Manxman

Photo editing software is it cheating?? No. If you buy a point and shoot or a bridge camera, you have many options to set the camera to. You may want to take a portrait or landscape so you use one of the built in options. On your camera you have options to shoot in Raw, Jpegs or both together. Most users will use Jpegs, so you have a lovely landscape that you photographed, put it onto the PC to view and your ever so pleased with the result. But...... the landscape option you chose to use, in camera, has many built in functions programmed into it to produce that picture, mainly Levels, saturation, and sharpness. These change with every different option and style, and you have no control over them. So for lets say a beginner to produce a good photo the camera has done it all for him. Shooting in Raw you do need to edit a photo in some software even if to produce an image similar to a point and shoot. Raw is just that what the camera saw with no additions. A Raw file holds far more information than a Jpeg and that can be used to produce a far better photograph, and is controlled by the photographer, rather than some software engineer in Japan lol. I'll do a straight Raw to Jpeg conversion tonight and post it for you to compare, as I don't think the Forum here can cope with a plain Raw file.

Looking at the User manual for your SL1000, it only seems to have the option for inserting the date and or time.

Finding how and where to insert the Copyright data into the EOS utility was difficult, as Canon hardly mention that it is possible. If as above the data is stripped from a photo, a good photo will be watermarked, so that removing the watermark buggers the photo. If you take a photo of the Barn Owl I posted on the other thread and claimed it as yours I could prove it was mine because the photo published has had a considerable amount of Photoshopping to get it to that state compared to the original, probably about two hours or more work.

With captive birds you should be able to get some very good photo's. What you can achieve is how much time you are willing spend learning to take good shots and the camera you have. There are some very good internet forums where you will find all the advise you need for wildlife photography, ( http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/ ) Point and shoot camera's won't give you those spectacular shots you see in National Geographic, you'd really need a decent DSLR and a couple of reasonable lens anything up to 600mm. Having captive birds also lets you get some darn good close ups too. Once you start getting some good shots you'll need some Photo editing software as very few shots come out of a camera as you'd have hoped. I shoot in Camera Raw, not Jpegs as there is three times the information to play with in Photoshop PM me if you your interested in Photoshop. I spent months trying to get a good shot of a local Barn Owl. Exif f/ 6.7 Shutter 1/250 sec. ISO 400 Subject distance 28.2 metres Lens 120-400mm Focal length 400mm. My Canon 500d is a cropped sensor, 1.6 so using a 120-400mm lens you multiply the focal length by 1.6, ie 400 X 1.6 = 640mm. As you can see this is pretty good photo using not too expensive equipment. If you want any more advise keep posting as it is a very absorbing hobby.

Exif data, my Canon came with a disk full of useless programs, the exception being Canon EOS Utility. I use it to connect my camera to the PC to download the photo's I've taken. Hidden away within the Utility is a page for inputting the Copyright owners details. This page is only available when the camera is connected to the PC. Perhaps your Finepixs studio has a similar way. Lots of Social media sites strip all the Exif data from photographs that are posted by users, but Facebook always has a header :- Copyright Yn Manninagh Photography on every photo I post, which is what I entered into the EOS Utility. Which Fuji camera do you have Chesters?

Cracking shot.

You can also track your own photographs that people have stolen and claimed as theirs using Google. Open Google and Click on Images. In the search bar click the wee camera icon and paste in your own URL to the photograph you think may have been stolen, or upload the said photograph and Google will then search the web for you. It may take five minutes or so. I've used it to find a few photo's of mine that were used by websites without my permission or even an acknowledgement.

The next episode will be the Shrien Dewani murder trial.

I'm a sh!t house mechanic by trade lol. What your saying is that if you use the shortest possible pan connector the cistern will be standing off the wall and you won't be able to fix it to the wall? If so make a timber frame the same size and shape as the cistern face it with ply and screw that to the wall. Fix the cistern to that.

We had a problem with Ivy and cleared it with glyphosate. Not the diluted stuff you can purchase in 5 litre containers though, go to a farm chemical supplier and you can buy many different brands of undiluted glyphosate we used Clinic Ace. It costs £28 for 5 litres. Get an extension on your sprayer to get a longer reach, if you can get at the main stems cut them just above ground level and paint the cut with the neat stuff. As long as the sap is rising you'll kill of any plant and most tree's too. An alternative is buy some goats, they love ivy.

