So, how'd I do?

[Mr.MouseFan]

Ok, I just got back from the world. I'll fess up, with the exception of a few photo contest posts, I've been a lurker on the photography board. But I have learned some things. I don't have an SLR, I have a Fuji S5200. Here are a couple of the pics I took this past week. Suggestions, constructive criticism, and comments are most definitely welcome and certainly appreciated. Other then resizing them, adding my tag, and an occasional auto level, I haven't edited them.

 

[dburg30]

does 'great' work?

 

[Mr.MouseFan]

That would qualify as an acceptable response....LOL

Thank you!

 

[alan]

Love them - loving seeing the castle done up for Christmas.

Only thing I'd suggest is having a look at the verticals in #1 and #2 - they don't look quite vertical to me, if you see what I mean. In #1 the castle looks slightly as if it's tipping forwards into the lake.

They make me with I was there... Bet it's above freezing point, too!

regards,
/alan$picky!

 

[ukcatfan]

Pretty good. For a little constructive criticism, it looks like the first castle shot is a little over exposed. The reflection looks properly exposed. That is a tough situation. A graduated ND filter could help. The SE shot is a little washed out. That has everything to do with the time of day it was taken. Try shots like that earlier or later b/c mid day sun is just too harsh. Take that time to not worry about outdoor shots and enjoy your vacation.

Kevin

 

[Gdad]

I love the last two especially. Very nice.

 

[DVC Jen]

I can't see them. All I can see are red x's.

 

[Mr.MouseFan]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Ukcatfan, I definitely see what you mean about the harsh sunlight. I never would have really noticed that if you didn't point it out. Btw, what's a graduated ND filter?

Alan, I do see what you mean. I thought it was just me but I guess it isn't...LOL. And yes, it was wayy above the freezing point. mid 80s with high humidity. It was very hard to get in the Christmas mood with those temps.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

A neutral density (ND) filter is a filter that darkens the scene. It's sort of like putting sunglasses on your camera. The neutral part means that the filter doesn't cause the colors to shift.

A graduated neutral density filter is one that is darker on one part than another. Usually half the filter is dark and the other half is clear. These filters are often shaped as squares that slide into a bracket on the front of your lens. They can be rotated and slid up or down. That allows you to match up the dark part with the bright (usually sunny) area and the light part with the dark (usually shady) area. They also come in two major varieties - those with hard edges (an abrupt transition from dark to light) and those with soft edges (a more gradual transition from dark to light). Because the difference in brightness levels also varies, you can get them with several different darkness levels for the dark side.

A relatively complete set of ND filters will typically include about several different hard edged ND filters, several different soft edged ND fitlers, and at least a few different non-graduated ND filters.

You use the non-graduated ND filters when you want a longer shutter speed without stopping down your aperture further. Some common examples include making long exposure pictures of things like waterfalls or perhaps theme-park rides in daylight. Another example might be to take a picture of a scene with a lot of people moving about and getting an exposure long enough to show the people heavily motion blurred. You can often avoide using the ND filter by decreasing your ISO or decreasing your aperture. Smaller apertures can be problematic, though, because diffraction starts to rob you of sharpness the smaller you make your aperture. For most lenses on most DSLRs, the effect starts to become very noticeable at apertures of f/16 and higher.

You use a hard-edged graduated ND filter when you have a clear division between the bright and dark areas. In the shot above, that would be the edge of the water. In other shots, that is often the line of a shadow cast by a cliff or building. It can also be a featureless horizon line dividing the sky from the foreground, the you would see at a beach.

You use a soft-edged graduated ND filter when the dividing line between the light and dark areas isn't a straight line. This is very often the case when the bright area is the sky and the dark area includes trees, buildings, and other objects that stick out against the sky. You put the bulk of the sky in the dark area of the filter, the bulk of the foreground in the light area, and the area with a mixture of foreground objects and sky in the transitional area of the filter.

The use of graduated ND filters is declining with the growth in HDR photography. With HDR, you shoot many shots of the same scene at different exposure levels. You then use software to combine those into one seemless photo that covers a much bigger exposure range than your sensor can typically handle. The tricky part is that you have to map that super-exposure to something that your display device (monitor or printer) can also handle. There's a real art to determining how to best map that large range of brightness levels to something smaller while keeping an image that looks realistic.

HDR has the advantage that you needn't use filters, you can handle virtually any brightness range, and the shapes of the bright and dark areas needn't be divided by a straight line. Graduated ND filters have the advantage that you can take a single frame to capture everything, reducing post processing time and allowing you to capture moving subjects better.

 

[AndrewWG]

Mark,

Do you have any suggestions on manufacturers or kits that would be good to get for ND filters? I know tht they come in various stops of darkenss, etc. If I could only get one, it would most likely be a graduated soft edge one, but a kit of many would be cool too! I would most likely use them on my 67mm diameter lens for the 30D, although they might be useful on the 70-200 f2.8L IS I suppose. I think that is 77mm. Where they are not screw on, are they interchangable between lenses at all? Like, do they have a step down ring or something similar that would work with them?

I really am interested in suggesting to Santa that I get these for Christmas.

