Best Street & Astrophotography Lens

Hello,

I have an NX1000 and I was wondering what lens is best for Street Photography. I have the 20-50 mm II, the 18-55 OIS III, and the 16mm. I'm moving from rural to the city in August and wanted to know what I should use and perfect over time.

I'm also actively trying to get an NX500 off ebay. Thanks.

kingpin202 wrote:

Hello,

I have an NX1000 and I was wondering what lens is best for Street Photography. I have the 20-50 mm II, the 18-55 OIS III, and the 16mm. I'm moving from rural to the city in August and wanted to know what I should use and perfect over time.

I'm also actively trying to get an NX500 off ebay. Thanks.

I have the 16/20 and 30mm pancakes for my NX500. I always use the 16mm for street work. I shoot from the chest and find it much easier to get the subjects in the frame. The 28MB sensor allows you to crop a lot and still have decent IQ. The 16mm also gives you much more DOF so you can easily set the camera up in a way that allows you the freedom to just concentrate on getting the shot.

I'd like a 2nd NX500 as backup but have pretty much given up on the idea because they are now highly sought after and as a result the price has shot up. The NX500 I have came from Ebay and when you factor in the 2 lenses it came with the camera itself cost me about £50. Best deal I've ever had. It beats my Pentax K-3 which cost me £650..

If I was you I'd broaden my search.  You may get lucky and be able to get a new one for little more than current 2nd hand prices. Good luck!

Hi Kisaha,

I live in a small town (Corby) but shoot street regularly in Leicester and Northampton.

Just won a Samsung EX2F yesterday on Ebay for £130 and look forward to shooting street with that also. I was planning on getting one of the new Nikon DL fixed lens cameras but they are not due out until November. The EX2F will serve as my small sensor camera in the meantime..

the BWs photos are nice, lots of mid tones, how do you convert them to BW, can you share the details of your worklow ? Thanks !

stf1x wrote:

the BWs photos are nice, lots of mid tones, how do you convert them to BW, can you share the details of your worklow ? Thanks !

https://www.google.com/nikcollection/

Just a combination of Adobe Photoshop cc and Nik Collection. Crop and straighten in ACR and adjust contrast/tones. I also tend to deliberately under-expose when shooting in order to allow me to keep the highlights if I feel they add to the shot. Import to photoshop and then Silver Effex Pro. Then I usually run it through Color Effex Pro and apply one of their film effects and maybe a vignette filter. If the image looks a bit coarse I might also soften it down with a glamour filter - though recently I'm liking a sunlight filter that does similar but with more control. Resize to fit my monitor (1920x1200). Sharpen with Sharpener Pro (output sharpening). All this done in Adobe RGB 16 bit so I then convert to sRGB 8 bit and save as a jpg.

Nik Collection is currently now free from the above link. It works as a plug-in for photoshop and with it you can use layers to paint in the effects, or have them apply to the whole image. I'm not sure what other programs you can use with it.

Check out my flickr site for more street etc

https://www.flickr.com/photos/normanjshearer/

Best for astrophotography needs to be wide (in FOV... well and aperture) and fast, low coma, etc... The Samyang 12mm is probably the best choice for that. The Samyang 14mm is also very good for this. If you have or might want another system besides NX later you might consider getting the lens for a different mount and using it with an adapter since the Samyang lenses are all manual anyway. Keep in mind that the edge sharpness is most affected by the adapter for very wide angle lenses though (according to Roger Cicala's tests). Still, I haven't had an issue with that.

norman shearer wrote:

stf1x wrote:

the BWs photos are nice, lots of mid tones, how do you convert them to BW, can you share the details of your worklow ? Thanks !

https://www.google.com/nikcollection/

Just a combination of Adobe Photoshop cc and Nik Collection. Crop and straighten in ACR and adjust contrast/tones.

Hi Norman,

thanks for sharing these details. You flick set is excellent. I have a few additional questions:

what do you mean with tone ?

I also tend to deliberately under-expose when shooting in order to allow me to keep the highlights if I feel they add to the shot

Import to photoshop and then Silver Effex Pro.

Which sliders do you usually adjust or any specific presets  as starting point for the above posted pictures?

Then I usually run it through Color Effex Pro and apply one of their film effects and maybe a vignette filter. If the image looks a bit coarse I might also soften it down with a glamour filter - though recently I'm liking a sunlight filter that does similar but with more control. Resize to fit my monitor (1920x1200). Sharpen with Sharpener Pro (output sharpening). All this done in Adobe RGB 16 bit so I then convert to sRGB 8 bit and save as a jpg.

I was not aware the sharpening to the output medium is important .

Also does not flick does this job if you upload full resolution

thanks again!

Nik Collection is currently now free from the above link. It works as a plug-in for photoshop and with it you can use layers to paint in the effects, or have them apply to the whole image. I'm not sure what other programs you can use with it.

Check out my flickr site for more street etc

https://www.flickr.com/photos/normanjshearer/

Hi Norman,

thanks for sharing these details. You flick set is excellent. I have a few additional questions:

what do you mean with tone ?

I begin in ACR and most of my adjustments are done in the first tab. Starting from the top with white balance and then tone. I set out with the intent of getting the color right - even if I switch to b&w later. I don't generally have a vision early on and a picture at this point may either remain color or later in the process I might think the color is a bit off or just adds nothing to the shot - then I'll run it through Silver Effex Pro and if the b&w treatment looks better I'll pursue that direction.

