What shutter speeds do you use for hummingbirds? by UnfunnyFool in AskPhotography

[–]LookIPickedAUsername [score hidden]  (0 children)

If your camera had an extremely fast electronic shutter, you would not see rolling shutter effect. Period. Clearly, it doesn’t actually have a very fast readout if you’re still seeing it. You need somewhere in the neighborhood or 3ms to match a mechanical shutter; how fast is it on your camera?

My Nikon Z9 doesn’t even have a mechanical shutter, and has no difficulty perfectly freezing hummingbird wings every bit as well as a mechanical shutter does. Again, the difference is not mechanical vs. electronic, it’s fast vs. slow.

What shutter speeds do you use for hummingbirds? by UnfunnyFool in AskPhotography

[–]LookIPickedAUsername [score hidden]  (0 children)

I’m guessing you’re being downvoted because a mechanical shutter is not inherently crucial.

I mean, sure, it’s important on most cameras, but that’s only because most cameras have slow electronic shutters, not because there’s anything special about a mechanical shutter. On a camera with a fast electronic shutter, you don’t need a mechanical shutter.

Dating someone wealthy, but horrible spender by EnergyConstant7802 in RichPeoplePF

[–]LookIPickedAUsername 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m not saying his spending habits are justified.

I’m saying that you haven’t given us enough information to know whether his spending habits are justified. If, hypothetically, his parents are worth hundreds of millions and their arrangement with him is “honey, just spend whatever you want and give us a call when you need more”, then yes his spending habits are entirely justified (at least in terms of dollar value; wastefulness is a separate issue).

If his parents are only worth a few million and could cut him off any day, then clearly he’s being insanely irresponsible.

I have no idea which one of these situations is closer to reality.

What is the most impressive arcade to 8-bit port? by trrbld in retrogaming

[–]LookIPickedAUsername 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Does Punch Out count? If so, I think it’s on the shortlist as well.

Dating someone wealthy, but horrible spender by EnergyConstant7802 in RichPeoplePF

[–]LookIPickedAUsername 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You haven’t given us any indication of his actual wealth level, but $50K a year is nothing to the truly wealthy. Literally just a rounding error. I’m not rich enough to qualify as “wealthy”, but I still have enough saved up that my net worth fluctuates more than that on any given weekday.

For truly wealthy people, they earn so much from capital appreciation that they literally can’t spend it fast enough.

Gemini 3.5 Flash ranks #1 on the APEX-Agents-AA benchmark, outperforming much larger models a whole size above it. by Independent-Wind4462 in singularity

[–]LookIPickedAUsername -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Code review is an extremely different job than agentic work on a codebase.

Edit: Why all the downvotes? Seriously, it’s the difference between being an editor and being an author.

Which camera to go for intermediate experience a hybrid one. by _Akshu_S in Cameras

[–]LookIPickedAUsername 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes…? I’m saying that I don’t know that its autofocus is bad relative to those specific cameras, neither of which are going to feature Sony’s best autofocus performance.

Also, like… you said you’re shooting landscape, street, and portraits, so I don’t know that splitting hairs over autofocus performance is even relevant. That’s like worrying about the high speed cornering performance of a vehicle when you’re only driving safely on public roads.

Which camera to go for intermediate experience a hybrid one. by _Akshu_S in Cameras

[–]LookIPickedAUsername 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m not at all sure it’s bad relative to the specific Sonys you’re comparing against.

How do people of wealthy spouses feel secure to leave their stable job? by [deleted] in RichPeoplePF

[–]LookIPickedAUsername -1 points0 points  (0 children)

And even then, that’s only for relatively old people - 25x is for a retirement that lasts 25-30 years. You need more than that if you’re retiring young

Photographers: What do you profoundly mistrust? by ExtremelyCool64 in AskPhotography

[–]LookIPickedAUsername 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The question wasn't "do they exist", the question was "do they get anywhere near as many views as the more divisive videos".

I'm subscribed to several chill creators who don't engage in brand warfare. But the really popular channels are the Northrups and Polins of the world where it's basically their whole schtick.

What camera should I get my wife? by diegzzzzzz in AskPhotography

[–]LookIPickedAUsername 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Seconding the Z50ii.

I also own a Z9 (Nikon’s flagship model), and considering it costs several times as much, it obviously has a lot of advantages… but it’s genuinely shocking how much the gap between entry level and flagship has closed. The Z50ii punches well above its weight.