 

[jann1033]

Mark,

Do you have any suggestions on manufacturers or kits that would be good to get for ND filters? I know tht they come in various stops of darkenss, etc. If I could only get one, it would most likely be a graduated soft edge one, but a kit of many would be cool too! I would most likely use them on my 67mm diameter lens for the 30D, although they might be useful on the 70-200 f2.8L IS I suppose. I think that is 77mm. Where they are not screw on, are they interchangable between lenses at all? Like, do they have a step down ring or something similar that would work with them?

I really am interested in suggesting to Santa that I get these for Christmas.

i 'm not mark but i can try to type like him if you like just my imput having just bought a grad. nd filter, the most inexpensive i found were cokin, they had a set at adorama that included 3 ( thinking it was in the $60 range) but was out of stock when i needed it. with cokin it is a sheet of glass or glass like stuff, you put it in an holder and can slide it up and down so you can place the "line where it changes from grey to clear where you want it...the holder also can be circled around. it seems pretty sturdy although it comes in a plastic case which i foolishly put on hub's seat and well you can guess what happened to it.( the filter is fine the case not so much). i bought that one mainly since by adding step up ring i could use it on all my lenses and had more freedom to adjust it than a screw in type. you need the filter, a ring to fit the holder to your biggest lens, the holder and then step up ring(s), most of which came in the kit . adorama and b&h both sell cokin but call it agraduated gray filter rather than nd filter( think there is a little difference but it worked very well imo)

 

[sk8belle]

Spectacular! Just wanted to agree with Alan - the first two castle shots look a little crooked. Also, on the second one, is there any way that you can crop it so the Mickey and Minnie topiary are more in the foreground, then crop the top so there's less sky? For instance, crop it where the impatiens end and the ferns start, then at the top, a little above the castle top. Just my humble opinion, but I think it'll make the shot tighter and draw people's attention more to the two points of focus - the topiary and the castle.

 

[AndrewWG]

i 'm not mark but i can try to type like him if you like just my imput having just bought a grad. nd filter, the most inexpensive i found were cokin, they had a set at adorama that included 3 ( thinking it was in the $60 range) but was out of stock when i needed it. with cokin it is a sheet of glass or glass like stuff, you put it in an holder and can slide it up and down so you can place the "line where it changes from grey to clear where you want it...the holder also can be circled around. it seems pretty sturdy although it comes in a plastic case which i foolishly put on hub's seat and well you can guess what happened to it.( the filter is fine the case not so much). i bought that one mainly since by adding step up ring i could use it on all my lenses and had more freedom to adjust it than a screw in type. you need the filter, a ring to fit the holder to your biggest lens, the holder and then step up ring(s), most of which came in the kit . adorama and b&h both sell cokin but call it agraduated gray filter rather than nd filter( think there is a little difference but it worked very well imo)

Thanks Jan! I was looking at just that type of setup. I had one on my old film camera, but thought it was too cheesy to use as it is small and rather poorly taken care of. I see that they still sell them, and one, I think the "P" series would fit all of my lenses. That would be a great bonus. I would need the rings for each lens, but that is ok. The filters that I used to slide in and out of the system were circular and these are square, but that is ok, I suppose. I also see the gray filter being used as a term. I don't see real ND being used. I wonder how different they really are? Hmm... Hopefully Santa knows.

 

[Mr.MouseFan]

Mark, thanks for the lesson on ND filters! So much to learn! I suppose maybe I should think about buying a DSLR sometime in the future!

sk8Belle, thanks for the advice. I still need to do something about the noise and such, but I followed your suggestions and here's the result:

 

[poppyolivia]

hi

your photos are lovely! I have a fuji s5700...is that similar to yours?...I have no idea how to use it but I'm practising away...got a great (even if I do say so)..pic of my son peeking round a tree and its in black n white...everyone wants a copy!! apart from that its practise practise for me!..

Going to DLRP in Jan and want a few nice shots!

Your castle ones are great...I love that sort of shots!

 

[DVC Jen]

Am I the only one seeing lil red X's?

Wonder why? Guess I am gonna have to contact my tech support guy (the hubster).

 

[MicMin]

Very nice! I especially like the shots of the hat at MGM.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Am I the only one seeing lil red X's?

Wonder why? Guess I am gonna have to contact my tech support guy (the hubster).

We all see little red X's, but they're very nicely shot red X's.

Seriously, the picture look fine to me. Can you follow the following link:

http://www.misselizabeth.com/disney/tagged/disney26.jpg

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Mark,

Do you have any suggestions on manufacturers or kits that would be good to get for ND filters? I know tht they come in various stops of darkenss, etc. If I could only get one, it would most likely be a graduated soft edge one, but a kit of many would be cool too! I would most likely use them on my 67mm diameter lens for the 30D, although they might be useful on the 70-200 f2.8L IS I suppose. I think that is 77mm. Where they are not screw on, are they interchangable between lenses at all? Like, do they have a step down ring or something similar that would work with them?

I really am interested in suggesting to Santa that I get these for Christmas.

I think that jann1033 has answered this better than I could.

If you want the best ND filters and grads, I consistently hear singh-ray mentioned as the best. I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much money.

 

[FirstTimertoDiz]

Am I the only one seeing lil red X's?

Wonder why? Guess I am gonna have to contact my tech support guy (the hubster).

I can't see anything but red x's either.