Photography Competition - December

to be honest, If I get the thing turned on, take the lense cap off, get the autofocus to work then I will be a happy man

god knows what ISO/exposure/shutter speed etc etc it will be lol, got to start somewhere though

 

ISO is the speed of the film/sensor. Good daylight film would prob be ISO100 or ISO 200. If you are short of light, then use a higher ISO, such as 400, 800, 1600 (either film or digital sensor). The trade-off is that the higher ISO, although being more light sensitive is not such good quality (as you will see in my dog photo in the other thread).

Any film/sensor requires a certain amount of light to produce a decent picture.

So you can use a large aperture (that's the hole that lets the light in) open for a short period of time or a small aperture open for a longer period.

Large aperture/short time gives minimum depth of field in focus (see my Winter picture) with background out of focus. Also often used for portraits.

Small aperture/longer time open gives everything in focus from front to back of the picture, such as in a really good landscape.

I (and probaby everyone else) started off using everything on Auto and it's a good way to learn, particularly if you look at the details of aperture/speed/ISO of the picture in PS or elements.

Once you're getting more confidence, you can start to try using the manual settings - or semi-manual. If you set the speed, the camera sets the aperture and vice-versa.

Once you've got your equipment, it costs virtually nothing to take lots of pictures and look at them critically. And you can post them on here and there's a lot of knowledgeable people who will give you advice on what you did well, or could improve on.

For your kitten, try shooting at a fairly fast speed. Cats are notoriously difficult to capture well, as they never sit still, but you showed some good ones last week.

Good luck!

 

I have one from Christmas, but not this year, does that count?

 

Cool picture, Daz, but it looks like you should be getting your lawn mower out!

 

also, get a tripod, essential for night shooting, i've got a "hama" - very good and cost me peanuts off ebay

 

Has anyone taken their tree picture yet? Other than my Christmas tree, I haven't been near one in ages.

 

well, i've had no entries as of yet, plenty of time left, I have taken mine though

 

cool! I'm definately up for this.

I take part in a weekly themed thing on Flickr called "Macro Mondays" - every week there's a new theme for a macro based picture, then everyone posts them up on monday morning so we can all look at them on the most depressing work day of the week!


Got a few ideas for this..

 

Here's my attempt, taken in France in April

Edit - Gaz, I've removed your photo, as they're supposed to be anonymous when voted on. Please email your photo to
Wez instead. Stella

 

i just need to upload my photos

 

Here is my few tree pics...sorry about the bad weather we are having at the moment


Edit - to remove photos which should be sent direct to Wez.

 

moving to OZ has removed him his ability to read!

 

i couldnt read in the first place Wez...i am welsh remember lol


oh well, saves me a pm lol

 

Just a reminder to anyone entering pictures for this competition - please send your photos directly to Wez, who'll put them all up together (and anonymously) when the voting starts later this month.

Could I also suggest that the photos you send are
no more than 800 pixels wide (maximum) for landscape or 800 pixels deep (portrait) and 72 dpi maximum, otherwise they take ages to load, even with a decent size broadband.

 

I can assure you that this isn't my entry - just thought I would show you what my kitten has done to our tree.... bottom three layers of branches not a pine needle in sight. It did look quite nice when we first put it up!!!!



my actuall entry will be done at my GF parents house, where the tree looks a LOT nicer!!!

 

I'm sorry for laughing, but one small kitten did all that damage on her own? You have to admire her for that!

 

there is an cupboard under the stairs right next to the tree, and every time we shout at her when she is ripping the tree to bits she just scampers into the cupboard and waits for it all to calm down and then two minutes later she is attacking it again!!!!

So excited about getting me camera now!!!!