either use manual focus or focus at some bright point - ie the light you are going to paint with (aim it against the camera)

Manual focus is the best answer. It ain't that hard.

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

Manual focus is the best answer. It ain't that hard.

Ohhhh, i hadn't tried that :/
Will edit in a second with the result

Quote from Don :

either use manual focus or focus at some bright point - ie the light you are going to paint with (aim it against the camera)

I cant do that as i only turn the light on after the picture has started to be taken.

Edit: Thats done it Thank you both very much.

Quote from spankmeyer :

Erm... are you referring to me with the lovely lady or SamH with the sheeps?

lol replying to sam, forgot to quote lol

anyway took some more pics tonight and i got this one of the dog(yes he is my main subject atm) its my best so far i think, although its still bad but hey.

i shot it in raw and made a few tweaks while converting it

i tryed to get the background a bit blured but you cant do too much with the kit lens indoors

edit: just had a look at migz post and was wondering if the a350 had a BULB mode, ive been messing around with mine on BULB lol, can be pretty tricky judging it

edit2: i think ive been a prize idiot, ive just re read migz post and realised it wasnt the shutter speed causing the problem

May i ask what a BULB mode is?
And nahh it wasnt the shutter speed, i knew how to change that myself.
It was the focus on the camera, it wouldnt focus without any light....unless i set it to manual.

lol yh

bulb mode vasicly as far as i can figure out is were you define the shutter speed by how long you keep the shutter button pressed, the 450d gives a readout of the time the shutter has been open on the back too. on the 450d you keep going along until you get o the max exposere time then its one further if you get me and shows BULB were the shutter speed usually is, im not sure if this is just what canon call it or if its the recognised term

It ain't just Canon:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_release

http://rich-johnston.deviantar ... rt/Eye-of-space-109458833 edited but tough luck

I know DoN secretly loves this........even if he hates "art"

Had a burst of creativity today.




Work-in-progress preview of a random idea. Lighting details once again on my Flickr if someone's interested.

Hmm, pretty cool!

Not sure if you noticed the (what looks like the) outline of the "E" going over the dudes face, whether this was accidental or intentional.

Some from this weekend... DA 55-300mm f/4.0-5.8 and FA 50mm f/1.4, all handheld, all natural light:

great pics dwb

lovly dog

Thanks. It's actually two dogs, and they're my cousin's (I was housesitting). Father and son dogs, actually.

They're Norwegian Buhunds.

ahhh lol

Quote from spankmeyer :

Had a burst of creativity today.

Work-in-progress preview of a random idea. Lighting details once again on my Flickr if someone's interested.

Love your work! Are you some kind of pro? I'd like to do the same things that you do, art&sh't

Just some randomness

Whilst I'm not showing any pics as such (none to write home about really and only have a simple Canon Powershot A400).. I was wondering if anyone had any info regarding printing them. Basically I have my cam set up to take 1600x1200 pics and want to print them onto 10x15cm paper via my HP C5180 printer.. but alas, it seems no matter what DPI I pic (pics originally taken at 180 it seems) or what I crop them to in Photoshop, they _always_ come out clipped. I've tried cropping the images before printing too, at 1200x800 and using Photoshop to set the page info up as 10x15 but it never seems to work

Obviously I can use the 'scale-to-media' option, but then I'm left with an almost polaroid sized image in the middle of the paper with a border around all sides.

For example, here's one original pic I was attempting to print. I've scaled this down for posting here, but the AR is the same:




Yet when printed, I basically get the following (ignore pixel size of image, I cropped the original to pretty much match the 10x15 photo print that I get):




Any ideas on this would be greatly appreciated


More OT with the rest of the thread.. there's some _very_ nice pics here!



Regards,

Ian

I haven't done any photo printing in a long time, Ian, but I think borderless printing is a fairly recent, printer-specific function and only borderless printers will actually deliver it. I know Epson do it these days, but I'm not familiar with your HP printer so I'm not sure if it's within its scope. IIRC you can get out-sized, perforated pop-out paper from HP. You print on it, and the image is printed in the perforated area. That might be the way you're expected to achieve the result, I'm not sure.

