The West Ring

Last weekend we took the hounds to an off-lead socialisation event organised by Greyhound Gap. The idea behind this is that it’s a chance for the hounds to run off-lead in a safe environment, something that not all of them are able to do very often. Though ours do get to run off-lead we like to go along for the social aspect, both human and hound. It is held in indoors in a riding school, which despite a number of skylights is quite dark. Especially when it’s completely overcast outside.

We got there early whilst the first group were having their run so I went in to take a few test shots. Even with the ISO pushed right up to 1600 and a fairly large aperture I couldn’t get a non-blurry shot. Luckily I had recently re-read about the Program (P) mode and decided to give that a whirl. What that allows you to do is set the ISO and let the camera decide on the aperture and shutter speed. So I set the ISO to 800 and began shooting.

It did feel kinda like cheating, using this mode, but I decided that getting a usable shot was more important than insisting on a level of control. Luckily part way into our session the sun began to break through.

The rest of the pictures can be seen here.

There is a follow-up thread on Gap where people have posted their pictures. When looking through that thread I was really amazed by those taken by Ali. I couldn’t see any exif so I had to badger her for details As suspected, she does have some fairly fast glass, and the ones that really caught my eye for the clarity and depth of field were taken using a fast prime lens, 100mm f/2.8. It’s certainly worth a few minutes of your time to take a look at her pictures from the event and her website as a whole.

If you’ve any tips on low light photography (other than buying fast glass!) the please let me know in the comments.

I finally found a brief moment of time to take a picture for the DSLR Photography magazine competition. I arrived home Monday evening to find the gorgeous evening sun streaming through the living room window and I knew I had to act fast as I didn’t have long.

I placed a piece of A3 paper on a chair, half on the seat, half up the back and set the chillis up. I tried a few different compositions but this was easily my favourite. (I’ll not say “best” as it’s totally subjective!) I knew that I wanted an odd number, with more greens than red, and the solitary red chilli to not be central. I just wish I’d had more time to experiment, and to have been able to try out a few shots, check them on the computer, and then make changes. But then, it’s my own fault for leaving it until the last minute…

It might be that this is entirely obvious to everyone bar me, but I’m going to post it anyway! When you’re making adjustments using one of the pop-ups (levels: my new favourite toy ) actually use the preview option. Don’t just leave it checked, watch the changes and try and visualise the difference - de-select and re-select it. As you turn the preview off and on you’ll see the changes that you are making!

Genius.

I recently noticed a few pictures that I’d uploaded to Flickr didn’t have any Exif data(and in fact still don’t as I haven’t changed them yet). I don’t know about you, but if I see a picture that I like I often take a look at the Exif, primarily as a learning exercise. The fact that mine was missing annoyed me so I decided to investigate.

I found that the reason why was actually quite simple. It’s the “Save For Web” option within Photoshop Elements 6 that strips it out. I haven’t checked but guess that it does it to produce a smaller file size. If you use “Save As” instead you get to keep your Exif so that’s the way I’ll be creating my Jpegs from now on.

Using this method throws up a complication: image resizing. When you “Save For Web” you get the option to resize by pixels but this doesn’t happen when you “Save As” - you have to resize beforehand. However, selecting Image | Resize from the menu doesn’t appear to allow you to resize by pixels. You get a choice of percent, inches, cm, mm, points, picas or columns. Now I’m sure I could work out the percentage I need, but I don’t want to! Luckily the solution simple, if not obvious: tick the box to “Resample Image”. Bingo, you can resize by pixels.

Can anyone tell me why it should be this complicated? Or what the different resample options (bilinear/bicubic/etc) mean?

And very surprised I was, too. I decided to participate in Neil’s new project because I enjoyed the “taking part” aspect, and looking at other people’s shots and sites. I certainly didn’t imagine that I’d enjoy taking a picture of a fork, but that’s how it turned out. So, the picture:

Pretty much as soon as I decided I would enter I came up with an idea for the composition. Rather than shoot the fork as a whole I wanted to focus on the tines and have the rest blur out behind. As I don’t have a macro lens I had to rely on my geniusness (AKA recently gained knowledge). The longer the focal length, the shorter the depth of field. So I set the fork up on one side of the room, the tripod on the other, took a few test shots to make sure the idea worked, and it did. I then began a cycle of taking some pictures, checking them on the computer and changing an element of the composition or exposure. It was this that I found to be surprisingly enjoyable.

