New 6500 first pics

[bailout]

Follow up pics to post in camera forum:

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=23441

Just a few pics I took on Sunday in the rain. Only got the camera on Friday so was fiddling around with it more than taking pics.

Was raining on Sunday but I managed to get out to the canal to take some first test shots. Un fortunately all the ducks were hiding from the rain and I didn't see any flowers suitable for macros so I couldn't take any proper technical test shots ;) I did manage to get some of a statue, however, before being told to stop by a security guard. Annoying as it was a good statue and would have made a great subject to go back to again in different conditions.

I underexposed them as it looked as if the highlights may blow so I had to do some pp to them. There was also a purplish colour cast which I had to get rid off. It was raining heavily at the time and I just left wb on auto so see how it works in other conditions. My pp skills are very limited so these just had a bit of colour correction and levels in digikam.

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb72/bailoutuk/dscf0038edit2.jpg

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb72/bailoutuk/dscf0036edit3.jpg

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb72/bailoutuk/dscf0041editsquare2.jpg

C&C welcome.

[matty]

i think the water adds to these, gives them a bit of difference from the norm..

have you tried converting them to B&W? the second i think is the best of the 3, though the last one is very intriguing!

[moomike]

2nd is very nice :clap:

[dougdarter]

I like them. Well done.

[h.r.ford]

OH that second one would be smashing in b&w. Reminds me of the cover of one of the Pink Floyd albums (can't remember which at the moment). Lovely set glad you're getting along with your new camera.

[Hacker]

The third one is very good and has been said, the raindrops add to it.



Reminds me of the cover of one of the Pink Floyd albums (can't remember which at the moment).

Division Bell?

http://users.libero.it/tassadar/pf/bell.jpg

[photostar_1]

Number 2 & 3 excellent. (Quite right about the division bell BTW)! Agree about the water droplets....makes all the difference.

[brummie]

They are quite good shots. And great technically considering the conditions.

What distro you using for digikam??
have you tried rawstudio??

[bailout]

Many thanks for the kind words (although helpful negative comments are welcome too). As the camera was completely new to me I was mainly fiddling with the controls more than concentrating on the shots. Funnily though these worked out well and I now really like them but I often find it difficult to be objective about my own shots so it is interesting to hear other people's opinions. Perhaps I should be more distracted in future and my photos will improve :D As the wet metal was reflecting the light badly I was trying to figure out how the exposure compensation controls worked while taking these.

The second one was the only one I spent much time thinking about. The staue was at an intersection of buildings and I wanted to get it against a reasonably clean background. The only bit suitable was a curved corner that was quite narrow and it took careful framing to get right but I am pleased with how it worked. The third was a shot that didn't work in its original format but I think it is interesting in a square crop. The first one was just to show more of the statue but it grew on me as I processed it although there is something about it that doesn't really work. I do really like the 3 different sight lines of the faces though.

Haven't tried them in B&W yet although I will. I have just got Martin Evenings photoshop book out of the library as I know very little about pp. I want to have a go adjusting the curves as well to see if higher contrast will give the second one a bit more snap. I do however quite like that 2 and 3 are monochromatic anyway and are about differing tone like B&W but in colour.

I think I will probably try getting out in the rain more often. I really liked some of the shots I have seen people post using Oly E1s in the rain. I just wanted to get out and see if the camera worked but actually enjoyed it and it opens up a different view of the world. I had the camera hanging round my neck under my coat and a large golf umbrella with the handle in my left coat chest pocket. Hence I could prop the umbrella up with my shoulder and use both hands on the camera. It actually worked quite well and the above shots were taken in heavy rain. (I was a bit worried when first viewing the second one as there were white streaks, until I realised they were falling raindrops)

Brummie, digikam 9.1 on Kubuntu feisty. I noticed your tux avatar. Do you post on the ubuntu forums? I think I recognise the name. Haven't tried rawstudio yet, will have a look.

[brummie]

Brummie, digikam 9.1 on Kubuntu feisty. I noticed your tux avatar. Do you post on the ubuntu forums? I think I recognise the name. Haven't tried rawstudio yet, will have a look.

i use straight Ubuntu :) And i do post on the forums occaisionally.

you could even use the gimp-ufraw plugin too. i do that when i have a lot to edit in a pic - more than just colour balance and sharpness.
Search apt for them both.
Digikam is good but seems to alot slower and less accurate than the others.