Look at me, Caristy, I actually tried the challenge! :)

OK, so I spent a ridiculous amount of time playing with my camera on this challenge! :) Now, I don't have a tripod and my F-stop only goes to 8, so my best pictures are a little different than yours, Caristy. It took me forever to weed through the photos. (I took a couple hundred photos!) Oh, another thing - in addition to not having a tripod, I'm a little lazy when it comes to playing with my camera (especially when it's midnight), so these were taken with me sitting in a chair, not changing my position, with a light on in the "dining" room, which is a ways away so it's not completely dark. (Caristy, your tree is decorated so pretty - I had a little help from 4 munchkins, so there wasn't a particular ornament I really wanted to zoom in on!) So, here are my results:

Focal Length: 16.4 mm
F-Number: F/5.6
Exposure Time: 1.3 sec.
(I like the way the lights look like little stars.)
Focal Length: 12.9mm
F-Number: F/5.6
Exposure Time: 3/5 sec.
Focal Length: 8.4 mm
F-Number: F/8
Exposure Time: 1 sec.
(I know it's not completely in focus, but I kinda like the whole tree view with the "twinkling" lights.)And, just for fun:

Focal Length: 72 mm
F-Number: F/5
Exposure Time: 1/60 sec.
Focal Length: 72 mm
F-Number: F/3.5
Exposure Time: 1/20 sec.
Focal Length: 72 mm
F-Number: F/3.5
Exposure Time: 1/25 sec.
Focal Length: 18.6
F-Number: F/4.5
Exposure Time: 4/5 sec.
(Tried this one after reading how to do it on a thread specifically about my camera.)

Caristy Christmas Tree Challenge Pictures

Picture 1: ISO 400, Aperture: F/13, Shutter Speed: 1 sec. Picture 2: ISO 400, Aperture: F/11, Shutterspeed: 1 second
Picture 3: ISO 100, Aperture: F/8, Shutter Speed: 10 sec.
Picture 4: ISO 100, Aperture: F/8, Shutterspeed: 6 sec.
Picture 5: ISO 100, Aperture: F/8, Shutterspeed: 4 sec

Caristy's Christmas Tree Challenge

Let's see those lit up trees! Doing this is a little harder than you think. If you want your pictures to "look right" and really want to show off your lights, it's going to take a little work. My understanding is that in order for you to have a "good" pix of your lit up tree, you have to shoot wide open and use a slow SS to capture the lights. If you have a tripod, this is probably going to be easy for you or something that you can rest your camera on so that it will take the picture. You might also want to try using your timer so that you don't worry about camera shake from pushing the shutter. SO, if you have your Christmas tree up and ready for pix, light 'em up and let's see them. I want to see your tree lit up in the dark, so we want the light source to come from the beauty of your tree. Try to have your f stop between 4.0 and 8.0 (play around with that to see what happens at the different stops - F stop is your aperture....which will help with the how much of a picture in in focus.) and try to have your shutter speed between 1 second and 10 seconds.....which is why it would be helpful to have your camera on timer and on a tripod....because it's hard to have your body still for that long.

No example because I don't have a Christmas tree yet! Hopefully I can find one when we got shopping hopefully soon!! (I hope that it's not a bad storm this weekend!!) You have until December 25th to finish this challenge! (That way if I can't get a Christmas tree at least I can steal my mother-in-laws tree to take pictures of!

Caristy's Challenge Pictures ~ Shutter Speed

Picture # 1 - F/36, 1/40 Shutter Speed, 115 mm (ISO 400)

Picture # 2 - F/36, 1/8 Shutter Speed, 115 mm (ISO 400)

Picture # 3 - F/32, 1/3 Shutter Speed, 78 mm (ISO 400)

Picture # 4 - F/32, 1/2 Shutter Speed, 78 mm (ISO 400)

Picture # 5 - F/18, 1/10 Shutter Speed, 78 mm (ISO 400)

~* Caristy *~

Shutter Speed Challenge

You can get a neat blurred effect when taking pics of fast moving objects with a slow ss. An example would be running water, smoke, people on bikes, cars, etc. You can do this with a p&s too! Here's my rundown of what to do with a DSLR:

-Your subject(s) should be in medium to low light because with your shutter open you will be at risk to overexpose the picture easily. A creek in the shade, fire at night, or a glow stick at dusk are all good possibilities.

