weekly StuartPearson 52 for 2020 - Week 51 - Decor(ate)

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Stuart
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Week 1 - Local Interest
Week 2 - Pleasure
Week 3 - Tools
Week 4 - Discarded
Week 5 - Snappers Choice
Week 6 - Wild
Week 7 - Broken
Week 8 - Ability
Week 9 - Winter
Week 10 - Book Title
Week 11 - Transport
Week 12 - Fence
Week 13 - Flora
Week 14 - Time
Week 15 - Snappers Choice
Week 16 - First Initial
Week 17 - More Than One
Week 18 - Anything Musical
Week 19 - Colour(ful)
Week 20 - Anything Old
Week 21 - Liquid
Week 22 - A Household Item
Week 23 - Hidden (away)
Week 24 - Small
Week 25 - Snappers Choice
Week 26 - Mother Nature
Week 27 - Signs
Week 28 - Secured
Week 29 - Personal
Week 30 - Graceful
Week 31 - Static
Week 32 - Patterns
Week 33 - Camouflage
Week 34 - Tiny
Week 35 - Snappers Choice
Week 36 - Textures
Week 37 - Activity
Week 38 - Artificial
Week 39 - Autumn
Week 40 - Wet
Week 41 - Topical
Week 42 - Food
Week 43 - Sharp
Week 44 - Digital Age
Week 45 - Snappers Choice
Week 46 - Narrow
Week 47 - Paper
Week 48 - Camera
Week 49 - Leaves
Week 50 - Abstract
Week 51 - Showcase
Week 52 - Decor(ate)

My first foray into the weekly challenges, The Kelpies which are very local. They are a popular image location however I fear all my previous images before today will not be improved, for night photos anyway. The reason being the council (presumably) had decided to add high intensity lighting to the metal fencing adjacent to the sculpture which makes balancing any full size night image difficult if not impossible.:(

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Great shot. Have only ever seen them during the day, very interesting to see them lit
 
The lighting on the steps / rails is odd isn't it. There'll be some trumped up or imagined H&S justification behind it (that someone made up just to justify doing it).
it doesn't spoil the shot though, at least not for someone who hasn't seen the shot without the lighting.
They are impressive looking beasties aren't they.
 
There'll be some trumped up or imagined H&S justification behind it (that someone made up just to justify doing it).

Nope, they have been under siege by drunken f wits vandalising the place over the darker winter nights.
 
Great shot of the big horses!
 
Very nice image Stuart a location I want to visit if ever I'm near enough.
 
Good first go Stuart, I think the glare from the High Intensity lights are giving a slight softness to the Keplies themselves near the bottom. But overall a cracking Image.

Pete
 
A very nice start Stuart, even if the council are determined to ruin it for the future :(
 
Brilliant start there, I really like the look of these, very impressive. I'd never seen these before.
 
Fantastic start to your 52 challenge Stuart!:clap:

They are very impressive structures indeed, and very well photographed...excellent exposure control.
Yes the lights are a tad bright at the bottom, but it doesn't detract from the image at all.
I am ashamed to admit that I have hitherto not seen or heard of these Kelpies before this image, and after much googling, I must thank you for educating me!
#2 is a real 'WOW!' image...just fantastic!!:clap:
 
Great image, shame the fence now spoils it, but I would not have known it used to be better if you hadn't told us.
 
Nice shot of a place that's been on my list for a long time. But - I have 4 nights booked up there in April with some toggin pals :D
 
I see what you mean now Stuart after viewing the one from a few year ago. Seems they have spoiled it with all the extra lighting. Nevertheless a good start to the year.
 
Week 2 - Pleasure
Cody our 14 year old Lurcher Cross loves his bubbles. Normally wants someone to help anywhere between 10 and 11 at night!

I was triggering the camera using a wireless remote, did try other images with the onboard flash but shutter speed min dropped to 125mS and I couldn‘t capture anything decent. I do have two external flashes, one a really cheap one, the other is a Youngnuo YN568 II, slight better but not sure if I will get better results.

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Bang on theme I agree with Dave it appears the focus is on the back leg rather than the face which is a shame given the look of pleasure on Cody's face.
 
Bang on theme I agree with Dave it appears the focus is on the back leg rather than the face which is a shame given the look of pleasure on Cody's face.

I would have been better getting someone else blowing the bubbles so I could concentrate on the composition, I have better photos where I was further away with a zoom lens, but they were taken last week. This photo was hope I get him in frame, but creating the bubbles and triggering the camera at the right time was my downfall.
 
