Have 3 questions with many more to come.

(1) how do i upload photos for critique or to share?

(2) Keith,
I remember at the SDW workshop, you told me in order to make my subject in focus whilst the background is out of focus, I need to zoom in at widest aperture. I tried that . I zoomed in to 70mm (am using the 18 - 250 lens) and the widest aperture my A300 gives is 5.6. The blurring effect is there but not great. Why is that so? Is there something else I need to take care of?

(3) I know there is this cropping factor in our lens. So, if someone tells to be have focal length of let's say 70mm, can i just zoom in to 70mm or do i need to multiply that by 1.5??

Hi pawpet, feel free to ask as many questions as you like

1) To upload photos, there are 2 ways

- Attach your photo directly to a posting but be aware that there is a size limit of 512kb and you can only attach one photo to one post.
- Upload your photo to an online photo storage site suh as flickr, photbucket etc. While creating your post, click on the IMG button and insert the online location of your photo. Internet Explorer may show an error and a tiny pop-up will appear somewhere at the top of your webpage. Click it, allow permission and try again.

2) 4 main factors affects background blur. Combine all 4 factors to achieve the most background blur.

- Use wider apertures
- Use the tele end of your zoom (18mm least effective, 250mm most effective)
- The closer the camera is to the subject, the more blur is the background
- The further the background is to the subject, the more blur is the background.

3) Depends on the situation and people so its best to ask the person you are talking to whether he means with crop factor or without.

I attached a photo for you. I used a wide aperture and get as close as i can. Can see the fence is more blur at the furthest end :)

The max size is not 512 kbyte !
I previously try to upload and couldn't use file bigger than 256 kbyte :(
But of course you still can upload it somewhere and put the link in the message here .


One thing to be added about bokeh:
Use one point focus, not multi points focus, and focus on one object.
Actually using 50-250mm with your widest possible aperture is enough to create good background blur. For 18-49mm is a bit difficult to produce a good one.

In order to have super nice bokeh (blur background), lens with bigger aperture (ie small nos) is needed. Some really good one come with a big price tag :lol:

My fav lens is 50mm f1.4!

Either use that, or a macro. :D

another question - is there such thing as a "mirror lock" in our sony A300?

Yes, activated through the menu button, MLU. But it is not for shooting purpose, its for a technician to clean the camera sensor.

Ooo... learnt smthing here on the mirror lock... :)

Planning to get hold of the 50mm F1.4 soon i guess...

snap snap ^_^

Dun try that orrrrr..... ;)

Jupiter's poisonous 50mm f1.4 has poisoned Benny. Who's the next victim?

Ha ha...go to "My Travel Journal", then go to "Siem Reap Captures Me!", I used the lens in most of photos!!!

POISON coming lor.... :lol: :lol: :lol:

Benny, unless you really need it, else dun buy lah...our zoo dun need white elephant :P

I'm very curious actually..

Is a difference of f0.6 a lot?

Because my lens is 50mm F2. I'm wondering if the difference in bokeh is very big :unsure:

Hoho your lens is 50mm f2 AI (the manual lens !!)

I think the focal length will govern rather than aperture for creating good bokeh.
From f/1.4 to f/2 is only one stop so difference should be minor, I think.

heehee... guess its a good first prime lens to get... been reading the cs forum... seems like the sony 50mm 1.4 is a hot item... esp compared to the minolta and the other parties lenses. (although it is more costly than the minolta 50 1.4, but its more affordable than the CZ 85mm F1.4) Would like to shoot pretty potraitures with the lens unless the white elephant comes around then i no choice but to shoot it too...

maybe get a ND filter to go along with the lens... ^_^

maybe next meeting with Isaac can bring along the lens (after i get it) and compare the difference of the 0.6~* ;)

another question--- i was at the neighbourhood park last nite. They have orangy lighting.

(1)How do i get my photos to be clear? without that orangy tint?

(2) I on flash... the person i am taking is sharp but the backgrd is dark. What must i do? would a 50mm/f 1.4 help?

(3) How do you get the starburst effect that benny took on his night photo outing.

Hi lily,

(1) night, i guess gotta use tripod for clear sharp photos ba... then the orange lighting i guess its the lamppost.. perhaps playing around with the White Balance may help. if taking potraits in the night, gotta use flash (slow synch)

(2) A 50mm F1.4 will help but it will blur the background due to the low depth of field. and the aperture is very wide for a lot of light to go thru...so the background will be blur and the subject sharp...

(3) the starburst effect i manage to get is by setting the aperture to F16 or more but it requires the assistance of a tripod as the shutter speed will be longer.

Shifus, pls correct me if i am wrong. thks lots...
cheers ^_^

Hello!

(1)

Orangy Light is what we call, "warm lighting" those light from the lamp post can be as low as like 2500 kelvins in temperature... In that case in your camera there's the White Balance setting in your camera. You can access it, and dial a value from around 3300k to 2500k.

When you do that, your camera will start to assume any light that is of the same temperature as the value you've just dialed in as white light. :) (So we can call the temperature that you dial into your camera as the "white point" the point of Light Temperature that your camera will interpret as white colour.)

So what if you over do it?

When you do - Your supposed Yellow light will turn bluish - that is, you might have dialed in your temperature too low. (so like, if you dialed in a value of 2500k while the light around you is really 3300k, your light would start to look bluish)

Well, it's good to know that if it comes from a fluorescent source - there's the great likelihood that there'd be a a greenish tinge to it as all fluorescent sources usually have. In that case, you can add the Magenta filter to your custom White Balance setting. Like M1 to M9 and correct that to your tastes. :)



(2)

Shooting without lighting support stresses even the fastest lenses: note - in photography, when we call a lens "fast" - as a lens with a large aperture that allows you to shoot to shoot at high shutter speeds in relatively low light. (Well, we'd call a lens that's quick to Auto Focus... well - as a quick AF lens - there's like no official jargon for lenses that AFs quickly ^_^ )

In very Dark conditions, your flash becomes very powerful, and that's why, your camera, in automatic circumstances, will expose with your flash gun's settings in mind - to prevent over exposure from your flash firing, a side effect is that your camera's settings aren't good enough to get your background properly exposed.

If you had a fast lens - the ability to collect a lot of light from the surrounding objects also means that you would most probably end up collecting too much light from your flash gun - that's usually in automatic mode - as well.

What we can do - fast lens or not, is to expose your camera for your background first. Then fill your shadowy subject with (a strobe of very weak, manually set flash).

Further Research and Reading - google for "Slow Sync Flash"



(3)

I think bearbear90 has explained it well... I heard of starburst filters that can create the same effect without having to lower your aperture size too much. Can look into those too. :)



Cheers!

:wub:

Thumbs for our master !!

-removed because I didn't see shifu Richard's reply- :lol: