Which focal length does your cousin shoot with the most? The 85mm and 90mm is a choice of whether your cousin wanna do macro also. The 50mm and 35mm is a matter of preference really. So ask your cousin which focal length he/she prefers.

nevermine : Hi, just wanna get my 2 cents comments on your pics. Hope you dun marah-marah ok?

I feel that you are quite undecided on what you want to show in your pics. I see the hotel and the city skyline in most pics but you placed them in the background and in the foreground you have a fountain. I felt that both subjects do not really match inside the frame. It's quite jarring to me to have to switch from fountain to skyline. I think that it would have been better if you focussed on one of them at a time.

I liked the idea behind no. 5 but you need to go a lot closer and get the cobweb to really fill up the frame. I think at that position it was not really accessible but I like the idea.

You need to watch your composition. Try not to cramp everything into your pics. Think about what you want to show and how best to show it. Sometimes, less is more.

Wah! Give me so big hat to wear ar? But if you want my advise this is what I will do if I am there:

I will shoot the skyline only and leave the fountain for another shot. Sometimes we feel like want to take in everything our eyes can see but we forget that our brain can filter but when it comes out in a pic, all the things come out and nothing gets filtered resulting in a very busy picture with no clear subject. Learnt that the hard way and then I learnt to slow down. Take a good look around. Think about what you want to show in terms of a pic. If you want to take in everything, take a test shot first and review it. Did the shot convey your message? If it did not, then obviously it did not work. So find something else.

You first have to have at least a rough idea on what your end result will be in your head and then try to match your actual pic to the one in your head. If you have no idea, the result will show as it too will not have a clear subject.

Buy an umbrella lor... cheaper and can give results like that in your pic most of the time. RM 200 will be more than enough to cover an umbrella plus light stand.

Passion cannot be learned. Either you have it or you don't. Example if you have a passion for dancing let's say, you will have all the motivation to learn. If not, got teacher also you don't want to learn.

Now for the most important thing to learn in photography - It is coming to a realization that great gears DO NOT equal great photos. You think that having a f2.8 lens will give you great low light pics? You think that having a high ISO body will let you shoot great photos in any situations no matter if the light is bright or not? You think that having a CZ lens will get you jaw dropping pics?

If you think that then you are wrong. Having great gears only helps to make life a bit easier. CZ lenses will give you sharper pics, more vivid colours, better contrast so that you can minimize your PP time.

F2.8 lenses help to increase your shutter speed in certain situations. You cannot always be shooting at f2.8 or f1.8 or f1.4 even if you have the lens.

A lot of other factors are involved in getting a great picture. Among them :

1. Picture composition - large aperture or not, composition still matters.
2. Lighting - ambient and/or flash with ambient - how you make it work for you. Great gears will not adjust the lighting for you.
3. Having the knack to capture the 'right' moment - this comes with experience and anticipation.
4. Knowing the limitation of your gears - this will let you work within the best parameters of your existing gears producing the best result.
5. People skills - this may not be apparent at first but how does people skills factor in photography? When you're taking pictures of another person, how well you relate and communicate with the person matters a lot in the outcome. If you piss off all the people that cross your path do you really think you can get a great portrait shot?

So cure yourself of the gear lust syndrome. When you can get good shots using very normal gears, you know that you will be able to do better with better gears. It does not work the other way.

Agreed! Last time I had the 18-250mm lens. Could say I have all the focal range to play with and end up I found that I use mostly the wide angle range and around 50mm to 70mm on the tele range. Other than that? Very seldom use. I upgraded to the A850 because I want wide. Sold off the 18-250mm and I don't miss the tele range at all.

So now I have the 20mm prime and 50mm prime that I use most of the time. I also have a Minolta 24-85mm zoom borrowed from friend for usage occasionally. If and when I buy the 85mm f2.8 SAM, I can safely chuck the zoom away and feel no loss whatsoever.

Most people who are new into the DSLR realm thinks that they need all the focal range from 18mm to 300mm. It is only after you have shot more than 10k pictures will you realize that you shoot only certain ranges. Until you find that few focal range, you are better off not buying any lens. Saves you money.

These people are in denial lar... Don't they know that even in the film days, PP has already been practised. When a photographer develops the film, he/she can adjust contrast and a little bit of exposure. That's basically PP lar. Things like 'pulling the midtones' or 'suppressing the highlights' can be done in those days already. So olden days film photographers that do such PP are cheating also? Heck, if you read some history, even Ansel Adams, the celebrated landscape photographer, also PP his shots! So Ansel Adams is cheating also?

A little bit of PP is the norm in photography. Of course there are people who can edit a photo and make it all surreal like and not one bit like the original shot. I categorize those as 'digital art' and I don't consider it cheating. People like Dave Hill I put on the border of photography and digital art. I don't consider it cheating. It's just his way of expressing his views.