With that first tab in ACR I'm really making adjustments that flesh out more detail but also keep within the parameters of the histogram. Doing this does tend to make the image a little flat looking but I think it important to retain as much of the image as you can early on so that the filters have more to work with.

I also tend to deliberately under-expose when shooting in order to allow me to keep the highlights if I feel they add to the shot

Import to photoshop and then Silver Effex Pro.

Which sliders do you usually adjust or any specific presets as starting point for the above posted pictures?

The sliders on the first tab of ACR should be worked from the top down. I'll usually raise the brightness slighter and settle on a level where the subject is better lit but not looking 'high key'. This will often cause some highlights such as sky etc to blow out.

If the image looks flat then I'll increase contrast. The highlight slider I nearly always reduce. Sometimes just a little, sometimes lots. This is to bring back the blown out highlights but bear in mind the white slider is further down and that will help too. I tend to work highlights and white slider in tandem and if I'm struggling to retain highlights I'll reduce the contrast slider.

Likewise you can work shadow and black in tandem to lift the shadows and if you are struggling then adjusting contrast will help with that too.

I'll often leave the clarity slider alone but if I've really nailed the focus on the subject I may reduce clarity if it looks pleasing. If the light is behind the subject then reducing clarity can help soften harsh shadows on the face or stop blonde hair from blending into the highlights of the sky for example.

Camera defaults tend to be oversaturated so I'll often reduce saturation by around -10 or so. I'll bring a little color back with a +5 or so using the vibrancy slider. This gives the image more pleasing skin tones whilst still retaining good color for the rest of the image.

I generally remove noise reduction. This day and age sensor noise is much better and a little noise actually adds a little texture to the image - kind of a false sharpening. I'll take a slightly different approach with other genres but for street I think controlled noise is a good thing. Sometimes with filters I'm often adding noise.

Then I usually run it through Color Effex Pro and apply one of their film effects and maybe a vignette filter. If the image looks a bit coarse I might also soften it down with a glamour filter - though recently I'm liking a sunlight filter that does similar but with more control. Resize to fit my monitor (1920x1200). Sharpen with Sharpener Pro (output sharpening). All this done in Adobe RGB 16 bit so I then convert to sRGB 8 bit and save as a jpg.

I was not aware the sharpening to the output medium is important .

Sharpening is a complex debate and opinions vary wildly. If your image is sharp to begin with you do not need to apply any. However if you reduce the size of the file you will inevitably soften it a little in the process. So output sharpening allows you to restore what you lost and also add more depending on the output medium. If you are printing the file the sharpening you apply can and should be a lot more than if you were just viewing the file on a monitor. I don't personally print that much but my misses likes prints of the grandkids and so I have to rework an image knowing it is for print. I won't resize and my output sharpening is matched to the dpi resolution of the printer used.

Also does not flick does this job if you upload full resolution

I'm not sure. I tend to resize for many reasons. As I mostly view my images on a monitor I don't need full resolution. Resizing helps reduce noise and provides a good point to sharpen the image a little if needed. With Sharpener Pro I can make some final judgments about the level of sharpening, contrast and detail. I may reduce contrast and detail a little if I feel I've overdone it when applying filters.

thanks again!

Your welcome. I should add that I'm by no means an expert on post work. You could say that anyone who relies heavily on Nik software is a rank amateur when it comes to pp. Those really in the know can emulate Nik software and more from their knowledge of photoshop alone. You could say plug-ins are a bit like adding stabilisers onto your tricycle! 

Thanks for the details about ACR. Very interesting. Just to complete the picture now with the NIK tools:

What at sliders or presets do you use in NIK  Silver FX that give you the final look of these 2 pictures ?

stf1x wrote:

Thanks for the details about ACR. Very interesting. Just to complete the picture now with the NIK tools:

What at sliders or presets do you use in NIK Silver FX that give you the final look of these 2 pictures ?

I don't honestly remember for those two shots - my workflow is constantly evolving. I get bored with repetition and so keep experimenting. I used to think b&w meant Silver FX and job done. Now I also run b&w images through Color effex Pro and play some more. I will often use a filter but then scale back its effect with an opacity slider. Sometimes I will use only one filter and using layers I will brush in the filter effect rather than have it apply to the whole image.

These filters can have a dramatic effect on how it looks and over time I've come to the conclusion it is better to pull back a little and be more subtle. The adage that you can have too much of a good thing springs to mind and like HDR processing it is better to not get carried away and try and keep it real.

Color FX Pro has many filters that I've never found useful - but I still keep trying them out! The sunlight filter was a filter I rarely used but lately I find I'm using it instead of using glamour glow. It's useful for gently clawing back some effects I feel are overdone and at the same time introducing new effects upon the image.

I've no doubt that it is probably better to take pause with your image before you plunge into post processing and start playing. If you can think of where you should be going with it beforehand then you are more likely to take the right path through your filters to get there. If you just play with them each time then you are sometimes doubling up filters that actively cancel each other out and you've achieved little. The pros at PP probably work this way and get what they want much quicker than I do.

Sorry I know that's not very helpful. I did used to have at hand lots of extra presets for Nik Silver FX but lost them when I upgraded to Windows 10. I could get them back but kinda think too much choice just makes it harder. Better to stick to a few and get to know them inside out and tweak them too your liking and make your own presets eventually. Don't dismiss some presets on first look either.