i did photos!

please note, i am a complete amature at this thing, this was my first attempt at doing anything other than point and click, and i don't even do that much (see the evidence in the very first fred pics).

however, that being said, hubby is a very good photographer and this afternoon was a patient teacher.

appart from the wobbly hand, which he couldn't do much about appart from suggest hand holds, he taught me to focus on a part of the thing i was taking, half hold the button in, making sure i stay the same distance from the object move the camera until the object was in the best position and then click. this was how we produced the focused object with fuzzy background.

and so, with out much ado...

dragon!



closer dragon!



paper weight.



my engagement ring.



and hubby doesn't like this next one much, and i only took the one pic of him, but i like him...




i'll also note that hubby made sure everything was as dust free as possible, and helped choose stands/background (way to point camera!) for me.

i learnt things *nods*

i love the paperweight shot!

Your hubby needs a shave Smaug! Like the helmet though.

I love the engagement ring photo !!

Was trying to deal with an uncooperative cat, but instead I give you pasta :

smaug, those are awesome! I really like the paperweight, and the close-up dragon.

gah, flickr uploader is pissing me off!

Maeve, I have a cheap tiny tripod i got off amazon for $1.50! that i used for my point and shoot. I haven't tried the heavier dslr on it yet.

I buggered off outside for my potos so didn't use a tripod.

General tips for steadying your hands, breath calmly and take the photo at the end of breathing out. Use anyting to steady yourself, lean against a tree or railings lamppost or a wall. Others have mentioned the elbows in thing, and smaug the auto focus half press and make sure what you want is being focused on is before taking the photo.

Ligthing is really important, the brigther it is the less likely the subject will be blurry as you will only need a sorter exposure time. I prefer natural light to flash, but inside I ave to use a tripod/wall etc to get a non-blurry photo.

JP on the auto setting your camera may still be focussing on everything in view. You will get better depth of field using the manual settings. I'm not sure what your camera lets you agust on manual....aperture? exposure time etc?

Smaug I like the viking shot, and the pasta looked like bread crusts at first.

Yay for all the enthusiasm! Does anyone wish to suggest an assignment for next week?

What about long exposure shots? Would a point and shoot camera be able to do those?

JP, as Hal said you need to control your exposures. I think what you want is a shallow depth of field which means picking an f-stop with a small number and matching the exposure to it. That means long exposures and support like the tripods and so on that have been mentioned. It takes practice, but if a fool like me can learn it, I'm sure you can do it.

what about scenic shots hal?

quote:

Originally posted by general punk:
what about scenic shots hal?

That maybe difficult to do in just a week.

The long exposures is a good idea. Most point and shoots can adjust exposure time?
If not we can just broaden it to night shots? Then the long exposures could focus on lights at night etc?

Night shots would be great! I'll try for both but at least I know Tacoma has some great neon things that'll turn out either way.

Most of the p&s rigs I've used offer the user very little control. They're for those who don't want to bother with all the complications. If you do want to mess around, you'll sooner or later want a camera that will let you. It depends what you want.

(And how much you can spend.)


And let me stop being pedantic long enough to say that I've enjoyed seeing every one else's efforts here.

oooooh, awesome shots everyone! love that dragon and what a gorgeous ring!

I will attempt whatever shot y'all agree on, but frankly I'm having a lot of fun with macro. Can I request that we return to it at some point?

yeah, I loved the macro too - it was like being a child again (that's why I liked the odd ones of the cable and the shelf better than the more portraity ones I did).

I'm up for night shots next!

I'll read the latest of the thread when I have time, but wanted to upload this before my impatient child yanks me away from the computer. Here are a few, more on my flickr.

I'm not sure if this is what you should use it for, but it was a macro setting:

Ice on Gerry's car

And I know that we could all go back into our photo libraries and find stuff for the exercises, but I found this while uploading my latest ... somehow I managed to have a blurry background on this one!

quote:

Library Lady I like te crochet with the light reflecting on the wood surface, do you have links to the photos so we can see larger versions?

Let me know if this works