Despite trying out a couple of the long-life ink reservoir add-ons in the past, I've resorted to Jessops for photo printing. It's cheaper, sqare inch for square inch, than printing it yourself and the result is better. Stick your images on a USB stick, SD/CF or CD, and drop 'em off at Jessops with instructions and dimensions. Make the whole thing their problem

[e] http://www.jpics.co.uk/

not posting any pics just now, but rather asking for some advice,

Basically need a digital camera as good as i can get for around the £150 mark. can anybody speak from experience with this price range?

Quote from SamH :

I haven't done any photo printing in a long time, Ian, but I think borderless printing is a fairly recent, printer-specific function and only borderless printers will actually deliver it. I know Epson do it these days, but I'm not familiar with your HP printer so I'm not sure if it's within its scope. IIRC you can get out-sized, perforated pop-out paper from HP. You print on it, and the image is printed in the perforated area. That might be the way you're expected to achieve the result, I'm not sure.

Despite trying out a couple of the long-life ink reservoir add-ons in the past, I've resorted to Jessops for photo printing. It's cheaper, sqare inch for square inch, than printing it yourself and the result is better. Stick your images on a USB stick, SD/CF or CD, and drop 'em off at Jessops with instructions and dimensions. Make the whole thing their problem

[e] http://www.jpics.co.uk/

Thanks for the info Sam. Much appreciated

I have however, just discovered at least one of my problems As you rightly state, you can get "tabbed" paper, which is oversized. A few sheets came with the printer for demo / test purposes, the last batch of paper I bought didn't have these.. BUT.. the paper isn't 10x15! It's 10x16andabit. It's basically tabbed paper without the perforation, so me not thinking (or thinking incorrectly) that it was simply 10x15 meant that no matter what I did, if I attempted to fill the entire sheet, I was always going to get problems with clipping.

I think I should be able to tweak photoshop into working now just so I'm not beaten (can't test now as my cyan has just run out.. doh!).. but at the prices on the site you linked to, you're right.. would be hard to beat DIY. Was all fine before my ol' man retired from Kodak 5 years ago

Thanks again. You mentioning perforated paper was what got me thinking

After seeing the pics in this thread.. I'm seriously contemplating a "cheap" SLR camera as although I don't take many pics, would be nice that the ones I do take are at great quality (assuming I manage to be up to the job ) and would be interesting to be able to do some more experiments than with my "point-n-shoot"



Regards,

Ian

Lots of different considerations, Dean.. willing to go 2nd-hand? Want something that'll go in your pocket or something to start getting into photography with?

For ~£130 you can get a pretty nice Nikon Coolpix S610 which is a smart little camera to do all the thinking for you.. perfectly suited to family/friends night out photos and plenty powerful enough for you to begin to explore your creative side (photo composition at least).

For ~£150 you could prolly get either a Nikon D100 or Canon D300 DSLR 2nd hand. For a cheap starter lens, add £30 and you're good to go.

If you've developed an interest in photography and want to find out if it'll stick, I'd go the compact route to start with - either the Coolpix or a similar Canon Powershot. I'm supposed to recommend getting the DSLR, for anyone who's interested in photography, but they're actually 'kin' difficult to hit the ground running with. You need to know so much about the mechanics of photography to get value out of a DSLR and you actually need more than £150-worth of hardware to match the ever-broadening capabilities of a compact.

Plus, it's bloody hard to get anyone into the viewfinder of a DSLR. They hate it.. but they'll either not raise an eyebrow at the sight of a pocket camera or they'll pose really vibrantly. "People photos" are much easier to get, without the intrusive bulk of a DSLR, and nephews/nieces don't groan or go sullen at the sight of something that has "facebook" written all over it.

@ Ian.. sorted!

Quote from SamH :

For ~£150 you could prolly get either a Nikon D100 or Canon D300 DSLR 2nd hand. For a cheap starter lens, add £30 and you're good to go.

Confused me there for a second. Just to avoid confusion to Dean, it's a Canon 300D, not a D300. D300 is a Nikon, and definitely would be more than £150.

Sam, if you can get a Nikon D300 for £150, send me your address, I'll forward you a check (cheque ) right now! LOL.

BMW love


E: one pic more

ill post some pics of the 2 landies that are up our workshop if we get the chance at the weekend, youlle laugh at the state of my one of the 2

Gave Dad a hand taking this pic - used 3 manually adjusted off-camera flashes, remotely linked to an EOS 40D. Took loads of shots getting each flash at the right intensity / place but this is the pick of the bunch.