Photographography

[wossname]

Wooohoooo! I just ordered my very first Digital SLR camera

This decision was a long time in the making but was finally pushed over the edge by the inestimable skills of Mendhak. If I can generate images half as good as his then I'm happy.

It's the same camera as mend's actually, a Nikon D40.

£250 is a bloody good price for something this feature-packed. See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkB2nK0qQUM

That's incidentally the same amount as I payed for my previous Digicam, a trusty old reliable kodak affair.

Naturally I'll be getting a flickr account later on and sharing my renewed passion for landscape photography.

Can't wait!

[kregg]

This is the best time to own a iMac, since we all know, everyone takes pictures of stuff and puts it into a photo album.

[abhijit]

Don't forget to buy photoshop or download gimp!

[I_Love_My_Vans]

Congratulations Wossname...

If you're a n00b, might I recommend Adobe Lightroom, it is much more basic than Photoshop and is very useful for storing photos too.

Edit:
Despite being several years old, my D50 > your D40

Shabba

[oceanebelle]

Windows Live Photo Gallery rocks!

[mendhak]

the inestimable skills of Mendhak

Good video, that's the same one I watched before I decided to buy the D40. I think it's currently at Jessops for GBP249, 3GBP more than Amazon but their online prices is the same as their store price.

Oh, shooting in RAW is quite nice. Get GIMP and their RAW editor plugin (I forget its name, I don't use GIMP) but RAW is quite nice, lots of stuff to play with.

WOOPWOOPWOOPWOOP.

[MaximilianMayrhofer]

I use Adobe OnLocation when I want to really take a lot of photos.

[wossname]

I have it!!! I have it, the precious. They want to steal you, I'll murder th-...

Uhh... so I actually bought mine from Argos (of all places) for £246 of your puny Earth pounds.

These days Argos are actually a pretty good place to get good gear at a decent price. They've pulled their act together so it seems. Also I fell in love with the sexy lass behind the counter, but that's another story.

So now I'm in the irritating position of having to wait 90 minutes for the battery to charge up before I may behold of the awesome soul-capturing abilities of this really shiny piece of gear.

This camera is a LOT of kit for £246, it's very well made and sturdy.

Thanks to mend for the advice this is definitely a good purchase.

[ElPresidente408]

Definitely try out the Adobe Lightroom 2 trial. Great piece of software for putting your pictures together.

I recently bought the Canon 5D Mark II and realized that I'm going to need a bigger hard drive. With a few hundred pics I'm close to 20GB already.

[wossname]

Oh my god.

This thing boots from cold and takes a picture in less than half a second. This this is frickin' amazing.

The GUI is awesome too, it's so comprehensive. I'm going to read the manual all night.

Buy one. Now.

[schoolbusdriver]

These days Argos are actually a pretty good place to get good gear at a decent price.

I got my DSLR from Argos too. They're better than Comet, who are trying to illegally fob off customers by telling them to return faulty gear to the manufacturer.

Now all we need is some decent weather..... (and caravans ).

[BillGeek]

This is the best time to own a iMac, since we all know, everyone takes pictures of stuff and puts it into a photo album.

lulz

I'd love to be able to take photo's such as the members do around here. My hand is too unstable to do any REAL photography.

[mendhak]

I'm a smoker, my hands are always shaking.

[BillGeek]

lol - how do you then take such perfect pictures? Surely you don't carry a tripod everywhere you go?

[mendhak]

I don't have the courage to use a tripod in public. It took me a while to start using the SLR too, I was afraid of people looking at me (I'm shy, if you can't tell)

Cameras are generally quite fast in most well-lit situations so your shakiness doesn't affect it at all. In other situations, I've noticed other photographers will start leaning against things to get steady, so I do the same. For example, they'll press the camera back against a lamppost and take the shot, or they'll lean their elbow with all weight against a stone block, or even use knees, bags, friends, books, cadavers, cigarette cases, etc.

What I'm saying is that hand-shake is not a big deal because SLRs give you lots of control. P&S cameras can be a little difficult that way though.

[schoolbusdriver]

I don't have the courage to use a tripod in public. It took me a while to start using the SLR too, I was afraid of people looking at me (I'm shy, if you can't tell)

Fact them.


That is, explain it's to stop unwanted blurring. You can also offer to take their picture for £5, or poke the tripod legs in their eyes.

[Merrion]

I don't have the courage to use a tripod in public.
.

I recommend a Gorillapod.

[MaximilianMayrhofer]

Specifically an 800 pound Gorillapod, which will sit wherever it damn well pleases.

[wossname]

I recommend a Gorillapod.

Nice!

http://www.joby.com/products/gorillapod/slr/

[grilkip]

d40tards

[EntityX]

I like that word even though it doesn't really exist(at least as far I know). It sounds cool when I say it to myself. Photographography.

[zaza]

Wooohoooo! I just ordered my very first Digital SLR camera

This decision was a long time in the making but was finally pushed over the edge by the inestimable skills of Mendhak. If I can generate images half as good as his then I'm happy.

