Recent content by icebox

there are 3 long screws used to tighten heads mounted on the 190xprob tripod. they don't seem to work for the ball-head i use, so i never tighten them. thus all 3 screws have fallen off ;( so just curious, is there a way to get them replaced? are they even useful?

Every lens (well, almost every. Only a very very very few exotic ones cannot I believe.) can focus to infinity. Either use the distance markings on the lens, switch to manual focus, and twist the focusing ring to the infinity mark. Or if there's no distance markings, switch to manual focus and...

Please do not use live view on the sun! You may save your eyes, but burn your sensor. You may be able to get away with a quick wide-angle shot of landscapes with the sun at one corner, but not with a telephoto.

Expensive high quality lens can help a bit with contrast, but the scene has to be contrasty to begin with. So "bright afternoon sunlight", if too harsh, will give bad contrast anyway. Contrast is caused by light. Bad light = bad contrast. Can increase contrast in photoshop later if you want...

Can, prosumer range of cameras. Go google that word. Canon S5 IS, Fujifilm S1000FD etc etc.

The kit lens may hunt a bit in low light, but it should be able to lock into focus, unless the subject is in really low light or low contrast. Did you use the center focus point to focus? It's more sensitive.

Can't seem to find official Canon hot shoe covers, but Nikon has them. Probably less than $5 for one. Fits Canon cameras.

I believe that both techniques are used by people, depending on the situation. If the foreground-background separation is quite distinct, 'merging' is easy. It eliminates movements between shots too. But if separation is messy, 'stacking/layering' seems easier. I suppose Photoshop HDR and...

Due to the way the image sensor in digital cameras (all, DSLR or compact) work, the raw image is soft. Compact point-and-shoot cameras apply a lot of sharpening and other tweaks before saving to jpg. DSLRs tend to apply less in-camera processing. You can try boosting the sharpness setting in the...

Set to aperture priority, then choose your aperture and let the camera decide the shutter speed. That's one way. I don't see a purpose in manual mode, unless you have the lighting well controlled or wish to have the exact same setting for every shot to reflect the changes in lighting.

Try f/16 next time. I think that should be enough, and yet won't push the shutter speed beyond the camera's limits. At f/22 and f/32 you are going to see all the sensor dust.

Nice skies, clouds and colours. But to be honest, nothing particularly interesting in terms of subject, except perhaps that tree. No offense though, just comments =) For starters, placing the tree dead center, or any subjects, tends to be rather dull and frowned upon. You can read up on rules...

The foreground is well exposed. In fact it can do with a little underexposure, to help keep the distant sunlit buildings from clipping, without looking very dark. The dynamic range here isn't too insane yet, compared to those with lotsa of sky and clouds, or even the sun.

Hm filter is the general term. It has to be some ___ filter. UV, ND, etc. Perhaps it's just a better UV filter, thus higher price.

You will know what it is good for, when you realise you need something between 55mm to 250mm, and it leaves you cursing at every outing.