sensor cleaning

I was asked recently how to take a test shot to find out if you have any dust spots on your sensor, here is my reply


You want pick something plain - clear sky, flat light coloured wall, white piece of paper.

Pick your lens that goes to the smallest aperture (the smaller the aperture (higher F-stop) the more likely these are to show up) and set your camera in either Aperture priority or full manual and take two test shots

one at the smallest aperture possible - this will show every piece of dust, I then ignore this photo but it's up to you, I only take it just to see the difference.
another at F16 - this is usually the smallest aperture I go to (after that you get diffraction reducing sharpness) and see what appears.

If anything shows up at F16 then I clean my sensor.

Then repeat the test shots and see if anything shows up, but don't worry about what is there on the smallest aperture shot if you never shoot using it.

If you have paid to have it cleaned then both shots should be clear.

I will add some photos of test shots next time I clean my sensor.

Christmas Lights

Since we have got all of the decorations out, I decided to use some of them for a photo opportunity, this is a set of green LED lights.


green, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

November 2012 Mosaic

Here is my November 2012 mosaic. One month left to go.

November 2012, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

Wales at night

A few days ago I was away in Somerset with work so I went out to do some long exposure shots looking out across the Severn Estuary towards Wales. This is straight out of camera and I'll upload edited version when I have the time.


Wales at night, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

October 2012 mosaic

A bit late but here is my October mosaic

October 2012 mosaic, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

Group Icon Competition win

Two blog posts on a row about the same photo, I entered this into the last group icon competition of the year for my 2012 year in pictures (group link here - http://www.flickr.com/groups/2012yip/) and because nobody else (of the 209 group members) put a photo up this one has been selected by default. 

2012 cover shot, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

2012 cover shot

This is the cover shot for my 2012 year in pictures photo project. I cut the 2012 out of a large piece of card, put some barbeque lighter fluid on it and then set it on fire, I'm not 100% happy with it but I knew I'd only get one shot at this.


2012 cover shot, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

Photo featured on Sony's Facebook Page

I entered a competition on Sony UK's Flickr group and mine was chosen as the photo of the week so it has been used as the cover photo on their Facebook profile.
Link - http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=535066816506843&set=pb.110663255613870.-2207520000.1351363809&type=3&theater


Global Rainbow @ Preston docks, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

Blackpool illuminations

I took the kids to see Blackpool illuminations, wasn't a photography trip but I still managed to get a few shots, this is one of the better ones of a tram all lit up.


train, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

Bug on a bells daisy

I bought some Bells Daisies to plant in the garden to add some colour over winter and I have taken a few shots of them, already, this one has a bug helping it's self to some nectar.


hoverfly on a bells daisy, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

star

star, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

Yesterday I went out into the garden not long after sunrise and I caught this leaf covered with dew.

marigold visitor

marigold visitor, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

I have been getting some prints done ready for mounting as competition entries, this is one of the ones I've selected.

Septembers Mosaic

Here is the mosaic for September's photo a day. I decided that all this month I would take B&W only. I like B&W but I haven't taken that much recently so I thought one month of solid B&W was a good idea.

                            09-2012, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

Fuji T350 Review

Here is a review of the Fuji T350. I bought this camera a few weeks ago for my wife. I Paid £99 for this camera It has a claimed RRP of £147.97 but since the it has only just been released in January I treat it as a £99 camera. I haven't finished this review yet so I will keep adding to it.

It's available in 5 different colours, Black, Red, Blue, Purple and Pink - I picked Purple. It's a gift for my wife and I am far less likely to borrow it in this colour. I could have bought the pink one but that would just be too embarrasing.

The sensor
It has a 1/2.3 inch 14 mega pixel CCD sensor at ISO 100 to 3200

The lens
It has a 5 - 50mm  lens which is the same as 28 to 280 on a 35mm film camera, a 10 times zoom. It can also shoot at apertures from 3.4 to 5.6 but you can't control this, it's common on cameras at this level that you can't control it. these are two photos shoing the range of the lens.

The first  image was taken at 5mm - 28mm equiv on 35mm film, the second one was taken at 50mm - 280 mm equiv on 35mm film


Max Frames Per Second is 1.1 which again for a P&S camera is about normal.

