Photography thread (closed thread, see first and last post)

[Ms. Research]

You can use my turkey shot for the "lack of focus" example of your tutorial. After reading, I truly did everything wrong.

Definitely need to practice. Look forward to practicing with objects. Definitely won't be fuzzy or cute.


Who's the model? He really did a good job for you. Have to say, very entertaining way to learn to focus.

 

[DKRabbitry]

I posted my for real reply in a new thread... thought that might be easier to follow for those interested without hijacking this one

 

[greybeard]

Question.

I have seen people take beautiful pics of a full moon, with fairly inexpensive cameras. The pics appear to be just as your eyes see it. When I try it, no matter if it was with my digital, the moon is tiny. I've had the same problem taking other night time shots. I used to have a Maimya Sekor 35mm that produced great "what you see is what you get" night photos. What's the trick to getting night time shots with these new digital cameras?
Canon Powershot--don't remember which model--not a top of the line one tho.

 

[redtailgal]

Canon powershot is a decent camera. (I am a Nikon gal, so I am a littel biased )

That is an excellent question, and one that I pondered and studied on not to long ago myself.

The size of the moon will be determined by a few things, including the focal length of your lens. Do you know what your focal length is? Or what is your zoom capabilities?

Cameras have the ability to "see" differently than our eye, the camera can see more than our eye can percieve. This could be a good thing, giving us sharper more clear images. However, although the camera can see these things, it cannot accurately SHOW us. We see less but we see it in 3d. The camera sees more but has to show us in 2d. It often trys to show us more in less space, which often confuses the eye/mind communication. Oddly enough, the way to ease the confusion on the eye/mind is to add MORE to that same space, so long at it is added in the right place. By adding a building or a tree, our eye can again perceive space and dimension, causing less confusion as the eye is better able to follow a scene and understand the layers of the land/sky/night scape.

Another thing to consider, is that the moon will often trick the eye. It appears to the eye to be much larger in the sky than it really it. Usually when we "size" the moon, our eye compares it to the trees or building we see along with it. But when we take a picture, the scene is no longer 3d, making the moon appear smaller. This is even greater if we do not include other objects in the picture as well.

One way to check to see how the moon will appear in your pic, is to cover one eye. This takes away SOME of your visual depth perception and narrows your field of view. It's not a foolproof method, but it does help.


YOu will want to zoom in as far as you can (use the optical zoom and leave that digital zoon alone)

Use a tripod or improvise one if you can.

Turn off your flash. This *may* lengthen your shutter speed a little giving your more details.

You will get the best shots of the moon within an hour of the sunset/moonrise.

Include trees or buildings in your shot, so that your eye will have some perspective to go on. Try to angle your shots so that the object is close to the right or left and slightly lower than the moon.

Keep in mind that when YOU look at the moon, part of what you are seeing is the light "halo" around the moon. The eye will percieve this halo as part of the moon, when it is really only high density reflection. Your camera may or may not capture this halo in the picture, thus giving you a moon that is smaller that what your eye percieves.

 

[greybeard]

I suppose that makes sense, tho I always believed, that the moon at different times of the year was a little closer to Earth due to an eliptical orbit, thus appearing larger to us Eartly veiwers. I suppose when we are talking about 1/4 million miles, a few miles doesn't really make that much difference tho.
Lots of info here as well.
I have been told me there was a "night" setting somehwere in my camera options. Would this help?

 

[redtailgal]

That was a good read, thanks for sharing the link.

If you do have a night setting it may help, but you will probably have a longer shutter speed and may want to use a tripod.

 

[greybeard]

Most of my (our) pics are spur of the moment things. The one below has a little story behind it. I was out in the pasture when a thunderstorm blew up a couple weeks ago, so instead of driving out of the pasture and up to the front of the house, I hurridly drove the truck straight into the workshop. It really started blowing, and then dropping big hailstones. As it moved off to the east, I looked out back and saw the rainbow. I called my wife on cellphone and told her to look out the back door, and she quickly took this photo just as I started around the shop and into the yard, with a double rainbow behind me. It appears, to "end", right in our pond.




(I'm having some trouble getting the image to show up in this post for some reason.)

 

[redtailgal]

What a nice rainbow!

Did you dive down to find the pot of gold? lol

 

[MrsDieselEngineer]

Okay critics What do you think?

Camera is a Kodak Z812 IS, and I'm on the lookout for a different one. I'm looking for something point and shoot that actually captures what I'm looking at....

 

[redtailgal]

Well, its a good shot with a unique perspective, and I like that.

The blue lead is a little distracting, but I do understand that it has to be there.

I'd like to see this shot composed a little different. Do you see how the road rises up on the little hill and then..........nothing. It just stops. The horse has no where to go in the pic, so neither does the eye. My eye searches and falls back to the back of the horses head.

Perhaps you could get a shot that shots the road curving around or something. BZut you need for the road or path to travel to the end of the photograph so its not a dead end for the eye.

If you can get a shot like that, I would LOVE to see it. This shot is an excellent idea and you very close to having an awesome pic.