Photo Contest - I'm Ready For My Closeup, Mr. DeMille (8/23-8/30)

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The discussion centers around a photo contest themed "close-up pictures," where participants are encouraged to submit digital photos that focus on a subject up close. The contest rules specify that only one photo per member is allowed, and submissions must adhere to a size limit of 650 x 490 pixels without extensive editing. Participants share their entries, which include various subjects like pets and nature, while discussing challenges in capturing close-up shots, particularly with moving subjects.Many participants express the difficulty of using auto-focus features on their cameras, often leading to missed shots or incorrect focus. Manual focus is highlighted as a preferred option for action photography, with some users sharing tips on how to effectively use focus lock and continuous shooting modes to improve results. The conversation also touches on the experiences of pet ownership, with humorous anecdotes about training pets and managing their behavior. Overall, the thread showcases a blend of photography tips, personal stories, and a sense of community among participants as they prepare for the contest.
  • #31
Are there any digital cameras that don't suffer from that shutter delay problem? Or do you have to go into the exhorbitant, professional level price ranges to get them? I haven't encountered any that didn't have some delay, and it really is a pain when you're trying to capture an action shot.
 
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  • #32
Most digital cameras above $500 or so generally have little or no shutter delay if used properly. One thing many people don't realize is that any camera will have significant shutter delay if you're using the auto-exposure, auto-focus, red-eye reduction, etc. features, all of which occur in sequence before the picture is actually taken.

You need to set the camera to manual, focus it, select your exposure, and compose your shot. Once all that's done, sit and wait until just the right instant -- press the shutter, and your camera will take the picture nearly instantly.

- Warren
 
  • #33
chroot said:
You need to set the camera to manual, focus it, select your exposure, and compose your shot. Once all that's done, sit and wait until just the right instant -- press the shutter, and your camera will take the picture nearly instantly.

- Warren
:smile: Well, when you put it in perspective like that, I guess it's not such a delay. Gosh, it's been so long since I've known anyone to use a manual focus camera that I forgot how long it can take them to focus while you're sitting there trying to freeze the smile on your face.
 
  • #34
Moonbear said:
:smile: Well, when you put it in perspective like that, I guess it's not such a delay. Gosh, it's been so long since I've known anyone to use a manual focus camera that I forgot how long it can take them to focus while you're sitting there trying to freeze the smile on your face.

Pretty much all professional photographers use either manual focus, or have cameras with auto-focus mechanisms triggered by a half-press of the shutter button. After the first auto-focus for their scene, they lock the focus and don't touch it anymore. Bye bye, shutter delay. Your kitten picture, for example, would have benefitted from this. As it is, your camera focused the wire mesh behind the kitten, rather than the kitten itself. As usual, auto-focus got it wrong anyway, so why use it at all?

Auto-focus is, in fact, the bane of photography these days. I've had to sit still for minutes while some novice photographer takes picture after picture with a full-auto digital camera, throwing out several in a row because the focus isn't quite right on any of them.

And how about those people who take home movies with camcorders, but don't have the foresight to use its focus lock? The kid's chasing a ball or something else with a lot of motion, and the camera is constantly changing focus. You end up with one frame every two seconds that's actually in good focus.

- Warren
 
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  • #35
chroot said:
Pretty much all professional photographers use either manual focus, or have cameras with auto-focus mechanisms triggered by a half-press of the shutter button.
I still find that useless for action shots, because until something is in the frame to focus on, even the half-press of the button locks the focus on something other than what you want to take a photo of. I can't seem to convince my camera to ever lock onto anything I want it to lock on. Of course, with the kitten photo, that's because she wandered in from the side (I just cropped out the dirty windowsill). I had other in-focus shots of her, but they weren't as cute. Then again, I had some that were a complete blur of orange and black as she zoomed past the camera. :smile: I did get a few better ones yesterday when I focused on a toy I had placed out for her, and then snapped the picture the moment she came up to the toy. Bleh, I prefer photographing things on microscopes. At least then I can adjust the focus exactly where I want it and nothing moves once I get it all set right! :biggrin:

Then again, there was no way I was going to spend over $500 for a digital camera, and the ones that have complete manual focus are huge! I'd never use it because I'd never lug it around. I'd rather have blurry photos than none at all.
 