Video - It will shoot 720p high definition video with sound.

Battery - it comes with a Lithium Ion battery which is rated 230 photos, we have managed 180 photos and about 4 minutes of video on one charge.
Screen - It has a 3 inch rear screen.


Storage - the camera will take SDHC memory cards, I have been using it with an 8gb class 10 card.

Features

Blink Detect - tells you when a somebody in your photo has blinked during the photo so you can then take another one straight away.

Panorama Mode, this isn't as simple as a sweep panorama mode, here you take one shot, two crosses apear on screen and you line them up, the camera then takes another photo and then repeate. the camera then stiches the three images together. You have to keep the camera still between taking the shots or they don't line up - I have taken an example below, you can see it lines up for the first stitch but not the second one.

I prefer sweep panorama to this as it's more intuative and your less likely to have it go wrong like above.

Face detect - this is interesting if you upload to facebook etc or like to tag your friends so you can search your photos for them. You can take a photo of somebody and log it in the camera. Then when you take a photo of them again it can recognise them and tag them for you. It works on my wife but I keep going from clean shaved to stubble and it sometimes doesn't tag me in.

Other features/modes are landscape, portrait mode, baby, party/indoor, sports mode, sunset, beach, night, fireworks, snow, natural light, natural light & with flash, smile shot, text, flower.

some more photo's 

A baby chick, taken by my 4year old daughter

A photo of me, again taken by my daughter

 And a couple more to show the zoom range

I will upload a few more.

Overall I'd recomend this camera to somebody wanting a point and shoot camera around the £100 mark, I wouldn't pay the £150 RRP though. If I were to give it marks out of 5 I'd give it a 4, I am sure there are better out there but for ths price it does all I would expect it to.

centurion tank

I keep going back to this tank to photograph it. I've been there 4 or 5 times now, this is from my latest trip.

centurion tank, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

Photo Club

I have decided to join Leyland Photographic Society. It's a local photo club, I'm guessing that the first meeting is on Wednesday night but the website isn't up to date. I feel that I need to get some more feedback on my photo's and also hopefully some hints, tips and help to improve my photography.

August 2012 mosaic

This is my August 2012 moaic

August 2012 mosaic, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

misty morning

I have spent the weekend camping in north Wales, this was the view just over the wall from our tent.

misty morning, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

Darwen Tower and moor

A trip to Darwen moor for the sunset.

You can view more photos in my Darwen Tower and Moor flickr set link here

Sunset, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

July 2012 Mosaic

It's been a while since I updated my blog, just haven't got around to it for a while. Here is my photo a day mosaic for July 2012.


07-2012, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

 I will also add a few other photos in that I have taken through the month.

Bank Hall

bank hall south side 3, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

I went to visit a classic car show on the road out to Southport that was being held in the grounds of Bank Hall, a derelict Jacobean style mansion located in Bretherton, Lancashire, UK. I was more intrigued by the mansion than the car show, I will be going back again to take some more photos, possibly some night shots if I can get access.

It has been empty since he early seventies and since then has fallen into this state. There is a 'Friends of Bank Hall' group whose aim is to save the hall, more information is available on their website

I have more photos of the hall in this set and also some of the clasic car show in this set

southport pier

I have been doing some more editing on some photos I took last weekend at Southport. I went there to shoot the sunset but it clouded over adding a lot of drama to the sky. I really like the black and white conversion here.


southport pier, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

500px

I have decided to set myself up with an account on 500px to sell some of my photos through there. I tried to sell through Redbubble but after several months I hadn't received a single sale so I am trying 500px now - here is a link to my account http://500px.com/GaryDavidson1

Southport Pier

My photo of the day for yesterday is this sunset shot taken just north of Southport pier.

Southport Pier, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

June 2012 mosaic

I finally got around to creating the June mosaic for my 2012 photo a day project.

June 2012 mosaic, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

New Lens - first shots

My Tamron 10-24mm lens arrived today so I took it out for a trip to the park. This is one of the first photos with it, loving the ultra wide angle.

worden park, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

New Lens - Tamron 10-24mm 3.5-4.5

I bought a wide angle lens today, there has been quite a few times recently that I have been wanting to go wider than my kit lens (18mm) can go, landscape shots at the top of hills, architectural shots etc. I'm visiting a few more car shows over the next few months and quite often at these there isn't much room between the cars so it will be useful there as well. I'm also looking forward to some exaggerated perspective photos soon.

