Layers->Colours->Curves is another handy thing for tweaking images. It can be used to improve the contrast of the things that matter in the photo slightly, at the expense of the things that don't.

Straightening, cropping, curves and unsharp mask are the things I use most often. It's easy to overdo unsharp mask though, so I usually turn the controls down until it isn't really making much of a difference in the preview, then turn them back up a little bit.

Oh, and the cloning brush too, that can be very handy.

Robert.

The phone box was inspired. I usually think of panoramas as being a useful way to capture something big, so to use the technique to capture the claustrophobia of a telephone box rather appealed to me. I can't imagine it was easy to do either.

Robert.

Who was it that said "I can resist everything, except temptation"? While normally immune, I think I've just had a waver...

From what I could see the moire is mostly confined to the bank notes. This isn't a complete surprise as the banks go to a lot of trouble to make their notes difficult to photocopy by making sure they cause moire.

It does seem to show up on a piece of cloth too, though the K5II shows it to some extent as well.

The grey cotton reel in the box under the bank notes shows the increased definition really well.

Thanks for sharing the link,

Robert.

Lovely photos, particularly from my favourite bit of Scotland up beyond Ullapool. As soon as I saw the deer shots I wondered if they were near the King's House.

Deer are funny things. You can be out on the hills during the day and they'll run away even though you're a kilometer away. As night falls they don't seem to bother. You can practically walk up to them. Not much use for photography though, I suppose.

The small hut is just near a lovely Scottish Mountaineering Club hut I've stayed in a few times.

Robert.

At three minutes and six seconds...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16512595

Robert.

Hmmm, I hope it wasn't me that's been scaring you in Aberdeen .

Robert.

Well done to Pentaxophile for a lovely shot, and to everyone else for some of the most varied shots I've seen in one of these competitions. Thanks to the judge for thoughtful and prompt judging, and for egging us on to think outside the box. I particularly liked Unlocker's shot, and it seemed appropriate given his icon.

So, was it a set up, or not? Well, perhaps I should reveal the title should really have been "messing about in the garden on a lovely sunny evening trying to photograph something that was probably a daffodil but was more frilly and didn't have the central horn and folded over under the weight of the water I'd sprayed onto it and had to be held up with bamboo pole". I thought that might be a bit long though.

What amazed me was it only took about thirty shots to get the focus and lighting about right and capture a water drop in flight. I think I was lucky.

Robert.

I've got a picture in my head and had a go at capturing it last night. I didn't, but here's what I got anyway...

Daffodil in the rain by R is Rob, on Flickr


I seem to be into water drops at the moment.

Taken at about 19:00 on 26th April 2011
Camera Pentax K20D
Exposure 1/60
Aperture f/2.8
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 100
Pop-up and off camera flash used

I got excited that I might see them again, as it's been a few years. Then I looked at the Aberdeen weather forecast and found it's supposed to rain for the next five days. Oh well. I'll probably have a quick look anyway.

Robert.