David's Project 365

[Peter Boughton]

The word I should have used was "example". Oh well.

Sorry for the brief hijack of your thread, but your shot today came at just the right moment to demonstrate what a new/unread post looks like without having to contrive one, so thanks for that.

[davidc]

Disaster has struck. My 18 month old 550D has broken, every time I put a memory card in - any of them - it says "No card in camera". Cleaned the card contacts, blown air into the card slot... nothing works. Gutted. Canon might get an answer back to me in 5 days time.

So I was left with a choice... stop the project now or carry on going? Guess you can see my decision

February will likely be the month of using my S100 compact and AE-1 film camera so please bear with me, it might take longer to get photos taken, developed and put online.

Hey maybe it'll make me a better photographer!



http://500px.com/photo/24715957

[Mike Farley]

Sorry to hear about your camera problems, Dave, and disappointing that such a new item of equipment has failed prematurely. If you are looking to get it repaired, other people have used Fixation at Kennington and been pleased with the service. They are very helpful on the phone and might be able to give you an indication of the cause so that you will have an idea of the likely cost for a repair.

http://www.fixationuk.com/Fixation/Fixa ... 0Home.html

I admire your decision to carry on with your other cameras in the face of one of life's curve balls. The S100 is capable of good results and could have been used for many of the images you have already posted, although without a flash connection I can see that the shots which rely on freezing action will not be possible. The combination of short focal length and small sensor will make it more difficult in situations where you want to limit depth of field. Other than that and looking odd when sat atop a normal sized tripod, you might be surprised. I know that quite a few pictures submitted by members which we see at the club have been taken with compacts.

[davidc]

Thanks for the comments - I've been thinking about flash shots and think I can trigger the main flashes by bouncing the onboard S100 flash at their light sensor to trigger them instead of using wireless hotshoe connections.

Bizarrely, I brought my camera in today to take to fixation and when I demoed the problem to a colleage the camera has suddenly started working again. Unbelievable.... I'm unsure how long it's going to last though, so it'll certainly keep me on my toes.

Otherwise February was going to be "the month of absolute guesswork" aka the S100 and my film AE-1

[Mike Farley]

Good news. Hopefully it was just something minor such as a bit of dirt on a contact which the cleaning did not shift.

[davidc]

I doubt I'm the first person to ever take this shot but it's hard to walk past it and not get SOMETHING
Another day using the S100, it was a really challenge trying to nail the focus and get a good enough exposure and sufficient DOF. Still, the S100 had enough in it to let me get the shot,

Also, tried to get bokeh using a compact camera and I managed it! Check it out here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/cedarsphoto/8435690313



http://500px.com/photo/24804219

[Mike Farley]

Atmospheric shot. I might have been tempted to correct the perspective in post processing as it looks like the Eye is toppling over.

[davidc]

I disagree I'm afraid. Part of the intent of the intent of the shot was a low POV to emphasise the height of the wheel and the trees lining the avenue and I really think that it looks like it's toppling over! I tried a perspective correction before posting it just in case, to see how it looked if "corrected" and to my eye it looked completely unnatural and forced a tighter crop which almost completely removes the foreground. In balancing the vertical perspective of the wheel it introduces an enlargement on the upper rim too which is disproportionate with the bottom rim. I've posted a quick version below -

Blue Wheel_corrected.jpg (370.56 KiB) Viewed 5903 times

[davidc]

This isn't a style of photography I'm particularly comfortable with or practiced in so, in the spirit of the project, I'm trying to broaden my horizons and practice. First with the rose in snow and today with a tulip.



http://500px.com/photo/24888341

[Mike Farley]

I disagree I'm afraid. Part of the intent of the intent of the shot was a low POV to emphasise the height of the wheel and the trees lining the avenue and I really think that it looks like it's toppling over! I tried a perspective correction before posting it just in case, to see how it looked if "corrected" and to my eye it looked completely unnatural and forced a tighter crop which almost completely removes the foreground. In balancing the vertical perspective of the wheel it introduces an enlargement on the upper rim too which is disproportionate with the bottom rim. I've posted a quick version below -

Even in the corrected version, the Eye still has an oval shape which is what seems to be causing the "falling over" effect. I can see that the perspective change has introduced an undesirable crop, so understand the problem. It's one of those occasions when you wish that you had allowed a bit more space when taking the original image. Sometimes expanding the canvas area and using Content Aware Fill to complete the blanks can save the day - it's rescued my bacon more than once.

That option is probably limited to full Photoshop, although I do recall seeing somewhere that Elements can use CAF for filling in the spaces created when stitching panoramas, so there might be some possibilities with a bit of juggling.