The Photography Thread

[Magnakai]

Here's a great black & white tutoral (scroll down a bit)

http://www.designbyfire.com/000100.html

I'm not sure - it might work in Elements. If not, the channel mixer is infinitely better than just converting it to B&W, and Elements must at least include that!

[MartyG]

Looks like that technique is essentially doing the same thing as the filtered B&W in Picasa, masking with a colour to assentuate the contrast.

[bangaio]

YEah a channel mixer does the same thing. Elements does not have this but gimp does. My favourite though I feel is using canon's DPP raw software which has b&w conversion done really well and also doesn't touch noise unlike RSP which did my conversion above.

[MartyG]

Out and about in Stamford and Rutland water today, must have taken 400 or more photos, a couple came out quite nicely, and a few shots of a great tree I particularlly liked.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/martypg13/95338383/ - Spooky Tree 3
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martypg13/95338382/ - Spooky Tree 2
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martypg13/95338381/ - Spooky Tree 1
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martypg13/95293094/ - Doorway 3
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martypg13/95293093/ - Doorway 2
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martypg13/95293091/ - Seagul Trio
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martypg13/95293095/ - Flowers
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martypg13/95291807/ - Flock Rooftop
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martypg13/95291798/ - Duck Trio

Edit - it was 504 photos

[DaiSuki]

How long did you wait for all those ducks to do the same thing?

My weekend performance:

Cloister
Two Churches

I make no apologies for further wanton shooting of the sun on Two Churches

[MartyG]

Both of those are very nice, some really great light there - unfortunately the weather near me was cloudy all the w/e, which really doesn't help make great photos.

In the end I'd taken 800 photos this w/e, I think my favourite shot was this one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/martypg13/95815659/ of a silhouette cross. Just a shame it wasn't more elevated.

I took about 15-20 shots of the ducks, the buggers wouldn't poke their heads out at the same time, but I think that shots works quite well with them tucked in.

[Paleface]

Well, I bit the bullet (and the credit card bill) and finally ordered my D50 yesterday. Hopefully it'll be with me by tomorrow. Looking forward to shooting with an SLR again - after my manual SLR, I picked up a digital compact. I've also got the 18-70DX lens to go along with it - skipped the 18-55.

Incidentally, the B&W technique Magnakai linked to is the only one I use, now; it's still, to my mind, better than pure channel mixing, and light years ahead of converting to greyscale.

So will post some photos up here soon. In the meanwhile, here's one with my old camera I particularly liked:

http://flickr.com/photos/infovore/11743950/in/set-287992/

[MartyG]

I'd liked to have seen this one of yours: http://www.flickr.com/photos/infovore/11742822/ - with a slightly longer exposure. I reckon it would have flared the lights, blured the people and made the water soft.

[Ginger Tosser]

Slighty O/T but anyone considering a camera might want to visit http://www.mifsuds.com/ i've used them in the past.

[MartyG]

That's a shockingly crap website design.

[Ginger Tosser]

Crap site, nice prices though.

[Paleface]

Well, my D50+18-70DX arrived this morning. Battery charging under my desk. I bought it from warehouseexpress.com who are still a bit cheaper than mifsuds.com; came in at ?529, which considering what it would have set you back on the high street a few months back is a pretty good deal. Looking forward to having a fiddle later.

Marty - yeah, I was quite impressed with how that shot came out given it was from my Nikon Coolpix 3100 with an on-board flash; wasn't expecting it to be half so good. With an SLR and a faster lens, it could have been lovely.

[MartyG]

Have you taken many photos with it yet?

This w/e was a bit lousy for photographing stuff. Rainy most of the time. I did get a few shots, but I didn't really like very many of them.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/martypg13/99164360/ - A lonely leaf
and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martypg13/99164357/ - A lonely berry

That was about as good as it got.

[Ginger Tosser]

All this talk of new cameras has finally broke me, i'm getting one.

I'm being a little patient as the replacement for the Eos 20D should be announced at the end of the month, currently the 20D price is dropping. I'm hoping for clearance prices once the new ones out there. I've just got a 2gb compact flash today so i'm committed to getting one.

Had to lol at Jessops price though for the Sandisk extreme III 2gb ?221.99, i paid ?83 from mymemory.co.uk.

[Alastair]

Not been reading this thread all the way through but have seen a few very nice shots along the way when I have popped in.

I've been taking shots for ages now but really feel my camera (Powershot A70) is starting to show it's age. Really do fancy a D-SLR now but the price is still a little rich for me at the mo, soon though and if the right deal on the 20D came up like mentioned above I might bite.

Anyway, is photoshopping allowed here? Been having a play today instead of working this afternoon.

Took this last year at Goodwood. The car is supposed to be blurred by the way. Have been struggling to choose where to crop it however so there is a wider version too.