Westie

For legal reasons, you guys are, of course, ahem, talking about taking pictures of 16 year old girls, with the appropriate signed parental/guardian consent forms. LOL

LOL. Now I never said a 15 year old. I said Elton said a 15 year old.

Build quality will be the biggie on this. 40D = magnesium body; 400D will be mainly quality plastic. Otherwise,, you're right. The tale of the tape shows that they're not a million miles apart. 40D has better fps rate and larger buffer, so would probably suit those who take sports photography quite seriously. MrW - change to Nikon, mate! check out the D300...

Nowt to do with a fella losing a decent bass, is it? Could just be angling skills. He doesn't catch fish too often. Don't tell me - he had the phone to his chin whilst telling you about someone pretty he'd met at Nacton.

Hi Jim - welcome to the forum. Sea spray will not be the best of friends to your DSLR over time, I would imagine. As a minimum, I would use protective filters to keep the worst of the spray off your front element. If you get one for each lens, it will help (although they are not waterproof). Try to get a multi-coated filter - Hoya Pro1-D UV filters are what I use. They don't appear to impact on picture quality, although some say they do (but you'd probably need to be looking at 100% crops to see the difference). This is a sensible precautionary step though, in my book, given the conditions that you could be shooting in. If you use a polariser, that will protect the lens too - you don't want to be stacking the polariser on top of a UV filter, as that could degrade picture quality. A waterproof bag to stow your gear may be a good idea, although these can be pricey. You might be able to get some additional kind of protection to avoid water getting into the internals of your camera/lens, but check out a reputable dealer (e.g. Warehouse Express) to see what they can offer. Have a look here: Aquapac That might be a bit OTT, but useful that it floats? If it keeps sand/grit/salt out of the lens, that can only be good. Then again, I might just be paranoid about my kit! A microfibre cloth to clean the lens and also an air blower to help blow off larger particles before using the cloth. Don't forget to keep the cloth clean - using it in conditions where there may be sand/salt etc could turn it into the equivalent of sandpaper! Another good reason to use a UV protective filter - I'd rather mash up £25 worth of filter than the front element on my camera. Look forward to seeing some shots! ATB Andy.

Well done Happy Dude - first comp (I think?) and the winner! Not a bad start with that new camera, then?! Congratulations to you.

And from me Mr W. HB - a bad workman simply has to blame his tool. LOL. I can't help being the poor relation to all you Canonites out there. Can we start up separate Canon users and Nikon users threads and photo comps? I'd like talking to myself and I could win every week.

Is that so you can reach the 15 yard mark you need to catch sole, Elton?

Hi Clifftop - the comp I was using was at work - back home now, so I've got the EXIF reader here, but cheers for posting it all. The VR is Vibration Reduction and very handy in reducing camera shake when it is activated. Keep it on and in Normal mode (not Active, unless you are taking pictures from a moving car/boat, in which case use Active). The best way to see what it does is by zooming out to 200mm with the VR off and composing a shot. Press the shutter half down to lock focus and you will probably notice movement through the viewfinder just from slight hand movement. Some people are steadier than others. The rule of thumb is to get a sharp shot, use a minimum shutter speed as the focal length. At 200mm, your camera is effectively a 300mm due to the 1.5x crop. So if you are using the lens at its fullest zoom, you would need a shutter speed of 1/500 or faster to pull off the best chance of a sharp shot. To get that shutter speed with the largest aperature on your lens at that range (f5.6), your camera may well automatically increase the ISO (the equivalent of film speed) which could spoil the quality of the image (make it noisy). If you now switch VR on and go through the same process, when you half press the shutter down, wait half a second or more before you fully press the shutter down to take the picture - you will hear clicks within the lens and a quiet whirring sound - you should see the image stabilise as you look at it through the viewfinder - it becomes much steadier than before. This then allows you to reduce the shutter speed. You have to give it a short amount of time to do its thing, though, hence leaving the shutter half pressed for about a second before you finally take the picture. I think with that lens, Nikon claims 2 or 3 stops of difference when VR is on. In basic terms, that means that with the VR helping to steady the shot, you can slow the shutter speed by 3 notches (stops) and get the same result. This would allow you to take the photo using a shutter speed of 1/60. VR is not so great for moving objects - it can't freeze motion. Only faster shutter speeds can do that and with that comes the need for larger aperatures on lenses e.g. f2.8 and with that comes an empty bank account (potentially). Hope this helps. Andy.

You found your beer stash again, you Ronan...?

