Show off your Compact & Bridge Photos

[cityscapelover]

thanx dave...

i presume PP = post-processing? meaning compact cameras leave so much to be desired in raw pictures they HAVE to be worked on? and thats MORE important than the camera, eh...wow - looks like i have a tough task ahead! only raises more questions than it solves...

[Dave Humphries]

thanx dave...

i presume PP = post-processing? meaning compact cameras leave so much to be desired in raw pictures they HAVE to be worked on? and thats MORE important than the camera, eh...wow - looks like i have a tough task ahead! only raises more questions than it solves...

Hi Mitesh,

Yes; PP = what you said, sorry

Not necessarily 'becuase' P&S camera images need more work, IMO, all images HAVE to be worked on, how much work depends on the photographer (and the subject).

I was just saying, quite badly above; is that photographic image 'quality' is determined by;
1) Photographer (50%)
2) PP skills (35%)
3) Lens (10%)
4) Camera Body (5%)

but 3) and 4) merge into one thing for a P&S

While a better quality/more expensive camera body can make life easier, it doesn't affect the maximum quality achievable that much.

Just don't quote this back to me when I am trying to justify buying a new cmera body

Cheers,

[aertaylor]

Canon SX1 grabbed fast - a dunnock concussed himself against our window - my wife rushed out to pick him up and stroke him - a bird in the hand - he perked up and flew off within a couple of minutes - such a unique opportunity!


http://www.flickr.com/photos/53168262@N03/?saved=1

[aertaylor]

In our garden today - Canon SX1 - using the 'colour accent' function

[Shadowman]

I love the compact camera, however they have their pros and cons. But then again, even your DSLR has limitations, why else would you need wide angle or zoom lenses. Compact cameras have great submenus for specific shooting conditions but the user has to know what will occur when the shot is framed. My one peeve with compacts was the fireworks mode, the manual makes it look so simple but do they tell you that this will be a semi long exposure. The first few times I tried fireworks photography with a compact, I was moving the camera, looking at the viewfinder even before the shutter clicked.

[r7t5uk]

2 Hdr images using the Aeb on the canon power shot S90
Photomatix
Photoshop cs2

[Shadowman]

I like the composition in the first photograph because it is framed by the overpass and the pathway leads the eyes through the photograph. The second photograph is much more colorful but the crop of the overpass does not look right. Shot at a different angle and excluding that portion of the overpass would make for a more dynamic photo. However, it looks like you would end up in the water to get a better angle.

[micwil]

I took this on my school trip to Japan in June/July, using my Panasonic Tough Lumix DMC-FT1.

[Peter Anson]

Lumix LX1. Bibble 5.1 raw-tiff tiff-jpeg

[Shadowman]

I took this on my school trip to Japan in June/July, using my Panasonic Tough Lumix DMC-FT1.

Nice image, nice framing with the foliage.

[Shadowman]

Lumix LX1. Bibble 5.1 raw-tiff tiff-jpeg

Nice image, I like the color quality, DOF.

[Shadowman]

[Fleshpiston]

When mine is not allowed out for the day I use the FinePix F200EXR

Australia (Chinese Garden) by Fleshpiston, on Flickr


Australia (Chinese Garden) by Fleshpiston, on Flickr

[Shadowman]

When mine is not allowed out for the day I use the FinePix F200EXR

Australia (Chinese Garden) by Fleshpiston, on Flickr


Australia (Chinese Garden) by Fleshpiston, on Flickr

Nice image, did you have to coax it to the surface.

[Len Martin]

Hi Firefox,
I have succumbed to your tempting offer. These images (most at ASA 200) were taken with a Panasonic DMC FZ35 with x18 optical zoom which can operate to 1m.

The Graphic Flutterer Dragonfly was taken in this way.

The Wallaby series were taken yesterday all from the same distance, about 15m, as JPEGs - nothing done to the images apart from cropping.

The camera has good macro without optical zoom. The remaining pictures were shot in raw followed by minimal processing in Photoshop Elements, converted to tif then JPEG for the web.

The 2 Newborn Orchard Butterfly shots need no further explanation.

The 4 Bedewed Wolfspider Web do.

These are horizontal webs that show up as small silver patches in the grass, first thing in the morning with the sun at a very low angle.

Initially the dew is in extremely fine droplets. As time goes by they fuse and can give images resembling those from Hubble, and so to coarser droplets.

All pictures taken hand held without flash.

Be interested in your comments.

Cheers

Len

[Len Martin]

Dear FF,

something stopped me uploading all the images to my first reply - here are the rest (I hope)

Cheers

Len

[Wirefox]

Apologies Len, I meant to reply to this and got side tracked with the Textures thread.

Firstly welcome to CiC. The first 4 images are right up my street and you have captured the droplets beautifully. The dragonfly is also very well exposed and framed. The butterflies suffer a little from lack of light. With the on camera flash you would have fried them but it may be worth considering a small foldable reflector to get a little more light on the subject. They are cheap, light and highly portable. The wallabys are neatly composed but I think the main issue is the lack of focus blur of the background that is inherent with the fixed lens. This was one of the reasons I switched to a DSLR.

As a general point they all look a little yellow to me which is most evident in the grass. Your camera lets you shoot RAW so my advice would be to use it for all your shots. You can tweak the white balance in your raw converter quite easily and bring the vibrancy back with curves in Photoshop. All digitally captured images need PP even if it is just to sharpen them up a bit. Do not use in camera sharpening or any auto adjustment that will take control away from you as the photographer. Although less common these days there used to be a clique of photographers who believed everything should be done at the point of capture. I think this misses the point of digital photography by a long way. You cannot make a good photograph in PP but you can make a good one even better.

Steve

[Len Martin]

Thanks Steve, comments much appreciated, might go back and play with the butterfly raws wrt light.

Alas, the wallaby was shot in JPEG - all in a hurry - hence forgot to reset in RAW - but will have a play with PS Elements to correct colour and perhaps blur background - could perhaps have set aperture to smaller F value but still not enough at max (x18) optical zoom.

Main reason for the three wallaby crops was to demonstrate the lens quality wrt to the fine detail in the head & shoulders crop - notably the whiskers.

Never use in camera processing.

Cheers

Len

[Bongex]

Misty morning at the lip of Buruwisan falls, Laguna. GE1035

[nerakkay]

Hi Len,
I am new to the forum; and your photos were the first I ran into. I am curious, what camera are you using? I love the web pictures, but the butterfly is hard for me to see (maybe my eyes). I wonder if the background were blurred a bit or even made a darker color you could bring out the butterfly a bit more? I just bought a new camera, Leica 1x. I have a Cannon 7D. I have been playing with photography for years. I wanted something simple in a camera (Leica), but want to actually learn about this art rather than "shoot from the hip" like I normally do.
This forum states "show off your compact and bridge photo's". What does this mean exactly?
Thank you.