A boat and a rose

tolien · 29 Jun 2007 at 21:54

Was out and about (images link to larger versions):

(200mm, 1/1200 at f/5.6, ISO1600 - no idea why I used 1600, I didn't notice till I'd moved on past it)

(48mm, 1/125 at f/9, ISO400)

Both have been cropped, border added and auto levels in Photoshop.
On a 400D, first photo with my Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM, the second with the kit lens.

Any thoughts?

TheAlex · 29 Jun 2007 at 22:31

I like the boat picture, and the noise on it too. It was a better mistake than me just when I went out taking photos at low resolution.

I forgot to change it back after taking some shots for items on that well-known auction site t'other day.

I like the rose picture too, but think you should have used a faster shutter-speed and lower focal range to blur the background.

tolien · 29 Jun 2007 at 23:38

Thanks for the comments. On the subject of mistakes, I'd been playing with the saturation/contrast settings as well, and the JPEGs look utterly crap - RAW saved me from that one.

TheAlex said:
I like the rose picture too, but think you should have used a faster shutter-speed and lower focal range to blur the background.

Good point. I might've played more, but I was running short on time and was wary of some dodgy bugger making off with my gear

The DOF button seemed completely useless for shots like that though.

tolien · 12 Jul 2007 at 15:24

Found a tutorial in a magazine for adding DoF with Photoshop, so thought I'd have a play:

If anyone's interested, I could summarise the process.

Johnny|lucidcomposure · 12 Jul 2007 at 16:48

The edited rose is very nice. A great way to add lens blur is by using a Alpha channel and the Filter/blur/lens blur tool.

tolien · 12 Jul 2007 at 16:52

Thanks.

Fstop11 said:
A great way to add lens blur is by using a Alpha channel and the Filter/blur/lens blur tool.

That's what I did, though the tutorial I've got uses a whole load of dodging and burning in the middle.

divine` · 12 Jul 2007 at 17:08

TheAlex said:
I like the rose picture too, but think you should have used a faster shutter-speed and lower focal range to blur the background.

Pray tell how a faster shutter speed would have helped blur the background at all? :confused:

I'm also confused as to what you even mean by 'lower focal range'...

Aod · 12 Jul 2007 at 22:00

divine_madness said:
Pray tell how a faster shutter speed would have helped blur the background at all?

I'm also confused as to what you even mean by 'lower focal range'...

maybe faster shutter = larger aperture = shallow DoF? :confused: