greenslime89

Might be worth shooting RAW if you're not doing so already. You can play about with white balance among other things to your hearts content. Not entirely sure why you used ISO 400 for a long exposure shot, the DOF is fine so you probably could've used a slightly wider aperture. You're long exposures are okay, they just feel quite cluttered. I quite like shots where the trails are the main point of interest or add something to the shot otherwise. I've dabbled in light trails in the past and found using a low viewpoint and reasonably short focal length works well. I'll see if I can dig out a couple of mine. EDIT: Found them! I just find the lower wider viewpoint to be more dramatic. Might be worth trying. 170mm seems a bit long for this type of shot IMO. Love your mask shots though - very artistic. Again could benefit from being shot in RAW.

Who cares what the big name "art" photographers are doing? You used AWB on the shot you posted - the exif never lies! :thumbsup: Anyway, you seem to be pretty delusional about what photography is all about and dare I say it, a bit full of it for someone whose photos are grainy, blurry, shaky and otherwise boring. No offence intended, but everyone's been giving you great advice and you're too focussed (pardon the pun) on doing it like a pro! I'm going to give up trying to help now, so best of luck but you need to learn to accept constructive criticism and helpful advice.

Good grief, so you think that if you use AF it's not art, it's business? I've got news for you - the way you compose the shot, the creative control of the shot, the use of light makes it art. Not whether you use AF or MF. I use both, but I prefer using AF as it's more reliable. The end result is what you're after, it doesn't really matter how you get it. I just think it's better to get what you want in focus reliably. From your photos, you don't have a basic understanding of how to get a sharp image. If you're hand holding for a shot, you need to steady yourself as much as possible and use a shutter speed of at least 1/focal length. That's not a hard and fast rule - I'm able to reliably shoot sharp shots at 200mm down to about 1/60 - but it's a good rule to follow. You can have the best focus in the world (auto or manual) but it's worth nothing if the image is shaky (which all yours are!). And back to the point of "letting a chip control your shot", would you tell me what type of file you get from your camera? Also, AWB, is letting the chip control the shot. Incidentally, I wear specs and have never had a problem using the viewfinder - it's not as big a problem as you make it out to be.

Didn't notice that, but good that you'll have support - might be worth picking up a cheap shutter release off ebay. Using this in tandem with mirror lock-up shooting will reduce any vibrations affecting the shot. This is the one I bought and it works really well for what I need: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330506569777&rvr_id=208179438284&mfe=sidebar#ht_967wt_698 My advice still stands that AF is better than MF for most situations. If MF was so much better, all the pros wouldn't have moaned about the faulty AF on the 1D Mk III. Nor would anyone sink money into lenses with great AF performance when they could buy a cheaper MF lens with the same IQ. I'm gonna have to say that your friends are doing it wrong :???: but of course, feel free to shoot me down due to my lack of education in photography. The point is that the focussing screen isn't designed for MF! Older SLRs which used only MF lenses had a special focussing screen which I mentioned earlier this made manual focussing easier! Since your camera doesn't have it (and I'm sure you don't fancy replacing the screen in it) manual focussing isn't going to be accurate. Also, I'd advise you to keep your specs on while shooting rather than faffing about with the dioptre adjustment. Your specs will correct any astigmatism, while the dioptre adjustment will only correct your spherical error, so you'll still have residual astigmatism affecting your vision (and hence your focussing). With astigmatism, your eye will focus the circle of least confusion on your retina (assuming the focal line corrected by your dioptre adjustment is at the front) and as such your eyes won't be perfectly focussed so just something to consider. This might explain the poor focussing in some of your shots. If you must use manual focus you should use the DOF preview button (just below the lens release button) to stop the lens down to the shooting aperture so you can see what DOF you're going to get.

