Author Topic: David's Shutter Bug Club  (Read 496992 times)

Offline David In Indy

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Re: David's Shutter Bug Club
« Reply #40 on: January 06, 2008, 03:03:18 am »
Thanks Lee! I love to photograph glowing objects. I have a light bulb with a neon flamingo and palm tree inside it. It glows pink and green colors when I turn it on. I'll take a picture of it sometime and post it. :)
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injest

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Re: David's Shutter Bug Club
« Reply #41 on: January 06, 2008, 04:01:05 am »
That's a beautiful kitty picture Jess!! I love how you took the picture from the animal's level, rather than hover above him and aim the camera down. Too many people take pictures of their pets like that. Coming down to eye level with the pet allows people to feel a part of the pet's world.

First curtain sync is the default flash setting of most cameras, even if the manufacturer doesn't refer to it as "first curtain". First curtain simply means the flash fires immediately after the shutter opens. Some cameras come with a second curtain setting. Second curtain sets the flash to fire just before the shutter closes. Second curtain works well as a fill flash because most of the image has already been exposed before the flash fires. Second curtain will help to eliminate shadowing (at medium or full burst) or some shadowing (at low burst) when taking pictures in bright situations. I often use second curtain during the daytime to rid the photo of unwanted shadows.  The next time you photograph your animals indoors, or outdoors during the daytime, you may wish to play around with first and second curtain sync. Second curtain will also produce interesting effects at night too.

This is a beautiful picture of your cat Jess. I love black cats. Their eyes always seem to glow against their dark fur. How did you get the animal to look slightly away from the camera? Did you hold the camera out to the side? Or was the cat simply not interested? Thanks for posting the pic!! :)



she was interested in the first thirty pics...then she got bored...LOL!!!

Offline Shasta542

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Re: David's Shutter Bug Club
« Reply #42 on: January 06, 2008, 11:29:33 am »
Quote
That's a beautiful kitty picture Jess!! I love how you took the picture from the animal's level, rather than hover above him and aim the camera down. Too many people take pictures of their pets like that. Coming down to eye level with the pet allows people to feel a part of the pet's world.

That is a beautiful cat! I love the picture of Cody too! I rarely get good pet pictures. I'll have to try to get eye level -- but I think I'll get licked and knocked over. LOL. Some of my dogs look away or look down anytime I get the camera near them.  I guess it intimidates them. Others run away, oblivious.

The cat was always a better subject -- nothing intimidated
her.  :P ;D  

I'm enjoying the pictures and the tips. I don't think my camera has all the different settings. But I'll keep practicing and discovering!
"Gettin' tired of your dumbass missin'!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


injest

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Re: David's Shutter Bug Club
« Reply #43 on: January 06, 2008, 11:35:29 am »
ok I have been playing with the macro this morning...

first I had the flash on



WOW!! Look at the detail! You can see every hair!

but! I wanted to see his eyes and the flash was hurting him being that close SOOOOO...I tried

Tv (Shutter Speed)   15
Av (Aperture Value)   5.6
ISO Speed   80

with flash off...

(ok David already knows what is gonna happen huh?  :P )












He moved!! the ?shutter? was open too long, right?

sooooo...I tried changing it:

Tv (Shutter Speed)   1
Av (Aperture Value)   2.6
ISO Speed   200
(but I accidently left the flash on!!)

 :-\





ARGH!!

so I turned OFF the flash and tried again:



but it is still blurry!!  >:(

I AM happy with this picture though (although the composition is not good...I was looking at trying to focus)



so! wrap up is....I liked the macro with the flash as far as the detail but I wouldn't want to use it so close to his sweet face....so what settings should I have used do you think or is this just a bad situation to be trying to take a picture and I should wait til he is somewhere there is more light?

Offline David In Indy

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Re: David's Shutter Bug Club
« Reply #44 on: January 06, 2008, 08:11:13 pm »
Actually Jess, I think the picture of the paw is very cute. I like it!  :D

Regarding your second picture (the blurred one), I think you found out exactly what I was talking about when I posted the pic of my dog Cody. When photographing pets and small children, you really do need a fast shutter speed just in case they decide to make a sudden move. A shutter speed of 1/125 or faster is best. Many cameras will automatically set the shutter speed to 1/60 when the flash is used, but this could change depending on the lighting conditions. If your flash is startling the animal, you could try turning on some lights in the room, or moving the cat under a overhead light. Perhaps then you could turn off your flash and possibly even use a faster shutter speed. 1/60 is generally too slow for photographing animals, unless the animal is asleep when you take the picture. It looks like you were using shutter speeds even slower than this in your pictures. You  had your camera's ISO set to 80. Perhaps bumping it up to 200 or even 400 would have allowed you to set your shutter speed higher. What mode was your camera in when you took these pictures (IE Auto, Program, Manual, Aperture Priority, etc.)?