  • #36
It sounds like a common experience: you attempted to use auto-focus, but actually took a whole sequence of pictures none of which were focused as you intended.

That's pretty much why many people still prefer manual focus -- or, at least, auto-focus that can be used only on demand. I typically use spot auto-focus one time, then switch to manual focus to leave the focus locked for the remainder of my photos of a given scene.

Auto-focus rarely, if ever, does what you really intend for it do, with the exception of vacation pics of sunsets, and pics of your friends at a dinner table. For pretty much every other kind of photography, auto-focus is a hindrance. You'd spend less time, overall, and get more shots worth keeping with manual focus.

</rant>

And you're right, most teeny tiny point-and-shoot cameras often have pretty lousy manual controls, but not all. I have a $250 Canon SD-450, which is a tiny little camera that actually takes remarkably good photos. It has half-shutter auto-focus, which helps a bunch. You can also turn off auto-focus altogether, but it requires a couple of button pushes, and is hard to do while holding the camera still.

- Warren
 
  • #37
chroot said:
And you're right, most teeny tiny point-and-shoot cameras often have pretty lousy manual controls, but not all. I have a $250 Canon SD-450, which is a tiny little camera that actually takes remarkably good photos. It has half-shutter auto-focus, which helps a bunch. You can also turn off auto-focus altogether, but it requires a couple of button pushes, and is hard to do while holding the camera still.

- Warren
I have the SD400, which I thought was pretty much the same thing. There's some sort of manual setting, but I don't see how there's a way to manually adjust focus, just all the other settings, like white balance and exposure. Maybe I just haven't figured out how to use it yet. :redface:
 
  • #38
Moonbear said:
I have the SD400, which I thought was pretty much the same thing. There's some sort of manual setting, but I don't see how there's a way to manually adjust focus, just all the other settings, like white balance and exposure. Maybe I just haven't figured out how to use it yet. :redface:

I have a canon A510, I downloaded your manual though pg 89-91 has all the focusing stuff. You don't have a manual focus, but you do have a focus lock. Press the shutter down half way it does the focusing at what you are aimed at, then push the flower/mountain button and it will lock the focus.

You can change how it auto focuses as well, either something in the box in the middle or some kind of evaluative version that looks at 9 areas seperately. It's in the menu called AiAF, off means it aims just at the middle, I find this is the way to go for more control.

Mine does have manual focus, but honestly it's pretty lousy for anything but macro stuff where I have a hard time getting the AF to hit what I want. It's not at all fast, you hold down the button while the bar slowly moves across the screen and it's not at all easy to tell if you're in focus or not. It blows up a small portion of the screen and I have a hard time telling when my enlarged pixelated image is sharp.

Also handy for moving stuff is the continuous shooting mode. Even with the focus lock and manual settings some cameras might have some shutter lag plus your own slowness to react so snapping a bunch of pictures can be nice.

(your kitten is very cute by the way, but you probably know that)
 
  • #39
Thanks shmoe! I'll have to find that thing that turns off that AiAF so I can just focus on what's in the middle instead of being surprised every time.

And, yes, the kitten is cute, and I think she knows it too, because she sure thinks she can get away with a lot. She's gotten a bit too comfortable around here and thinks everything is fair game for chewing and scratching. I'm working on redirecting her to allowable areas for both, and at least she's finally gotten the idea that the scratching post is for scratching rather than being ignored (mostly, I just had to wait to find places where she was going to scratch and then move the scratching post and scratching mats to those places). We may be trying those "soft paws" things soon if I can't get her directed away from carpets and furniture, so at least she doesn't damage them, though they look an awful lot like fake fingernails (I'd give her the dignity of the clear ones at least)...not exactly sure if the instructions for those will include how one gets them onto a moving target, but I'm sure it can be accomplished with only minor caterwalling and bloodshed. :smile:
 
  • #40
You AiAF appears to be in roughly the same place as mine. Put the camera in shooting mode, the one you use to take pictures with normally, then hit the "menu" button (the playback mode + menu button gets a different menu). AiAF should be at the top of the list, and you should get a rectangle in the middle of your preview screen.

