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Jocko's Photo Diary.
#1

Thought I would start a wee thread for myself, where I can relate what I am doing, photowise, but not about images. If it is not what fits, then Barbara is free to delete it and slap my wrists.
Today I got a couple of toys. First of was a cable release. It is years since I owned one of these. I have a remote control doodah for the Nikon D80's, but the Fuji FinePix S9500 is threaded for a release and now I have one. The second "toy" was a filter holder and lens cover for my Cokin collection. I say collection, but it is a collection of hardware, not filters.
Back in the 1970's, when I bought my Nikon EM, I also bought some Cokin Filters. To accommodate the filters I had an A - series lens hood/filter holder and an adaptor ring.
I didn't get along with the filters, finding the effects too difficult to judge through the viewfinder, so I gave them away, retaining only the Polarising filter and the hardware to use it. After using the E series lens,with the polarising filter, on the D80 a few weeks back I thought, I could use this filter on my S9500 too, as I can get an A series adaptor ring to fit it. The ring was duly ordered and arrived. It worked great, but with the 28 mm to 300 mm lens the S9500 has, I found that the lens hood clipped the image at the 28 mm setting. I managed to get an A - series filter holder, sans lens hood, on Ebay for a couple of pounds, so that is me all set. All I need is some reasonable weather to get out and play with it all!!

Ask yourself, "What's most important for the final image?".
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#2

No problem, if this will be a discussion with other members I can move it to the main discussion section of the forums.

Barbara - Life is what you make of it!
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#3

Certainly. The more forumites who partake the better.

Ask yourself, "What's most important for the final image?".
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#4

A photographer friend of mine gave me his Photoshop CS4 (upgraded to Creative Cloud subscription and CS6) so I installed it at the weekend, and started to find out what is new and different. At my time of life, learning an even slightly modified interface is daunting. I will get there though. Just need to visit YouTube for tutorials on the new bits. There is so much to Photoshop and I only use a fraction of its capability. I tend just to learn the new bits as the need for them arises, but it is handy to have an idea of these new tools otherwise you don't think to try them.

Ask yourself, "What's most important for the final image?".
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#5

I use very little of it's capabilities, found it daunting initially, some say it is easy, but!
Was fortunate to be guided by a 20 year old expert, had 2 hour lesson a week, for 13 weeks, free, Thanks Nathan, which put me on the correct road. Trial and error/s, experimenting, usually get what I want.
There are some extremely talented people work for Adobe, thank you. Ed.

To each his own!
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#6

It is a dreich, Scottish, December day, and once again thoughts of going out and taking photographs have had to be put on hold. I have plans for some photos I want to capture, but I need a bright, possibly frosty, morning for them. I take my wife to work at 07:00, just before it starts to get light, and when the weather is appropriate I can be at my location just as the sun comes up. The joys of being retired. There was a time when the weather didn't stop me going out, but nowadays the old bones cry halt.
I ordered "Photoshop CS4 - Classroom in a Book", a used copy, for the princely sum of £0.01 + postage. They don't normally come with the CD of tutorial images still inside, but I get by. Paying the new price of £35, just for the pleasure of the CD, is too much for a canny Scot.

Ask yourself, "What's most important for the final image?".
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#7

Last night, it was announced on the local news, that damage has been found on the steelwork of the Forth Road Bridge. This has led to the closing of the southbound carriageway and the necessary contraflow on the northbound. The implications for traffic flow, between Fife and Edinburgh is enormous. I came home yesterday evening, before the contraflow was instigated, and it took 30 minutes just to get on to and across the bridge.
Here is an image showing the rush hour, on a normal winters morning. My viewpoint is about a mile before the bridge and before the final on-ramp.

   
Nikon D80, 1/160 sec, f6.3, ISO 100, 87 mm lens equivalent.

This morning it is like this 5 miles before the bridge. Mind you, when I was working in Santa Rosa, California, back in the 80's, the traffic on the freeway, queuing for the Golden Gate Bridge, was back past my motel. And that was 50 miles from the bridge!

Ask yourself, "What's most important for the final image?".
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#8

Ordered myself PaintShop Pro X8 Ultimate and "Picture Yourself Learning Corel Paintshop Pro X6".

