Today in pictures

[Gremlin]

One more from the boat, Ben Nevis taken from Banavie Locks near Fort William waiting to get out to sea and Isle of Mull.

We had a right old struggle getting tied up. The wind suddenly got up and rain lashed down, ten minutes later the sun shone again.
We were both soaked to the skin so we decided to get smartened up and took a taxi into Fort william for a decent meal.

[maxthecollie]

Originally Posted by Gremlin

One more from the boat, Ben Nevis taken from Banavie Locks near Fort William waiting to get out to sea and Isle of Mull.

We had a right old struggle getting tied up. The wind suddenly got up and rain lashed down, ten minutes later the sun shone again.
We were both soaked to the skin so we decided to get smartened up and took a taxi into Fort william for a decent meal.

Great Pics.We go up Scotland twice a year. We stay in holiday cottages and try a different region every time if we can. One of our favourites was a lock keepers cottage on the Caledonian Canal about 4 miles South of Fort Augustus

[Margaret Pilkington]

Originally Posted by davemac

I too dont understand HDR, I know its a composite of a selection of photos at different exposures, but how do you get them, and then combine them

You have to use an editing program to do it....something a bit more complicated that Photoscape...something like Adobe Photoshop.
I have adobe photoshop and the manual......which is as thick as a phone book(well perhaps not quite as thick - but it makes me feel as thick as a phone book)....and I still haven't got to grips with it.
I was offered a tutorial by someone who seems to have acquired these skills, but I declined as life was just a bit full on at the time......and I'm not entirely sure I would actually want to use the skill...but I hate to be beaten.

[maxthecollie]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

You have to use an editing program to do it....something a bit more complicated that Photoscape...something like Adobe Photoshop.
I have adobe photoshop and the manual......which is as thick as a phone book(well perhaps not quite as thick - but it makes me feel as thick as a phone book)....and I still haven't got to grips with it.
I was offered a tutorial by someone who seems to have acquired these skills, but I declined as life was just a bit full on at the time......and I'm not entirely sure I would actually want to use the skill...but I hate to be beaten.

My son can edit with HDR as he has posted some great pics on his flickr site. He tried to show me but I couldn't grasp it so forget it for me.

[maxthecollie]

Just for Gremlin,some pics when we stayed in the Old Lock Keppers Cottage near Fort Augustus on the Caledonian Canal.The ones with the locks in Fort Augustus you can see the Southern shore of Loch Ness
LOCK KEEPERS COTTAGE 10-17 MAY 2008 041.jpg lock keepers cottage fort august may 2008 014.jpg Tues 2nd June 2009 018.jpg Tues 2nd June 2009 019.jpg Tues 2nd June 2009 047.jpg Tues 2nd June 2009 055.jpg Tues 2nd June 2009 056.jpg Tues 2nd June 2009 058.jpg view from cotage towards fort aug.jpg view towards fort augustus.jpg

[churchfcrules]

Originally Posted by davemac

I too dont understand HDR, I know its a composite of a selection of photos at different exposures, but how do you get them, and then combine them

dave hdr is just taking 3 or more photos at different exposure levels, so for example a sky that is "white out" but the foreground is clear then with a lower exposure you get the clouds but the foreground is dark and lose detail, you then use photoshop to "merge HDR", it then merges all of the photos together so you get all of the detail

i use cs6 on my mac and it does it all for me, quite happy to meet up some time and show you.

a lot of cameras now have an AEB (auto exposure bracketing) so you set the exposure to the correct one for a normal photo, then the camera will take one either side, i have mine set to 5 so it takes 2 either side, at 1/4 stop each photo, hope i have explained it.

as i say if you want to nip round or meet up sometime will show you

good for landscapes, but i dont use it all of the time just on the odd ones, but it comes in handy sometimes if you have got the exposure wrong, i also use raw rather than jpg, but thats another waffle sometime

[Restless]

Originally Posted by churchfcrules

quite happy to meet up some time and show you.

as i say if you want to nip round or meet up sometime will show you

is that a invitation to go "hunting" together (see canal thread)

[churchfcrules]

Originally Posted by Restless

is that a invitation to go "hunting" together (see canal thread)

Loads of the blighted on my front street at the mo. don't fancy taking my MacBook out they might nick it

[Gremlin]

Originally Posted by maxthecollie

Just for Gremlin,some pics when we stayed in the Old Lock Keppers Cottage near Fort Augustus on the Caledonian Canal.The ones with the locks in Fort Augustus you can see the Southern shore of Loch Ness
Attachment 26617 Attachment 26618 Attachment 26619 Attachment 26620 Attachment 26621 Attachment 26622 Attachment 26623 Attachment 26624 Attachment 26625 Attachment 26626

Thanks for the photos max, they bring back happy memories. I have moored at the locks there a few times over night. The Lock Inn does good grub and decent ale, I remember the landlord has LOK1N as his car registration.
The cottage must be popular, we tried to book it a few years ago and it was fully booked. The year after my wife had the heart failure so we never got chance to try again.

