Proud of myself :-)

daizylindsay

daizylindsay

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Anna
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Well, after feeling a tad despondent about my photography skills I went to bakewell show on Wednesday and had a crack at shooting some showjumping and some portraits of my son later on when I got home.

At the show I found myself stood next to a chap with a very impressive looking (compared to my 18-55 kit lens) sigma 80-400 (I think he said it was), we got chatting while focusing on the final fence and he was lovely! So friendly, an amateur (member of a club) really nice and helpful. He let me feel the weight of the lens and said what settings he was using (p mode). I followed suit and got some ok photos, but was really happy that I had spoken to him.

Later I switched to manual and I'm really pleased with my efforts for once! I'm on my phone now but will post them later for c&c.

I feel happier that, even though I only have a kit lens for now, I'm learning all the time and getting some nice shots. :-)
 
:thumbs: Feels good when a plan comes together :)
 
Anna I learn best from watching and talking to others as well. I have been out with a photographer who let me use one of his len's and play with his camera. He was also good enough to clean my eye piece (don't expect much do I *grin*) and showed me features on my camera that I would not have understood if I had read it.

Glad you had a good day and look forward to seeing your shots :)
 
The show was great on Wednesday - I'm sure loads of picture opportunities presented themselves other than in the arena - dog and cattle showings, loads of craft stalls, vegtable & flower displays, and the funfare (which my kids spent a fortune on). Certainly the better day for weather - I managed to burn my face!!
 
Who was it that said, "Feeling good is good enough!"??

Sounds like a nice guy and glad you had a good day... Now where's the photographs?!!'
 
Well done Anna,

Most photographers are friendly and chatty. I spoke to a stranger n W H Smiths today as we both looked through the magazines. He was just starting up and I told him about this site. Hope you continue to improve, as you are a Canon lady!
 
daizylindsay said:
Well, after feeling a tad despondent about my photography skills I went to bakewell show on Wednesday and had a crack at shooting some showjumping and some portraits of my son later on when I got home.

At the show I found myself stood next to a chap with a very impressive looking (compared to my 18-55 kit lens) sigma 80-400 (I think he said it was), we got chatting while focusing on the final fence and he was lovely! So friendly, an amateur (member of a club) really nice and helpful. He let me feel the weight of the lens and said what settings he was using (p mode). I followed suit and got some ok photos, but was really happy that I had spoken to him.

Later I switched to manual and I'm really pleased with my efforts for once! I'm on my phone now but will post them later for c&c.

I feel happier that, even though I only have a kit lens for now, I'm learning all the time and getting some nice shots. :-)
Click to expand...

Don't put the kit lens down - I used the one on my 350D for about 2 years before I felt the time had come to move on.

Learn what both it and the camera can (and can't) do and you'll be much better prepared when you do decide to move on.

.
 
C'mon Anna, where are the pictures, let's have a look at em.

:nono: Don't be shy.

D in W
 
Here you go... I fear that they probably are not worth the wait, but I feel that they are an improvement for me, as I was using manual and p modes rather than auto. The horse ones are disappointing but better than my last attempt.

1.
IMG_0073 by daizylindsay, on Flickr

2.
Will Smile by daizylindsay, on Flickr

3. Shame about the graze and his arm covering his face, like the water though. Needs a crop.


IMG_0109 by daizylindsay, on Flickr

4.
IMG_0138 by daizylindsay, on Flickr

5. Need to get rid of my Dad's foot!


IMG_0121 by daizylindsay, on Flickr

6. Couple from the airport on Monday night (went to the viewing platform)


IMG_0046 by daizylindsay, on Flickr
 
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#4 is a great shot :)

Get out there, take photos, look at them and understand why some didnt work is the best way of learning when you first start out. You will make mistakes, but thats half the fun!

Sam
 
The problem with the ones shot against the sky is that the large expanse of sky has caused the areas of interest to be underexposed - the horse, your son and the aeroplane.

In cases like that you have to expose for the main area of interest, which means for the horse and the face.

In fact auto can be quite good (I use it a lot) as long as you understand when, and why, it will fail.

In cases like that if you were on auto you would need exposure compensation of about +1-2 stops.

When photographing kids I take LOTS of pics in order to try and catch the changing expressions which come and go in an instant.

The ones of your kids need a bit of lightening, reduced saturation (a bit) and reduced contrast (a bit).

Anyway good luck with your photography and remember most of us started where you are.

.
 
