This is an archive of past discussions with User:Muhammad Mahdi Karim. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.
I've replied here since the nomination got closed. I'd definitely tweak the raw a fair bit on the edit. The white balance seems very biased towards yellow. Noodle snacks (talk) 03:12, 6 April 2009 (UTC)
Congratulations!
An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
I happened to pop by your website, Micro2marco, and had one minor comment. For the top header, where it says "Photography is a form of hunting where that which is shot, lives forever." I don't think you need the comma after "shot." Very cool website, though. SpencerT♦Nominate!01:21, 8 April 2009 (UTC)
Congratulations!
An image created by you has been promoted to valued picture status
I haven't really shot that many insects. I've been currently concentrating on fungi since Autumn is the best time of year for that and the weather makes birds and insects more difficult. It is too late in the year to easily get damsel and dragonflies. I've taken a few however with different lighting methods:
Umbrella with assistant (no way to get the shot with natural light, the insect was moving and it was windy)
Thanks for the compliment. I think the apis portrait was a tad soft because I had to boost the brightness a bit (and consequently noise, so I did a noise reduction), the teleconverter would also cause a little softness. Depth of field is very small too. I'd guess that the magnification was over 2:1 though, and I was still a good 150-200mm away. I think you could quite possibly even get away with two sets of tubes rather than a teleconverter. There is a picture of the cardboard and tracing paper softbox here. Noodle snacks (talk) 08:17, 14 April 2009 (UTC)
Thanks, I'll take a look though I think I may have to wait till I get onto a broadband connection to watch it - just had a try but it's taking too long.
BTW, just happened to watch a program on TV last week that had a report on Tanzania. It wasn't particularly glowing - in fact quite the contrary - but just thought I'd mention it to you because, other than stuff in the odd nature documentary, we hear almost nothing about TZ. See here. Not sure what you know about it. --jjron (talk) 15:06, 25 April 2009 (UTC)
What you say is pretty much in line with the TV program. I don't usually watch this show, it was just sheer chance it came on after another doco I was looking at and that was the first story, but for the record it is a serious current affairs program and not just the sensationalist rubbish that most of them are these days in Western countries. So it did comment on the 'positive' aspects that you mention as well and how outraged most Tanzanians are by the practise. BTW, as an introduction they also commented on how poor the country is in general and showed an overcrowded classroom with the students actually keen to learn whatever they could to try to help improve their situation, which I found quite heartening and impressive as we see too many youths in rich western countries actively resisting any education. --jjron (talk) 06:05, 26 April 2009 (UTC)
Yeah, that is an ironic truth in most places I guess - people don't appreciate how good they've got things. Here, where even the poor people are pretty rich on a global scale, private schools are in general considered the source of most high achievers, with too many of the poorer people not caring that much as they can still be relatively comfortable or at least survive OK even without taking advantage of a good education (with many notable exceptions of course). Let me know if you hear further developments re the other story. Cheers, --jjron (talk) 07:42, 26 April 2009 (UTC)
You have brought us beautiful images of the flora and fauna of parts of the world systematically under-represented on Wikipedia. Please carry on! deBivort07:37, 23 May 2009 (UTC)
Congratulations!
An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Unblocking administrator: Please check for active autoblocks on this user after accepting the unblock request.
Talkback
Hello, Muhammad Mahdi Karim. You have new messages at Wadester16's talk page. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.
Hey Muhammad. What software do you use for your panorama stitching? I'm interested in going through panoramic photography, but my software from Canon isn't the best. Thanks, ZooFari21:36, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
Hey Muhammad. Thanks for your recommendation for pano software. Since you are a macro photographer, I bet you focus stack. What software do you use? The focus stacking article offers software but don't know what to choose. Any recommendations? Thanks, ZooFari04:59, 13 June 2009 (UTC)
Thanks for the info. I haven't spent the time to ID it because of looming exams. It is cold and windy here so the remaining insects stay fairly still. If they are more mobile I use a softbox on a home made bracket. At full power the umbrella will work fine from about 1-1.5 meters away at f8-11, iso 400. The light isn't as soft at longer distances, but is quite useful for chasing around ants or feeding bees. So depending on the situation I will either throw the umbrella on a light stand and hand hold or put the camera on a tripod and handhold the umbrella. I find the tripod useful for stabilisation at higher magnifications (1.9x with tubes, ~2.5 with teleconverter as well). The best method, if possible, is to get someone to hold the umbrella for you. File:Eusthenia sp.jpg is an example of this. I use this method for fungi in particular, it avoids having to carry a light stand for hours in the bush.
I could write a step by step guide but it is all very simple:
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html has a lot more information, but many of the techniques there are aimed at photographing people, and some of the more creative lighting options aren't really so good for an encyclopaedia. I'd eventually like another flash or two, but I don't have much priority on buying equipment at the moment. Noodle snacks (talk) 00:40, 15 June 2009 (UTC)
On a somewhat related note, when you put your name in the FPC, can you use your full username, rather than pipe to your page? Makes it quicker when giving you this message. Thank you. :-) wadester1602:00, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
Congratulations!
An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Damërung...ÏìíÏ..._Ξ_. -- 20:46, 24 June 2009 (UTC) -- has given you a Pandan Cake! PandanCakes promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day a little better. Spread the WikiLove by giving someone else a cake, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Bon appetit!
Nice contributions to the featured picture candidates!
Hi Muhammad, I saw your post at Lycaon's Commons talk page about flower IDs. I'm absolutely hopeless at identifying flora, I don't even know where to start. So I only just recently signed up at the UBC Botanical Garden Forums, and both of my posts requesting IDs ([3][4]) were answered within minutes. The forums are not location specific, they appear to encourage worldwide participation, which is unusual for the ID forums I've seen so far. I think you can either upload images directly to the post (maximum size 1200x1200) or link to wherever they might already be uploaded, say Flickr or Commons. Anyway, I hope that's at least a little helpful! Maedin\talk15:43, 25 June 2009 (UTC)
I joined the forum a few days ago and posted a picture of one flower. All I got was a complement about how nice the flower looked. I will give it another try, thanks for letting me know. --Muhammad(talk)16:46, 25 June 2009 (UTC)
Here's a detail from another political cartoon published around that time. Your comment prompted me to stop and think whether I had inadvertently bought into a racial stereotype; perhaps so? After editing this thing at right (which clearly isn't human) I passed over the other thinking "They had to hand tint to get color during this era, and probably didn't have the budget to do that for this project." But you're right about the skin tone and facial features. Especially on the image that's at FPC. Would welcome your thoughts about this, and how to be more clueful in future. Durova27305:03, 4 July 2009 (UTC)
Not a very big deal, at least not IMO. I don'tknow what could be done but I think it's ok to nominate such images. If that's how the thinking was, then that's where the EV lies. Good to see you back at FPC--Muhammad(talk)12:51, 4 July 2009 (UTC)
About 5mm long, cropped, softbox setup again
Umbrella on stand
Umbrella on stand
Same as previous, you might be interested since this was teleconverter a set of tubes. The combination seems to eat about two stops of light though!
