Comments on photo theme #72

[billz]

Post your comments in this thread.

Bill

[peaches]

Debra, your blossom is beautiful.
suzi

[kimi_boo]

Sshhhhhhhh, Hubby left me at home to work on my taxes. Sneaking outside to see if I can find some nature. :eek: :D

[dsfisher421]

Debra, your blossom is beautiful.
suzi

Thank you. Wish I could send the fragrance, too. Love this time of the year.
And those are some of my favorite natural flavors. Great shot.

[peaches]

Thank you, Debra. Am a little confused on topic this week. Is it natural or nature. Think I might post another, this one of nature.
suzi

[kimi_boo]

Oh Russ, Lovely image! :D

[billz]

Suzi - Don't you just love vague themes?? Everyone interprets them just a little bit differently.

We're off to a fast start again this week ... lots of great entries already.

Bill

[GaryK]

I thought the theme was "au naturelle" ... but I can't get anybody to take my picture.:D :D

[Rusty]

Gary, if you climb up in a tree like that guy last week, I'm sure somebody will take your picture. :D

Rusty

[kimi_boo]

Gary! :eek: :eek: :D

Don't you have a tripod and a timer on that camera?

[billz]

Gary - Sorry ... out of film!

Bill

[GaryK]

Funny how people scatter when I start getting nakey..:D :D

[kimi_boo]

Tony... :D :D You did good!!

Care to share with me what your camera setting were? Like what mode you were in?

[TonyW]

Kimi: Thanks and that's a slightly embarrassing question. I thought I was in aperture priority mode but now when I come to look at the metadata I was actually in shutter priority :o . It was still quite dark and I didn't have a lot of time to check settings before the moon was going to disappear.

Anyway I was using spot metering, ISO 400, 1/50th sec at f9. Manual focus on the tree line. Camera on tripod, 70-300 VR lens at 300mm and (fortunately) VR on. Shot RAW and then opened the file twice in ACR, one I underexposed for the moon and one I overexposed for the trees then combined the two with a layer mask.

One of these days I'll get it all right :)

Tony

[Red Sky]

Nice shot and frame Bill, and I think Bob Warren is a Mr. Natural fan.

[kimi_boo]

Tony... did I read somewhere that if we had our VR lens on a tripod we should turn the VR off? I also think I need to change my focus back. It says single when I look in the camera but when I look at my screen on top... it used to say "S" and after my reset it says "A". I don't know how to get it back. :(

[TonyW]

Kimi: I read that too but I ignored it - there was a howling gale blowing through the open door and I'm sure the tripod was vibrating as much as I was :) .

Single area Focus is the default. Sounds like you have it in Auto Area. You probably changed it by pressing the AF button which cycles between Auto, Single and Continuous

Tony

[billz]

Ellen - ;)

Bill

[Ellen]

Lots of swell shots so far on this one. Happily no one else read the theme like Gary did ;)
Bill- that looks very steady to me and of course the frame is too fun
Tony - that's a great shot to my eye and look forward to when you think you have it all right.

[kimi_boo]

Kimi: I read that too but I ignored it - there was a howling gale blowing through the open door and I'm sure the tripod was vibrating as much as I was :) .

Single area Focus is the default. Sounds like you have it in Auto Area. You probably changed it by pressing the AF button which cycles between Auto, Single and Continuous

Tony

Thanks Tony.. ya fixed me again!! so much to learn. :p

[kimi_boo]

Angie, what a lovely little flower!!

Rusty, if you feed them... they will come. Great Shots!

Ellen, what cool moss!

Karen, WOW. look at all of the colors! I love looking at your images and seeing the other side of the world. (kinda) :D

[Byron Gale]

...I thought I was in aperture priority mode but ... I was actually in shutter priority :o You mean I'm not the only one with that trick up a sleeve??

[Byron Gale]

...think I need to change my focus back. It says single when I look in the camera but when I look at my screen on top... it used to say "S" and after my reset it says "A". I don't know how to get it back. :(Kimi,

The "AF-A", "AF-C", "AF-S" on the D80 top panel indicate the focus MODE... Auto, Continuous or Single. This is selected by tapping the AF button on the top right of the camera.

What are you looking at when you say you look "in the camera" vs. at the screen on top?

Byron

[TonyW]

Byron: I've got lots of tricks like that - this morning it was trying to focus on one flower out of many and it kept focussing on the wrong one. I finally realised that I had the focus area indicator pointing to the wrong flower. Once again the camera was right and I was wrong. :) I guess with practice I'll be able to glance at all those things the camera is telling me in the viewfinder and on the top screen and spot the one that isn't what it should be - but I ain't there yet :) . Something to said for my good old point and shoot but then it will never do all the clever things the D80 will do or take as good pictures.

