Extremely amateur photography

[Morto Vivente]

With the last one, what's the 'ink blot' in the water to the far left? Is it a duck of some sort leaving a trail in the water?

[Neil]

^^ Suspect it's the HDR processing gone awry.

[Morto Vivente]

^^ Suspect it's the HDR processing gone awry. I think I'll be making a trip to the optometrist then.

[LouCipherr]

So with that first one, hand held? Or was the camera sitting on something? That was the camera being rested on my knees while sitting on the couch across from it. Sort of "knee-held" instead of "hand-held". With the last one, what's the 'ink blot' in the water to the far left? That is exactly what you called it - an anomaly that I didn't fix in the final photo....yet. I don't think it was introduced by the HDR, however, because there is a "dark spot" in one of my three exposures that isn't there on the other two. Not sure if it was a random shadow that was enhanced too much by the HDR or what, but I can't explain it either. I will be using photoshop's "magic brush" tool and will remove it. I threw these three up quickly (with no other work done than putting it in Photomatix, doing my thing, then saving and posting) so no other edits were made other than cropping the candle pic a tad. I will, however, go back and fix that.. "issue" - I just didn't think anyone would notice it! Oops. ***edited to add: Neil, my Pentax has a built-in HDR function, and while it does work, you pretty much get zero control over how the photos are combined. I have a few HDR apps on my Android phone, but I gave up using them. Just not enough control. ***edited again to add: There. The healing brush in Photoshop applied and bam, new pic without weird anomaly.

[Neil]

Unfortunately only had an iPhone... But I kind of liked the result:- Surprising amount of detail... Shame about the 'noise'. If only I'd had the DSLR

[LouCipherr]

Unfortunately only had an iPhone... But I kind of liked the result:- Hey, i like that shot! It looks pretty cool! I have to ask, since I know when you HDR, you can pull every bit of the color out if you want, but, was that shot done in B&W originally? Or did you play with it to get it that way, Neil? It looks like there might be some color around the sun, but I'm not sure...? Either way, I likey.

[Neil]

^^ No, it's was a slightly overcast day, but the sun was just visable through through a layer of cloud... So all you got was pretty much B&W. I realised with the Sun in the background I'd end up with silhouettes, which is all I was after All I did was crop it and up the contrast a tad... But if you zoom it up, it's amazing what the little lens on the iPhone has captured... eg: Hair etc in the wind...

[LouCipherr]

Just playing around with the camera this weekend.... Fire pit! ...aaaand, mushrooms in the garden:

[AcesandEights]

Fire pit! Simple, but awesome!

[LouCipherr]

Simple, but awesome! The HDR really makes the orange glow stand out, doesn't it? And it brings out some nice wood grain, too. It was a cozy weekend in WV.

[DjfunkmasterG]

Just playing around with the camera this weekend.... Fire pit! ...aaaand, mushrooms in the garden: You should marry that KX

[LouCipherr]

You should marry that KX Well look who showed up late to the party.. Dj, if I could marry my K-x, I would... Are you jealous of her or something?

[babomb]