-Either go into your shutter mode (TV for cannon, not sure for other brands) or full manual. I would suggest using a ss somewhere in the range of 1/15-1/4 but messing with all different speeds is always fun. If the picture is too blurred, go faster, if it is in focus more than you would like, go slower. -If you're in full manual you'll probably have to adjust your aperture (maybe f/8 or so).

-A tripod can be helpful if you only want certain parts of the picture blurred. You can go even more artsy by actually moving the camera while the shutter is open to blur the entire photograph.

Alright, now if you have a P&S you can still do this! What you will have to do is to take your picture in low light when your camera automatically slows down its shutter speed. Then your subject will have to have some sort of light to it. Fire, glow stick, car headlights, etc. You can't adjust the ss but you can try different subjects and angles, and such. I have seen some great p&s pics like this!

All Right Now.....I'm off to try and I'm hoping that you all will too!! I give you until next Wednesday to post them up!

Love ya ~

Caristy

Halloween Picture Post

Here are my pictures for Halloween! I love the first picture because it's all wavy and so neat! :-)

~ Love, Caristy ~

Halloween

So its the time of year where little goblins and ghouls are running around town hyped up on treats.
Let's try and capture the spirit of Halloween. This can be done in many ways. Think outside the box about what Halloween means to you or to the people around you. The challenge is for this weekend. Try and post results by Wednesday November 5th.

Happy Halloween!! ohhh hahaha

~Alexi~

Overexposed or Underexposed pictures corrected!

Using Photo Shop you can fix your picture SO easily! I love it!! (Especially because I'm still trying to figure out all these different features on my camera!)

1st duplicate the background then switch the blend mode on the dublicated layer to screen then adjust opacity until its how you want it and you're done.

For overexposed pics instead of switching the blend mode to screen you switch the blend mode to multiply.

If after doing 1 additional layer its still over or under exposed you can add more layers until its the look you want.

In my Son's eyes (challenge!)

For this, get down on a child's level, or an ant's level and take some photos. Yes, that means laying on the ground! Just get on a level that would be different than what you are used to. It could be getting on your dogs level, your kids level, an ants level. Just try it! What do you have to lose?

Macro

Macro shots are shot/pictures that are taken really tight to the object! :-) So that you can see various aspects that you might not normally see. Most camera have a macro function even simple point and shoot camera do. Basically it looks like a flower so you turn your dial or you click and switch your camera to the flower and just have fun! Here are some of my pictures!

Challenge: Catching the Light

So I've found a website and also a message board that is helping me learn about photography and how to better myself at it!


This one lady put out a challenge to catch the light. So I figure I would look through my pictures and try to do just that. :-)


Catching the light basically means that you want the light to catch them so that it gives the subject that you are taking a picture of life and sparkle. It's light that shines on your subjects face and eyes that reflect the eyes and give them amazing detail & color. It's what happens when you just look at the one picture and are amazed that you were able to capture that special spark which makes you want to take that picture of your subject over and over again.


The key to getting catch light is to make sure your subject is facing and open light source that is not directly hitting their face. So in your house have your subject sit or stand by an open window, facing the open window but not in the actual light. Same goes for outside. Make sure your subject is in the shade but have them facing the sun. ~ By Crystal(Thanks for the explanation)


Here are a couple of examples:


In this picture I was able to capture the light and have no problems getting Little N's eyes to pop and sparkle.



In this other picture I wasn't able to capture the light so I didn't like the pictures quite as much because I didn't feel like I caught his curiousity.