Ask yourself, "What's most important for the final image?".
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#9

I like that rush-hour shot, John - it's a good composition with the bridge in the background, and you seem to have nailed the exposure really well there. Smile

I too have ordered the full boxed version of PSP X8 Ultimate - a Black Friday deal from Amazon, cheaper than the upgrade download for my version X6 from Corel!

Cheers.
Philip
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#10

I really like that picture John, brings together a range of interesting elements and you've handled it so well. Cheers, Jeff
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#11

Thanks guys. PaintShop Pro X8 and the book arrived. I have it installed and all the extras as well, but I have only dipped my toe in the water to see what the various interfaces look like. Start messing tomorrow morning, once Mrs Jocko is at work!

Ask yourself, "What's most important for the final image?".
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#12

PaintShop Pro X8 is very similar to Lightroom, from my early experience. I have not done as much with it, today, as I had hoped, as I was messing with the plug-ins, for most of the morning. It will be Monday now, before I get into it, at all seriously.

Ask yourself, "What's most important for the final image?".
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#13

Commiserations John T. Just announced on National News that the FRB will be closed for weeks rather than days.
Best idea methinks would be to stay at home and settle in with PaintShop Pro x8.
Mike.
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#14

That is exactly what I plan. Normally, on a Saturday, we go to visit my aging mother-in-law. She lives in Danderhall, SE of Edinburgh. Today I am staying in front of the fire. Storm "Desmond" is blowing a hooley, and the torrential rain is battering off the windows, so it is a day to stay at home even without the excuse of the bridge closure!

Ask yourself, "What's most important for the final image?".
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#15

My £0.01 copy of "CS4: Classroom In A Book" arrived today and it is like new. The original CD, with the lesson content, was included, AND the package HAD NEVER BEEN OPENED. Started working through it this evening. Everything so far, I have covered with CS and CS2 (my previous Photoshop software), but there is new stuff to come.

Ask yourself, "What's most important for the final image?".
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#16

I have been steadily working my way through the Classroom in a Book tutorials this past week. Most of what I have been doing has been familiar to me but The Smart Objects and Smart Filters is all new.
I had an issue using the CS4 version of Adobe Bridge, as by default it wanted to open Photoshop 64 bit. However, my old laptop was not happy with this. I had to end up changing the file associations in Bridge's preferences to point to Photoshop 32 bit and now everything works fine.
Here is one of the images I have worked on during the week.

   
Nikon D80, 1/250 sec, f8, ISO 100, 30mm lens equivalent.

Ask yourself, "What's most important for the final image?".
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#17

Subtle John, easy to miss. Ed.

To each his own!
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#18

Great job there John.

Regards.

Phil.
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#19

When you see the original image you can see it wasn't a great leap to make. As I say, I am an engineer, not an artist. Unless an arty idea jumps up and bites me, it invariably passes by!

   

Ask yourself, "What's most important for the final image?".
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#20

Finished working my way through "CS4: Classroom In A Book". Some really interesting stuff that I will probably never have the need to do again. Back to learning PaintShop Pro X8 tomorrow.

Ask yourself, "What's most important for the final image?".
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#21

Not getting on very well with PaintShop Pro. It isn't the software. The book I have is nothing close to the Adobe CIAB.
Here is a little something for you mathematicians out there to ponder over.

   

Ask yourself, "What's most important for the final image?".
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#22

Hi John,
Ru2 to be youle loged out this xmas?

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. Smile

Regards.

Phil.
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#23

Reciprocating. Ed.

To each his own!
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#24

That is an interesting idea for an image, John, but it is rather meaningless to me. Huh

It looks like a composite of several elements and, although the composition has potential and it is always good to see a line that is truly horizontal, there is too much white negative space along the bottom. Also it is a pity that some of the points of the holly leaves at the top right have been cropped off. The lack of any detail in the holly leaves and berries might indicate that some aggressive noise-reduction has been applied, either in-camera or in post-processing. It is also a shame that the background is all blown-out to pure white - a scene like this needed a lower exposure to show any of the texture in the snow, or perhaps even the use of HDR techniques.

Altogether, it would appear to be less than one of the best examples of the right formula for creating a stunning image.

Wink Smile Big Grin

Cheers.
Philip
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#25

For the non maths minded all will be revealed on Friday.

Ask yourself, "What's most important for the final image?".
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