I did not have a filter on or anything.) What gives?

I just got my SLR camera and lenses in April so this was its first cool weather. Could it be a little dew on lens? It was chilly on the balcony last night. (Factor in a 25mph wind)

[Brian Luenser]

This morning. X-ray of Reunion Tower. I have a huge series of a pic every couple of seconds. Until the Sun was high in the sky.

There is just one minute every 6 months that this picture can be taken. (Today it was 7:14) Next time will be in mid April. If it is cloudy that day? Next September 17th is the next time this shot is available.
From my location in Downtown Fort Worth, the Sun crosses downtown Dallas in about 4 days all together. (Sunrise tomorrow will not be near Reunion Tower)

The Highway is Interstate 30 (30/820 area) filled with people heading to work.

Building on right is on Lamar in Arlington. (Merrill lynch/WBAP, I think)

I have taken hundreds of pictures of the sun behind Dallas this last four days. All of them better than this one. (Stand-by)

[gdvanc]

Forget the orange, 360. You're supposed to tell me why all my lights had a star pattern last night. (I did not have a filter on or anything.) What gives?

I just got my SLR camera and lenses in April so this was its first cool weather. Could it be a little dew on lens? It was chilly on the balcony last night. (Factor in a 25mph wind)

I'm certainly no Dave360, but I'll put $5 on "Aperture Blade Diffraction". I'm guessing your aperture has 8 blades and your were at an eensy f-stop like f/32 or something.

[360texas]

Sorry have been been busy into a project for an Atlanta Georgia client.

Gdvanc - right on spot. 8 blades intersecting cause 8 spiked light burst.

My Sigma 8mm f4.0 fisheye does the same thing with the SUN.

[Brian Luenser]

I am still playing with my sunrise thru Dallas pics, to be posted later. Maybe this weekend. Here is one, that is really just after sunrise. I do love it. Sunshine in Dallas. Not yet in Arlington. (That is that Arlington water tower in my way as always... but it adds scale and distance.) Again, the colors are not tweaked. At all. Just the sweet spot of the sunrise. (This is not photoshop majic here, just lens.)

I have two identical pics here. One higher resolution and one the size of a paragraph in a Word DOC. The little one I have an annotation on. It is a circle around some object. I would like for somebody to tell me what that is I am looking at. Strange shape/ size/ location.

Here is the higher resolution photo. (Sept. 17th, 2008)



Very low resolution for your homework.

[bburton]

This series has become surreal. Just beautiful. Please keep them coming.

[Brian Luenser]

This is one of a few hundred "Sunrise through Dallas" pics I took this week. Stated previously, at this distance from Dallas, the sun moves fast. It goes across downtown Dallas in about 3 days. And 2 of those days were pretty cloudy. (If you are thinking I lost my meteorological mind and that it was clear all this week you need to remember I am talking about clouds anywhere East of Fort Worth. Including over Kaufman, as the case in this picture.) My next window of Sun in Dallas will be in March of 2009. Again, colors were NOT tweaked. Just the sweet spot of the sunrise.

Let's take a look. Shall we?

[longhornz32]

Awesome.

As far as the mystery object maybe it is a flag next/in front of an object?

[Brian Luenser]

Kind of similar to my other Post-Hurricane Ike pics, but a half hour before sunrise and kind of a different feel. Warning: broken record alert... these colors are not enhanced, just the colorful heart of a sunrise. I-30 before morning traffic.

[Brian Luenser]

As I said, I will bring out some favorites from "Sun Week". (One of those 4 days the sun rises thru Dallas as seen from Downtown Fort Worth.)

I have a few hundred from this series. (My wife is looking for my meds.) First Sun. Let's take a look, shall we?

[Brian Luenser]

Well, my fun and games of shooting the sun thru Dallas are over for 6 months. But here are 2 near misses with some strong morning sun hitting the landscape between DTFW and Dallas.

