The Photography Thread

[JohnMcL7]

I've had a look at onestop-digital.com but they don't seem to do any Olympus/four thirds equipment.

Lens seems to have disappeared from the US now so I guess I just need to be patient as always with Sigma lenses...

John

[bangaio]

This morning on the way to work - fantastic lighting, sun looked massive, low fog...no camera :/

Same - gutted.

[Ginger Tosser]

Finished early today, so with the sun out thought i'd extend my reputation of being a plane spotter!

[Ish]

Nice shot GT. Is that taken with a wide angle lens?

[Ginger Tosser]

I used my 15mm fisheye (mainly cos i forgot my 17-40mm!)

[Alastair]

Nice shot but why the copyright now GT?

[Ginger Tosser]

I'll blame Adobe Lightroom, I tend to leave the copyright thing on when I export the images. I've been posting them elsewhere (and most on other sites tend to leave Copyright on).

I might remove it, not too sure if it comes across as being a little pretentious.

[Mercian]

Hey guys,

My flatmate just invested in a Canon 350D and neither he nor I know anything about the functions of an SLR. Could you guys direct me towards a site for beginners - with definitions and perhaps some excercises - to hone our skills before posting some results amongst you silky snappers!

Tom

[Alastair]

Just mess about, that's the beauty of digital.

Quick guide is:
AV = aperture priority, controls the shutter speed by choosing the right shutter to expose correctly using the ap you selected. The ap controls the depth of field. A small number (e.g 4) = a big aperture, this gives you a shallow DOF. A big number (e.g 32) = a small aperture and a lot more will be in focus.

TV = Shutter priority. The camera will select the right aperture to expose the scene according to the shutter you selected. A low number for shutter (e.g 60) will give you more movement in the shot. A higher number (e.g 500) will freeze the action.

M = Manual and you set both the shutter and aperture yourself.

P = the same as auto but without the auto flash part.

The pre-set modes are not to be used, ever!!

[Richard.John]

Messed about in PS and came up with this. I don't know whether I like it so what do you guts think, how could I improve it?

cavalcade, thanks for the comment on my page. It's a cheap trick involving layers. I used the magic lasso tool to cut out the sign and just blurred the other layer to get the effect.

[Richard.John]

Hey guys,

My flatmate just invested in a Canon 350D and neither he nor I know anything about the functions of an SLR. Could you guys direct me towards a site for beginners - with definitions and perhaps some excercises - to hone our skills before posting some results amongst you silky snappers!

Tom

This is a useful guide to the Canon EOS system and EF lenses.

Also in P mode you change the focus point and ISO etc.

http://photonotes.org/articles/beginner-faq/

[cavalcade]

Messed about in PS and came up with this. I don't know whether I like it so what do you guts think, how could I improve it?

cavalcade, thanks for the comment on my page. It's a cheap trick involving layers. I used the magic lasso tool to cut out the sign and just blurred the other layer to get the effect.

Ah, all is revealed!

[Stebbo]

Hi all,

I've got a 400D with kit, and sigma 55-200 lens. I have seen people rave about the Canon 50mm F1.8 lens. What would it offer over the two lenses I already own? I assume increased performance over the kit lens at 50mm, but how does this translate in the real world?

Thanks.

Rich

[Richard.John]

It's all about aperture, Stebbo.

Basically, the lower the F number, the wider the hole or iris, as such, in the lens. This means that lenses that are 'fast' (have a bigger aperture) allow in more light which means that you can achieve higher shutter speeds in any given situation, compared to your kit lens, for example, which has a max aperture of f/3.5 at the wide end and f/5.6 at the long end.

This diagram explains it better than I can.




As you can see, the aperture size doubles at every step from to 8 to 1.4. Every doubling of the aperture yields a similar change to the shutter speed.
So if you could only manage 1/60th of a second with your kit at 55mm, a 50 1.8 would give you 1/500 in the same conditions. Therefore, in a situation where your current lenses would be useless due to poor light, your 50mm 1.8 would still be handholdable.

The IQ should be better as well and you will also have increased depth of field control.

[Stebbo]

That makes a lot of sense, and clarifies what I thought. Thanks Richard