It's a personal choice.

When I shot film I usually had an orange or red filter in front of black and white emulsions and an 81A in front of colour ones.

Now I dial in "Daylight" or "Cloudy" as a routine and sort out black and white in Photoshop, so there is no longer a photographic reason for a filter.

I do, however, always use a lenshood, and always did.

Taking a portrait, light skinned model, blond hair, white background, nice overall lighting without deep shadows, and you have high key.

The exposure still has to be correct, so aim for exposure compensation maybe of +1 (experiment for best effect) and keep just a tinge of detail in the highlights.

In terms of the Zone System I'd aim for Zone VIII for the lightest tones, but on digital you would not usually need the +3 stops exposure compensation that it implies.

They stay green for me, so if you have found a bug please make a Report, being as specific in the details as possible.

Are you sure you haven't damaged your camera as well?

What speed do you get when you set the X setting?

Just that a detailed close up subject with lots of lines, shapes and fine detail would have been better. How about a map or newspaper at different apertures?

Don't forget to make sure the camera back is exactly parralel to the subject.

I think there may be a clue here. When you say close the page that implies that you have left the site, so when you return the buttons have reset. The button means "new posts since last visit" and not "unread posts" so when you read one you need to read the rest before you leave, otherwise they will indeed disappear.

Is this what is happening?

Many people thought it ridiculous to be a veteran after only 30 posts and then...nothing further after that. So a structure of names has been put in as it's been mentioned by several people quite a few times. Life doesn't have to be dull.

Does it really matter? Most seem to have taken it with light hearted amusement, but if you don't want it then do please make a Report.

Most forums have a ranking system, and it's just a bit of fun that takes seconds to install, so don't worry about it taking the IT department away from more important things.

Over at ADAPS we have a similar ranking system, I have one on my forum and so does my son Mike on his. Mike's is based on Advanced D&D Monk titles, so Grand Master of Flowers would be the Big Cheese there....

As regards the bugs, the green new posts buttons should be fixed by now, unless anyone knows differently...

As regards "goody bags" I leave all that up to my wife Sue. She is impressive at exhibitions and manages to extract all the things you could imagine, even when they aren't on show. A veritable vacuum cleaner for freebies!

We found lots of interesting things, but then we had a list of things to accomplish. Didn't finish the list, but not too bad.

Isn't life exciting these days?

Items for sale in the Classifieds please. Duplication of threads is not the best way to go anyway, it really confuses any replies. Everyone will see it here as well as anywhere else.

It may just be that the items are not very exciting.