That's why I say denial lor... denying that digital is the way of the future. I can also say that they are cheating mah, if follow their logic:

1. They bring lighting equipment to enhance and add to the ambient light - cheating!! Why not just use available light as is? More natural isn't it? Why wanna change the lighting?

2. Use filter to add colour or contrast or whatever - cheating!! Why need to add anything to the original scene? Original is original - add already then become fake lor, isn't it?

3. Use reflector or diffuser - cheating!! Cannot alter the original light mah... If alter already then fake lor...


So in that logic, then the greatest photos are those snapshots taken by aunties using film PnS lor. All also never adjust just snap only and everything is like the original.

This post has been edited by shootkk: Dec 29 2010, 04:32 PM

Sony better. Looks better - more sexy and focusing speed a little faster. I should know, I owned that lens for about 1 year plus.

This is a 200mm shot done of a SAL18250 wide open - meaning at f6.3 lar - the max aperture at that focal length. See if you can accept or not?



And another one at 200mm

The bokeh also quite ok.

Just ask them if you take out 3 photos and put them on a table can they tell you which camera brand took which picture? If they can't then no point saying this cam brand better than that cam brand lor coz no one can tell the difference looking at a picture.

It's difficult to define a good picture as everyone's opinion will differ but in general a good picture should tell a story and elicit emotions when a person looks at it.

When you look at a good picture it always makes you pause and think. You may pause to think about what the photographer is trying to convey in his/her picture. Or be captivated by the colours and/or shapes that is shown. At least it should make you go, "Hmm... interesting." if not an all out "WOW!"

Of course to get to such a level is not easy and may take a long time. Why don't you post some of your pictures and we can discuss how we feel about them?

ieR : You dun have KEEP filter ah? If you have KEEP filter then no need to boost saturation to +80 also can see it's like the Octopus. Hahahaha....

The Marumi one looks like a daylight filter of old film days.

The longer the focal length, the bigger the object will look in the picture. Also the longer the focal length, the less background you will see in the picture as the angle of view becomes narrower.

With a telephoto lens, you can pick a medium distance from the subject and get decent half body view. If you are far away, you could get a decent full body view e.g. when you shoot someone on a catwalk.

If you try to shoot a catwalk with a wide angle lens, chances are you will get a lot of background in your picture. The background could be distracting thus people will prefer to use a telephoto lens.

Hope that helps.

This is what is called lucky shot. You aim at one subject and let off a burst of shots either manual or using the camera's burst mode. Sometimes you can get one great shot. It happens.

This is the reason why most fanboys like to have high fps body. They use the 'spray and pray' method to get one shot and show it off. What they don't tell people is the thousands of other shots they have thrown away to get that one shot. Experienced users learn to hone their skills and can eventually get good shots without resorting to the 'spray and pray' technique.

Yes. It does have it uses but your 'spray and pray' can become much more effective if you learn how to maximise the other factors leading to a good shot - i.e. using the right AF mode, choosing the best location to shoot, knowing the limitations of your lens/gears.

Some people just want to fire their camera like a machine gun at every opportunity.

Guys,

Anyone of you have used Maha Powerex rechargeable batteries or not? Is it good?

I am looking for new rechargables as my Energizers are dying. I'm thinking of getting Sanyo Enerloop but I still need a charger and it seems that the Maha charger are good and compatible with the enerloop. Anyone with experience?

Thanks guys! So Sanyo Eneloop it is. Now to find uncle Ian...

Those of you who listed your names in the eneloop bulk buy pls PM me. Someone deleted my post on the price. Dunno why these admin and mods cannot tell between a helping hand and a outright selling!

To mods and admin and staff:

I AM NOT SELLING ANYTHING. I AM MERELY EXTENDING A PURCHASE AND HELPING OTHER MEMBERS WHO WANT TO BUY AT THE SAME TIME. I AM NOT MAKING ANY MONEY OUT OF THIS!!

So now we're onto FE poison eh? Lucky I not the FE fan. Hahahaha!


Reminder :

Those of you that have put down your name in the eneloop bulk buy and have not gotten a PM from me, pls PM me for the price. I forgot a few of your names and someone deleted some of my posts.

Or you can just peek at my siggy...

Pls confirm with me whether you want or not.

This post has been edited by shootkk: Jan 17 2011, 10:07 AM

The story goes back like this:

I am looking to get some new rechargables as mine are dying. So I posed a question on what the other members here find to be good. It seems many of them swear on the eneloop so I decided to get that.

Uncle Ian, the ever helpful moderator said he has a contact that sells eneloop. So I asked him for the number and then other members say maybe they want to buy at the same time.

To extend a helping hand, I offered to do a bulk buy in which a few of the members listed their names. I closed the bulk buy list last friday afternoon and say I would update them the price when I get a quote from the seller.

When I posted up the price, some one went and deleted my post and some of my previous ones too. Like I am trying to sell something here. I am only offering to like 'ta pau' lunch for the others as I am buying it myself but somehow, someone saw it fit to delete the posts! I dunno lar... want to be helpful also difficult.