My cats always completely ignored scratching posts unless stocked with catnip. We built them one of those cat homes that's covered in carpet and they took to tearing it apart in no time (they sleep on/in it as well). I guess it looks enough like furniture. They pretty much leave everything else alone now.
 
  • #41
The AiAF has helped on mine (Nikon CoolPix). It unfortunately doesn't have a manual focus. I have had to adapt to having the button half pressed long before the shot I am looking for and waiting. With my camera, it seems that the major part of the delay is from the display viewfinder getting updated (at least that's what it says in the book). Unfortunately, both viewports are CCDs and there's not much one can do about it. I'll know better on my next camera.
 
  • #42
FredGarvin said:
The AiAF has helped on mine (Nikon CoolPix). It unfortunately doesn't have a manual focus.

In many cases the manual focus feature on a digital camera is largely useless because of the small size and limited resolution of the LCD viewscreen. (excluding DSLR's and studio setups with external monitors)
So you aren't missing much! :-p

-GeoMike-
 
  • #43
GeoMike said:
In many cases the manual focus feature on a digital camera is largely useless because of the small size and limited resolution of the LCD viewscreen. (excluding DSLR's and studio setups with external monitors)
So you aren't missing much! :-p

-GeoMike-
I hadn't thought about that aspect of it. What I was thinking is that it would be nice because I could act, usually, quicker than the AF and I could set it and leave it. As it stands, the best option I have is to set the focus using the AF and then hold the AF lock. It kinda stinks. It's cases like this that I do miss my old film SLR.
 
  • #44
shmoe said:
My cats always completely ignored scratching posts unless stocked with catnip. We built them one of those cat homes that's covered in carpet and they took to tearing it apart in no time (they sleep on/in it as well). I guess it looks enough like furniture. They pretty much leave everything else alone now.
She's a bit too young to care about catnip yet. She's taken quite well to the scratching post I made her...she loves climbing it, but she hasn't given up on finding other places to scratch yet. She seems okay with the cheap, cardboard scratching pads too, so I'm going to go out and get a few more of those and strategically place them throughout the house. At least, so far she's only tearing up things that aren't visible, like pulling loose stuffing from the underside of the sofa (but I'm trying to stop that before she gets to the visible side!) But, then, how can I be mad at her for that when she sits on my shoulder purring? :rolleyes: Once she starts to get excited about catnip, I'll start bribing her over to her scratching spots more.
 
  • #45
A squirt gun works very well at discouraging bad scratching habits. It is amazing how quickly they learn that sinking claws into certain objects produces rain!:biggrin:
 
  • #46
larkspur said:
A squirt gun works very well at discouraging bad scratching habits. It is amazing how quickly they learn that sinking claws into certain objects produces rain!:biggrin:
:smile: Past experience tells me they learn quickly that they shouldn't scratch when someone is holding the squirt gun. :biggrin: I'm trying putting double-sided tape on the places she's not supposed to scratch and leaving scratching pads close by. Oh, and more toys! If she has enough toys, she shouldn't have any time left for scratching. :smile: She was purring like mad when I brought home her latest batch of toys. :approve:
 
  • #47
larkspur said:
A squirt gun works very well at discouraging bad scratching habits. It is amazing how quickly they learn that sinking claws into certain objects produces rain!:biggrin:
Great idea, I just got a puppy who hasn't been housetrained yet. How many hundred psi?
 
  • #48
turbo-1 said:
Nice shot, detta. I don't know the fname of that stuff, but it is VERY fragrant when you crush it in your fingers.

detta said:
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/6479/plantnf3.jpg
[/URL]

Great photo, detta!
Yes turbo-1. I've always enjoyed this one too, it is called http://www.ppws.vt.edu/scott/weed_id/matmt.htm that describes other ways we may enjoy pineapple weed.
 
