The Photography Thread

[Crisp_Rapper]

What sort of manipulation do you have in mind Crisp?

nothing major... i mean manipulation as in re-sizing, cropping and just basic re-touching (a rarity anyway). just want it to be easy to use.

**edit: i'd forgotten about paint shop, used it in college and found it pretty straightforward... hmm, i'll look at a trial version of that, cheers for the reminder!

[Alastair]

Picasa is good at doing the touching up (contrast/colour) for you at the touch of a button. Not so good at re-sizing (unless I've missed an option).

Irfan view is great for batch re-sizing and is pretty easy once you work it out the first time.

Both of those are free!

[Crisp_Rapper]

sweet, i'll check those out later, cheers agent l!

[Alastair]

One shot from Wakehurst Place at the w/e that I'm quite pleased with after playing around with it in PS.



One question (some advice); would using the A-DEP setting on the camera have given me a deeper depth of field and allowed me to focus on the nearest flower as well as the other two and the stalk?

[NeilMcRae]

Ginger, did you get the 5D? Would be good to hear your impressions on it. I was toying with buying the wife a 5D but the lack of inbuilt flash put me off so I bought her a 20d.
What lens are you using with it?

I also bought her Canon 24-105 F4L USM IS lens and it shockingly good especially with the 20D.

I borrowed it for a race meeting:

[NeilMcRae]

If you are looknig for a good cheapish way into DSLR look at getting a used Canon 10D. Its much better then the newest entry level DSLRs and comes in at around 300-400.

http://photography.search.ebay.co.uk...1QQsacatZ31388

Neil.

[DaiSuki]

Since I found out just how colour blind I really am (see Colour Blind thread), I've gotten even more paranoid about working with colours. Particularly with sliding photoshop sliders which affect colours.

With that in mind, this sunset shot is virtually untouched but I did use shadow/highlight edits. Does it look garish and unrealistic to non-colour-blind eyes, or is it as colourful-yet-muted as it looks to me? I'm particularly interested to hear how different the colours (as opposed to just the contrast/brightness) are from the original picture, here, as I can't tell myself. It'd be handy to know I can use shadow/highlight with impunity without making the picture look like it was shot in 1950s Technicolor.

And I know sunsets are easy, but I still like them. Has anybody else got straight-into-the-sun shots they'd like to share?

[Distant Cousin]

Wow, I love that sunset shot

[DaiSuki]

Cheers

It doesn't look freaky and oversaturated, then? I've properly got the fear about my ability to judge tasteful colour now :/

[Distant Cousin]

Nah, the first link looks much better than the second if you ask me.

^_^

[Ginger Tosser]

Ginger, did you get the 5D? Would be good to hear your impressions on it.

Yes, and its great! Handles just like my 35mm Eos. However due to work/baby and ****e weather its not been out too much. The lack of flash didn't bother me as i had an external Speedlite already. My main reason for the purchase is the lack of multiplication of the lenses. I priced up a 20D and the 10-22 mm lens and it came to about ?1200, so the ?1550(after rebate) for the 5d seemed reasonable.

I'm hoping to get out and use it a little more as spring is here. My more recent pics (fire and dogs) we're taken with the 5d.

[MartyG]

Been a lousy couple of weeks for weather, so I haven't had much chance to go out and about. There's been a fair in town that I went to shoot on Friday, but there wasn't really that much there worth photographing. This one wasn't too bad though: http://www.flickr.com/photos/martypg13/121850819/

[Alastair]

Funnily enough Marty they've just built the same ride here in Brighton. Was there at dusk last night and took a few shots, best of which is probably this one:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/agentl/124154838/

Also, my gf shot this one http://www.flickr.com/photos/agentl/124154840/ but she did a photography A-level so all her stuff turns out nice.

During the day I was in Arundel catching up with my Dad and getting a look at his D30, nice bit of kit. Although the weather was lovely I wasn't too impressed with many of my shots, best is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/agentl/124154841/

Anyone else been out now the weather is a little better/brighter?

[MartyG]

The fair is gone from Stamford now, I didn't fancy going at night on my own to shoot it, was dodgy enough in the day with all my equipment.

Some nice shots there, but I reckon your gf would probably take good photos regardless. Courses can teach you techniques, they can't give you an eye for a photo. I've been on a couple of courses as I've mentioned in this thread before, and they are definitely worthwhile going on

[Alastair]

I didn't mean she only takes nice photos because of the A-Level, just that she is more selective and doesn't need to shoot over and over to try and get a good shot. Like I sometimes do!

Fairs are a bit dodgy aren't they, the ride in Brighton is on the pier though so not so bad of an evening. I wouldn't venture onto it on a Friday/Saturday night though.

Was out on the south downs looking at sunsets last night. Just about to download those pics and see if any are nice.