So new at this. C&C welcome and encouraged, just be gentle. Thanks.

Canon T1i/aka 500D
Canon EF-S 55-250mm IS

AP Mode, F/5.6, ISO 100, Focal Length 250mm



Special thanks to Crawf71 for selling it to me for a nice price and working a deal, also taking a lot of care in packing it.

purdy!

Nice! The yellows are a little blown out though.. maybe go with a smaller aperture, like f8, next time.

Bigger number equals smaller?

<--noob

With aperture, ya.
The higher the number, the smaller the diaphram becomes and the greater the depth of field.

OK, but I thought that in Av mode the camera adjusted the shutter speed. So, wouldn't changing the aperture just cause the camera to choose a different shutter speed making it virtually the same? Or not?

Yeah, so M mode would be better to use. Easy method: In Av mode, depress the shutter half way so the camera calculates the shutter speed, switch to M and set it to the same f-stop but a faster shutter speed.

BTW, that is an un-edited jpeg. I haven't downloaded anything anything yet to mess with the RAW file.


I'll give it a try, thanks.

hi5 we have the same camera!

Will be following for helpful info...and some pictures I guess

You may be a noob Scott, but I know very little when it comes to photography. But very nice pic, IMO!

Nice!

Cool. I've seen your photos also, very nice.


Thank you very much.


Thanks and thanks again.


Thanks El Fab.

T1i

and the same lens another

I'll see your and raise you a

I accept your and present you a for taking a picture of a flower this time of year

Sorry, I live in CA remember. Mid 70's today.

Don't want to hear it. 10" of snow today and still coming down. I am sure my camera would fog up instantly if I took it outside, that is the one problem with these things. If I have it in the truck then bring it inside, no action for a while.

+2... 12" here, and that's just supposed to be overnight.

I'd like to get into photography someday, beautiful picture.

Scott,

use PP to fill light the center of the flower (or buy a ring flash, lol)

the thing with aperture is that it describes a fraction and the f number is the denominator

so 1/2 (f2) > 1/8 (f8)

they describe the diameter of the opening, think of it like the pupil of an eye

understand?

PP?

OK, understand the aperture number now, thanks.

Also remember that the smaller the aperture the less light is let in. So when shooting with smaller aperture (high F stops) you will need longer exposure times to properly expose the shot. You can compensate for this some by bumping up the ISO, but you loose quality at high ISOs.

I would recommend picking up the book Understanding Exposure. It's an easy read and can really help you take some amazing photos.

I like it!

?

Nice!

But maybe its my untrained eyes but something about the petals on the flower on the left look kinda bright, I dunno what it is.

Also you have flowers...I have cold and slush.

How did you find a flower next to your name?

Beautimous! The exposure is actually spot on, imo.
Having fun with the new software?

Yes 'Lani. Thanks.

Thanks Jacob.




Edit: Oh, I get it now, just lucky and in the right place at the right time.

The lighting is a little harsh and inconsistent, but the composition and exposure (considering the lighting) is excellent.

Hey Scott, great pictures. Congrats on the new camera.
And yea, lucky you to have nice weather this time of year!

+1

Ya, late afternoon sun.

Can anyone shed some light on why I'm having trouble with Photomatix using .CR2 files?

I don't think photomatix opens RAW files, unless I'm mistaken. Convert the images to JPEG.

It opened my .CRW files. I found a different solution, I converted them to TIFF, that worked. Wouldn't it seriously compromise the quality to load them as JPEG?

Seriously compromise? Imo, no. Unless you're exceedingly anal about minute details. I've never noticed much degradation in quality between RAW and high quality JPEG. I always convert to JPEG before merging HDR images.

But I may be a bit of a black sheep.

what version of photomatix? 3.2 opens .CR2 files.

i would use tiffs. photomatix already produces extra noise in the image, no reason to give it lesser quality images and increase that inherent noise even more.




in lightroom, start messing with EV, recovery, and fill light on a RAW and a JPEG. you'll notice the difference quickly. the extra information lost in a jpeg is used by HDR programs to make the final image, so using a jpeg can limit the final hdr result, and increase noise in dark regions especially.

I try my best to start with an image that doesn't need a whole lot of fiddling with.

if you're using photomatix, you're doing a "lot of fiddling" by default.

It's 3.0

yup, you need to upgrade to 3.2 then. i think i had to do the same thing after hawaii when i rented the t1i.

Thanks, working now.

It's good to see I didn't screw up the sale of the camera with my comments. I remember trying to tell the seller it was not that difficult to use. Good for you!!!

Thanks,

no problemo

If you want to screw around with HDR processing, you might try out Dynamic Photo HDR as well. Processes single-image HDRs from RAW and TIFF formats and has a pseudoHDR process for JPEGs (although it can be a bit noisy). IMO, it's easier to use than Photomatix and doesn't have as many issues with haloing. The end result looks a bit different too.

And if you're interested in HDR panos - PTGui is a pretty good stitching program with an HDR process embedded (which is closer to exposure blending results), and gives you better control over the stitching than Photoshop.

Awesome, thanks again.

Tilt-shift!

if this is glass (vs. photoshopped) can I come play with your lens?

Sorry Andy, I wish it was a lens, but I'm not there yet. I made it from one of my pictures here:

http://tiltshiftmaker.com/

sweet effect.