The Photography Thread

[Ish]

Cough. It might be.

Since you appreciate my photographs of beer so much I've taken a photograph of the perfect accompaniment. Oh how I suffer for my art...

[Ish]

More from me. I've had a few days off work hence the constant camerawork! These two are back to a more simple style.

[Spagoli]

love the gas one top notch, i struggle to take pics in anything other than bright light, I dont really understand enough about aperture, exposure or white balance enough cameras good enough Canon 30d but I'm not, feels like a bit of a waste. struggle to get real depth of colour maybe thats why I like the last one so much?

[bangaio]

Ish, Gas

Would people be up for a flickr thread where people can simply share flickr contacts and see people's work via a link to their profile. I think it would be a good idea. Mods let me know if this is not ok!

Spagoli, if you ask people will answer. My brief lesson in photo skills (not compositiion mind, just the techy bit)

Your aperture and shutter speed control how much light comes into the lens. You want the right amount of light to hit your sensor/film. Sooo....

Is it dark? Then you need to have a bigger hole in your lens or leave the shutter open longer.

Brighter? Then you need to have a smaller hole in your lens so less light can come in in one go or open the shutter for less time so less light comes in.

The sutter speed and aperture (size of lens hole) correspond so bigger hole (aperture) less shutter time open.

Smaller aperture you need to leave the shutter open longer to let the same amount of light in.

If you put your camera into P mode it will decide the best exposure (right amount of light).

If you set your camera to AV mode, you tell it the aperture you want and the camera works out the right shutter speed.

If you put your camera in to TV mode, you tell it the shutter speed (Time Value - TV) and it works out the aperture required to get a spot onexposure.

Aperture is measured in numbers with something like 2.8 being pretty big hole and 16 or 22 being a little hole. (if you are interested the aperture is a ratio of focal length. An f2 lens is actually f1:2 so the aperture is half the lens focal length. On a 50mm lens this would be 25mm wide. f4 is therefore f1:4 around 12mm wide etc etc.)

Why might you want to do this?

The more wide open your lens the faster shutter speed you can get. Good for freezing motion. However less of the image will be in focus. Look at sport pics in papers. See how the crowd are all blobby and the player is in focus? That is because the photographer has selected a big aperture to freezer the player but the crowd are out of focus.

Lets say you want lots of the image from front to back to be in focus. Then select a small aperture - f16 say. Of course your shutter speed will be loads slower but if you are taking a landscape that's fine as hills and buildings don't move much! You now haved a sharp image front to back - yey!

Lesson over . Anna know more just ask!

[Ish]

@spagoli - what bangaio has said is spot on. What I suggest you do is what I did. Stick your camera on a tripod. Put an object on a tabletop. And experiment!! It will start to make sense after a while and you might get some cool shots in the process.

I'm glad you guys like the gas one. I was cooking a big chilli last night and the idea came to me. It took frickin' ages to get just right but was worth it. Its a shot I'm really pleased with

Been experimenting with toy shots and coloured card today and have come up with a shot thats a composite shot of different monochrome mixes. Trouble is I can't decide if I like it or not and I can't decide if I prefer it with blurred edges. I might try again with a white background rather than coloured card (I was original going for a shot in colour but that didn't work out). I can image it would work printed really large as if I have it at full size on my 32" tv it looks quite good but when small looks a bit ratty.

[Bada Bing!]

And another. I quite like this one.

Fantastic.

What's the yellow glow at the top, a candle in the background?

[bangaio]

So - any taker son the flickr thread idea?

Here's an oldy, but recent up loads Think of this spring cleaning.

On my way home from work when I worked in teh City. I think I'm at my most creative or at least productive in a city....

[Ish]

Thats a really nice shot. I like the "angled" composition.

I like the idea. But how about creating a NTSC group instead? (as in on flickr)

[Ish]

Fantastic.

What's the yellow glow at the top, a candle in the background?

Yeah its a candle. Ahh sweet beer...

[PeteJ]

Ish you are a creative genius at the moment. I'm still stuck in my rut, I really need to start shooting again.

[Ish]

Thanks PeteJ. I'm really enjoying myself with my camera at the moment.

[Alastair]

Just wanted to share with everyone that I have sold my first print So happy!

That sprint event I went to at Goodwood, I made some flyers up and offered prints of the participants whilst on track. Not had loads of interest tbh as they were all old timers and have loads of pics already but I have now made a sale and I have a few other people in contact regarding possibles. I best get myself down there a bit more often now!

Can I call myself a pro now?

[Ish]

Fantastic. Well done!!!

[PeteJ]

Well done! Deserved

[Spagoli]

Thanks for the tips Bangaio, Ish as it happens got a tripod so no excuses!