Hi Amin,

with flowers you don't always need all the flower in focus. As an example, this one has just the stamens? in focus; and the petals blur into, and out of, the frame.




Depends what effect you are after of course, but I think this one works fairly well to show what I meant.

Taken with a 50mm 1.7 reversed onto the 18-55 lens (F11 | 1/180 | ISO 200).

Even at F11, the DOF is only maybe 2 or 3 mm..

Cheers

Liam

Oh I'm looking forward to it Tel..

And thanks for everyone's comments.. much appreciated..

Cheers

Liam

Hi Gareth,

thanks..

For the framing, (and you'll a graphics app that handles layers, such as PS or GIMP), you create a new layer over the image, and fill it with the colour you want for the frame. You then Select all | Shrink (by 3px) | Feather (by8px) | and then cut the middle out.

Apologies, but I'm just off out, so that's a bit rushed. Ask if you need more info..

Cheers

Liam

Hi Amin,

to make setting up and focussing easier with a "still life" subject; if your tripod has a geared centre column, then set the camera to point down exactly at 90° from horizontal looking at the object. Now you have a pretty accurate (vertical) focus rail. Adjust the height of the camera, with both legs and centre column, ideally keeping the centre column about half way extended to get the zoom to your liking, then focus to somewhere close using the focus ring on the lens. For minor adjustments in focussing from there, just move the centre column up or down accordingly using the winder a mm at a time, whilst looking through the viewfinder. Far less fidly than moving the lens whilst focussing.

I find that a far more accurate way to focus for macro.. especially if you're down at 1:1 or less, where the DOF is going to be measured in millimetres.. or microns if you get hooked on macro.

Cheers

Liam

"although in the "my toy is bigger then your toy" stakes it would be a winner. "

http://kmp.bdimitrov.de/lenses/zooms/long/K135-600f6.7.html

Mannesty wins that one then..

If only I'd had another fiver.....

Cheers

Liam

Great shots Mike,

especially like #2 & #5

Cheers

Liam

Cheers Cliff,

that's a church in a village called Binfield.. about 5 miles from where I live. We had a pretty good snowfall.. considering it was the South of England. Hopefully there'll be some more tonight.

Hi all,

off to work so no detail.. I'll fill it in later..













Cheers

Liam

Cheers Terry,

It'll definitely get some hard use.. make a change from wide angle landscapes..

I've got some snowy ones from yesterday to post, but I've got a darts match in about 5 minutes, so I'll do that later.

Cheers

Liam

Hi all,

I received my 70-300 Tamron lens yesterday afternoon (courtesy of Jessops.. see one of the longest threads ever for more info.. ) and took it out for a quick test drive today... cracking little lens.. well worth the money.

These three are at short, medium and long end.. all hand held. Adjusted levels, hint of saturation and a bit of USM. I've deliberately not touched the CA, as this was a test and that seemed to be one of the concerns of this particular lens. If you look closely at the lower snowline on the roof of the barn, you can see a bit, and there is a some on the twiggy type plants in the foreground of the horse piccy, and underneath the horse's belly. Frankly, if that's as bad as it will get in normal use, it's a couple of seconds to get rid of it, and that I'm more than happy with. I took a couple of other shots knowing that I'd get some CA, and I did.. nothing worse than the FA 100-300 IIRC. (I'll do some side by side tests when I get the chance).

Admittedly it was a bright afternoon, but every shot I took at the longest end of the zoom range (200-300) was pin sharp, hand held. It's very nicely balanced, so all in all, I'm a happy chappy.

As always, you're welcome to rip them apart critically..



ist* DL | Tamron 70-300 @ 70mm | f9.5 @ 1/350 | ISO 200




ist* DL | Tamron 70-300 @ 220mm | f8 @ 1/750 | ISO 200




ist* DL | Tamron 70-300 @ 300mm | f8 @ 1/500 | ISO 200

Cheers

Liam