Albedo

I'm staying away from who's got it and who hasn't, as much as possible. Lots of fine stuff on this forum. And if someone is put off from shareing a photo they have taken that would be a shame. Suffice just to say thats a nice picky when you see something you like. Could also be because a moment is captured or a story is told or a memory preserved. Me and you are doing what we are doing and thats good, I asked for advice and criticism in the first place. I did feel that I wanted to debate further that composition should be so governed by rules and thats going rather nicely too. The blunt bit, I mean't that I believe its in the blood and youv'e either got it or you haven't, and might not have said it if you hadn't said it, but once you did say it I had to agree:001_smile:

From seeing a lot of peoples work over the years, this is what I think. I may not have said it as blunt as this, but it is the conclusion I have come to.

Thanks for posting sparko, nice to have more input in the thread:thumbup1:

I know what you mean in that to take a textbook image, that conforms to so many rules would be extremely unlikely, but by extension, does this mean that you think that an untrained person is unlikely to take such a well composed image. If I had a scanner I'd be able to show you one or two picks that I took that I was told conform to these rules but I didn't know them. Is it not possible that the rules came from a formalisation of what makes a pleasing image and that this could be done by anyone with an eye for what is pleasing

Just a thought I have had H. What would you say, if someone who didn't know the rules took this image? This is not a trick question, or disrespectful to what you have been saying, but do you think it a possibility?

Glad youv'e thrown that in H as have decided that hiding from the rules is not necessary when an understanding of them will allow more effective rule breaking in the longer term. I still haven't looked at this properly, but have been too busy on the technical side

Whoops meant focus lock, don't want to run before I can walk, will do the exercise as instructed:thumbup1:

I think the ae lock could be good for this as I can do it once then reel off ten shots at different shutter speeds without moving the camera as it will be on the little flexi tripod. I think it may have moved a bit in that first shot, may need to invest in a mini tripod with stiff legs. Will take you up on that offer, but need to get to understand the lingo first aye, I'm not sure that I ever did this properly, even when I was into the photography 20 yrs ago. If I ever did I have clearly forgotten..

This is good H, an its going in the book, its the kind of picture painting that youv'e done here that I can understand

Cheers H, thats my next job. (How did you know that the second bottle was the one I focused on, can't get away with anything:blushing:) I'm still analysing all the stuff from last night and today so plenty to do. I hadn't discovered the focus ae lock button till you mentioned it, I'm glad you bought this camera. Would do it now but have flattened the battery today, just going on charge now.

OK H. First thing this morning I read through all your posts and wrote out a few of them verbatum so I could digest at leisure and keep a record of the advice. Then went out and set up some bottles and did the exercise (everything today in shutter priority). I wrote down the shutter speed and the F stop selected by the camera and named the photos accordingly and started to see differences. I found the range of shutter speed that was not so slow that it was washed out by bright light, then worked there on general quality and DOF versus speed and aperture. So I did a table showing (to my number dyslexic brain cell) what it all means. As I changed from 1-25 (at first 4 stops at a time, then 2 stops at a time as I found the acceptable range) up to 1/250 I wrote down slow to fast and for the f stops I wrote down small to big aperture. I have to visualise numbers in this way. So for example 1/25 F8 = Slow and Small and 1/160 F2 = Fast and Big I am beginning to get to grips with this now and can see myself taking 100s of pictures of these bottles as I play around. There are other bits of your advice that I also need to experiment with, but also had to work a few hours today and only had time for this so far. The first is 1/15 F8 and the second is 1/160 f2 I did about 6 goes with 15 or so shots in each so this is just an example ... learning loads:thumbup1:

Hi H those are fantastic, thanks for posting and explaining the way you took them. I showed some stuff I'd done on aperture priority earlier in the thread, so I knew a bit of what your'e saying and not other bits. What became clear last night is that I didn't understand what I was adjusting in terms of what it does for the image. I have done my homework and am just preparing the post right now Boss:001_smile: hang on a min.....