I really like the first picture of your cat. He's a beautiful animal too. I hope the flash didn't hurt his eyes too much.

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Offline David In Indy

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Re: David's Shutter Bug Club
« Reply #45 on: January 06, 2008, 08:44:24 pm »
F Stops and Apertures Explained!!!

Many people are confused about apertures and that little "f' with a number next to it. If you find it confusing, you aren't alone. So don't worry about it. It really isn't very complicated at all, but it takes a little explaining.

The aperture is the opening where the light comes through. More light enters the camera if the aperture is opened wide. Less light enters the camera if the aperture is narrow. Most cameras allow you to adjust the aperture manually by setting the camera in the manual and aperture priority modes. In the aperture priority mode, the photographer controls the aperture while the camera automatically adjusts a compatible shutter speed. In full manual, the photographer controls all the camera functions.

The little "f" with a number next to it tells the photographer how wide open the aperture is. The lower the number, the wider the aperture. It's that simple. The F stop is actually a fraction, and if you think of it as a fraction it will make more sense. Just as 1/2 is a larger number than 1/4, f/2 is a larger number than f/4. So, while f/2.8 indicates a wide aperture setting, f/8.0 would indicate a narrow aperture, since f/2.8 is a larger number. To prevent any confusion, I will refer to F stops such as 2.8 as a "low" number and F stops like 7.1 or 8.0 has a "high" number.

Less light enters the camera when the camera's aperture is narrow. So a slower shutter speed must also be used to achieve an acceptable photograph. But depth of field is also affected. What is depth of field? It simply means both the foreground and background in the photo is visible and clear. A picture with a visible foreground and a blurry background has little depth of field. A photo with both the subject and the scenery behind the subject visible and focused has greater depth of field.

Sometimes in poor lighting conditions things like depth of field may be compromised since a proper exposure is really the photographer's main goal. Fortunately most modern cameras have several tools built into them which help the photographer; things like ISO settings, exposure compensation, multiple on-board light meters and programable flashes.

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Offline David In Indy

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Re: David's Shutter Bug Club
« Reply #46 on: January 06, 2008, 09:00:16 pm »
Something else you could try Jess, is backing away from the cat and turning off the macro. Then try zooming in on him using your camera's optical zoom. If you absolutely must use your flash due to poor lighting conditions, setting your flash to low burst probably would help to not hurt his eyes so much.

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Offline David In Indy

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Re: David's Shutter Bug Club
« Reply #47 on: January 07, 2008, 02:42:09 am »
I promised Lee I would take this picture.....

Photographing objects emitting very little light in total darkness without a tripod and little to no image blur can be very tricky. By maxing out my camera's ISO setting of 3200, fully opening the aperture and turning on the camera's image stabilization, I was able to achieve this photograph without a flash. I wish the camera would have captured the pink and green colors more vividly.  I will play around with the settings and see if I can do a better job with this photo. Perhaps setting the camera on "vivid colors" would help a bit. Switching light meters might not hurt either. There is a tremendous amount of fringing in this photo, which is to be expected with such a high ISO setting, although much of it is actually caused by light refraction from the glass bulb.


Conditions: Pitch Dark
Camera Equipment: Canon PowerShot G9
Camera Mode: Manual
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/2
White Balance: Auto
Light Meter: Spot
Exposure Compensation Value: 0
ISO: 3200
Flash: Off
Other: Optical Image Stabilization, Macro








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injest

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Re: David's Shutter Bug Club
« Reply #48 on: January 07, 2008, 02:50:21 am »
that is pretty cool!

Offline David In Indy

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Re: David's Shutter Bug Club
« Reply #49 on: January 07, 2008, 03:00:18 am »
that is pretty cool!


Thanks sweetie!! I'll try again tomorrow. I don't like the yellow blob in the middle of the flamingo. It shouldn't be there. The bulb emits beautiful pure pinks and greens; very "neon-like".  :) 
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