So....
This was always going to be difficult as you're close up which reduces the DoF, but given you were happy to use flash, this is how I would have tried to do it.
1. Used the YN568 rather than the popup flash (for power).
2. Stopped down to something like f/16 (maybe f/8) and a shutter speed of 1/200th and ISO 100 so that the whole image was black without flash.
3. Set the flash to TTL and bounced it backwards (or added a defuser if pointing forwards).
4. Taken a few test shots (of maybe a chair?) to check the illumination and set compensation accordingly.
5. Blow bubbles and trigger camera with puppydawg as your model :)
6. I might even have set the focus manually and made a note of where puppydog needed to be before shooting.

I'm assuming you had the camera on a tripod and the flash on camera (if the flash could be off camera it might be easier).
In-fact I'm making a lot of assumptions as we can't see the exif for the shot (hosting it on flickr would help with this).

Why would I have done it this way?
The shot looks noisy. To me this indicates that the camera was upping the ISO and reducing the shutter speed to try to expose the whole photo correctly. This really doesn't help. You get movement, noise and a really shallow DoF.
So, by setting up the flash to do the illumination you can remove the noise and set a wider DoF to help to get more of the shot in sharp focus.
By having the image black without flash, you're basically taking shutter speed out of the equation (you need it within the camera's sync speed - but that is normally 1/200 or 1/250). The duration of the flash is going to be much faster than the shutter speed, thereby removing motion blur.
By bouncing the flash off a wall behind you we're trying to avoid harsh shadows from the flash.
I'd use TTL because the subject is moving and it can be easier. But... Manual *might* be better.

Hope that might help in some way.
 
So....

Why would I have done it this way?
The shot looks noisy. To me this indicates that the camera was upping the ISO and reducing the shutter speed to try to expose the whole photo correctly. This really doesn't help. You get movement, noise and a really shallow DoF.
So, by setting up the flash to do the illumination you can remove the noise and set a wider DoF to help to get more of the shot in sharp focus.
By having the image black without flash, you're basically taking shutter speed out of the equation (you need it within the camera's sync speed - but that is normally 1/200 or 1/250). The duration of the flash is going to be much faster than the shutter speed, thereby removing motion blur.
By bouncing the flash off a wall behind you we're trying to avoid harsh shadows from the flash.
I'd use TTL because the subject is moving and it can be easier.

Hope that might help in some way.

Thanks for the detailed feedback and suggestions.
I’m using a Panasonic G5 micro four thirds camera
Lenses I have are:
25mm 1.7 prime, 12-60mm zoom (3.5-5.6), 45-150mm (4-5.6), 100-300 (4-5.6), 7artisans 7.5mm fisheye 2.8 prime

I have an extension cable for the flash but I have never got round to using it yet, so this could be a good time

Here‘s one of the photos I achieved using flash a fortnight ago when someone else was creating the bubbles and I could concentrate on the composition

View: https://flic.kr/p/2idAWhK
 
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That's far better really, as you said in your original post.
I use FF or APSC rather than M43, but the same principles (and numbers probably) apply.
Having the flash has given you a better colour temperature, it looks like the ISO is a lot lower and motion is frozden. You've got the focus where you wanted it too I think :)

I suspect that flash was on camera and pointed at your puppydawg. Because:
1. Dog equivalent of Red Eye.
2. Hard edges to the shadows.
Both of these could have been avoided by bouncing the flash off the wall behind you.

You could probably have turned the flash down 1/3rs to 2/3rds of a stop too.

There are others on the 52 far better at flash than I am, hopefully they will chip in too, but those are some pointers / ideas

ETA:
You might want to look into hosting your photos on flickr, as that way the exif is exposed (if you're not sure what I mean, take a look at any of the photos on my flickr photostream and scroll down into the info below the picture).
 
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With your description I can see how it fits the theme, but its not to my personal taste sorry.
 
I can see how it fits the theme, take on board some of the suggestions and the end result will soon improve. For me that was the whole reasoner taking part in the challenge last year :)
 
Good effort to capture the pooch whilst jumping around. Much easier outside with more natural light and possibility of faster shutter.
 
Ooh you picked a challenging subject for Pleasure, Stuart! It's a shame the focus is off but you can see Cody is having great fun and he looks in great nick for 14! Your second image from an earlier attempt is really good and Tim's suggestions are excellent, although the biggest help would probably just be getting someone to help you again - you did well to get anything last week doing it all by yourself (y)
 
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