Am I heading the right sort of way?

[Ian_T]

Out in the cloisters today at work, and took a few. These are my two favourite - any suggestions for improvements?

[4hero]

Hi Ian, these are not too shabby at all! The first one is nice, but seems a little flat in colour. I tweaked the levels a touch (hope you don't mind).



The second one, the focal point is just off of the flower, and seems to be on the green leaf going down to the left. Good effort though!

What setup are you using?

Neil.

[Ian_T]

Thanks Neil - great to get a good comment on my 1st "real" post here..

I've yet to get a good idea about Photoshop, so the tweaking is appreciated.

I use a Sony A-200, and that was with a 70-300 Tamron lens in macro mode... I've read a few books, and tried to use some of the things they said. Lots more practice will help i expect..!

[Simpo Two]

I can't fix the missed focus on the second one, but a few tweaks on the first help it along I think - crop and levels/white balance:



The only thing 'wrong' with the starting shot was exposure - the whites are light grey because meters underexpose when faced with bright white. The moral of the story is (a) don't trust the camera to get it right (b) find the histogram and use it. Good luck!

[Pvapour]

I must admit I like these close ups, think the first looks good, even better after edit, not sure I'm much of a judge though as I only got my camera this morning, this was one of my first shots, similar in taste to yours. Only got the std lens at the moment though was a nighttime shot & absolutely no idea if the idea is any good, know the focus is out but was as good as I could get.

[mikee boy]

It's worth finding out what settings work best for your camera/lens. This site has comprehensive reviews of cmaeras and lenses.

I've been shooting away since I got my EOS 1000D and only today, when I eventually read the lens and camera review, did I realise there was so much difference in shrpness between different aperture and zoom settings. For example, my lens is sharpest at f5.6 up to 35mm and f11 above that. It's good up to ISO 800 and the in-built Noise Reduction is worth using.

PLEASE please read any reviews you can because any camera is only as good as the user, and the user is only as good as their knowledge.

[Pvapour]

mikee boy said:

It's worth finding out what settings work best for your camera/lens. This site has comprehensive reviews of cmaeras and lenses.

I've been shooting away since I got my EOS 1000D and only today, when I eventually read the lens and camera review, did I realise there was so much difference in shrpness between different aperture and zoom settings. For example, my lens is sharpest at f5.6 up to 35mm and f11 above that. It's good up to ISO 800 and the in-built Noise Reduction is worth using.

PLEASE please read any reviews you can because any camera is only as good as the user, and the user is only as good as their knowledge.

will do, had already read that there is a SWEET spot for all combos being used, the std lens that came with the camera is quite restrictive & not really suited to any of what I want to actually do, I guess it doesn't hurt to learn where its best performance lies though.

going to try some daylight shots today and see how much sharper it is, will try it at these optimum settings & make a comparison.

In-built noise reduction, mmmm, not downloaded the 'English' manual for the camera yet

PS - is there a better way than Flikr to publish images? the image thats come up on here is nothing like the original

Edited by Pvapour on Friday 3rd April 08:23

[_dobbo_]

Pvapour said:

PS - is there a better way than Flikr to publish images? the image thats come up on here is nothing like the original

Could be a colour space issue - what program are you using to edit your photos?

[Pvapour]

_dobbo_ said:

Pvapour said:

PS - is there a better way than Flikr to publish images? the image thats come up on here is nothing like the original

Could be a colour space issue - what program are you using to edit your photos?

PhotoShop?

I didn't buy any flikr account & it seems all photos I am uploading are reduced too a 6x4, have bought an account now which seems to be better.

Edited by Pvapour on Friday 3rd April 20:17

[Ian_T]

I like what both you guys did with my white flower/spider shot.. any pointers on how that was achieved exactly, to a Photoshop novice, or am I better off getting another book on that?

Edited by Ian_T on Friday 3rd April 20:30

[Simpo Two]

Pvapour said:

PhotoShop?

Properties said:

Image Size 2800px × 1866px

Photoshop will also allow you to resize your images before posting.