Hi Clifftop - can you post up the EXIF information for each shot - should be able to cut and paste this from your photo hosting site (Photobucket shows EXIF info) or from the software package that you use to tweak your shots. That will be helpful, I think, in all C&C photos, because it will not only give info about focal length, aperature used, shutter speed etc, but it will also usually give info about White Balance, metering mode selected, whether flash was used and the like, all of which will help to make suggestions, especially from those that know a lot more about this lark than me! Congrats on the new acquisition - I'm sure you'll love the D40x. My love affair with Nikon started about 9 months ago... Is the lens the one with VR? Helpful to know, because that will mean that you can handhold with slower shutter speeds than would ordinarily be the case. With the flower photo, it is difficult to tell where the sun was coming from - it looks to me like it might be back/right, which can make it difficult to get the exposure right, as one side will be exposed to bright sun, the other shadow. It can be difficult for the camera to meter well, as it is thinking in terms of white/grey/black and find a mid way point (I think). Hence why the detail in the petals is evident on the left, but blown a little bit on the bottom right. You could experiment with exposure bracketing, so that you take picture for e.g. 1/3 + and - and see which looks best to the eye. Plus, with bright coloured flower and dark background, difficult to get the detail out in the darker areas, although I like that, given that the focal point is the flower. You can always experiment with flash, even in bright sunlight, although the closer you are to the subject, the more chance there is of washing out the colour completely. You can see how the picture looks in software, mucking about with the exposure. Composition wise, you can always think about having the 'main' focus of the picture not necessarily in the centre of the frame - e.g. put the 'main' flower a bit more to the top left and bring in the flowers underneath it more into the frame with some of the better lit greenery, even though they are blurred by the depth of field. Or go for a portrait shot, with the flower filling the frame. I just keep experimenting with angles etc. Photo no 2 looks like it was taken in roaringly bright and hot conditions! Lucky chap. Perhaps dial down the exposure again. I haven't used a polarising filter yet - it's on my list to buy, but given your beautiful weather, it might allow you to get a bit more blue back in the sky - I could be talking cobblers and no doubt someone with a lot more experience than me can give you a steer. I like the colours of the advertising hoardings, table and chairs and the detail in the writing on the roof of the building. You could try a portrait shot of the right third of the picture (everything to the right of the telegraph pole). Photo no. 3 - again, a polarising filter might help? Not sure. Have fun with the camera. Digital is brilliant - you can experiment at no cost, other than time! ATB Andy.

Just following up from the recent thread on 'The penny has dropped' and the issue of critique and comment (C&C). It seems that there are a number of people who would gladly appreciate C&C on their photos. Some of our clan are seem to be hesitant in giving constructive criticism or feedback on photos that have been taken, for fear of offending the photographer. I am sure that 99.9% would take any comments in the spirit that they were intended, but would it be an idea to have a separate thread specifically for this kind of feedback? Those that don't want to have C&C can continue to post in Photo of the Day. Those that do could post in both Photo of the Day and a pinned C&C thread, or just the C&C thread. I'm game for getting as much knowledge from this forum as possible. There are some people here with oodles of experience under their belts. Pesonally, I want to bleed their knowledge dry!! But on a slightly more serious note, others can help you look at things in a different perspective, offer solutions to common problems and which can help us all learn more about this fantastic pastime. Any thoughts or views? Andy.

I'm all for constructive criticism - if people can tell me different techniques to try, composition tips, anything to make shots better and more memorable, I'll gladly take them on board and absorb them all. I don't think that any comments would be posted unless they were trying to encourage/motivate. As with everything, though, beauty is in the eye of the beholder... The comps do make me think about composition of a picture much more and it's starting to show in my 'snapshots' - I tend to think about the rule of thirds a wee bit more. I don't always have time to, but with the software available and careful use of cropping/resizing, you can still turn a snapshot into something a bit more special. For the comps though, I don't tend to crop anything - if it doesn't look right, it just stays on my 'puter for my personal enjoyment. As for the DSLR/Compact debate, we have both. Sharon has a Cybershot - I tend to use this if we're heading out and I just want to travel light (or if I fear for the safety of the camera itself (sand/grit/rain - don't tell her that). I love my DSLR to bits. It's really hooked me back into photography again in a big way, but there are times when changing lenses can be a hassle. Other than that, I get the most satisfaction from my DSLR, because of the freedom it gives me to experiment with settings, quickly and easily at the touch of a button or two, rather than trawling through well hidden menus on the compact. Given the results we see in the comps on this forum, all cameras clearly deliver. Sharpness in a picture is becoming quite a big thing for me - I've been mucking around with mirror up mode and using a tripod to avoid any shake. It's time consuming and I now feel like I need a remote shutter release cable, but it's only if I pixel peep that I can make out any noticeable difference between that and a good handheld shot, although with HH, the shutter speed does have to go up a few notches to eliminate my shakey hands. I've also noticed that using the option to fire a succession of shots quickly helps - something I cannot do with my compact. One of them is usually alright. One thing that does drive me mad with the cybershot is the dreadful shutter lag - it feels like an age between pressing the shutter release and the camera doing anything. I'm sure more modern compacts have improved on this, though. Wow. So OT, you wouldn't believe. Daydreamer on the keyboard again...

