Be Excellent To Each Other :: View topic - Pics wot I have taken with my camera

GREAT pics!

KITTY :luv:

I can has!

And who is that vision of beauty? The lad on the left with his ass-cleve nearly showing? My, my :hat:

what a tasty little crumpet he seems

I assume you're talking about the swans picture!

Um, I don't know - just strangers in a park I followed and photographed. They call it stalking, I call it selective walking.

I like the wheely one. Wheely!

Can any of you competent photographers recommend a book / web site / any thing else that might actually give me the basics? I've just bought one of those Fuji Finepix that was recommended, and I've yet to get past the ol' "turn on auto and point" level.

Can any of you competent photographers recommend a book / web site / any thing else that might actually give me the basics? I've just bought one of those Fuji Finepix that was recommended, and I've yet to get past the ol' "turn on auto and point" level.

Check out your local library for bundles of books on the subject

The best way is to play with it though.

Nowhere near the quality of Pete's stuff, but hey:

Didn't quite get the shallow depth of field I was after. Ho hum.

Rodafowa wrote:

Nowhere near the quality of Pete's stuff, but hey:

Didn't quite get the shallow depth of field I was after. Ho hum.

Quality seems fine to me, chap. It's a nice photo, and I don't think a shallower depth of field would necessarily be better here. Pity the bird is in so much shadow, mind. I think it would have been better if you'd have gotten more down to the animal's level, too, to give more of a personal feel to it.

Thanks chaps, that's useful and interesting. Also, my copy of the book you recommended arrived this morning MF, and it looks great from an initial skim-though so thanks a lot for that.

Your photographic skills are much to be admired Mr Pete. Unfortunately your geography is weak. Since when is Matlock in Yorkshire?

Thang yew. Pies and photography for all! (Hold the wife-beating.)

By the way, when you're doing wide angle, narrow aperture landscape shots am I right in thinking that you focus at an object or point a third of the distance towards the horizon to get maximum sharpness? Is this true in nearly all cases? Just making sure I'm reading it all right.

WTF?! Spiders aren't meant to be fucking BLUE!

the cobalt tarantula. Pretty little thing, wish we had some here.

Very nice Pete. What the tall bit, is it a stack of rocks or part of a breakwater?

Pretty little thing, wish we had some here.

Hullo all!

I've just trial downloaded Photoshop Elements 7. Pretty much immediately fallen in love with it too, as I'm working through my Gower photos. Here's the first one I've edited. Again, not too happy with my current monitor, so let me know if it's too dark or too light and stuff, and any comments or criticism. (Exposure was a little off I know, it's too underexposed. This was to avoid bleaching out the sky - I really need a graduated filter for horizon stuff.) This is the first in a string of beach shots, some of which I may be turning into bigish prints due to their pixel size of 3872x2952.

(Fer more detail in magno-view - http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Fi ... directlink)

More to come an' that. Well worth having to wade back to shore due to failing to check incoming tide cutting me off from behind, I reckon. Oh how those fishermen mocked at twenty past five in the morning.

That's quite nice old chap.

Merge bracketed exposures - take three shots to cover the highlights and shadow areas and merge them using one of Photoshops automated functions - if Elements has it, try File > Automated > Merge HDR and have a play with that.

Failing that, warez a copy of Lightroom and use the recovery tools in that to find details in the blacks

They may well have some of the functionality of Lightroom in Elements as well seeing as Adobe seem to be hellbent in so much functionality crossover nowadays.

Author:	NervousPete [ Fri Nov 28, 2008 0:36 ]
Post subject:	Pics wot I have taken with my camera
Well, I'm loving my D40x and am having mucho fun experimenting. So I thought I'd post some of the results, say a pic a day. However I am greedy so I'm starting with five. Any thoughts or comments would be pleasing! All of these were taken in the last eight weeks or so, though Green Man was late August! Suspicious Swans - Roath Park, Cardiff Winter Wonderland - City Hall, Cardiff Frankly monged and scary Appalachian stylee band O'Death - Green Man Festival, Brecon Beacons "I sees yur mind," - Girl & Cat. A bus that never came - Roath Park, Cardiff I'm still working out how to use exposure properly, but I'm figuring it slowly. I've just got to remember those ratios, and stop being absurdly optimistic about under-exposure based on a bright and shiny LCD screen. Think I'll start shooting in RAW soon too. Ook. Anyone get any pics they like to share, in this thread or others?

