ooo nice one Tunde, I agree diagonal works well here .... just mess around with the angle, sometimes a specific plane of focus can make all the difference rather than just sticking to right angles.

also thank you Kort for suggesting pushing the focus plane further on my second post there... went with your suggestion and a tighter crop and it found its spot in my gallery ;)

.... and here's the other one, taken on exactly the same street, minutes apart.

Adam

p.s. very nice shots posted by all so far =D

it's a fun technique and one I find can be made much easier by image stabilisation ;)

I've only really tried it once or twice myself, here are a couple from the first time I got chance, taken in Beaucaire, France. I know the cyclist (friend of the family), not the motorcyclist though..

all I can offer is that if you use the 'save for web' function, it bins the exif data to try and make the file as small as possible.... if you want to keep it, when saving the file choose 'save as' and it should be retained...

cheers Tunde, how about this one?

don't think I've got a more suitable photo in my archive than this one really, but a few more I could have a play with... quite like how it turned out anyway, like little people playing in the stream in legoland ;)

Adam

there have been some nice examples of this recently in the galleries, which got me thinking about the topic again and I decided to have a pop at one I thought might lend itself to the technique

for straightening verticals, yes, I can see the need for the 'shift' function, but lens blur and photoshop seems just as good as the tilt function (correct me if I'm wrong Rich ;)) at creating the line of focus.

I'm working on one properly to put into my gallery but this is a quick edit of a shot of St Andrews harbour, taken from the top of the tower. any thoughts/ suggestions? first attempt..

Adam

I got a sitemail from Shari yesterday informing me it was your birthday today Piet, and have been having a little think through the day what sort of image would make a good card... my mind went to large bush animals but unfortunately the nearest my collection has to that is of a friend puckering up to kiss a baby croc he's holding (taken while in Belize)... kind of a funny shot but wasn't sure it suited a card! ... I ended up settling on this one, taken a few months back as the birds were starting to migrate. Hope you have an awesome birthday, best wishes from Scotland!

Adam

ah go on, you'll be pleased you did later ;)
give the phone camera to a work colleague and get them to use that on you taking the photo of the protest.... or is that just headed too far towards chronic irony?

well the lurgy really does seem to be going round.... now I'm ill! but I managed to hop out of bed to have a quick trawl through the gallery looking for a few examples and came across what I think are some pretty good ones... all of these have been submitted to the gallery within the past few days.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1831691
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1830872
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1831021
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1831050
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1831270
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1831295
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1831005&member

I'd say that one works pretty well Piet, lighting is definitely the subject, especially as everything is a little blurred...  I'll keep my eyes open for links to ones which may work well for the challenge, up til this point I've just been commenting on the images themselves that they'd be good for the challenge...

top tip, totally logical but something which strangely never occured to me! glad you like photomatix and yes I'd agree that a tripod will be of huge benefit for bracketed exposures. in case you wondered my camera (Canon 40d) supports +/- 2 EV only, but I've always found that to be sufficient.... I'm not really into the whole mega-extreme range of tones hdr offers, but I hate blown highlights or clipped shadows in the foreground and it's a pretty nifty way of avoiding those nasties ;)

cheers for the link to the tut, bookmarked it into my 'photography' folder as I'm sure there will be occasions when I'll be wanting to call on a massive dynamic range at some point in the future..

all the best,
Adam

Shaun, I'm guessing you've probably already got yourself a copy of Photomatix by this point... I just thought I should point out that version 3 has just (as far as I'm aware it was recent anyway) been released, and is a free upgrade for Photomatix Pro users with a license.

as well as allowing you to tonemap and create HDR as before, there is now a mode called 'exposure blending' which is fantastic for retaining detail and avoiding the hdr 'effect', so now there really are several options for creating a well exposed photo with excellent tonal range and no clipped highlights or shadows..... I'd definitely recommend anyone to go check it out (there's a free trial too), and if you're a PP license holder with an earlier version, go get it now without delay... you will be impressed with the improvements (specifically in terms of haloing, tonemapping, noise reduction and chromatic-aberration correction)

http://www.hdrsoft.com/download.html

some more great images, and Piet I'm flattered you would link to one of my gallery images by means of example, thank you. Carin the first time I scrolled through your 2 recent images I thought they were a continuation of one another, I really got a sense that the first one was some glass hanging, and the second one was it falling to the floor and smashing! I know that wasn't the case but it really created a strong impression in my head for some reason! both are nice shots btw, the second has the edge in my opinion ;)
the plasma ball was cool too and I very much like Tara's glass container - very nice low key compo and reflected light.... good stuff all round!

thanks for the link, infuriating indeed.... had to leave my 2p's worth ;)

here's my second one.. I took this earlier this afternoon about half an hour before the sun set. the low afternoon sun casts great light into this room for a short period each day when it's clear, and can be excellent natural sidelighting for portraits.. the window of which you see the shadows is reflected in the glass front of the drinks cabinet, and I thought it'd be fun to include a bit of my shadow too.... it may look like I'm taking a sip from a mug but that's the camera's lens with hood attached... well both my ones so far have been from inside the home, going to take my time and make my final one outdoors-y .... looking forward to more great entries, the standard is pretty good this month and much fun to watch =)

Adam