UK Community Photo Competition for w/e 29 June - Disney At Night DISCUSSION

[UKDEB]

A plea this week for everyone (both regulars and newbies) to take time to review the Rules (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1310913) before posting. In a bid to keep things simple (i.e. make my life easier :teeth: ), I will be applying the rules strictly from now on.

This is your thread for any questions or comments on this week's Entries (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=19365584).

[Hilary]

Great topic :thumbsup2

I'm sure there'll be some stunning entries this week - I think there's something about night-time photos that makes them extra special :cloud9:

[TinkTatoo]

Great topic :thumbsup2

I'm sure there'll be some stunning entries this week - I think there's something about night-time photos that makes them extra special :cloud9:

I have to agree and there are some cracking photo's already. I'm looking forward to this weeks comp :thumbsup2

[UKDEB]

I'm enjoying this week's entries. Bev, I hope you don't mind me saying this, but I think your entries lack impact due to their size. I don't know whether or not you normally get many votes, but I think you would improve your score if you can work out a way to bring them up to the size of the other entries (and of course this applies to anyone who is posting smaller images). Let us know how you're hosting them and I'm sure we can help. :goodvibes

[Boudica]

What are the rules for posting? Unfortunately, when I click on the link I only get a blank screen.:confused3

[jns]

What are the rules for posting? Unfortunately, when I click on the link I only get a blank screen.:confused3
Here are the rules
UK DIS Community Photo Competition - RULES

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Throughout 2007, starting this Friday, 5 January, I will be running a weekly photo competition for members of the UK Community board. The initial rules are posted here on a 'suck it and see' basis - we can change things as we go along if necessary.

Rules

THE COMPETITION IS OPEN TO MEMBERS OF THE UK COMMUNITY FORUM. Newbies are encouraged to enter, but they must also be posting on other threads and therefore a genuine member of the community. This is a 'just for fun' competition and you don't need to be a great photographer to enter. Discussion, however, is encouraged for those who wish to improve their technique and/or understanding of photography.
I will start a new Entries thread, announcing each topic, Friday weekly.
I will simultaneously post a Discussion thread for that week's entries. Comments or questions of any nature must be confined to this thread. This will leave the Entries thread uncluttered and negate the need for photos to be reproduced on a separate thread for voting purposes.
Each competition will close at 06:00 GMT the following Friday. Entries posted after this time will not be valid.
A new Voting thread will be posted each week. All members of the UK Community Forum are eligible to vote, whether or not they have entered the competition. Again, though, voters must be genuine members of the UK Community. Although this isn't intended to disclude newbies, voters must be joining in with a range of threads and not simply voting in the competition. Entrants can not vote for their own photo, but are encouraged to vote for one another’s. Points should be awarded on the following basis:
* First place – 5 points
* Second place – 4 points
* Third place – 3 points
* Fourth place - 2 points
* Fifth place - 1 point
A maximum of two submissions per member, per competition. If choosing to submit more than one entry, a separate post should be made for each and the entries should be named to avoid any confusion during the voting stage.
You may replace your entry throughout a competition's duration, using the Edit function.
If your photo makes it into the winners list, you can not submit that photo again for a different contest.
Image size and dimensions must comply with DIS regulations.
Initially, there will be no restrictions on editing. If, as a community, we feel this detracts from the competition in any way, we can revisit this rule.
Images must be hosted so that they appear in the competition thread (for example, by using Photobucket).
Pictures may be taken at any time for any contest.
From time to time, winners will be invited to choose the topic for the next week’s competition.
Update 4 May, 2007 - Anyone posting an entry must also vote in the previous week's competition.
Update 19 June, 2007 - The competition is intended to showcase photos taken by the person submitting them. That, therefore, excludes those in which you appear yourself (other than those taken with a timer, in which case please comment on the Discussion thread) and any official park photographs.
__________________

[Boudica]

Thank you.:)

[TinkTatoo]

Well as usual there are 9 I want to vote for :confused3 thanks for some great photos guys

[Hilary]

Well as usual there are 9 I want to vote for :confused3

Yup, same here! ;) :crazy:

[Still thinking......]

Great photos this week everyone. I don't have any good ones taken at night in the parks. Can anyone give me any hints or tips? Do I always need to use a tripod? etc. Richard gave me a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7 for my birthday last year, will this give me good night pictures? How do I take the fireworks? Thanks.