Tony

[Rusty]

Kimi,

I added another image in the other thread - it's not always a question of them coming for food. For some of these guys it's almost Breakfast in Bed :D

We have 2 squirrel houses: one in another part of the yard and one in the "red feeder tree". A week or so ago I found a filthy mass of shredded leaves on the ground under this tree. Over the next few days we watched a busy little squirrel making in-and-out trips, packing the nesting box with fresh stuff. At the right time, I'll try to get pictures of the little heads poking out the hole to discover the world :)

Rusty

[karen donnybrook]

Kim,

Glad you liked it. The colours were really vibrant.

Karen :)

[kimi_boo]

Byron, I fixed it. :o I got my letter in the mail today for my Digital Camera Class. It starts tomorrow. They only let in 12 people at a time and I thought I had missed out because I had not heard from anyone. This class can't start soon enough! Now I really have to find my manual. :eek:

[kroberts]

Wow, there are some fabulous shots of nature this week! I'm going to a state park for a conference Friday and Saturday, hopefully I can get some good ones!:)

[Ellen]

Tony - I thought your full moon was wonderful but the shot of your dog is outstanding. I guess the new camera is getting to be feel more natural, they both are impressive.

[Rusty]

What a nice, sharp image, Jo,

Were you able to get that w/your 300mm, or did it also require an extender ring?

Rusty

[jo]

What a nice, sharp image, Jo,

Were you able to get that w/your 300mm, or did it also require an extender ring?

Rusty
Thanks, Rusty. That was with the 300mm shooting RAW. It was bright and sunny and that always makes it easier. And a little sharpening goes a long way. :rolleyes:

My neighbor showed me a few tricks in the RAW processing that may make me use RAW all the time. You can bump up the image size and resolution in that RAW processing screen without losing clarity -- or so he says -- and crop before you go into Photoshop. I'm trying it, but I'm not sold on the idea yet.

I've been down at the rookery 3 times already -- the first two times I was trying to capture the snowfall between me and the birds. The first time I used a 1.4 teleconverter and when I put the pics on the computer I remembered why I don't use it much. The photos were pretty fuzzy. Maybe it was the lower light or maybe the snow messed up the focus, but I didn't like what I got.

[TonyW]

My neighbor showed me a few tricks in the RAW processing that may make me use RAW all the time. You can bump up the image size and resolution in that RAW processing screen without losing clarity -- or so he says -- and crop before you go into Photoshop. I'm trying it, but I'm not sold on the idea yet.

Jo: Have you found a way to do that in Elements or is that only possible with CS2 ? At one time Adobe did suggest the ACR processor had a better upsizer than Photoshop but don't know if that's still true - and in any case my files are so big I'm not sure I really want to do any upsizing :)

Tony

[jo]

It's in the RAW processing. I haven't upgrade my Elements RAW yet and the version I have for PSE5 doesn't have that capability. I'll have to try to install the 3.6 version that's zipped on my desktop.

Neighbor also says that CS3 bridge is far better than CS2 bridge. I'm salivating over the bigger/better version of big photoshop!

[jo]

Here's a screen shot of CS2 RAW processing
http://www.chambersofmyheart.com/elements/RAWconverter.jpg
Cropping is in the top red circle.
The fly-out menu circled in red at the bottom lets you change from the camera's resolution to something that you might want to print bigger.

RAW 3.6 for elements doesn't seem to have this capability.

[TonyW]

Thanks Jo: I actually do have CS2 so did know it's there - I just wondered if you'd found a secret way to access it in Elements. The 3.6 ACR for Elements and Photoshop is the same but I guess they cut out access to some of the extra goodies when you use it in Elements.

Tony

[jo]

Nancy, that swan is gorgeous! How far away were you?

[NMarti]

Jo
I was about 12 feet away. He was on his way to chase the ducks out of the pond so he was definitely on a mission, which I think you can tell from the water movement.

[jo]

Wow, Nancy! The place where I find swans in the wild -- I'm at least 100 feet away, probably as much as 300 yards! And the swans at the zoo are close, but there's a plastic barrier between them and the visitors (usually dirty and spotty). It's hard to get a good angle there.

[Red Sky]

Nice shots and a great turnout this week. Pat, I really liked yours; simple (in the fact that it was tree trunks, snow and shadow) yet dramatic (conveyed the feeling immediately.) Sorry you are still under winter's spell. Just a few more months until Bert's back out, so hang in there.