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  • #50
OK, I'm going to buck the trend here of cute pictures of pets and gorgeous pictures of flowers. Instead, I'm going to do a closeup of a very large object! :)

disney010ve4.jpg


Zz.
 
  • #51
Mk said:
Great idea, I just got a puppy who hasn't been housetrained yet. How many hundred psi?
Puppies are more difficult to house train. You have to try to catch him/her in the act and immediately carry him/her outside to finish. That, along with LOTS of walks outside, especially right after they get up from a nap or soon after eating a meal, followed by tons of praise when they "do their business" out there. The whole rubbing their nose in it inside thing doesn't work (in case you didn't know that). If anything, it reminds them that's where the scent is, so they'll go back to that spot over again. It's really important to thoroughly scrub any places they soil inside so the scent is removed and they don't try using that spot again (that's easier if you keep them off carpets until they're trained well). I've never used newspaper or "wee wee pads" for housebreaking dogs, because, again, then they aren't getting the point that they need to go outside, they just think the Sunday paper is fair game (which, depending on the journalistic skills of your local reporters, you may or may not agree with). Once they have the idea, the only thing that remains is to figure out what they do to tell you they need to go out. Some will bark and make it very obvious, but others will just sniff the door or sit next to it, or just give you some "look" that is more subtle. And, of course, you can't leave them alone longer than their bladder capacity can hold up, or they don't have a chance. I've never punished a dog for an accident if I was away too long, but if they didn't have an accident, I praise them quite thoroughly as soon as they get outside and go (get them outside REALLY quickly, because a lot of puppies will piddle as soon as they get excited over greeting you).
 
  • #52
Ouabache said:
Great photo, detta!
Yes turbo-1. I've always enjoyed this one too, it is called http://www.ppws.vt.edu/scott/weed_id/matmt.htm that describes other ways we may enjoy pineapple weed.

Thanks. I noticed it in the grass and I had no idea what it was, that's why I took the picture. And now I know. :smile:
 
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  • #53
Here's my entry:

lizaeye005crop650.jpg


I could have put in a pic of my own eyeball, but this shot of one of my neighbor's eyes is much prettier.
 
  • #54
Wow! Zoob, that is so cool! You can actually see a reflection of the scene behind you in her eye!
 
  • #55
Moonbear said:
Wow! Zoob, that is so cool! You can actually see a reflection of the scene behind you in her eye!
But alas, you can't the the zoob himself!
 
  • #56
Holly sh!t. These fotos are all too good. Normally there mostly junk (sorry no offense). But man, I can't pick out of this lot! :frown:

Every damn one of them is a winner. Period.
 
  • #57
Gokul43201 said:
But alas, you can't the the zoob himself!
Are zoobies like vampires? You can't see their reflection?
 
  • #58
Gokul43201 said:
But alas, you can't the the zoob himself!
"...can't the the zoob.."? Are you studying the Castillian dialect of Spanish?

Anyway, she's looking into a camera mounted on a tripod that has a timer. I was well off to the side by the time the shutter clicked.

My camera boasts the ability to focus up to 5 cm away when in the macro mode. Despite the bright, outdoor light, allowing for fast shutter speed, and the tripod, she still managed to move a bit. This is the best of 7 shots I took. She didn't have patience for any more.
 
  • #59
Oh, you don't know the rules?

If
{quote=Gokul43201;
thread title=" PF Photo Contest - I'm Ready For My Closeup, Mr. DeMille! (8/23-8/30)";
postcount=55;}
Then
"the the" := "see the"

Duh!
 
  • #60
Gokul43201 said:
Oh, you don't know the rules?

If
{quote=Gokul43201;
thread title=" PF Photo Contest - I'm Ready For My Closeup, Mr. DeMille! (8/23-8/30)";
postcount=55;}
Then
"the the" := "see the"

Duh!
Thanks for the clarification. I feel like such a moron now, these If...then... Gokulizations of the rules of English should have been obvious to me.
 
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