Thanks again Kirisute, the laptop is spot on and with some help from myself using Google she's very happy with Win 8.1. Maybe when she's over next month and I have look at it my idea's about Win 8 will change.

A big Thank you from my sister Kirisute, she's on her way to Curry's to buy that laptop.

Thank you both for the quick responses. That HP looks just what she needs, she has an external drive already for storing all her images. So with this laptop she'll have all the room required plus more. Thank you both.

I'm in need of some advice, I'll ask the experts because I know about little laptops. My sister has got into photography and is using CS 5 portable on her very old Acer. The portable version of CS 5 has limited functionality. She's asked me to find her a new laptop and when she visits us at the end of April I will install the full version of CS5 and other software on the new laptop. What do I advise her to buy? Prefer a 17 inch display, but 15 would suffice. Intel i3 processor or Amd equivalent. 8Gb ram. All the laptops I've looked at are running Windows 8.1 which she is willing to try, but if she doesn't like it I can wipe it and install Win 7. I've thought about this Acer Aspire E1-771 with a an upgrade of the Ram to 8GB. http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_E1-771_Core_i3_4GB_500GB_17.3_inch_Windows_8.1_Laptop_NX.MG7EK.005/version.asp She said about £500 but would go a bit higher. So Kirisute and gentlemen, any recommendations?

Worms that's a Chinese water deer fawn.

Good stuff Judy.

This explains it better Phone http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/buying-guide.html We in the UK and other countries usually have to pay 40% on top of US prices for Adobe products. That's why it is pirated (easily) so often.

Adobe will not be releasing anymore versions of Photoshop or software from the suite. They are going to a Creative Cloud monthly/annual subscription. Prices being bantered around the web are of a £400 subscription per annum, which Adobe haven't denied. I have both CS5 Ex / Cs6 Ex so it won't really bother me, but to anybody new getting into photography and needing a good editing programme it's going to be a costly addition to there budget. There is free software online but it really doesn't have all the bells and whistles that Photoshop has. I believe there are ways of acquiring both CS5 Ex / Cs6 Ex I'd be looking for it know if you plan to use it future.

I missed this Judy, a good shot. Wait until you get a new camera and start shooting raw.............. it will open up a whole new world.

The Canon kit lens 18-55 which comes with most cameras has been rated as the best in it's class. If you just buy a body you can pick an as new kit lens up on Ebay for about £50 Don't for get Sigma lens, I have a Sigma 10-22 for landscapes and it's brilliant, and I'm really chuffed with the Sigma 120-400 I bought recently. I use this site a lot before purchasing, as they really do in depth reviews of cameras and lenses. http://www.dpreview.com/ Another site worth looking at is Canon on the Net http://photography-on-the.net/forum/index.php?s=1513dd5e9ecf0e347c279e3a0d8a3401

I'm with Snakey, and would prefer a Canon. The camera menu's and settings are by far easier to understand, and intuitive on Canons. Go for it Judy.

I was out last night seeing as the weather during the day turned from rain, to a reasonably sunny evening. I went to see if the Barn Owl was about, as I haven't been there for nearly a week. I've been watching a small Badger sett instead, the occupants of which are just a bit to cautious yet for me to get close enough in the low light to photograph. Sitting under a tree waiting for the owl, and I noticed these two Bluetits building a nest in a hole in the branch above me.

I'll go with a fern frond.

I've been out and about the fields and hedgerows these past few nights stalking Roe Deer. So far I haven't got any really good shots. Quite a few getting about around here these days. None of the Doe's have any fawns at foot yet either. The Doe here was a last years fawn, she's looking very scruffy as she's loosing her coat at the moment. The Buck has just lost his velvet. The other pair of Doe's with this Buck are now looking fat so they should be giving birth soon. Iso 1600 f5.6 shutter 1/30 Subject distance 16.7 metres Iso 800 f5.6 shutter 1/90 subject distance 28.2 metres

Nice one, what lens are you using?