What camera do you own?

[NZTailender]

For my birthday this year I received a Canon Powershot A480. For the price it was and it's functions it's a pretty good all-round camera, though I'm unable to do some things I'd like to and it doesn't have a lot of colour settings that you can adjust to create more 'arty' shots. But for a point and click, snapshot and general scenery photo-taking and the like, it's pretty good.





Will post some pics soon.

[NZTailender]

Just some basic scenery shots...












Edit: hmm, I don't like the way flickr has resized them and seemingly lowered the quality...anyone recommend a good image hosting site, apart from Photobucket? Will probably use that unless someone knows of a better one.

[Smudge]

Ahhh Stuart Street. You're making me homesick, NZT.

[Son Of Coco]

Originally Posted by NZTailender

Edit: hmm, I don't like the way flickr has resized them and seemingly lowered the quality...anyone recommend a good image hosting site, apart from Photobucket? Will probably use that unless someone knows of a better one.

I use Photobucket and Snapfish. I think most of the shots I've posted here have been through Photobucket, but Snapfish gives you 20 free 10x15 prints when you join.

[Son Of Coco]

Originally Posted by Scaly piscine

I really need to start getting into Photoshop properly. About the same time as I get a good 400mm lens I think.

This was one I took a couple of weeks ago with my 70-300mm lens. I suspect it would look miles better if I knew what I was doing with Photoshop.

Photoshop helps, but I think it's best to get the shot as good as you can in camera first. If you have to sharpen the shot too much to get it looking decent (as well as do the other stuff) then it will deteriorate. There's a lot to learn if you want to muck around with different things. I look up the tutorials online when I have something I want to do. Just looked up how to make part of the picture colour and the rest B & W. Didn't zoom in though so it was a pain in the arse. Will have to try again.

There are several sharpening techniques too, all of them are described online somewhere. The better techniques are generally a little more time-consuming than the automatic filter. I haven't actually tried them myself, but apparently you can set all the steps as an action on Photoshop and then it kind of does all of the steps automatically.

I'm looking to buy a 70-300mm lens myself. You've probably said this before, but which camera do you have?

I want to get it so I can get close-up shots of animals and so on. Out of interest, with your shot what was the lighting like? And did/could you use a tripod?

[NZTailender]

Originally Posted by Son Of Coco

Just looked up how to make part of the picture colour and the rest B & W. Didn't zoom in though so it was a pain in the arse. Will have to try again.

Would you be able to share that link? [/lazy]

I actually looked this up the other day but it was only for when editing photos in photoshop, and not when actually taking them.

[Langeveldt]

Yeah Photoshop is great, but don't be one of these people who start relying on it.. If anyone has a brain between their ears, they'll immediately pick it up if you've been hacking around on photoshop, and there is also an art to doing it, it's not the kind of thing that can just magically turn an average photo into a good one..

[Son Of Coco]

Originally Posted by NZTailender

Would you be able to share that link? [/lazy]

I actually looked this up the other day but it was only for when editing photos in photoshop, and not when actually taking them.

Sorry mate, I should've been clearer. That was for doing it in photoshop too. I'm not sure if you can do it in the camera on some models but you can't on mine. There's a site called photoshop.com where you can upload the photo and highlight one colour making the rest B & W but it's not good if you want the skin colour and clothing in colour. You can only pick one thing.

[Scaly piscine]

Originally Posted by Son Of Coco

Photoshop helps, but I think it's best to get the shot as good as you can in camera first. If you have to sharpen the shot too much to get it looking decent (as well as do the other stuff) then it will deteriorate. There's a lot to learn if you want to muck around with different things. I look up the tutorials online when I have something I want to do. Just looked up how to make part of the picture colour and the rest B & W. Didn't zoom in though so it was a pain in the arse. Will have to try again.

There are several sharpening techniques too, all of them are described online somewhere. The better techniques are generally a little more time-consuming than the automatic filter. I haven't actually tried them myself, but apparently you can set all the steps as an action on Photoshop and then it kind of does all of the steps automatically.