Xerxes knows what he's talking about. I was briefly, a worm farmer in australia and we composted big piles for the worms to munch on. I would just add that the pile needs to be turned periodically as it can become anaerobic thru the composting bacteria using up all the oxygen in the middle, also gets it to break down by moving the outside bits to the middle. Not sure the end result would be soil exactly as there's the mineral component, I guess it would be a type of Humic soil perhaps

These are the ones I was on about, nearly bought one. I found the GPS in the TZ10 a bit pointless (for me anyway) so would have gone for the model before it, nearly did just that, before going for the Panasonic LX5. But this is good advice from Warbaby. (Note the zoom's warbaby quotes and the 3.8 to 6 with digital tricks of the LX5) Depends what you are looking for really, a very good proper compact like this or the 'semi slr type' high end compact like G11, LX5 etc. They all have plusses and minuses so its easy to get very lost indeed:001_smile:

Thought you'd logged off for the night must be on the vino rojo like me.... Hasta manyana mate, and appreciated again, hopefully I'll get some results to post .Edit: and you too , 1st day with the new toy

Nice one H. Youv'e had to chip it out of stone but its getting thru to me now. (I'm number dyslexic by the way which doesn 't help) This and some of the previous posts have been good, and I will now seriously do my homework on this and digest it all properly. I have googled it by the way but there's no substitute for talking to someone who knows what they are talking about. Thanks for taking the time to explain and being patient with me. Youv'e given me my exercises for tommorrow:thumbup1:

Thats a quality bit of explaining H. So optimum DOF macr/landscape needs a slow shutter speed = more light but small aperture to capture the detail of the subject. So should I try shooting a fungi thing at F2, and as the LX5 defaults I think to 1/60th, maybe change it to 125th on shutter speed? although I appreciate that, to answer that, you might need to know more about what the desired image is. Edit: re-reading your post I think my 'slow ' should read 'fast' gonna have to think this thru a bit as I don't expect you to spoon feed me too much. Will do some homework on this.

I've been meaning to ask for ages H, what is lmao? And yes, but I am doing it one variable at a time as my brain cell only does one at a time:001_smile: I guess its late now, there's always another day mate.

I noticed you mentioned the reflector to monkey d and have had it in the back of my mind so will look out for one and give it a go. I have only played with one of the variables in DOF up to now which is the F stop. Are you saying that the increased reflected light will have the effect of an F stop or two up.? I guess this makes sense as its like more light from a bigger aperture. Confusing cos F8 is small and F2 is big if I'm not mistaken. Also a thing that confuses me is that distance from subject is a variable in DOF but if you go to far away, you can't frame the image. Am I being stupid here or do you see my confusion?

Yip, I'm all ears H.

as in quote you .. Hama "Rules are there to be broken but only when one has first mastered them"

By the way, as this is in the fungi pictures bit, heres my other pic from today. These wee beasties on dead malus And I know you can't do the work for me so its back to some learning for me but keep it comeing H .... advice, buttons I don't know about, its all good:thumbup1:

I like that quote H, and as I approach oldness I find my stubborn old ways changing, I've had a few examples of this lately. I may well take that advice, its in a form that I like.

I know the crop is crap but I'm gonna explain something about the rule of thirds. More of a confession really. I've known of its existance and other rules for over 30 years and never read or seen it. Although I assume it says that sky etc should be a third of the image. I've seen the grid, but don't see why I should compose an image by it I've avoided it deliberately. I always had a natural eye for composition and didn't want it corrupted by rules. I may change this view after all this time, but back in the day I've had several pro photographer friends that said my composition was natural. I don't want to ruin it by learning rules so have never learned them. The crap crop was an attempt to save a crap photo, that might not have been crap if I could have seen the screen to compose it the way I liked, also again I rushed it. I need to learn technical stuff but am staying away from composition rules for the time being. Edit : no angry tone in this post if it reads that way, I was thinking about what I was writing and finding crap crop mildly amusing, and am bored of smiley faces, but assume smiley tone mate

By the way H. Nice of you to post the news in this thread as it's quite a big deal to make a decision on a camera for someone of your experience and enthusiasm. Must have been tempting to start a new thread, that was decent of you. Appreciated mate.