Thanks for all the replies! I think I'm getting better even though there are the obvious flaws!

Thanks for the encouragement!
 
1 is nicely captured , though it would benefit from a tighter crop (or a longer lens) to make horse and rider bigger in the frame and take out some of the background , and a quick tewak of levels to lighten it up

and 4 is very nice though to be ultra picky either a fill flash or a reflector to take the shadow off his face would have made it spot on
 
daizylindsay said:
Thanks for all the replies! I think I'm getting better even though there are the obvious flaws!

Thanks for the encouragement!
Click to expand...

I'll let you into a secret: I still throw out more than I keep.

Thank god the pics we take are all free.

.
 
the horse jumping - a bit of constructive crit..

the sun is kinda behind them so youve got shadow on their faces. also f3.5 is a little thin on the DOF wise, you could have sacrificed some shutter speed to get it to f5.6 or maybe a little higher when doing a 3/4 to head on shot to make sure horse and rider are in focus. id recrop some of the dead space and portaloos out on the right of frame. otherwise timing is good and its nice and sharp.

id be interested to know what focal point and drive mode you used? doesnt mention in the exif.
 
neil_g said:
the horse jumping - a bit of constructive crit..

the sun is kinda behind them so youve got shadow on their faces. also f3.5 is a little thin on the DOF wise, you could have sacrificed some shutter speed to get it to f5.6 or maybe a little higher when doing a 3/4 to head on shot to make sure horse and rider are in focus. id recrop some of the dead space and portaloos out on the right of frame. otherwise timing is good and its nice and sharp.

id be interested to know what focal point and drive mode you used? doesnt mention in the exif.
Click to expand...

Thanks Neil, I think I used p mode and just sort of aimed to focus at the riders face area!

Alot of the pics were blurred though :-(

Yes sun was behind the fence which wasn't ideal and yes portaloos were a pain!
 
You'd probably be best using AV (aperture priority) or TV (shutter priority) probably the former.

however I think neil was asking what focus mode you were using , ie was it one shot, AF servo, AF priority etc , and also which point was lit up ( I'd be inclined to set it to centre point or near left point, put the lit up point on the rider and use AF servo and set the burst mode to continuous)
 
Yes sorry, it was on al servo which is what I usually have it on. I do use the tv and av modes but was pleased as this was something new for me.

Yes will keep talking to people, a friend of mine is in a local club so I may join. Think they may be film enthusiasts :-)
 
Hi Anna, I hope you don't mind but I had a quick with #7. Here's the results ...
<image removed>

It's on flickr but i've set it so only i can see it. If you like it and want to save yourself some time then just click the resize banner and right click save image from here. I've uploaded it on to my flickr purely to get it back on here, i'm not trying to steal your work ;)

If you want it let me know when you have it and i'll delete it from my flickr account.

If you have photoshop etc it's easy enough. All I did was lighten the shadows a bit (8% i think), apply a noise reduction filter and a high pass sharpen filter.

Also a tip for next time if, if you're standing close enough then using the flash on your camera would have lifted the shadows here nicely.
 
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Hi Anna, me again. One stray foot removed (not literally) ;) and again the shadows lifted a bit.
<image removed>
 
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daizylindsay said:
Thanks very much for those! I'm still yet to start reading my photoshop for dummies book but desperate to know how to clone things out! Les from here did some for me too and they look so much better!

I will save them from here and thanks again!
Click to expand...

Not a problem Anna. I'm no photoshop expert and it took probably 20 minutes to do both.

I've been learning how to use the clone stamp properly and i asked for some advice in the post processing forum here's my post, it contains some helpful replies
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=340867

Basic use is you select the clone stamp tool, then look at what you want to clone out and then find an area that closely matches what should be there instead, hold down "alt" and left click where you want to clone from and then start painting over what you want to clone out. Like everything in PS i've found it's then a case of playing around with the brush sizes , hardness and opacity etc and seeing what works. There's also some good tutorials to be found on the web. My "CS3 for dummies" book tells you very little about how you use the clone stamp unfortunately. None of the "technique" to using if you like. Also in the same section as the Clone Stamp tool is the Patch Tool which can be an absolute godsend sometimes. To use that you just draw a line around the area you want to get rid of to make a close fitting box around it then just drag that around the image until you find a close match for what you want to clone in to that area. Only works on quite small areas though, in my limited experience anyway.

PS Anna, I've removed your pics from my flickr account now, if you haven't yet saved them i can re-upload them for you.
 
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