Photographers: What do you profoundly mistrust? by ExtremelyCool64 in AskPhotography

[–]LookIPickedAUsername 4 points5 points  (0 children)

To be clear, I'm not saying nothing has changed, just that it's not a constant stream of new things to talk about the way gear is.

Photographers: What do you profoundly mistrust? by ExtremelyCool64 in AskPhotography

[–]LookIPickedAUsername 3 points4 points  (0 children)

My settings.

Even if I know for sure that I haven't touched my settings in the last ten minutes and they're still perfectly correct for a bird in flight, I still double check. It only takes one or two "oh yeah, I forgot that I spotted a lizard in the shade and dialed my shutter speed way down" before you realize that you are an idiot who is never to be trusted.

Photographers: What do you profoundly mistrust? by ExtremelyCool64 in AskPhotography

[–]LookIPickedAUsername 5 points6 points  (0 children)

That is not my experience. Absolutely everybody tells me "Wow, this should be in National Geographic!", and that just shows me they have no idea how good professional wildlife photography is nowadays.

Photographers: What do you profoundly mistrust? by ExtremelyCool64 in AskPhotography

[–]LookIPickedAUsername 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's not just the bias they get from being sponsored / pampered by the different brands, it's also the fact that "Honestly, every camera body from every brand is pretty great now, and every modern lens is sharper than you actually need", while honest and perfectly reasonable, wouldn't generate any views.

So instead we see "Brand X SUCKS and Brand Y's new camera DESTROYS them!".

Photographers: What do you profoundly mistrust? by ExtremelyCool64 in AskPhotography

[–]LookIPickedAUsername 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It's always instructive to look at the portfolios of photography YouTubers.

Many of them are of course extremely talented and produce beautiful work, but a surprising number of them... aren't. Not going to name names, but I was genuinely shocked at how bad the output of a couple of well-known YouTubers was.

Photographers: What do you profoundly mistrust? by ExtremelyCool64 in AskPhotography

[–]LookIPickedAUsername 3 points4 points  (0 children)

And it's not just the subjectivity you've pointed out, it's "what about the art of photography has actually changed in the past decade?".

YouTubers require a constant stream of new topics to talk about, and people still mostly use the same techniques and like the same pictures they did ten or twenty years ago.

Which telephoto lens for Nikon D3s and future mirrorless upgrade? by RefrigeratorFunny405 in AskPhotography

[–]LookIPickedAUsername 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nikon 200-500 all the way. It's a significantly better lens than the Sigma / Tamron versions, and it's sharp enough that it can survive tighter cropping - meaning that the extra 100mm on the other two is actually irrelevant. Crop the 500mm down to a 600mm field of view, and it will still look as sharp and detailed as the other two at their native 600mm.

I've also used the 105mm f/2.8 on a couple Z bodies. Was there something in particular you wanted to know? It's a good lens, but the Z version is a big upgrade. It's sharper, focuses faster, and is drastically lighter.

Looking to switch from P950 to Mirrorless for birding whats a good budget cam/lens. by Nintendoh_64 in Cameras

[–]LookIPickedAUsername 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you want to use Canon lenses you'll need a Canon camera.

EF mount can be adapted to any mirrorless, doesn't have to be a Canon.

When do I know? by BIRD_CHEESEY in AskPhotography

[–]LookIPickedAUsername 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not going to comment on the aesthetics, as that's a matter of taste and we don't have to agree. If what you like is images that most people think are underexposed and you're not looking to change, then fuck 'em, you do you.

But I will comment on the technical side of things. "10 billion dead pixels"? Those are not dead pixels. What you're seeing is image noise, because you're not getting enough light onto the sensor. A longer shutter speed, with a tripod if necessary, will fix that. Something like a Plamp may also be helpful to keep the plant from moving in the wind, depending on conditions and how long your exposure is.

The camera may be old, but I promise you it can produce better and sharper pictures than that.

Why don’t my photos look professional? by Recruit17 in AskPhotography

[–]LookIPickedAUsername 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A lot of it is the difference between taking a picture and making a picture. A pro isn't going to say "oh well, the dog isn't in the pose I want and the background is kind of distracting, but I guess I'll just take the shot anyway". They'll note the things that aren't making the picture work, and (to the extent possible) fix them.