[DaveinGermany]

Originally Posted by Gremlin

One more from the boat, Ben Nevis taken from Banavie Locks near Fort William waiting to get out to sea and Isle of Mull.

Ben Nevis ? Someone mention Ben Nevis & Fort William ? Been there, done that, bit to touristy though. Anyway here's my take on the Nevis (slightly different focus methinks )

Hector - Distillery - Nevis in cloud.

[davemac]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

You have to use an editing program to do it....something a bit more complicated that Photoscape...something like Adobe Photoshop.
I have adobe photoshop and the manual......which is as thick as a phone book(well perhaps not quite as thick - but it makes me feel as thick as a phone book)....and I still haven't got to grips with it.
I was offered a tutorial by someone who seems to have acquired these skills, but I declined as life was just a bit full on at the time......and I'm not entirely sure I would actually want to use the skill...but I hate to be beaten.

I think that is my reason for the question, I don't have the facility on my camera to bracket the shots automatically, and to do the same manually would require a tripod, if I have understood the method. Three shots, one at the right exposure one stepped down and one stepped up.

Originally Posted by churchfcrules

dave hdr is just taking 3 or more photos at different exposure levels, so for example a sky that is "white out" but the foreground is clear then with a lower exposure you get the clouds but the foreground is dark and lose detail, you then use photoshop to "merge HDR", it then merges all of the photos together so you get all of the detail

i use cs6 on my mac and it does it all for me, quite happy to meet up some time and show you.

a lot of cameras now have an AEB (auto exposure bracketing) so you set the exposure to the correct one for a normal photo, then the camera will take one either side, i have mine set to 5 so it takes 2 either side, at 1/4 stop each photo, hope i have explained it.

as i say if you want to nip round or meet up sometime will show you

good for landscapes, but i dont use it all of the time just on the odd ones, but it comes in handy sometimes if you have got the exposure wrong, i also use raw rather than jpg, but thats another waffle sometime

Church I thank you for the explanation, and yes you explained it to a point that I understood, and the offer to instruct me as to the workings of the world of HDR, I thank you for both.
However, and this is the rub, I am not a fan of a lot of the HDR's I think they are, shall we say "not for me" and some I have seen , I don't like at all. I was just curious how the end result was arrived at.
Some sites I have looked at, some photographers use HDR all the time, and some shots look very "chocolate box" to me. I do however respect people who choose to use the method and would not want to sway people away from using the method if they chose to do so, but not me.

[Margaret Pilkington]

I second that Dave.......I have seen some pics which look OK, if you like that sort of thing, some of them look very 'artificial'(for want of a better word)... I prefer most of my shots as nature intended them...although I do like to play around a little bit with effects...sepia and mono.
While this can be effective, it can never take anything away from the original.

I just thought I would give it a go to see if I could do it......and I understand the principles, but I haven't had any good results.

[davemac]

Today in Pictures , a walk on the wet side.

1. Parking at Lowerfold Park, I head down to the river.
2. The perimeter to Bowley Scout camp is on the left.
3. The River Calder is in sight and a stream that feeds it.
4. Down the slope we go.
5. Here it is, the River Calder, notice from the camera viewpoint I am in 4 foot of water.
6. Lookind down stream toward Whalley Nab.
7. Its time to climb back up the leaf covered slope.
8. Last look at the river before I head through the scout camp.
9. A path to the right as we left the camp, but not one to walk today.
10. Almost back to the car, St Barts Church.

[dawnrodd]

Hiya everyone,

Wow, this has been a busy thread the past two days. I have been out and about so not had much time to check in until tonight and hence spent a good hour or so looking at all the recent posts on this thread.

Some great photos been uploaded and also discussion about HDR processing, which I think has pretty much been covered. I do some HDR processing, but I used a program called Photomatix Pro 3.

I sit on the fence regards "to process or not to process" .... however, I do tend to spend some time editing my photos, mainly because the camera does not always take the photo as I see it with my own eyes. I guess each of us sees something in a different way. Take for instance a sunset .... what I see may not necessarily be what the person standing next to me sees, because of many reasons [i.e., physical make up (eyes) and emotions (feelings) about a particular vista/scene etc).

By processing an image I can aim to create an image the way I see it, and share that with others so they see a different perspective.

Anyway .... enough about processing for now from me. I want to share with you some of the photos I took of a bonfire we had in our neighbourhood.

Cheers

Dawn

[Margaret Pilkington]

Davemac and I have had this discussion about what each of us sees in a photograph.......and I am glad that you have said some of the things that we have said......it underlines our thoughts precisely.
Which is why I wish some of the National Heritage properties would sell us snappers a licence to photograph the loveliness of their buildings, instead of an expensively produced glossy brochure.

These days you can take good pictures without using flash - they don't like you to use flash as it may cause light damge to artefacts. I would have loved to take pictures inside Osborne House, but it was forbidden - but I could have paid almost ten quid for a brochure with pictures, to which I had no personal connection....and personal connection is the key to your own photo's.