Author:	AceAceBaby [ Fri Nov 28, 2008 0:39 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
The band shot is fantastic.

Author:	TheVision [ Fri Nov 28, 2008 0:43 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
Agreed! If I was in a band and saw that picture.. I'd want to use it! You should send it them!

Author:	Hugh [ Fri Nov 28, 2008 0:45 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
Defo, some music mags/sites might pay you for it too.

Author:	Curiosity [ Fri Nov 28, 2008 0:52 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
FLEE! RUN! THAT GIANT CAT WILL DEVOUR US ALL!!!

Be Excellent To Each Other https://www.beexcellenttoeachother.com/forum/

Pics wot I have taken with my camera https://www.beexcellenttoeachother.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2550	Page 1 of 60

Author:	NervousPete [ Fri Nov 28, 2008 0:53 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
Gleep! Really?! I've got a few more like that. I don't know, I got into the stupid brainset at the time that because I was a beginner with SLR and it was a basic lens yadda yadda and although it looked splendid, I was still worlds away. Now, looking through my pics again I'm really chuffed with some of them. If I knew the first thing how to sell them, I would. (And may try to find out.) However, I'm deffo sending them to the band website. I've got a few more good ones of the band, if you like. (More scarey sweaty nudiness!) But thank you! Thank you! Basks And the cat CLAWS.

Author:	Shin [ Fri Nov 28, 2008 0:58 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
GREAT pics! KITTY I can has! And who is that vision of beauty? The lad on the left with his ass-cleve nearly showing? My, my what a tasty little crumpet he seems

Author:	NervousPete [ Fri Nov 28, 2008 1:02 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
Shin wrote: GREAT pics! KITTY I can has! And who is that vision of beauty? The lad on the left with his ass-cleve nearly showing? My, my what a tasty little crumpet he seems I assume you're talking about the swans picture! Um, I don't know - just strangers in a park I followed and photographed. They call it stalking, I call it selective walking.

Author:	Shin [ Fri Nov 28, 2008 1:06 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
nervouspete wrote: I assume you're talking about the swans picture! Um, I don't know - just strangers in a park I followed and photographed. They call it stalking, I call it selective walking. I am indeedy hrmmmm!!! 'It's only stalking because they don't know that they are in love with you yet.' Tip number 17 of 'Shins Snape Stalking Secrets'

Author:	RBR2 [ Fri Nov 28, 2008 8:33 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
SWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN! ... Sorry. Flashbacks.

Author:	Zardoz [ Fri Nov 28, 2008 11:08 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
That's a big ass cat. Nice pics Pete.

Author:	Squirt [ Fri Nov 28, 2008 11:11 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
I like the wheely one. Wheely! Can any of you competent photographers recommend a book / web site / any thing else that might actually give me the basics? I've just bought one of those Fuji Finepix that was recommended, and I've yet to get past the ol' "turn on auto and point" level.

Author:	MrChris [ Fri Nov 28, 2008 11:14 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
You've captured the homoeroticism in the band one excellently. The cat is awesome, and the ferris wheel one is brilliant.

Author:	NervousPete [ Mon May 18, 2009 21:51 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
Now that my compy's fixed, I'm back out there taking photos again. This is a good thing, despite my CRT monitor being 11 years old and completely impossible to calibrate accurately. I'd therefore be chuffed if you could let me know if the pics seem a bit too dark, bright, whatever. I've tinkered with them in Picasa and Paint.net to try and get the right light levels. Raindrops on wall-growing weeds, Cathays Cardiff. Dandelion and buttercups, common behind Whitchurch psychiatric hospital, Cardiff. This one is a composite of two pics, and my first serious attempt at photoshopping. Not clean, as I had no tripod, and you can see the smudgy join. Was 5.3 aperture right for this? I wanted a blurred background and sharp dandelion fully in focus. Gngh. Subway at Gabalfa underpass, Cardiff. Castle Hill, Huddersfield. Bee! Wakefield, West Yorkshire. Castle Hill again. Near Matlock, Yorkshire. "MAAATLOCK!"

Author:	Rodafowa [ Wed May 20, 2009 10:36 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
Garsh. Thanks, Pete, that's greatly appreciated. A larger version is here and here's the enorm-o-vision version (where actually, the DoF looks a lot better). Any advice or criticism would be gratefully received. I'm using a D70s - far too much camera for my talent really, but it produces some lovely pictures even in the hands of a dolt.