So, Neil, thank you. I don’t know that I’m finding forks any more interesting, but I have discovered that still life photography can be fun!

I don’t know whether to be disappointed or laugh at my naivety.

Let me explain. Our holiday cottage in Cornwall was booked long before the 350D arrived and blew me away with its potential. In the weeks before the holiday I read a load of back issues of a variety of photographic magazines (thanks go again to Stephen ). Some of the pictures that really grabbed my attention were the coastal scenes, particularly sunrise/sunset ones. So, I was really looking forward to coming back with some stunning shots in the bag.

It turns out it’s not quite that simple. First time out the only thing that I tried was the rain cover on my new camera bag. (I’m loving the usability of my Lowepro Slingshot 200 BTW.) The following day the early evening looked promising - dry and not too much cloud so I grabbed my tripod and set off on the long walk to the beach… 250 metres away

I was very conscious of composition because the beach at Sennen is really quite large, and therefore quite likely to appear flat and uninteresting in a picture. Luckily it does have quite a selection of large rocks on the shoreline at one point. With the sun setting behind me I was able to use a couple of them as foreground interest as they were quite nicely lit (click for the larger version):

I think everyone who’s seen the (unprocessed) holiday pics has has liked that one so I guess I shouldn’t be so critical!

The other thing I was expecting/hoping for was that as the sun settled below the horizon it would light the underside of the clouds. It was looking great until it dropped behind a narrow band of cloud right on the horizon! However, I did manage a couple of shots whilst it was setting. I took one shot exposing for the ground and one for the sky with the intention of combining them in Photoshop. So here it is, my first attempt:

Again, I think I’m perhaps being a little too critical (or wishful perhaps?) as that’s not a bad shot, but it’s not magical.

The following day I deliberately planned things so that we’d visit The Lizard late on in the afternoon. I did this so that I could go to Kynance Cove near sunset as this is reputed to be the most beautiful part of the Cornish coastline. Sod’s Law: the tide was in and the cloud blocked the sun as it set!

So what have I learnt other than to not get my expectations up? Well, I think I can see why people use sun compasses. I didn’t realise how much the time of year affects where the sun sets. I can now imagine finding a great location and coming back at a different time of year in order to “place” the sun in a better position. Studying the tide times is also useful. And I can’t believe how harsh a critic of my own photos I am! Oh well, hopefully I can turn that into a positive, learn from it, and take magnificent shots in the future!

If anyone thinks”I can do better than that” in a post processing stylee the please shout. I’d quite happily pass on the RAW files so you can work your magic. This would be on the understanding that you’d have to explain what/why/how you did what you did though!

As mentioned briefly in my last post, we’ve been on holiday so that’s why it’s been a bit quiet round here. The good news is I took a lot of pictures The bad news is the time it’s going to take to cull and process! So please bear with me…

The results are in. Actually, they were in last week, but we were on holiday My picture came fourth in the public vote, and received a judge’s honourable mention, so I’m happy with that. Neil’s post can be seen here.

I enjoyed taking part because not only did it give me a nudge to try something different with a familiar subject, but it has the added bonus of seeing other people’s pictures and their “take” on it.

Neil’s next project however… Iron Chef Photography - it’s currently got me completely stumped and I’m not sure whether I’ll take part. I’ve already committed to entering the Photo Excellence Awards competition and that’s using up what little creativity I have! But… I did like the whole “taking part” aspect, so what the heck, I’ll see what I can come up with!

I was just reading this month’s Digital SLR Photography magazine and they have launched their “Photo Excellence Awards 2008″ competition. As I’ve got so much time on my hands I’ve decided to give it a go. Being, as I am, a total novice, this will be a real challenge. But the way I see it, it will force me to try out new types of photography and I’m bound to learn something along the way. Who knows, I might even win a 450D…

I’m in at the deep end though, as the first month’s subject is food I’ve always maintained I have zero levels of creativity so this could be interesting

The big question is, does anyone fancy joining me in this? Dad? Scott? Stephen? Be brave!

I’ve just been lent Understanding Exposure (Revised Edition) by Bryan Peterson (cheers Stephen!) and it’s got me thinking about my up-coming holiday. This book has been recommended by many people, so obviously I want to read it. However, whilst on holiday I want to just chill with Jennie, walk the hounds, sightsee, read the books I received for Birthday/Christmas, study some of the Photoshop tutorials I’ve yet to look and, ohhh… there’s something else… Oh yeah! Take some photographs! Please, please can I have some extra hours in the day??