2 shots. (Sun is behind the CB building) As always with my sunrise pics, colors are not enhanced.


The left side of the Carter Burgess Building


Rights side of the Carter Burgess Building (that stadium is UTA's in Arlington)

[JBB]

monee - Do you have a view of the new Cowboys stadium or is it blocked by other buildings? I'd love to see if from your perspective.

[Brian Luenser]

monee - Do you have a view of the new Cowboys stadium or is it blocked by other buildings? I'd love to see if from your perspective.

No. It is right behind the Carter Burgess building for me. It is really frustrating for me. I can see Texas Stadium fine. (Just in time for it to become a huge flea market or whatever)

I would love to get up to the Petroleum Club in the Carter Burgess Bldg. to see what the view of the new stadium would look like for me, and take some pictures. As I don't have a membership I may have to pull that "Get on my City of Fort Worth Firefighter costume on and be looking for smoke, routine."

[cbellomy]

monee, you can see Jerryworld from my office, 16th floor of The Fair (aka Commerce) Building. If you can get your setup down there one evening, I can let you in...

[Brian Luenser]

monee, you can see Jerryworld from my office, 16th floor of The Fair (aka Commerce) Building. If you can get your setup down there one evening, I can let you in...

Fantastic! Would love to get inside your building (One of my all time favs) and would love to get a shot of the stadium. Would very much appreciate a shout. Could be there with my junk in 5 minutes notice.
Any evening!

[texastrill]

Ive got another request: How about taking a pic from somewhere west of DT and get DTFW and DTD in the same shot?Is it possible?

[JBB]

John has posted that shot a few times in the past. It's been a couple of years, so it might take awhile to find on the forum.

[Brian Luenser]

Ive got another request: How about taking a pic from somewhere west of DT and get DTFW and DTD in the same shot?Is it possible?

Great idea for sure. I am not sure where it would be from, however. Would have to get up pretty high to see Dallas I think. There are a couple of those 10 story kind of buildings along I-30 West of Downtown. From the roof of those would be my only possibility that I can think of. (An airplane would be of little use... if I think it is tricky taking telephoto shots in the wind because my building is swaying think about doing it from and airplane) Sure I could get a snapshot of both but that isn't really what I am looking for.

I am going to need to get friendly with someone in one of those I-30 buildings I think. I have previously posted pics of downtown from the new Museum Place building and I know it is not tall enough. 7 stories?
Now 7 stories may work if it was a mile further West. If I was far enough West, the buildings in Dallas would appear (rightfully) taller than the buildings in Fort Worth. If the tallest building in Dallas was a side of a right triangle, the ground a side, and the hypotenuse a line from the top of Dallas's tallest building to a point West, at some point on the ground side, the buildings in Fort Worth would be the same height as the buildings in Dallas. I would need to be further West than that point to see Dallas and Fort Worth buildings. Unless of course I moved North or South and had Fort Worth on the left or right. I wonder if anybody out in West Fort Worth can see Dallas? Like from the Air Base area? I ponder.

[Fort Worthology]

Ive got another request: How about taking a pic from somewhere west of DT and get DTFW and DTD in the same shot?Is it possible?

Apparently it is. Our host John has such a photo linked off the main site:

http://www.fortworth...dfw-distant.jpg

[John T Roberts]

I haven't been back there in a while. Maybe this winter, I will return and take a new photo. This area is the only place that I know where you can see both skylines at once without being in a building or in an airplane.

[cbellomy]

When the air is clean, you can see both skylines plus Las Colinas from the top of a hill just north of the intersection of White Settlement Road and Cattle Baron Drive. You can also see Lake Worth in the foreground, five miles away or so. It's a great photo waiting to happen -- or maybe it already has happened. I haven't looked at John's yet.

[360texas]

Hmm I just used Google Earth to locate Cattle Baron Drive. Found it.

