Rob, the sheep photos I originally posted were taken in the poor light that was a combination of Duncan’s “dark grey sky” and late afternoon. A quick bit of PP turned the JPEGs into something that most will accept, but you spotted the tinge of cyan. Even more quickly then, I ‘warmed’ them up to close to what my eye sees in these snow scenes - not everyone’s cup of tea, which Duncan pointed out at the time.
At Martyn’s suggestion, this led me to experiment with WB to find out the settings that best reproduced my personal ‘reality’ in these conditions (snow scene in heavy overcast) – hence the four cottage shots straight out of the camera. Any PP would have made such a test pointless: aesthetics weren’t the issue.
In these conditions and with my perception, the original no. 2 (custom WB with fresh snow as the reference) comes closest to my ‘reality’. This is not to say that it couldn’t do with a spot of PP to make it more acceptable even to me – I hope I haven’t invested in Lightroom over Christmas for nothing – but that it might be a good starting point for my taste.
I should have posted the next images instead of the cottage shots (the detail in them confuses), taken a little earlier in the lane where I live, meaning I could nip out quickly and check colours. Again, necessarily straight out of the camera:
Auto 1 by wylyeangler, on Flickr
Custom 1 by wylyeangler, on Flickr
Number 1 is auto WB; number 2 is custom and is closer to what I see – the colour of the mud/gravel and salt/snow mix is nearly right, I can see the 'right' green in the trees, and the snow itself doesn’t have the ‘blue whitener’ look so favoured by cleaning products. Actually No. 1 is what I would have ‘expected’ to be right, but observation proves isn’t – more attractive though, I shall concede!
With the generous help of this thread, I am getting clearer in my mind how I should use the X10 with all its ‘bells and whistles’. I want to know how to get its JPEGs out of the camera closest to my ‘reality’, leaving me freedom in PP to adjust images to whatever I want. If for some reason I want to use a different WB, or an SP, or other mode for special effect, I need to know what the camera’s doing. That was the point of this little experiment, and the many others that we all do.
I think that for most of our sort of photos, Dave’s dictum of “if it looks right, it is right” is spot on…but “reality has nowt to do with it”? Try telling that to my sister when I get the colours wrong photographing this sort patchwork quilt, raffled off for charity each year:
P1020942 c by wylyeangler, on Flickr
Pete
); the second shot is more to my liking (but tends to lean towards green/yellow).
...As to the WB issue: I just believe that if the WB is correct, PP'ing an image should be less complicated than with the WB off.
I think the first shot (the lane) is lacking a bit of vibrance (too much blue whitener
Thanks Rob - actually I can PM it's just that I wouldn't know who to PM (some members on here my have used or currently have the 40D) and ask the question. I took a look around some reviews but nothing quite like some advice from members on this forum that I have come to trust over time. Individuals like Duncan, YV or Lindsay would also know if that would be a sensible move for me. I am clueless about DSLR's.
Thanks for the reply
Got my X10 back from Fuji yesterday. It all looked good until I started photographing a few landscapes. Funny how the human eye can be so accurate: whenever the built-in level indicated green, it looked to me rather skew.
Thanks Rob - actually I can PM it's just that I wouldn't know who to PM (some members on here my have used or currently have the 40D) and ask the question. I took a look around some reviews but nothing quite like some advice from members on this forum that I have come to trust over time. Individuals like Duncan, YV or Lindsay would also know if that would be a sensible move for me. I am clueless about DSLR's.
Thanks for the reply
Today I took a proper level I have, placed the camera completely parallel to it and photographed it when the level indicated green: my eyes were absolutely right (or was that my brain?), the built-in level is off! It used to be spot on! Blast, now it has to go back again...
DSCF1776-resized by Robenroute, on Flickr
Evening
As Lindays says, the 40D is a great camera.
It's the benchmark by which the current generation of Canon's are measured.
Low light focussing is marginally superior to the 5DII, and I've never heard anyone complaining of banding in the shadows which means you can get away with murder in PP.
The only problem they all seem to suffer from is dirt under the shutter button which can make the shutter button feel a bit unresponsive. In severe cases taking a shot can be rather hit and miss.
There are two well known fixes:
1) replace the button. There are guides on how to do this on the web (not for the faint heated).
2) Wash the dirt out with 99% Isopropyle Alcohol (sp?). Spooky timing as I did this on my neighbours 40D last weekend! Again, some excellent youtube how-to guides on how to do this.
