Goth Meet Oct. 2010

Spider gets the killer shot
[IMG]http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy273/Davidtrout2/Spidersjustshotthekillerpic.jpg[/IMG]
But Barrie Forbes and Technoblurb (Graham Kirkby) are not impressed.

Shady characters
[IMG]http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy273/Davidtrout2/Shadowyfigures.jpg[/IMG]
Sometimes its best to work in silhouette, gtis (Neil), Father Ted, Barrie Forbes and Graham Kirkby stalking their prey.

Incidentally, we set a record in April with 11,000 hits. Do we think we can beat it this time?

One for Alan.
Your shots all look a lot smoother ( for want of a better word) than mine. Is that a PP effect, or due to lens, or camera?
If it is PP, can you point me in the right direction of what I can do to achieve this effect?

When you upload them do you resize them first? If not photobucket will which will reduce quality.
I always resize them (using the 'best for reduction' setting) then save them as jpegs. That way the end quality is usually better.

I use Paintshop to resize first. But even on the original mine just don't have the same smooth feel. I know my camera is 6Mp, but unless I zoom right in that shouldn't be the problem.
Maybe I'm just being hyper-critical....maybe I'm pining for a new camera ( but SWMBO has put the kybosh on that! )

I put it all down to lighting Ted (and the DA*)

You cant discount the equipment, but believe me I turned out some real duds on the day, totally overexposed, not sharp, no eye contact etc etc,

I've done very little PP other than levels and cropping to the ones on here, the models complextions may seem smoother because they were better at doing their make-up

NR software will go a long way to smoothing out a models face if your not happy with the original, always work on the full size un-edited image (dont overdo it though) Heres a quickie on one of yours.

[IMG]http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j168/impotentspider/IMGP8058.jpg[/IMG]

Thanks Alan. I can see the difference there. Which NR software did you use?

I use Neat Image Ted (the freebie version) http://www.neatimage.com/

It works extremely well just going through it on auto, sometimes it will say it cant build up a proper profile and it'll leave you to your own devices, but doing it yourself is easy once youv'e had a play around.

Thanks for that, Alan. I'll download that tonight.

99% of the time I let the software do its own thing, the other 1% of the time I just pratt about till it looks right, basically that means adjusting all the sliders in equal increments, though I never use the sharpening thingy and sharpen later in Photoshop.

I always do adjustments and prewiew at 100% even when I'm letting the software do its own thing, and I check various points on the image frequently for how theyre affected.

I find the software does a pretty good job at building up a profile on unedited images, its very rare I get one that doesnt have a big enough area of suitable pixels to sample from.

It also helps if you download the profiles for a specific camera model, I think all the Pentax DSLRs are available.

I just use Picassa!......and you can tell!

Flame
[IMG]http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy273/Davidtrout2/Flame.jpg[/IMG]
Enough talk of software, lets look at the girls.
David

so right
still looking at my photos sohere is another one
[IMG]http://i676.photobucket.com/albums/vv123/gtis/goth/gothgirl.jpg[/IMG]
neil

If you insist!

I'd love to know if this lady is a model. I think she has an utterly fabulous face and she really knows how to pose. If anyone finds out, let us know.

David - that girl is absolutely stunning ! More please. In your earlier photos that you posted - the one of her in the grave yard doesn't show those eyelashes - how does she cope with them ?

More photos please - they are wonderful