Author:	NervousPete [ Wed May 20, 2009 17:12 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
Morte wrote: Your photographic skills are much to be admired Mr Pete. Unfortunately your geography is weak. Since when is Matlock in Yorkshire? Ha! We conquered Matlock last November, certain counties refuse to acknowledge the new Yorkshire Empire however. Pitiful fools. Now everyone join me in the Yorkshire chant. (Assumes braying, low, sneering voice) "Yerkshire. Yerkshire. Yerkshire. Yerkshire. Yerkshire. Yerkshire. Yerkshire. Yerkshire." (Repeat several dozen times.) I'm reading a good summary book called 'The Complete Illustrated Encylcopedia of Digital Photography' by Steve Luck. It's helping me a fair bit. The stuff on focusing is good.

Author:	NervousPete [ Mon Jun 01, 2009 15:58 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
First in a wave of new pics from the weekend, among others: Carry on, citizen. (Bristol Temple Meads waiting room.)

Author:	NervousPete [ Mon May 18, 2009 21:57 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
Squirt wrote: I like the wheely one. Wheely! Can any of you competent photographers recommend a book / web site / any thing else that might actually give me the basics? I've just bought one of those Fuji Finepix that was recommended, and I've yet to get past the ol' "turn on auto and point" level. Check out your local library for bundles of books on the subject, try to avoid the ones that barf on too much about filters and new lenses - just get the basics down first. I find http://www.nikonians.org a great place for picking up tips. You can't access all the subforums unless you register, but it has a friendly community with great advice. It also has a good section of book reviews handily broken down into each subject: http://www.nikonians.org/html/resources ... index.html The best way is to play with it though. I forced myself to play with manual - it's a steep learning curve but I'm getting some reasonable pics now. Either that or try aperture priority mode, though half the time you'll need a tripod you'll be able to set your depth of field and the shutter speed will take care of itself.

Author:	Rodafowa [ Tue May 19, 2009 9:23 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
Bloody hell, Pete. I brought my camera into work today in the hope of getting some nice pics on my walk along the canal path but I'm now put off by your PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS OF AWESOMENESS.

Author:	Malabelm [ Tue May 19, 2009 9:26 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
Squirt wrote: Can any of you competent photographers recommend a book / web site / any thing else that might actually give me the basics? I've just bought one of those Fuji Finepix that was recommended, and I've yet to get past the ol' "turn on auto and point" level. I can always recommend Understanding Exposure — Bryan Peterson. Great shots, Pete. I do really like the band one; you've really managed to capture a great moment there. You seem to be handling your camera pretty competently so far, so just keep shooting.

Author:	Rodafowa [ Wed May 20, 2009 9:03 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
Nowhere near the quality of Pete's stuff, but hey: Didn't quite get the shallow depth of field I was after. Ho hum.

Author:	metalangel [ Wed May 20, 2009 9:08 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
nervouspete wrote: Check out your local library for bundles of books on the subject As opposed to 'Photographer Monthly' mags which are as Viz correctly parodied (all about taking pictures of big beautiful breasts) Quote: The best way is to play with it though. Gngk! Gngk!

Author:	NervousPete [ Wed May 20, 2009 9:59 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
Rodafowa wrote: Nowhere near the quality of Pete's stuff, but hey: Didn't quite get the shallow depth of field I was after. Ho hum. Gost, I really like that Roda. I especially like the surf in the background, I think you've hit on a pretty decent aperture on that one personally. It's got a nice impressionistic dapple and a sense of movement, and the framing's pretty good too. At the risk of sparking off a "Yo, you da man," / "No. YOU da man," fest, I'd have to say that from that pic you're doing damn well. However, I shall now scrutinise it for flaws and dole out fatherly badly misjudged advice. What camera are you using by the way?

Author:	Malabelm [ Wed May 20, 2009 16:31 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
Rodafowa wrote: Nowhere near the quality of Pete's stuff, but hey: Didn't quite get the shallow depth of field I was after. Ho hum. Quality seems fine to me, chap. It's a nice photo, and I don't think a shallower depth of field would necessarily be better here. Pity the bird is in so much shadow, mind. I think it would have been better if you'd have gotten more down to the animal's level, too, to give more of a personal feel to it.