Deception File size: 383544 bytes File date: 2007:08:27 06:23:21 Camera make: NIKON CORPORATION Camera model: NIKON D200 Date/Time: 2007:08:27 12:54:49 Resolution: 800 x 537 Flash used: No Focal length: 105.0mm (35mm equivalent: 157mm) Exposure time: 0.0100 s (1/100) Aperture: f/13.0 ISO equiv.: 140 Whitebalance: Auto Metering Mode: matrix Exposure: aperture priority (semi-auto)

Good shots one and all. I was disappointed not to get an entry or two into this challenge, but I had a week off and it rained for all of it. Camera stayed in its bag all week, as I became in-house entertainer to my little daughter. Then some old friends were down for the weekend, but I didn't want to publish them on the web! Looking forward to rolling up my sleeves for Newt's challenge - I really like it. It's open to some good lateral thinking and some straight down the barrel fishing shots.

Cracking idea Elton - what a fun site and I'm sure it will catch on, pardon the pun. As you know, I don't tend to catch fish when I go out, so I probably can't help. It's not for the lack of trying though. I did see a nice lobster on there, though.

Well done everyone!! To the winner - a cracking picture, Newt. Sorry to the other finalists and many others who didn't make it into the final three, but whose shots were equally worthy of qualifying. It was a tough, tough choice. I think that can be vouched for by others who said that their pick would have been different. I'd like to say that I loved both of HB's enties (the first of which gave an excellent feeling of 3D) and Poledark's shot of the lines of hay was beautifully linear. Snatcher's silhouette of the tree on the hill was spot on, too. I could rave about all of the entries, but it was great for me to see such diverse subject matter in all of the entries, all well taken. So from me, thanks for making it a nightmareish job. I'm off for a drink to celebrate my wedding anniversary now, so expect some fuzzy pictures and bad grammer soon. Grammar. Later, photoforum folks. Andrew.

A long, long way for 2 reasons - (1) I don't think that there's a "Hooters Bar" in Suffolk and more importantly (2) you know what Sharon would do to me if she found out - cherished possessions could be lost forever. Had a look at the tides - HW on Monday is 5pm, and LW 10.45pm for Felixstowe. I'm presuming we're looking at an evening session Elton? I reckon we might be in with a better chance with the bass, but knowing us, that'll mean eels and a rogue codling. Best bet to fish the river if we're fishing the tide down?

First chance to try the macro lens out on the tripod, on some flowers I bought Sharon for our wedding anniversary tomorrow. Indoor, natural lighting. Had a job nailing the exposure and still don't think I quite got there. Keep trying, keep experimenting... Sharon ended up asking me if I bought them just so that I could take pictures of them. The thought had never crossed my mind.

Beautiful shot Steve - very natural and nicely composed. Snatcher - that's a hefty pollock, mate. Congrats on the fish and also on the C&R. Pip, my daughter, encouraged me out of bed at 6am today. She's nice like that. Sitting at the 'puter, when this friendly little chap decided to have a nut breakfast. It reminds me to clean the windows...

I am a lawyer - that one was pretty nice to us, really. You've got to love lawyer jokes: Q: What's the difference between a dead dog in the road and a dead solicitor? A: There are skid marks in front of the dog's body. Q: Why won't sharks attack solicitors? A: Professional courtesy. Q: What's black and brown and look good on a solicitor? A: Dobermans Q: What's the difference between a catfish and a solicitor? A: One's a scum sucking bottom dweller; the other is a fish. Q: What's the difference between a duck and a solicitor? A: Occasionally, a duck will stick its bill up its ar$e.

Well done all - cracking stuff. As you can tell from the poor grammar and obvious mistakes in timelines in my comments on the quality to Mr W, it was a long night. It should say 1am this morning. Good luck to the finalists and sorry to those who took superb pictures but didn't make it to the final three. Andy. LOL - I couldn't even spell grammar correctly.

Little beesties

Hi Severus - if you just copy the IMG CODE from Photobucket and then simply paste it into your post here - hey presto - job's a good'un. No need to use the Insert Image process on this site to embed the photo. Impressive moth by the way. I'm lingering for the meteor shower - such a clear night tonight - guaranteed to be overcast when it gets going on 13/14th, I believe.

Hi Serverus - I use Photobucket. I use the bottom link of the 4 choices - IMG Code - and all is fine when I use it... Not sure what dynamic pages are, I'm afraid