Read your manual, you can use off center AF points. I don't know how many the 500D has but it will have some. Even if you don't have these points, you can AF on center and recompose. AF is infinitely more accurate than you with a dodgy dioptre adjustment and a focussing screen poorly equipped for MF work. Cheap flashguns aren't in anyway worse than the more expensive ones in terms of quality of light. The difference is the automatic metering that the expensive ones have (which is pretty useless if you're using it off camera anyway) and the recycle time (which can be a problem if you're doing high speed shooting for sports (even then my £40 flashgun will recycle quickly if I use 1/16 power which is plenty!) Congrats on the macro lens - they're great fun and you probably will be doing some MF work with that, but to do so accurately you need some kind of camera support (a tripod I'm afraid). The depth of field when you're working close to 1:1 is tiny so you need to stop the lens down to get a decent DOF. Sadly that means less light hits your sensor so you need a longer exposure (tripod) or a flash! Sorry to be the bearer of bad news! When the macro arrives you need to try water droplet photography! It's great fun and you can get really good results. Don't forget the obligatory shot of a coin as your first shot with your macro lens! :mrgreen:

Posted some thoughts in the quoted text, but another thought not entirely related to the quote, is that you should maybe try to get a 50mm f/1.8 if you like low light, shallow DOF photography. It's the best value lens you'll ever own. Every snapper should have one!

Shooting water droplets: Need some kind of flash - preferably off camera. Can pick up cheap manual flash off ebay quite cheaply and get a cheat TTL cable and you're off!

Ah, gotcha - so is there gonna be some kind of sticky for them?

I'm the same, I did do a small tutorial for photoshopping burnt out skies but it wasn't that useful, nor well received if I remember correctly. I could maybe through a tutorial on water drop photography, but there are far better sources out there and I'd kind of be repeating what they say! You don't have to be great at art or anything to critique stuff though. You know what you like and what you don't like, could always do that for some of the stuff posted here, so even if you don't give them advice, you give them some information as to how their painstakingly created art looks to others, which could help them improve it. I don't know though!

How very arrogant it seems to presume to be in a better position to decide what the artist should do than the artist himself. Surely you can see that if you've put any amount of effort into something you're going to quite like it and view it through rose tinted specs! A third party is more likely to be brutally honest about your work. That's my thought.

Indeed, but I only had four decent batteries so my master flash had poundland's finest powering it so quite a few shots where the flash hadn't charged! That was frustrating, but quite enjoying the process.

Okay I've changed my set up slightly. Used white paper and a wider aperture to make the background less distracting. Here's the set up: And a couple of the keepers! Thanks for pointing the poor paper placement, Pat.

I think all the new ones are on my Flickr if that helps at all. I'll do what you suggested though :) Ah good point, now you've pointed it out it's really obvious. I'm thinking I'll maybe try again now my slave flash has arrived! I'll see how it is with no paper, cos I prefer the colour at the front more than that at the back.

Yeah for the ones with the brown thing in the corner the set up wasn't especially good. I reckon it's a reflection from the plastic bag or one of the many reflective surfaces in the set up: I've since made a different set up out of a cardboard box, which was used for the most recent one: Apologies for the shocking quality! With this set up there are fewer reflections. I used this set up for the most recent one but changed the colours to see if it looked better. Here's the original straight from the camera: What I'm hoping to do next is try longer shutter speeds with flash, so that the flash will freeze the water drop (hopefully at the right time!) and the longer shutter speed will make the water smoother. Might give the drop a bit more 'pop'. I'll give that a go, should be interesting! Thanks! Just wish the background trees and what not were sharper - though I don't know if it's poor focussing or too shallow DOF or if it's just motion blur. I'm suspecting motion blur as it was a 20 second exposure and I recall it being somewhat windy at the time.

Updated with some water droplet photos. [hide] [/hide]

Just a post to pop this back on first page. Hoping to keep it updated a bit more than I have done, very easy to let uni eat up all my time!

