I think I may be improving. Been very happy recently with some of the shots I've been taking and have noticed I'm paying more attention to what's in the viewfinder before pressing the shutter.

Getting a new lens tomorrow (50mm F1.8), and hopefully next week I'll be getting a flash. Looking around locally for something used and cheap.

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Where abouts do you live, btw? In all your shots it looks really picturesque.

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He comes from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.



(Iceland, IIRC).

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I am uncomfortable with the analogue stick placement on the Dual Shock 4.

I was guessing Iceland. Looks nice.

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Yeah, it can get pretty pretty here. Just a shame I never go anywhere. There's a stunning glacial lagoon that I would just love to visit, waterfalls, hot springs and countless other areas. One day in the far future I may buy a car, then I'll go to all those places.

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Always loved what I've seen of Iceland's scenery, beautiful place.

Took some pictures of the animals in the snow earlier. Nothing special, but I like a couple of them.



All shot at f2.0, hence the really short depth of field. Definitely going to use a narrower aperture in the future, doesn't ruin the photos (I quite like the effect) but they would look nice if they whole subject was in focus. Really like the catch light in the 3rd photo.

Spaniels

I'm strawberry floating useless with my canon, I just get blurred pics most of the time

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Really like those pics. The eyes on those animals came out amazing. When I have money I will buy a good camera

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Got my new lens today:

Almost bought a used flash at the store along with the lens, but the guy working there talked me off the one they had. Said it was only a little bit more powerful than the pop-up flash and couldn't be triggered by another flash.

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What's your budget?

The YN460 and YN560 are both pretty cheap and delivered free worldwide.

The former has ETTL but no manual controls and the latter has manual controls and more power, but no ETTL.

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I am uncomfortable with the analogue stick placement on the Dual Shock 4.

Yeah, just put down an order for the YN560 at the site $ilva linked to, at www.bestofferbuy.com. Saw the ebay link only after confirming the order.
DHL shipping, hopefully I'll have it before next weekend for my aunt's 60th.

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It's nice and powerful. If I'm shooting in a room, I'll just stick it somewhere bouncing off the ceiling so you get nice soft lighting wherever you are in the room.

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I am uncomfortable with the analogue stick placement on the Dual Shock 4.

It's been a while since I've tried my phone camera out, I've only got an iPhone 3GS so I thought it'd be gooseberry fool. It's actually not too bad. Since it's got really bad zoom I decided to try and use my lenses from my glasses to take a photo of this ladybug that's been sat on a leaf on our living rooms plant. He's been there since Summer and not really moving.

You should give it a try, works suprisingly well.



If you try make sure to post your results. I'm going to try and take some more tommorow as obviously it's nighttime now and the lighting is gooseberry fool.

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Got the flash today. Having a tough time figuring it out. I think the TTL for the internal flash (which I'm using to trigger the flash off camera) is messing with the results. At the very least I'm not getting the results I think I should be getting, and the whole thing just seems very weird. I brighten the off-camera flash, and it results in a darker picture, or there's no change at all. The flash is definitely firing. Very weird.

I think I'll keep it on the camera until I get a radio trigger or cord.

These are taken with the flash on the camera:

And here's a night shot of a church tower:

SNES controller:

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You must shoot in Manual mode.


Essentially, what you need to remember is that your flash does not care what shutter speed you're at - it's pop lasts less than like 1/10,000. The only thing that affects it is your aperture.


So if you want to balance flash with ambient, e.g. a sunset, you use your shutter to kill the ambient light to expose the sunset, and then use the aperture to sort out the flash exposure (or you can just power down/up the flash).

Also, I just bought a pair of RF-603 radio triggers from Yongnuo and they work well with my flash. Some pictures up soon, hopefully.


Did you light that church with your flash? It is siiiiiick.

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I am uncomfortable with the analogue stick placement on the Dual Shock 4.

I was shooting in manual, but the thing about the aperture is news to me. I'll try some things out, see if I can't get it to behave.

"Edit": Can't seem to get it working. The pictures come out brighter with just the pop-up flash than if I use the pop-up flash to trigger the other one. Changing the power of the Yong Nuo doesn't seem to do much. Changing the aperture, I could see the effect it has with the flash on the camera, but not when triggering it off the camera.

"Edit 2": Found this on another forum:

And this:

Tried that and it works, but damn that's clunky. Buying radio triggers ASAP.



Nah, it's just lit up like that at night. Besides, I'd need two flashes to get it lit up like that. And it's quite a tall tower so there would probably be significant light falloff. Or maybe I'm underestimating just how powerful a flash can be. Search for Landakotskirkja in Google Earth to get an idea of the size of it.

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Regarding flash power - you're using the left and right buttons on the circular thing, right? try putting it on the lowest and most powerful settings and use the bottom left button to fire it. You'll be able to tell the difference. Full power is blindingly bright (definitely don't look at it). Up and down is just for interstop adjustments and isn't all that useful.


Then, "M" mode is when it's on your camera, "S1" is essentially for Nikon users and "S2" is for you Canon guys with your crappy on-board preflash.

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I am uncomfortable with the analogue stick placement on the Dual Shock 4.

That might be why I was having issues. I thought they were just two different custom settings (so you could quickly change from one preset to the other). I'm guessing it's mentioned in the manual? Really should have rtfm.

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Post on forums, hunt through the internet.


Read the manual? (which is basically a scrap of paper). Never!

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I am uncomfortable with the analogue stick placement on the Dual Shock 4.

Shazam. Trying to do a decentish photo a day for five days.


edit: Today's has been delayed by the intense crapness of The Gimp. Such an awful, awful, UI.

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I am uncomfortable with the analogue stick placement on the Dual Shock 4.