Author:	NervousPete [ Wed May 20, 2009 16:32 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
Malabar Front wrote: Rodafowa wrote: Nowhere near the quality of Pete's stuff, but hey: Didn't quite get the shallow depth of field I was after. Ho hum. Quality seems fine to me, chap. It's a nice photo, and I don't think a shallower depth of field would necessarily be better here. Pity the bird is in so much shadow, mind. I think it would have been better if you'd have gotten more down to the animal's level, too, to give more of a personal feel to it. Mm, I tend to lower myself as much as I can for that type of shot, unless it brings a distracting horizon into play. I think it wants a little more sharpness on the bird maybe, but not much more - frankly I'd be quibbling.

Author:	Rodafowa [ Wed May 20, 2009 16:54 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
Thanks chaps, that's useful and interesting. Also, my copy of the book you recommended arrived this morning MF, and it looks great from an initial skim-though so thanks a lot for that. That heron seems to like hanging out on that spot - I've seen him (um, her? I have no idea) there a few times, so I may have another crack at the shot the next time I see it and see what difference a change in angle makes.

Author:	Morte [ Wed May 20, 2009 16:55 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
Your photographic skills are much to be admired Mr Pete. Unfortunately your geography is weak. Since when is Matlock in Yorkshire?

Author:	Malabelm [ Wed May 20, 2009 17:00 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
Rodafowa wrote: Thanks chaps, that's useful and interesting. Also, my copy of the book you recommended arrived this morning MF, and it looks great from an initial skim-though so thanks a lot for that. Excellent. He has another one called Learning to see Creatively, too. I don't think it's quite as good seeing as it's pretty subjective, but it's still worth a read to see some compositional techniques.

Author:	Rodafowa [ Wed May 20, 2009 17:16 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
I, for one, welcome our new Boycottian overlords.

Author:	NervousPete [ Wed May 20, 2009 17:22 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
Thang yew. Pies and photography for all! (Hold the wife-beating.) By the way, when you're doing wide angle, narrow aperture landscape shots am I right in thinking that you focus at an object or point a third of the distance towards the horizon to get maximum sharpness? Is this true in nearly all cases? Just making sure I'm reading it all right.

Author:	Malabelm [ Wed May 20, 2009 17:25 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
nervouspete wrote: Thang yew. Pies and photography for all! (Hold the wife-beating.) By the way, when you're doing wide angle, narrow aperture landscape shots am I right in thinking that you focus at an object or point a third of the distance towards the horizon to get maximum sharpness? Is this true in nearly all cases? Just making sure I'm reading it all right. Close enough to be correct, I find. Have a google for Hyperfocal Distance. I have a nice little calculator on my phone for it, but I find focusing a third of the way into the scene gives completely acceptable results.

Author:	NervousPete [ Fri May 29, 2009 21:17 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
Hullo all! I've just trial downloaded Photoshop Elements 7. Pretty much immediately fallen in love with it too, as I'm working through my Gower photos. Here's the first one I've edited. Again, not too happy with my current monitor, so let me know if it's too dark or too light and stuff, and any comments or criticism. (Exposure was a little off I know, it's too underexposed. This was to avoid bleaching out the sky - I really need a graduated filter for horizon stuff.) This is the first in a string of beach shots, some of which I may be turning into bigish prints due to their pixel size of 3872x2952. (Fer more detail in magno-view - http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Fi ... directlink) More to come an' that. Well worth having to wade back to shore due to failing to check incoming tide cutting me off from behind, I reckon. Oh how those fishermen mocked at twenty past five in the morning.

Author:	Zardoz [ Fri May 29, 2009 22:51 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
Very nice Pete. What the tall bit, is it a stack of rocks or part of a breakwater?

Author:	Zardoz [ Fri May 29, 2009 23:04 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
Quite pleased with catching this little fella on my camera phone.

Author:	Cras [ Fri May 29, 2009 23:46 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
WTF?! Spiders aren't meant to be fucking BLUE!

Author:	JohnCoffey [ Fri May 29, 2009 23:48 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
Craster wrote: WTF?! Spiders aren't meant to be fucking BLUE! Wow, never seen one like that before. I thought the only blue spider was the cobalt tarantula. Pretty little thing, wish we had some here.

Author:	Mimi [ Fri May 29, 2009 23:50 ]
Post subject:	Re: Pics wot I have taken with my camera
JohnCoffey wrote: the cobalt tarantula. Pretty little thing, wish we had some here. Oh yeah! Me too! ...