Okay so I started my computer today and heard this horrible whirring/grinding noise. I switched it off ASAP and opened one of the side panels. Switched it on again and the noise wasn't being made and all the fans seemed to be turning freely. I took it to a local PC repair shop where the guy had a look at it. He couldn't get it to make the noise so suggested it was maybe a wire resting on one of the fans and being hit, thus making the noise. I've just switched it on and the noise was there again, and I had the monitor on. It said something about no internal storage found. So I switched it off and back on again. No noise was made, booted up fine. From my limited understanding (and googling) it might indicate a faulty hard drive. So I have a few questions. 1. Is it the hard drive that's causing the problem? 2. How can I back up the hard drive and put it onto a new one? I have a 1TB and a 500GB external HD if that's of any use. 3. How cheap is it to get a new internal HD and what type do I need? I have this computer: http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/advent/pc/PQD5002.htm 4. Do you have any other advice/ideas about this problem? Let me know if you need any more information about my PC or its problems to help me out. Thanks in advance! Incidentally, Windows 7 is installed (not Vista as the link suggests) I have the install disk for that.

I went about looking for info - I went to my local PC repair and parts shop who sold me the original adapter - he tried to sell me another so I left. I went to PC World where I spoke to a nodding dog/yes man who didn't help at all. So I left and went to another PC parts shop who said it's probably a faulty adapter and sold me another one. It's working fine now so you're both right! Thanks folks!

I've got a cheap-ish USB adapter but it gets very warm when in use. This seems to slow the internet down to a crawl. On the computer wired to the modem we're getting 9-10MB download speeds. On my computer connected via the USB adapter it's getting less than 0.2MB download. I'm getting really annoyed about it and am thinking of getting a PCI Wifi Adapter - will this be any better? If so could anyone recommend a fairly cheap one (less than £50 - preferably much less!) that's compatible with Windows 7 64Bit? I've seen one in Maplin (http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=285315) which is apparently compatible with W7. Anyone know if there are any others or if this is a good one? Edit: Incidentally - this is the motherboard I have if there are any compatibility issues: http://www.foxconnchannel.com/product/motherboards/detail_spec.aspx?ID=en-us0000346

But Hypercam is free! Argh that actually worked - why didn't I think of that :angry:

Right I downloaded hypercam and for some reason managed to install the toolbar for firefox, which I don't mind but every time I open a new tab instead of getting a blank page, I get linked to a crappy search engine. This irritates me - is there anyway to stop it doing this?

I guess it was too good to be true. None of the fans are running. I have two fans outside the PSU, neither are running. The fan inside the PSU doesn't work either. Do you reckon I'll have any right to a new system should this one be fried? It sounds like the psu blew then. Do not power your computer on. I don't know if you're eligible for compensation via your home insurance, the computer store or the psu company. But to get any compensation, your computer parts must be checked individually first. Edit: I should add that 650w for a system like yours is over the top and that the psu won't be working at it's best capacity. If it's a proper psu (i.e. the 12v lanes provide 650) then the psu will be working under the 20% load margin. When computer websites reviews a psu, they always start at 20% load when testing. Because a, you aren't expected to use 10% of a psu, b, power supplies start working the best at 20%. Right, so a 500W would do in the future? Noted. Surely if the PSU was the problem, it's not my fault and the fault of the supplied part. I'll see what they say.

I guess it was too good to be true. None of the fans are running. I have two fans outside the PSU, neither are running. The fan inside the PSU doesn't work either. Do you reckon I'll have any right to a new system should this one be fried?

Okay, another update: The Graphics Card needs replaced, so I'll be taking it back to the shop. The PSU needed upgrading, and the Repair Shop offered to fit a 650W for £35, so I took them up on that. I removed the graphics card and put it back in it's anti-static cover and box. I replaced the cover on the computer, then connected the monitor, keyboard etc. I switched it on at the wall then switched the computer on using the switch at the front. At this point, I heard a very loud bang, and the front light was on, but nothing else. The fans aren't running now. The capacitors aren't bulbous, which I gather is a good sign. I also gather that the front light being on is also a good sign. If anyone could confirm this that'd make me very happy. Is there anything I can do to fix it, or is it another trip to the shop with it? Also what are the chances of my computer working as normal after this?

Quick update: I've taken it to a local PC repair shop. They'll have a look at it, free of charge. They'll then tell me what, if anything, is wrong. That said, he said the burning smell isn't a good sign. So I'm preparing myself for the worst.