[TotallyAngelic]

There are some brilliant photos this week - I could also do with some tips on how to photograph things like lights as mine always come out a bit blurry. I am amazed by the photo of the fireworks - I have never even attempted tp photograph fireworks - any tips here also greatly appreciated.

[Kevin Stringer]

Ah yes, you people are clearly in need of some help from an expert. Allow me to assist.

Firstly, point the camera at the thing you want to take a picture of. Many a time I've managed an extremely fine photo of my own head.

Next depress the button to take the picture. Do not do this too fast (camera doesn't take picture, finger hurts) nor too slowly (camera doesn't take picture, but finger doesn't hurt).

Lastly - pray.

I'm sure there will be much talk of f stops and exposure times, but I'm sure you'll find my way to be the best.
No need to thank me, all in a days work.

Kev

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Re Fireworks
this is very useful

http://www.digicamhelp.com/learn/special-subjects/fireworks.php

[carolfoy]

can I just add that there are some really great pics on this weeks comp, now after Kevs sound expert advice I may be able to capture a good one myself one day

[scottishsue]

Ah yes, you people are clearly in need of some help from an expert. Allow me to assist.

Firstly, point the camera at the thing you want to take a picture of. Many a time I've managed an extremely fine photo of my own head.

Next depress the button to take the picture. Do not do this too fast (camera doesn't take picture, finger hurts) nor too slowly (camera doesn't take picture, but finger doesn't hurt).

Lastly - pray.

I'm sure there will be much talk of f stops and exposure times, but I'm sure you'll find my way to be the best.
No need to thank me, all in a days work.

Kev

Thanks Kev......... but will this make my pics turn out like Matt's or Tony's?
(or your own....... of course) !! :lmao:

[Still thinking......]

Now I know where I went wrong Kev, I forgot to pray. :lmao: Thanks Obi for the info on taking pictures of fireworks. :thumbsup2

[Boss Hogg]

You can always rely on Kev to help out, in his own special way!!

I can let you know what I do, but, would post a "health warning" in as much as I do not pretend to be an expert in any way, and have 10 times more bad than good!

Firstly, to get consistently good shots you want a tripod, or anything solid to put the camera on. A bin or wall would work for example, as long as you an frame your shot. If you don't want to carry a normal size or even shortish tripod with you, you could use a table top one, if you can place it on something.

If you want fireworks, then the thing to think about is do you want long "trails" or shorter ones? Naturally, the longer the exposure the more light will get through the aperture and if you have a moving firework, the longer the trail will be. Also, by having a long shutter speed, you can have a "normal" ISO setting - 200 or something. By having this sort of ISO you won't get too much "noise" in the shot - the grainy appearance you can see on dark places in the picture.

I can tell you what mine were this week, the firework one is a 2s shutter speed at f11 with an ISO of 200. I set the shutter speed and ISO and let the camera worry about the aperture size. The Ecpot one is a 1s shutter speed and same ISO, which gave f6.3.

I know that the firework one was with a tripod and think that the Epcot one probably was. By comparison, I have some hand held ones which have a shutter speed of 1/20, which if you've a steady hand you should be able to do, that have come out fine. The main difference being they have an ISO of 1600, whish is what allows me to get away with such a "fast" shutter and still get enough light in that the picture is not totally dark.

You will be amazed if you start playing around with the settings what you can achieve, and also how little light actually gets through the shutter even at really long shutter speeds.

Here are some examples of different settings and the results you get -

This is a 30s shutter speed at ISO 200, which gave a aperture setting of 20. Needless to say with a 30s shutter time it is rested on something!

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/mattchurchill/13-7.jpg

Whereas this one, I have gone the other way with - hand held with a shutter speed of 1/40, ISO of 1600 and aperture of 4.5 -

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/mattchurchill/13-5.jpg

Another hand held high ISO one - ISO 1600, shutter 1/40, f5.6 -

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/mattchurchill/15-4.jpg

Last one, is another tripod one, shutter 1.3s, ISO 200 and aperture of 5.6 -

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/mattchurchill/17-3.jpg

Best bit of advice I can say is take a lot of them, and then you're bound to have some good ones. Also, if you're going to RoE a couple of times, play around with different settings the first time, and then when you go again you should be able to get them spot one!

