Patricks Street, Cork. October 1st 2005
This is one of the US photos I forgot to post!
Hiking: What to take with you
Here’s a good article describing what you should take with you while hiking and how to take it too. The idea of charging batteries from a solar panel sitting on your backpack is cute!
The New York City Skyline
Here’s a very impressive New York Panorama via Daily Web Thing. Nice!
Noise Reduction the Open Source way
What are your options when you don’t run Windows or Mac and/or don’t want to use proprietary software?
Niklas Saers covers some of the options in this blog post. Thanks to him, I learned about ISO Noise Reduction, a GIMP plugin, which I’ll give a try tomorrow.
I usually use DCAM Noise, or selective blur to remove offending pixels but that can leave awful looking smooth areas next to unsightly pixels.
Blue Moon
Detail from a decorative earring, laid out on a newspaper.
| Aperture | ƒ/2.8 |
| Camera | DMC-FZ5 |
| Focal length | 6mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/8s |
Stock photography? Is that a bad word?
Interesting thread on the EOS forums on stock photography websites.
I’m a member of both Shutterstock and I Stock Photo but I haven’t been very persistent in uploading photos.
After all the trouble one goes to to become a member it’s worth remembering to upload stuff sometimes!
The Bride and Groom
On the weekend that we had our pre-marriage course, a wedding was held in the Honan Chapel in UCC. Here’s the Bride and Groom greeting people after the ceremony.
No doubt they’re all partying away in some hotel now!
| Aperture | ƒ/5.6 |
| Camera | DMC-FZ5 |
| Focal length | 72mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/400s |
Black & White Recipes
Here’s a long list of channel mixer settings to emulate various black & white films. I used the high contrast setting for the photo below but the different types of film create interesting effects.
It’s worth checking them out, but don’t get hung up on them – one setting will suit one particular type of shot while another will suit others.
Bird Feeding
Maze
Get your camera books here!
Ted Leung offers advice on what camera books to buy. I’ve read two of them, both books by Bryan Peterson:
- Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera
- Learning to See Creatively
I have to echo Ted’s sentiments. “Understanding Exposure” was an eye opener for me, but “Learning to see Creatively” taught me that lying down on the job can get some interesting shots! He recommends a few other books too which I may look into.
What photography books do you recommend?
Canon 5D Gotcha?
Michael Tapes has found what could be a major problem for advanced users of the new Canon 5D. It has a “custom settings” function that records a set of parameters such as aperture and EV so they’re available with the flick of a switch.
The problem occurs when you’re shooting in custom mode but change the settings. The new settings aren’t saved unless you explicitly tell the camera to, but if your camera powers off because of power saving (that’s quite possible, it turns on almost instantly, you’d hardly notice!) your settings will revert to the custom setting again.
I think it could be something that photographers will get used to. This “bug” will either discourage them from changing settings in custom mode, or discourage use of custom mode altogether!
How to fix it? While in Custom settings mode:
- Don’t let users change settings.
- Save any changed settings.
- As soon as a user changes settings exit custom settings mode.
I think exiting custom settings mode is probably the safest way of resolving this. What do you think?
More on this “flaw” on the photo.net forum where actual users of the 5D got a chance to air their grievences with Luminous Landscape or Canon! 🙂