The Photography Thread

[Native New Yorker]

Too late for the photo comp but here's a shot of the moon taken this afternoon.

I really love that shot Dave. Very impressive

[Native New Yorker]

Some from me and my wife's safari adventure in Kenya January 2011.

Edited February 6, 2012 by Native New Yorker

[gingerjon]

Frozen by Jon Smalldon, on Flickr

[ckn]

World Press Photo Contest Winners

[l'angelo mysterioso]

World Press Photo Contest Winners

the north korean pic, the danish/iranian actress, and the lady with altheimers really struck a chord. They made me want to go out and take pictures of people

[gingerjon]

Clearing the snow by Jon Smalldon, on Flickr

[l'angelo mysterioso]

Clearing the snow by Jon Smalldon, on Flickr

great composition and use of colour ginge

[gingerjon]

great composition and use of colour ginge

Thanks!

It's the first photo of mine in a long time that I'm happy with.

It also proves that there was actual weather in the south.

[Padge]

Clearing the snow by Jon Smalldon, on Flickr

That's a cracker, classic lesson in composition.

[gingerjon]

That's a cracker, classic lesson in composition.

Thanks Padge!

[steef]

[Giant Hogweed]

Had a play out yesterday. Mainly on Crosby Beach.

I'd really appreciate any comments, advice abuse etc.

[Giant Hogweed]

A couple more

[Padge]

Birds on the Beach

1.

2.

3.

[Padge]

A couple more

(second post), I'm liking both of these but the second one in particular.

I was just around the corner yesterday on Formby beach.

[Giant Hogweed]

(second post), I'm liking both of these but the second one in particular.

I was just around the corner yesterday on Formby beach.

Very bracing. Cleared a few cobwebs away.

[gingerjon]

Self portrait

Orrery by Jon Smalldon, on Flickr

[steef]

[l'angelo mysterioso]

hmmm not as sharp as I thought it was

apologies

Edited March 6, 2012 by l'angelo mysterioso

[terrywebbisgod]

First attempt.

[Giant Hogweed]

Wales' highest waterfall

[Padge]

OK guys picking brains again. What should I have done to get all of this in focus.

The amount of a photograph that is in focus (Depth of Field) depends on a couple of factors.

First the aperture selected, the smaller the aperture the more of the picture that is in focus. Aperture size is the inverse of the number select, so F4 is at the wide end (large) and F22 is at the narrow end (small).

The smaller the aperture the less light enters the camera for a given shutter speed so as you narrow the aperture you must reduce your shutter speed. That introduces the next problem, camera shake, if the shutter speed gets too slow then small movements of the camera during shooting can be a problem, shake can make the whole picture look slightly out of focus. To overcome a slow shutter speed you can adjust the camera ISO rating, this is how sensitive the camera sensor is to light. ISO 100 is generally the least sensitive setting moving up to ISO 1600 and above which allow faster shutter speeds when using small apertures in low light. The problem with high ISO ratings is that it introduces noise into the captured image, this can have the affect of making the picture look grainy.

Now to your second shot (I presume you are talking about this one).

You shot it in a fully automatic mode, Action Program, not the best mode for this type of photograph and offering you little or no control over your depth of field.

The camera in this mode will try to use a fast shutter speed to freeze the action and avoid the subject being blurred.

The settings the camera selected were as follows:-

Shutter Speed 1/1000s (fast)

Aperture F4.5 (wide)

ISO 3200 (high)

If you had selected Aperture Priority mode then you could control the Aperture and ISO

Speed 1/125

Aperture F11

ISO 3200

Would have let in the same amount of light and increased the depth of field. But, ISO 3200 is high and grainy.

Why did I choose 1/125, the focal length of the telephoto lens you used was set at 84mm and shutter speed should never be a value below your focal length. Unless you have some form of image stabalization, which allows slower shutter speeds,with IS you could probably get away with 1/30s

The lens you used is a 55-250mm, another thing that affects depth of field is focal length, the longer the focal length the narrower the depth of field. So at 55mm the depth of field is wide (more of the picture in focus) and at 250mm the depth of field is narrow (less of the picture in focus).

To optimise the picture more, you could have used the wide end of the lens, this would have allowed a slower shutter speed, 1/60s.

We now have the possibility of the following settings.

Focal Length 55mm

Speed 1/60th

Aperture F8

ISO 800

With IS the following could be possible.

Speed 1/15s

Aperture F8

ISO 200

These settings should give you a reasonable quality (not grainy) image, with a wide depth of field.

Finally with your camera you can program the Set button on the back to be a Depth of Field preview button, this shuts the aperture down to the one that will be used when the shot is taken, when looking through the view finder you will see how much of the picture is in focus when you press the button. Though with narrow apertures sometimes its difficult to view as the light coming in the camera is decreased by so much.

Depth of Field and Hyperfocal Distance we'll leave until the next lesson.

[ckn]

Olympics 2012 preparation pics

[Giant Hogweed]

First chilli of the year

[Alfies Thumb]

I've finally got myself some decent kit and have been trying night photos. I was out in Western NSW for work the other week and took these photos.

And the road on the way home. Lots of nothing out there.