davidwien

I couldnt resist snapping this ad with my phone, on the wall of our local shopping mall yesterday.

David

I find Photolab6 does what I need. One can learn its options gradually, as I have done. I often update every two years at an advantageous price by doing so at black Friday time. You have nothing to lose by getting the free trial. Once you buy PL, you have it „for ever“. They have frequent free updates.

David

What software do you have, Digi?

David

Steve,

In days long gone by when ISO 64 film was all the rage and cameras (think Kodak Brownie) had a limited choice of stops, f/5.6 was the one selected on cloudy days, with f/8 saved for when the sun was shining (rarely where I come from). I still associate them in that way, and it still works for me with my Canon. I have had to rethink things with the Leica for some reason that I dont understand, as it seems to work better at larger apertures. But the fact that we can now get away with much higher ISO values and have a much wider range of shutter speeds means that f/5.6 is no longer to be saved for days when the weather is miserable.

The best way to discover how to use a particular setting, or lens, is to deliberately take photos with it all day and learn what works and what doesnt. I think we are living in the golden age of cameras as we know them: as far as most people are concerned they are being replaced by mobile phones, and manufacturers will find it harder to sell real cameras. It's a bit like manual transmission cars.

David

On the way home, I took a picture of the 2 meter diameter clock from the inside of the station.

A close up shows the time to be close to 3:20 pm. You can see that the clock is obscured from the outside by the enormous metal structure that presumably is there to keep the rain off those waiting for trams or buses. Next time I have the opportunity, I will take the best shot I can that shows how little you can see of the clock outside. In fact, from where I was standing, any trains obscure the lower half of the clock also!

Interestingly, though I have never noticed this before, the time indicated was incorrect, as we can see from this snap looking along the platform:

This photo (out of camera jpeg) gives me a chance to show how I make an HDR image from a raw file in PhotoLab6. First of all I click on "perspective" and things are straightened. Then I get the highlights at the right level. (The camera slightly over exposes these, but I can bring them back into range.) Then I click on sliders for "midtones" and "shadows" to bring them out of the darkness.

Looking into the distance, the view akong the track is also transformed by this operation. From this (crop of out of camera jpeg):

to this (crop of my HDR version):

The process is less complicated than it sounds!

Of course, this was just a snap to record the actual time. Normally I take care to get the perspective correct, and will often use exposure compensation to avoid over-cooking the highlights. Then in PhotoLab I sometimes use a little noise reduction if the shadows have to be brought up a lot.

David

I went out today for some exercise, as it was not drizzling. The sky was, of course, overcast. Then the sun, which was in the south, came out from behind the clouds, though by the time I was set to take a picture, it had gone back in again. It continued to play this game for a while. Later, around 2pm, I was near the Opera and noticed that, though the skies in front of me were very thick and dark, the foreground was quite sunny with long shadows. It looked like rain; but there was none.

David

Pictures 2-5 all look the same to me! 😀

I hope your team won!

David

I use mine mostly as a watch, for seeing what the weather is like outside, also to control my humidifier. I dont think of it as a camera at all and usually leave it at home unless I am driving, The "bell" is more often than not on "silent".

David

Digi,

I definitely think that being able to glimpse the cars and the road helps to give some intererst in the larger part of the picture; but dont know whether your software gives you independent control of that without also lightening the clouds. Just seeing the queue of lights is good, however.

David

The new weekly thread is open here. Please start using it now.

David

This weekly thread is principally intended for you to showcase your photos made with Canon cameras of all sorts: SLR, DSLR, Mirrorless, M-series, APS-C, film, etc. But any brand of camera will be accepted, including photos taken with your phone. We do enjoy reading an accompanying text explaining your photo and any special techniques you may have used. Comments and helpful criticisms on others' photos are also welcome: we can all learn something from each other. We look forward to seeing your contributions and new participants to this series of threads are always welcome!

A new thread for the following week will be posted next Saturday around 10 pm UK time.

Digirame and I will be active here and are sharing the hosting, but we are used to all joining in and commenting on others' photos.

Review of last week

While there are rumblings of spring here in central Europe (it was 16°C today!) I havent yet seen the evidence that Digirame showed us, with a bee in a crocus blossom. A good catch!

My fish pie was a very transient experience, though much enjoyed.

Simplejoy's walnuts and chestnut were a break from his more abstract creations. The pods of walnuts actually do produce a black liquid, the stain of which is hard to eradicate.

I admire Steve's insistance on going back to first principles. His 30mph car equates to 44ft/sec, and with an exposure of 1/640 sec, it would have moved 0.825", which is certainly as good as frozen. Was the sunrise photos also on tripod? 1/8 sec is pretty ambitious for hand held.

I am too lazy to take my tripod, unless I want to frame the shot hyper-accurately, and have developed the ability to hand hold exposures of 1/15 sec with success.

Digirame's storm cloud looked quite threatening. I would have liked to see the cars more clearly though.

Fotoworld's insects and birds are always excellent, and look very exotic to me. All the shots are wonderfully sharp.

Digirame has moved on from ducks to cormorants. As a city mouse, I have never lived anywhere with such variety of birds. Seeing the bird with outspread wings made me wonder whether the feathers would be good for the harpsichords that I play. I am currently using swan feathers.

Then there was the dog riding in the baby carriage. I assume he was convalescing. I have frequntly seen dogs with wheeled walkers when they have problems with their rear legs.

Simplejoy also got out and about with more wintery closeups.

A perfect reflection in Digirame's lake view. Finally he found some ducks!

Great shots, guys. I envy the choice of subjects that you have in the country.

David

This is an interesting comparison, though I would need a more controlled experiment for real evaluation. The problem is that for a real comparison, one needs the same aperture and field of view, etc.

The phone is f/2.4, 26mm, and there is only focus on the first "kids at play" sign. The horizon is not level. On the other hand, the camera is f/7.1, 39mm, and on the "Restrooms/Chapel" notice it is well in focus, though more distant objects are not in focus, unfortunately.

Regarding the composition, the narrower image of the camera is better in my opinion, as the extra at the sides is not very interesting; but this could be achieved with the phone by cropping.

I have seen excellent photos made with phones, but on this particular experiment I am not convinced that the phone is as good as the camera.

David

I liked the polar bear best, and wondered how long he will able to sleep on an iceberg.

David

Well, since I tend to buy a new one when I get a new camera, perhaps rental would be a better option; but I dont want to give the manufacturers ideas!

David

Personally I prefer colour because I can take in more detail, though the overblown red lights are a bit much.

For me there is much less interest in the square version. If I wanted a photo of the other platform I would have taken it from a different vantage point. Also, I feel threatened by the approaching train, as the crop makes me feel as if I am standing too close to the edge of the platform, which in any case is very narrow by modern standards.

I remember stations like this from my youth: I am glad to see they abandoned the gaslighting! 😀

David

Mostly cod (Kabeljau) and potatoes. We had steamed carrots and bruxelles sprouts (Kohlsprossen) with it!

David

With apologies to those who dont like photos of food, I decided that we needed cheering up today, so I made what Delia Smith calls a Fisherman's Pie. Here it is straight out of the oven.

Enjoy -- we did!

David

I believe that, as the OP, you can make the correction. (Though I like the typo!)

David