Yes, this is another way to do it if your camera doesn't support bracketing w/multiple exposures. I think most dSLR's nowadays do support this, but if it doesn't, this is the way to get it done. It takes a lot more patience, mind you. Very true. I think most HDR programs are the same way (I know Photomatix can) - you could load 200 photos into it if you wanted to, although I'm sure that'd take a hell of a lot of time to process! But yes, Photoshop gives a ton more control over other programs.. it would just be nice if learning photoshop wasn't as difficult as learning how to build a nuclear bomb with a rubber band, paper clip and a pencil (where's MacGuyver when we need him?! ). If Photoshop had a bit more automation when it comes to HDR, I would probably use it. Actually, I will use Photoshop to "touch up" some of my HDR's when I finished with them. Many times, when I'm done with doing the HDR work in Photomatix, I will take that finished HDR and drop it into Photoshop. Then I will add a layer underneath the HDR with one of the multiple exposures I used earlier in Photomatix and will use the HDR photo as a 'mask' as to allow pulling in some of the non-HDR image into the HDR photo, if that makes sense. I do this because sometimes HDR'ing an image will 'blur' some of the image and I want to 'clean' it up a bit, or, there's something I really want to pull in from one of the bracketed photos into the final photo. So many options! *brain on verge of exploding* The problem I have with Photoshop is that it has SO many options it's hard for me to remember how to do the stuff I want to do in it everytime I load up the program. Sometimes I have to dig up a tutorial because I just can't remember how I did something 2 weeks ago in the stupid thing! I guess if I used it a lot more I would remember! lol Yeah, that seems to be the biggest obstacle with it. When you're faced with the interface and just looking at all the options it can seem daunting. Once you learn the basics though everything falls into place better. Newer versions, from CS3 and up I think, there's a drop down menu on the top right that has options -"photography"-"painting"-"typography" that when you choose one of them it changes the interface on the right side with tools that apply only to that workflow. When you're looking at the interface it's important to note that like all design applications, the interface gives you multiple ways to do everything. So you can select a tool by clicking an icon from the toolbox, or with a keyboard shortcut, or from the menu at the top. Same goes for most all commands. The reason is because there's different screen modes. Once you know exactly how to use it you can go fullscreen and use only keyboard shortcuts, or full screen with menus. It speeds everything up. But for the basic screen mode(which is the most often used) for photography, you really just need to learn what the tools do, and how to use layers and masks. Photoshop itself uses terminology taken from photography and traditional painting and airbrushing. So once you familiarize yourself with the terminology, alot of the options make much more sense and you know what those tools and commands do. Then you don't have to memorize specific steps to do what you want to do. Which then gives you more creative freedom to try new things or do things differently each time. The way I learned it was by buying 2 books called "Adobe Photoshop 2.0 Classroom in a book" and "Photoshop 2 Wow Book". I have a buddy who's wife took a Photoshop class at the local community college and all they did in the class was go through the lessons contained in "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Classroom In A Book". The best thing to know is that even though it seems daunting, once you figure it out you realize it isn't all that hard. It's a mental obstacle that's really a self created illusion.

[LouCipherr]

The way I learned it was by buying 2 books called "Adobe Photoshop 2.0 Classroom in a book" and "Photoshop 2 Wow Book". I have a buddy who's wife took a Photoshop class at the local community college and all they did in the class was go through the lessons contained in "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Classroom In A Book". The best thing to know is that even though it seems daunting, once you figure it out you realize it isn't all that hard. It's a mental obstacle that's really a self created illusion. Thanks for the recommendations, babaomb. I will have to check out those books and see what I can learn from 'em. I guess I'm just being lazy when it comes to learning this program. I end up using it for one or two things, then don't go back to it for so long I forget how I did those one or two things from a week or so ago. Then it's back to finding another tutorial online to re-learn it. Maybe after a few years of cramming this stuff in my head I will retain.. ummm... some of it.

[krakenslayer]

Some snaps I've taken out and about over the past couple of weeks. The weather has been pretty abysmal lately, however... YOU NEED TO SCROLL TO SEE THE PHOTOS FULLY. Mullwharchar, near Glen Trool (was wet to the skin and frozen half to death, but the views were worth it) Boating on Loch Lomond last week. I was handholding a non-IS lens on a moving boat in choppy water for 1/4 second to get the motion blur; I am frankly astounded that even part of this shot is semi-sharp. A crannog on Loch Lomond. These are tiny man-made islands way out in the middle of the loch. Built in prehistory, they once had little piers leading out to them and the idea was to make it almost impossible to for enemy tribes attack. Pretty incredible engineering for so-called "cave men". Parking up on Inchonnachan. Believe it or not, there's wallabies on this island. The woman who owned the place in the early 20th Century had a few as pets and when she died they went feral and their descendants continue to survive there in spite of the Scottish weather. We found an abandoned ranger station on the island. I actually have a vague memory of feeding animals (including wallabies) here as a child, that only came back to me when I was standing in front of the place. I'm guessing it was on a school trip as a child, at a time when the building was still used by park rangers. Inside the abandoned station. Pretty damn creepy. I think hobos have been sleeping here. There is also a disused sawmill nearby. No one lives on the island now.