Streets other name is "Fairhills" . The intersection is:

32° 46' 45.15" North 97° 32' 58.02" West

Intersection Elevation is about 906 MSL

Downtown Fort Worth shows Elev 560 ft above Sea Level

Or a about 350 ft rise over 13 miles Crow flight distance

[Brian Luenser]

Hmm I just used Google Earth to locate Cattle Baron Drive. Found it.

Streets other name is "Fairhills" . The intersection is:

32° 46' 45.15" North 97° 32' 58.02" West

Intersection Elevation is about 906 MSL

Downtown Fort Worth shows Elev 560 ft above Sea Level

Or a about 350 ft rise over 13 miles Crow flight distance

Thanks 360 (and CBELLOMY)!
I am now on an irretrievable mission to get a good shot of Dallas and Fort Worth, both up close. Without such picture, my life on this planet will have passed without any great meaning.

My only real shame is that TEXASTRILL thought of this photo idea (Which of course, I will claim as my own). 360, I am plugging your coordinates in this evening. Stand-by...

[John T Roberts]

Although you can see both skylines on Cattle Baron Drive, just a little north of White Settlement, the photograph was not actually taken at that location. I'm now going to reveal all and tell you that when you climb a little higher in the neighborhood (further west) the view actually gets better. My photo was taken directly under the water tower on Hillcroft Road. All of the houses with balconies facing east in the Remuda Addition (further west) that are higher in elevation, have even better views. There are some homes in Remuda that are down in a valley, so those obviously don't have a view.

[Brian Luenser]

Although you can see both skylines on Cattle Baron Drive, just a little north of White Settlement, the photograph was not actually taken at that location. I'm now going to reveal all and tell you that when you climb a little higher in the neighborhood (further west) the view actually gets better. My photo was taken directly under the water tower on Hillcroft Road. All of the houses with balconies facing east in the Remuda Addition (further west) that are higher in elevation, have even better views. There are some homes in Remuda that are down in a valley, so those obviously don't have a view.

Thanks John. If the atmosphere is acceptable tomorrow, I am taking a drive out there. I will try venturing a bit further west also.

The sky will need to be clean enough to get a good shot of Dallas, from many miles further west then I am used to. I am going to take some pictures anyhow just for target practice even if I have to return at 4AM three weeks from now when the sky has been washed clean by a good old fashion Norther. (And I think one is inbound!)

[360texas]

Could not find John's water tower on Hillcroft road on Google Earths flat no tower shadowed maps. Hillcroft Rd does have a 960' high spot

However, farther West on White Settlement Road 1.5 miles beyond Cattle baron road find road called Tiara Trail at 32 46 57.88 N 97 34 17.06 W
turn North through fence/ open gate road Elevation 1004 ft on east side of Tiara Trail road.

keep in mind.. your personal GPS milage might vary because these are Google Earths coordinate system.

[Recyclican]

Is this the water tower?

http://maps.google.c...941814098261903

[John T Roberts]

Yes, that is the water tower.

[360texas]

Got it - now see shadow too.

Thanks

[Brian Luenser]

I am hoping to get out to West Fort Worth this evening for my Dallas/Ft. Worth pic.
Wanted to last night but had a 6pm meeting with the Downtown Fort Worth Inc. boys. (Andy Taft) as we are forming a Downtown Alliance of HOA's. Nine downtown HOA's and the Business sector communicating. Gee, what a good idea.

Was wishing I was in West Fort Worth this morning about 20 minutes before sunrise when I took this picture. (Cropped wide)

[360texas]

Ah GREAT ! love sunrise orange color.

[Brian Luenser]

What the heck. Here are two more long-range pics from 30 minutes before sunrise. (I think I need a better mattress)

Shot one is DFW Airport. With Northeast Mall in the foreground.

Here is a shot of Cedar Hill TX with Fort Worth, Grand Prairie and Arlington in the foreground.
(mist comes from the Village Creek, Lake Arlington Valley.)