Hope it is of some help.

[TotallyAngelic]

Thanks for that advice Matt, and for showing some more of your amazing photos - you must have been spoiled for choice for the night time ones - it sounds way technical :scared1: and I probably will never be able to get my head around all those shutter speeds and ISOs etc. I am on the verge of investing in a new camera which may get me a bit involved in the manual side of things - the fujifilm finepix S5700 - as I would be completely lost with a DSLR but want to experiment a bit more.
If I end up as useless as I imagine I will be :confused: , I will have to stick to Kev's way of doing things!!!

[TotallyAngelic]

Re Fireworks
this is very useful

http://www.digicamhelp.com/learn/special-subjects/fireworks.php

Thanks for the link - I have been looking at this website and there are some great tips there!:thumbsup2

[Boss Hogg]

Thanks for that advice Matt, and for showing some more of your amazing photos - you must have been spoiled for choice for the night time ones - it sounds way technical :scared1: and I probably will never be able to get my head around all those shutter speeds and ISOs etc. I am on the verge of investing in a new camera which may get me a bit involved in the manual side of things - the fujifilm finepix S5700 - as I would be completely lost with a DSLR but want to experiment a bit more.
If I end up as useless as I imagine I will be :confused: , I will have to stick to Kev's way of doing things!!!It really isn't as complex as it sounds, there are only a couple of key things to think about, the camera will do all the hard work.:surfweb: :thumbsup2

[poohmadmum]

Thanks for the tips, Matt. I'll have to have a practice with fireworks photos when we go away in the summer. I have a new camera now and hoping that it will be better at night than my old one. It is certainly better on battery life! Your photos are amazing.

[pixiepower04]

Matt, with you in the picture (no pun intended) I think we should all just give up :rotfl:

[Still thinking......]

Thanks Matt for all your help.Think I will try and find some night shots here to take before going to Disney in October, so I can experiment with different shutter speeds etc. Would really like to get some good ones. :thumbsup2

[TinkTatoo]

Thanks Matt and I love that first photo - I remember it from one of the earlier comps. I am really going to try and get some decent firework / spectro shots as mine have been crap so far :upsidedow

[wicket2005]

I'm enjoying this week's entries. Bev, I hope you don't mind me saying this, but I think your entries lack impact due to their size. I don't know whether or not you normally get many votes, but I think you would improve your score if you can work out a way to bring them up to the size of the other entries (and of course this applies to anyone who is posting smaller images). Let us know how you're hosting them and I'm sure we can help. :goodvibes

Thanks for the advice Deb:) . The images are the biggest ones I can upload (I believe). This site is hosting them. I tried reducing my photos down to 550 pixels but then I was informed (by the site) that the file size was too large, the biggest I could upload was 300 dpi. So please feel free to offer any guidance. Not too worried about the lack of votes the quality of the competition is outstanding so to be honest having larger photos probably won't make that much of a difference.:) It is just fun getting to see everyone's photos and plus give me new ideas for photos in August.

[UKDEB]

Bev, we upload all ours to Photobucket - a very popular hosting site. We save them for web in Photoshop first (but I guess you could do the same with any Photo editing software). Play around with the pixel sizes - we usually set the longest side (depending on whether it's portrait or landscape) to 900 pixels.

[scottishsue]

Matt..... you might as well be talking double dutch to me, but your pictures are fantastic !!

I'm like Kev.......... just click and pray !

Wish me luck when I go this year.......... I'm going to attempt to take some good ones this time. ;)

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Bev, we upload all ours to Photobucket - a very popular hosting site. We save them for web in Photoshop first (but I guess you could do the same with any Photo editing software). Play around with the pixel sizes - we usually set the longest side (depending on whether it's portrait or landscape) to 900 pixels.

Beat me to it Deb :rotfl:

http://img.photobucket.com/

[wicket2005]

Bev, we upload all ours to Photobucket - a very popular hosting site. We save them for web in Photoshop first (but I guess you could do the same with any Photo editing software). Play around with the pixel sizes - we usually set the longest side (depending on whether it's portrait or landscape) to 900 pixels.


Thanks Deb I will have a go.:)