Well, I figure it's about time I post after abusing this site over and over again for the past few months. grin

So, I've been reading this forum for quite a while, since I love photography, and I thought I'd finally jump in. Bought my first SLR camera today, 'cept they forgot to give me batteries for it so I won't be able to test it out 'til tomorrow. Grr.

Hopefully I'll learn my new camera quickly and put up some reasonably good stuff soonish. :)

I figure I might as well put up a couple of pics I've taken lately with my compact camera... I've been trying out stuff with light and the few settings I had on my old camera and came up with some reasonably cool stuff.

So you can comment away, I'm a newbie. :P

This one's a picture of my oldest cat... I just liked the way she was posing and I thought the shadows from the blinds did neat stuff to her fur.

This one's a pic of my brother I took for his band... I converted to B&W from a color pic, and did some very minimal levels work. The slight blur was intentional, but didn't work out the way I hoped.

And, finally, this one is my personal favorite.. makes me wish I had actual aperture and shutter speed control on that old camera, though.

(but now I do! aha!)

So, that's it for now. Hopefully I'll have much better stuff soon. :)

I love that kitty pic - the shadows from the blinds are wonderful!

Hiya! :) Nice to meetcha! I'm Britt, and I've been violating this forum a lot too! lol Nice to know I'm not alone! I agree with you. your favorite is mine too. Very nice capture! Britt

Welcome DarkPenumbra! LOL! The pusscat looks like an ornament sitting there so still, but that pot-plant looks to be in danger if the cat suddenly decided to explode into action! I really like the last shot too, looks very professional for a compact camera. Have fun with your SLR> Looking foward to seeing more of your work. :-)> P.S. my brother's a muso too, how come they all go for that "look"? laughin

Thanks!

That cat's 12 years old now, she actually enjoys posing. :) And finally a wise, calm cat after all these years of mischief. grin

That last shot was done in a subway station in Montreal. I wanted to frame it to give the impression that he was moving - I'll probably try that shot again with a bit of intentional shake to blur the dude slightly too next time.

The SLR I got is a Pentax MZ-M - hopefully it's a good one. It came down (after some reading and seeing what the store actually had in stock) between a Minolta STSI, the Pentax MZ-M and the Nikon FM-10.

I know Nikon from their lenses and mirrors, and that was my original choice, but the girl at the store said they had lots of returns on that model because of grain from the lens.. so I looked at the other models. The Minolta was nice, but I liked the Pentax' smaller body.

So I picked the Pentax and put the $20 difference into a good UV filter (so it'll protect the lens as well). The Minolta has a bunch of automatic features that the Pentax doesn't have, but I figure I really want to learn, so I'll do it the hard way. :P

• darkpen

Hello DP. I'm fairly new here too - what; maybe a month-and-a-week? ..No, only a month at most. Anyway; that first shot is very pleasing, and the last one really looks professional - that would be a good 'stock' image, like for someone to use in a advertisment. That middle one of your Bro.. uh.. I dunno - I imagine he doesn't like it much. His skin looks blotchy, and his hair - which he is likely proud of - has no detail. One thing that might STILL save it is this: You mentioned that it's a color print - have you tried using the RED color plane by itself? I don't know what you're running for software, but in PaintShop Pro its "Colors, Split channel, Split RGB"; then throw away the green and blue. That can really smooth skin tones, and may reveal some hair highlight. I've had suprising success with this method. The example here is a local band's promo that I did. I used this 'red bitplane only' method, and the band was quite pleased! If I take the same original shot and just de-saturate it, It doesn't look near as good.

Hi Darks!!! Welcome to the circus..... now, photography aside for a moment, lets get to the important stuff.... Before we make the mistake that we've made a few times lately, is you a boy-picture taker or a girl-picture taker? Just to avoid confusion.... tee hee..... Like the pics - gotta agree the subway one is cool..... erm, you mention Montreal.... you a Canadian like our very own Slynkster? aw, poor thing.....never mind.... lol. Mike (",) btw, If you see anything written by JordyArt, ignore him. He writes rubbish and he's a total prat....

And he's a big WOOOS when it comes to needles! :-)>

Finder - I actually have Photoshop, didn't know that red trick.. thanks! :) I tried it, and it did help a lot - plus, at the same time I noticed that I also scanned it at too big a dpi, making the interpolation kick in. Now the skin's a lot smoother, but the hair still has no detail showing up.

Now, the pic itself probably has some improper lighting - the detail on it is visible, but probably not enough. And, I also didn't know at that time that my compact camera had one of those 3-positions shutter buttons for the focus. Live and learn.

And yeah, he didn't like the pic, but he liked some of it, so it's not a huge loss. grin I'm gonna get him to pose again.

I think I'll try cleaning my scanner's window first of all (that sucker picks up dirt like crazy!) and separate the layers sometime tonight... use the red channel for the skin and try some other filter on just the hair. I might lose some of the 'haywire' hairs on the sides by masking, but hopefully it'll save the pic.

JordyArt - Ha! Me is a girl picture-taker, as opposed to a girl-picture taker. ;) And yes, I'm Canadian. French Canadian, too, I might add.

And I'm probably worse off than Slynkster - I live in Ottawa! I get to be right in the middle of all the political stuff that goes on here... heh. On the upside, there's a lot of potential for neat photos here. Nothing that compares to the Oregon Vortex though. grin

(now why the Oregon Vortex came to mind, I don't know - I just woke up and remembered it for some reason... dreams of Sam & Max, I guess :P )

And hey, you make good comments as well as being a good comic relief! :)

Hey Punkie, musicians have a certain aura to keep up but we don't all look like we're having a bad hair day! Nice pictures DarkP. Try cropping the picture of your brother just above his arms.

Hey -- We have some Musicians in the forum?

HELLO dark. nice stuff you have here :)

Is it just me or was that a come-on???? lol @ Punkie - look, if someone stuck a BIG needle in your ass when you were little you'd prob'ly not like them much either.....and if you wanna make something of it....... anyways, wot YOU scared of? Bet it's something not at all scary like frogs. Or dust-bunnies - yeah, that's probly it, you freak at the sight of dust-bunnies, dontcha? huh? lol (",)

Dust Bunnies??? ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!! (actually ordinary bunnies freak me...) Sorry Jordy, I'm a naughty man, just couldn't resist that little jab before...oh dear. I hate sharp pointy things being stuck in me too...nurses make the worst patients! LOL :-)>

Caledonia & Maygen - Thanks! :) Jordy - HA! and I was gonna take your side on needles ;) As for that brother pic, well, I tried some things this evening, it's actually coming up rather nicely... if I keep just both the blue and red channels, the hair keeps some nice detailing (not as much as I'd like, but the lighting is at fault) and the skin comes out much better. I'm gonna try some other tricks on it and post it once I'm happier with it (hopefully by the time I'm fed up with it he will be too :P ). - darkpen

tch - she's in denial. She'll come round......EVERYONE loves Mikey. LOL (",)

Oh damn, why did I miss this post !? Well, I guess that clearly underlines what I was about to say: that I'm the biggest fool of this forum..... So a warm welcome to you and your beautiful cat, and my apologies for all the silly and weird stuff I'm going to write and post ;) Take care & love your photos (number 3 is really excellent)

Now, I did a bit of postwork on that second pic up there.. it's still not -really- good, but I think it'll do for now. I'll just take a better one later on. :) BTW, thanks Rork, and no worries. :)

... and I'll get him to shave, too. grin - darkpen

He wouldn't have the "cool rock star" look if he shaved!