Once I've had this lens for a while I will decide what to replace my kit lens with. I have been wanting to replace my kit lens for a while but decided to wait until I had this lens. I need to decide what range to go with, either 16/17/18-50mm F2.8 lenses that are APS-C only or go for the 24/28-70/75mm full frame lenses, I'll see how often I use the kit lens wider than 24mm and if it's not that often then I'll go for one of the full frame options.

Competition Win

One of the places I am sharing my photos from my photo a day is the 2012 year in pictures group on flickr that has a competition every two months to decide what the group icon should be and this time I have won with this photo. There were only 6 entries and only 8 people voted, I won with 3 votes so it wasn't the biggest competition but still a win is a win. 

crocus open, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

injured bee

a bee, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

Another macro insect photo from my garden. This guy had a damaged wing and couldn't fly, just had to hop around from flower to flower.

through the keyhole

One of the macro groups that I am a member of on flickr has a competition going with a theme of keys - this is my entry.


through the keyhole, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

marigold visitor

A trip to my Mums and she has a few flowers in her garden. I spotted this on a marigold - I don't know what it's called, I need to work on identifying the bugs I keep photographing.


marigold visitor, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

busy bee

Recently for my photo a day project I have been taking photos of bugs in my garden, so far this is my favourite. It was taken on my Sony A450 using the SAL30M28 lens - 30mm macro. shot at 1:1 and I cropped it a little as well.


busy bee, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

May 2012 mosaic

Here is the mosaic for May's photos from my 2012 year in pictures project. With this month the weather has been all over the place, sometimes really hot and sunny, others it's been quite wet. Most of my photos this month have been of insects and flowers - only seven of them were indoors. Hope you like the photos, if you want to check them out in more detail they are in this flickr set.

I also have January, February, March and April available if you want to check them out.


May 2012 mosaic, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

unidentified insect

I took this photo and I am trying to identify it. I have gone through an insect book and posted it to two groups on Flickr, but still no ID. Do you know?

edit - It's been identified as an Emphid - Dance Fly thanks to Ian Boyd

unidentified insect, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

Flickr Views

I don't really read that much into views on Flickr, I much prefer to get a constructive critique rather than a few hundred views. On the flip side, my photo's on Flickr have now been viewed over 10,000 times so I am glad that I am generating a bit of interest.

Rivington Terrace Garden

Rivington Terrace Garden, a set on Flickr.

I have been trying to catch up with my Flickr photo uploads, this set is from Rivington Terrace Garden in Lancashire, England. I really like this place, it has a bit of a lord of the rings feel to it.

Southport Sunset

I went to Southport last night to photograph the sunset, it was a low tide and I couldn't go out any further. I was planning on going right to the sea but I couldn't get that far. Another try again for me, next time I will check the tide times. I have uploaded a few more to set on Flickr


Southport Sunset, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

Stitching Photos

I used to stitch quite a few photos together but I haven't done it for a while, I had to replace my PC a while ago and I hadn't re-installed Autostitch, the program I used. It's a free program and available to download here http://cs.bath.ac.uk/brown/autostitch/autostitch.html It's a fully automated program, you chose the settings - file size etc, select the files you want to use and then the program does the work for you.

I usually do one quick run on low size settings and then a second one at a higher resolution, when producing a file for maximum resolution it takes a lot longer to run than when using lower settings so I run the lower setting to make usre it will stitch together properly.

When it installs it doesn't show in the list of programs, you have to launch it from the folder where you installed it. I have created a shortcut on the desktop.

You must choose the settings first, as soon as you select the images the program starts to run. To start, open up the program and then select edit>options. This should open up new screen.

I usually select the scale option on the top left hand corner and change this to 100%, then click ok, I also change the JPEG quality (bottom right hand corner) to 100.

then select file and chose the files you want to merge, I used these files 

I like to have a large overlap between the photos, if I were merging manually then I would have less overlap but since it's an automated program I go for more.

this produces a file like this

I then crop down to this 

if you want to see some more of my photos that have been stitched together like this then visit my stitched photo Flickr set.