It's the same camera as mend's actually, a Nikon D40.

And if you let me, or debbie, or even visualAd, borrow it, then you'll be rewarded with some pictures that are exactly as good as mendhak's best efforts as well. A coincidence, that....

[wossname]

Save up your pennies and then you can have your own Nikon D40. Hurrah, think of the fun we could all have!

[wossname]

And who the hell is Debbie?

[Merrion]

Photographography is the art of pointing expensive equipment at interesting things :-)

[schoolbusdriver]

lol - how do you then take such perfect pictures? Surely you don't carry a tripod everywhere you go?

Taken without a tripod, monopod or gorillapod, and I was standing sideways-on on a 30 degree slippery, grassy slope. According to the super-duper EXIF editor I've just built (VB6 and VS2008 versions available soon) the exposure time was 10/4200 seconds. I think that means "fast". For taking pics with the ultimate hangover, you can even get gyro stabilised mounts.

Despite those that poo-poo the idea, lots of megapixels do increase detail. Personally, I think the detractors are suffering from pixel envy. Yes, I'm an ex-detractor fan.

Disclaimer:

1. No cats were harmed during the making of this picture.
   
2. Poor picture quality due to resizing & zooming during editing.
   
3. The fieldmouse escaped.

[kregg]

And who the hell is Debbie?

oceanebelle?

[BillGeek]

schoolbusdriver, that's most excellent detail there, considering the conditions you took the photo in... What camera did you use?

[schoolbusdriver]

Believe it or not, a little point-and-shoot camera - Fujifilm PinePix F50fd. 12 megapixels - 4000 x 3000 resolution. It's pretty good in decent lighting conditions, but night shots produce something out of a Fuji engineers imagination rather than reality (too much blue). Trying to take pics of a red sun setting just produce a white sun. I know these problems are partially due to the way our eyes work (eyes are also brain tissue), but I would have thought Fuji would have compensated for this - unless the CEO thought we'd got enough for our cash.

Still, it's small, light and shoots movies. Another good point is that it doesn't receive calls asking you to do the shopping.

Now all I have to do is figure out a way to connect it (and my Canon DSLR) to a handheld GPS system via the USB port so I can set the latitude/longitude exif tags when I'm halfway up a mountain in the Lake District. Alternatively I could take a pic of the GPS screen and carry a couple of extra SD cards. Hmmm... decision made.

[wossname]

[crashing generalisation]
Any DSLR will beat any P&S.
[/crashing generalisation]

[MaximilianMayrhofer]

I think a more accurate [tag] would have been [sweeping generalisation], but that's just my internal expressions nazi.

[wossname]

No, a sweeping generalisation would be something along the lines of "shut up".

[BillGeek]

Interesting that a "little" P&S camera has 10 megapixelz. My Kodak P850 has 5.0. One day I'll be old enough to get a decent camera.

[MaximilianMayrhofer]

No, a sweeping generalisation would be something along the lines of "shut up".

Your attempt at wit has failed.

[Shaggy Hiker]

[crashing generalisation]
Any DSLR will beat any P&S.
[/crashing generalisation]

And my back. My P&S waterproof camera weighs in at 4.5oz, and fits in the waist belt pocket on my pack.

[mendhak]

And my back. My P&S waterproof camera weighs in at 4.5oz, and fits in the waist belt pocket on my pack.

My SLR fits inside my pant pockets. I wear tents.

[CVMichael]

the exposure time was 10/4200 seconds.

Isn't the picture very dark at that setting ? (apparently not from your post...)

What other options do you set so that the picture is not very dark ?

[schoolbusdriver]

Interesting that a "little" P&S camera has 10 megapixelz.

4000 x 3000 = .......... (Sorry, couldn't resist )

Due to crap weather I've not done much for the last 2 months. Even though the snow's gone it's been cold and overcast till the last couple of days. Still, there are such things as decent winter shots.

[schoolbusdriver]

Isn't the picture very dark at that setting ? (apparently not from your post...)

What other options do you set so that the picture is not very dark ?

Most, if not all, digital cameras have a number of presets for night / day / snow / water / sports (motion) shots. You can also set the exposure bias manually to compensate for excessively bright or dark conditions. When I first became interested, I just used the full auto mode, but ended up doing too much editing. Now I make more use of the OSD and take several shots if possible.

I only had 1 chance with this pic. Taken with my Fuji P&S through a dirty double-glazed kitchen window at a distance of 20 feet, with zoom. I had only seconds to set up the camera. Got the exposure right first time via the live view. As you can see from the colouring, the birds around here are soviet. They watch YOU.

Exposure time 10/3500 seconds
F number 510/100
ISO 800
Brightness 604/100
Exposure bias 67/100
Flash manually disabled

[MaximilianMayrhofer]

You lost a lot of the sharpness though. I think once you began to touch it up, you'd quickly run into problems. And remember that one of the limitations caused by the way a digital camera captures an image, is that unless you are in optimal lighting conditions, taking a picture without flash will tend to cause blurriness because the capturer won't stop recording until it has received enough of an image.