Post by: martinch on April 27, 2006, 03:46:30 pm
Seeing as Bounty's posted his garden pictures, I thought I'd have a go with some of mine. As I tend to have a different "style", I hope I'm not treading on his toes!
Hope the file sizes aren't too big...
Dandelion "Core":
Dandelion Stamen:
Water Droplet on Dandelion:
Cherry Blossom:
Moss Growing on Tree Bark:
And just to make this slightly chocolate related, a pile of Lindt mini-bars
:
Post by: Cherry_Ripe on April 27, 2006, 04:14:11 pm
Post by: chocolate chick on April 27, 2006, 05:45:27 pm
Post by: martinch on April 28, 2006, 12:34:50 pm
Are you sharing the chocolate
Alas, the picture of the Lindt mini-bars is a picture "in memorium"
Do you use a digital camera?
Yup, I use a Nikon D70s.
I find it difficult to keep the camera
steady when taking close-up photos.
I know what you mean. I've used a couple of the really light, compact digital cameras. I found them quite hard to hold still because it was like I wasn't really holding anything! I find heavier cameras much easier to hold (within reason!) as they "balance" better (the set-up I used for these pics weighs about 1.5kg!). There's a few ways to try to stop this - either (1) steady your hands, (2) change the camera settings, or (3) use technology.
(1) When you are getting ready to take the picture, try to breathe in a regular, slightly-deeper-than-normal pattern, and press the shutter release when you start to breathe out. When you press the shutter release, don't stab at it - "squeeze" it smoothly. Also, try not to take your finger off of it until after the picture has been taken (it's surprising how much of a difference these two things make!). Alternatively, you could buy a small tripod, or place a bean bag under the camera to try and deaden any movement.
(2) If your camera has manual controls, and you can find out what the focal length of the lens on your camera is (it's expressed in mm), and can get your camera to show you what shutter speed you are using, the denominator part of the shutter speed should be at bigger than the focal length (e.g. for a 105mm lens, you want 1/125s or faster). To get a faster shutter speed, you can either add flash, increase the sensitivity of the sensor (ISO value), or use a bigger aperture (the "f" number - they're really fractions, so the smaller number, the bigger the aperature [e.g. f2.8 is bigger than f8]).
(3) Some manufacturers make "compact" type digital cameras with image stabilisation on them. Canon make the S2 IS, Panasonic make the DMC-FZ30 and DMC-FZ7, and Nikon make the CoolPix 8800. None of these are cheap (the Panasonic's the cheapest at about £250), but I am told they make life easier. I haven't used any of them, but, from what I am told, the Panasonic and the Nikon are great (some semi-pros use the Nikon as a "backup"!) - both have sharp lenses, and the stabilisation works well. Apparently, the stabilisation works less well on the Canon, and it suffers from purple fringing a bit.
Hope this helps!
Well, that was a bit dry and boring!
Couple more I've just processed...
Cherry blossoms:
Double-bloom daffodil (not mine):
Post by: Cherry_Ripe on April 28, 2006, 12:51:05 pm
Hey Martinch, thanks for your full response. I shall definitely try the deep breathing!
My camera is a Canon PowerShot A80 (not the one I used for the sunflowers photo - that was taken with my phone camera ) It's 3 years old but I don't particularly want to change it yet. I have a small tripod but it's not helpful for taking photos of my magnolia or sunflowers both of which are 6 feet off the ground!
So Canon still haven't sorted out the purple fringing? I get that with my camera when taking night-time photos. My friend has the Canon G5 and she gets it too!
Post by: martinch on April 28, 2006, 01:51:27 pm
thanks for your full response. I shall definitely try the deep breathing!
No prob
Just don't breathe too deeply - only marginally deeper than normal! (otherwise you'll shake more!)My camera is a Canon PowerShot A80 ... It's 3 years old but I don't particularly want to change it yet. I have a small tripod but it's not helpful for taking photos of my magnolia or sunflowers both of which are 6 feet off the ground!
The only thing I can think of it to build some kind of "stand" out of boxes or something, put the tripod on top, and use the self timer ... Tripods that extend to about 6 feet are, unfortunately, all aimed at pros/serious amateurs (as far as I've seen), and are as much as a compact digital camera, and rather heavy ...
So Canon still haven't sorted out the purple fringing? I get that with my camera when taking night-time photos. My friend has the Canon G5 and she gets it too!
Chromatic abberation (its "proper" name) is a problem that is prevalent with zoom lenses. It should only be noticable at high-contrast transitions (black-white borders, highlights on metallic objects, etc). It's cured by using extra-low dispersion (ED) glass in the lens, which is harder to make, and expensive. I'm not going to try to explain why it happens myself, but if you have a look on the glossary on Nikon's site, they have a 2 paragraph explanation of ED glass, which explains it all (direct link). If you go to DPReview's review gallery for the S2 IS (here), and click on the picture of the pink flower (last but one image), you'll see the fringing - it's not too bad, but it's still there.
Post by: minty on April 28, 2006, 09:20:15 pm