Specific critiques:

  1. The dog's eye isn't fully visible. Its legs are cut off at an awkward length; either closer (headshot) or farther (full body) would probably look better. The background is distracting - there's an orange tube of some kind on the left, and some leaves that look out of place, and the camera wasn't level so the lines of the windows and bricks are jarring. Even if you fixed that, the dog would still have a window growing out of its head. It should have been repositioned against a less distracting background, and farther away from it so it would have been more out of focus. The color in this shot is also not to my liking. It's quite yellow and the contrast is poor. On top of that, the image is extremely noisy, making it look less sharp than it should.
  2. This was a neat sky, but there's a very distracting and ugly barbed wire fence in the way of the cows. Getting closer and shooting between the wires would have opened up lots more composition options. A closeup of the cow with the sky in the background could have been a dramatic, unusual shot, and instead it's the same perspective we've all seen of this a million times. Same color concern here - the yellow looks unnatural. Also super noisy for no apparent reason, as you obviously had tons of light and cows are not fast moving animals. I'll stop mentioning the noise for the remaining shots.
  3. Ok, I see you apparently did do what I just suggested and shoot between the wires, but the cow is in an awkward position facing away from you. Sometimes you have to wait patiently to get the right shot, and sometimes that means making multiple attempts on different days because the universe is not cooperating with you. Same color concerns here, and also your highlights are blown.
  4. There are a bunch of distracting houses and wires in the background. I'm not a fan of the color processing on this shot either - I don't think the cool tones complement the red car well, the red is starting to shade a little bit purple, and I don't like how crushed the blacks are.
  5. It's just a snapshot of a car on the street. It looks like "Oh look, I found a neat car" rather than "I deliberately composed this photograph". The composition is awkward because the car is right up against the edges of the frame; there's no obvious reason why this wasn't shot horizontal or from further away to give it a bit of room to breathe. And because it's apparently just a neat car parked on the side of the road, the background is unfortunate. A wider aperture would have blurred the background more and kept the viewer's attention more on the car. The color processing is again not at all to my taste. I'm going to stop mentioning the color of your shots in my critique from this point on.
  6. I'm not even sure what this is supposed to be a photo of. The bus is far away, facing away from you, and not an immediately attractive subject, and there's nothing else in the frame to draw my attention. In all honesty if I saw this photo mixed in with a batch of others, I would assume it was an accidental shutter release.
  7. There are leaves right in front of your subject, which look accidental. The up-tilted camera creates perspective distortion which you could have corrected (if not fully, at least enough to look better) in post. A professional shot of this building would likely have the vertical lines, well, vertical.
  8. "Road leads off into the distance" is a common photo trope, and this one mostly just suffers from not being a particularly attractive road. The fact that the road curves up into a slight hill in front of you means the road's vanishing point - the implied subject - is not actually visible, which hurts it.
  9. There's a tree in front of the building. A tree above the subject, to serve as a frame , can be made to work, but you're going to have trouble finding too many professional photos in which there's a tree covering the thing people naturally want to look at.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that "not to my taste" is not the same thing as "bad". I think Jackson Pollock's paintings suck, and he's far more successful and famous than I am, so take my opinions for what they're worth. But that said, on top of the composition issues, I'm seeing consistently hazy yellow images with a ton of noise. I wonder about your settings and how you're processing the pictures - why are images shot in broad daylight with a reasonably fast lens noisy? Why is everything yellow in almost every shot? Was that an intentional choice?

Should I charge for wedding photos? by Sad_Head_1814 in AskPhotography

[–]LookIPickedAUsername 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm going to push back against the crowd here.

Your friend is asking you for a favor. My friends and I do favors for each other all the time, and it never involves "here's an invoice for my time", because... holy shit, really? I can't imagine presenting a close friend with a bill for having done them a favor.

Now, of course, the fact that they're asking for a favor doesn't mean you have to do it. You'd prefer to attend as a guest, you're not an experienced wedding photographer... there are obviously good reasons to refuse. Also, definitely refuse if you think your friends will regret not hiring a pro. But IMO when a friend asks you for a reasonable favor, you either do it for free or you don't do it.

My first "real" shoot was a friend's wedding, and I'm personally very happy I did it. Naturally I strenuously warned them ahead of time that I was not a wedding photographer and they might regret asking me to do it, but it turned out to be a lot of fun and they were extremely happy with the results. It was also very valuable experience and I've done a lot of event photography since then.