I'm looking to buy a 70-300mm lens myself. You've probably said this before, but which camera do you have?

I want to get it so I can get close-up shots of animals and so on. Out of interest, with your shot what was the lighting like? And did/could you use a tripod?

Canon 40D. Don't use a tripod, was bright sunlight - there's a haze on that photograph which I'm sure you can get rid of but I haven't bothered figuring out how you do it. Was a bit annoying to focus on the (very) young kingfisher which are very dull compared to the adult (the one carrying a fish on the left) which is why the photo might look a bit strange.

Keep having near misses with the lone adult kingfisher, somewhat annoying really. Will get it in its favourite tree (would be about 10-15 feet away) one of these days. Probably the same one little sod I've took hundreds of photos of earlier in the year mind.

Usually there's loads of dragonflies during the summer, but hardly any this year because of the crap weather. So pretty much exclusively using the 300mm end.

[Son Of Coco]

Originally Posted by Scaly piscine

Canon 40D. Don't use a tripod, was bright sunlight - there's a haze on that photograph which I'm sure you can get rid of but I haven't bothered figuring out how you do it. Was a bit annoying to focus on the (very) young kingfisher which are very dull compared to the adult (the one carrying a fish on the left) which is why the photo might look a bit strange.

Nice, I have the same. Is it the Canon 70-300mm IS USM Lens you have? That's the one I'm thinking of getting next month when I go back to Australia. Also have a 100mm Macro lens I need to use more!

A few more shots too:

Hang glider near Ulsan



Mucking around after I forgot to lock the head on my tripod



Down the river from Michelle's House



Mucking around with a bit of colour and B&W (would like the colours to be sharper so will try again)

[Scaly piscine]

Nice, don't get views like that around here. And yea it's the Canon 70-300mm IS USM lens I have.

Took a few night-time shots of a fountain in village here, surprised they turned out okay considering I wasn't using a tripod. Will edit some in in the next hour.





First one was 0.1s exposure, second 1.5s exposure. Not sure how come they weren't totally buggered.

[Son Of Coco]

Just wanted to ask someone here about lenses too. I am thinking of getting the 70-300mm IS USM lens as I need a telephoto but this one has caught my eye:



It's the non-IS version so it's only about $100 dearer than the 70-300mm. Being an L lens the quality is good. If there's anyone one here that has had experience with both or has an opinion what would you recommend?

EDIT: ****! Sorry the pic's so big!

[NZTailender]

Man, I can't wait to get an SLR!

[Son Of Coco]

Originally Posted by NZTailender

Man, I can't wait to get an SLR!

They're great to use, I was always a little scared of them But they're pretty easy to use when you get the hang of it. Much steeper learning curve than point and shoots obviously but the sooner you start the sooner you get better.

Has anyone used the old SLRs? Was wondering what the go was with focus etc. Obviously the dSLR's tell you when you're underexposed or overexposed when you look in the viewfinder. What did they use in the old SLRs? I've never used one so I have no idea. Was it just a matter of knowing which settings to use in a given environment or was there in-camera help?

Saw a camera shop in Busan (a city 45 mins from here) that sold second-hand lenses for the old-style cameras. There were Hasselblad lenses there, which are ridiculously expensive for digital cameras, and they were about a thousand dollars for the ancient versions. The one I saw had 'Made in West Germany' on it so I wondered if it was a collector's item

[Son Of Coco]

Did some (poor) mathematics and got very excited about lenses the past week. Unfortunately I factored in a $2000 bonus that will probably turn out to be about $1500 in a return airfare so...I might have to downgrade the ideas a little.

Had stretched things out to either a 70-200mm f4.0L IS or 2.8L non-IS, will probably pick up a 'nifty fifty' - 50mm f1.8 II as they're really cheap, and was considering selling my 6 month old 100mm f2.8 Macro and getting a 10-20mm f3.5-4.5 for landscape shots as I'm not really getting that into getting up close and personal with insects here in Korea. Love some of the shots I've seen with the ultra-wide angle lenses. It could still happen, but I'm going to have to face the fact it'll make someone mad at me!