Luxor4u

Since our Lovelyladylux started this thread on 1st February we have had 400 posts and covered many aspects of photography. I must confess that my own interest in the subject had dwindled of late but this thread has re-kindled that interest and, although I sold all my roll film cameras some years ago, I am now thinking about getting something better than the Fuji S6500 fd bridge camera that I am using at present.

I have taken the liberty of starting the thread anew because it is becoming a pattern to do so when it reaches around 200 posts.

Mrs G and I have just spent a couple of weeks in Luxor and Aswan. I came home with 758 pictures which after a first cut are still 681....I hate totally deleting photos but many more will end up on the 'cutting room floor' before too long.

The majority of these are 'holiday snaps' but hopefully some will fit future monthly competition topics. Can't have Stan winning all the time.

So, what shall we talk about now.......we surely haven't covered this wide subject already????

Nope we haven't covered "ALL"!!! I bought (albeit a cheap attachment) the kind of lens that will take stuff really close up. (I got it into my head that on the RAINY days here when I can't get out I want to take a photo of the proverbial drop of water that has rebounded from the bigger pond of water)

Anyway - this was the 'goal' to set up and while away my days at the kitchen sink doing something other than washing dishes (ok I got a dishwasher but you get the drift)

I bought a remote (off Ebay) that was again relatively cheap (and my entire problem could be 'cheap' but I've also come to learn that photography expenses can add up astronomically) and while I got it with a FULL description that this remote will last 'til the year 3000 I haven't a clue how a remote without a wire will attach to the camera. I've got the idea the camera needs to be super still cause I've tried taking the bugs in the yard on the tripod but the crisp sharpness isn't there.

Anybody has any idea 'how' a remote control might work? This one is so remote it doesn't even attach!

**One last problem I have - HOW Gradad are you going to post ALL 681 photos on here for me to see them!!!! ;););););)

LLL, is your remote definitely compatible with your camera model, and, more importantly is your camera equiped with built in sensor for remote operation. If so you would have to switch it on via the menu.....check your instruction manual for that.

Re. Your splash shot.....that is quite a challenge.....you will have to take many shots to, maybe, get the one you want. But don't set up too close, don't want to splash on to your camera...

And as for some pictures......the family usually like to see just a small selection so I will think about adding you to my circulation list......I am always careful with holiday pics.....surest way to bore the pants off anyone

Just to digress for a moment but still under the general topic of photography....

You may all be aware that Howard Carters house is open to the public as a museum of his time there. It is free entry at present and well worth a visit in my opinion. But there is something that the various tourist groups do not get to see, you have to ask....

In what would have been his sitting room they have set up a cinema with seating for only about 8 or 10 people. The show is a hologram representation of Carter talking about the events of finding King Tuts tomb. I found it a stunning presentation but I am a bit of a geek for this kind of thing.

I recorded a brief clip, it is very poor quality but hopefully it will give a flavour and next time you are in Luxor make sure you see it. There is a desk in the room and please note at the end of the clip how his holographic suit drapes over the real desk....spooky

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Raddang/H ... 4624564978

By Jove old chap !

Looks like John Cleese, and sounds like David Attenbrough

Pretty impressive though 'Z' when the image walks into the very dark room and finally walks out.

But as I said, I'm a sucker for that sort of thing.

If your camera can work with a remote, it should have been included in the box! My Nikon did come with one, and it worked perfectly - unfortunately it was quite small and I managed to lose it!

As to your water droplet pictures - they are usually taken with an extremely high speed camera, capable of shutter speeds of several thousandths of a second, so I don't really think you could do it with water. You might be able to do something with a more viscous fluid, but again, I think that it would be doubtful.

And to get the very high shutter speed the subject will have to be intensely lit with a large apperture......not by flash though.

Pretty impressive though 'Z' when the image walks into the very dark room and finally walks out.


I agree, amazing stuff..

I dont watch telly, but love experiencing 3D films at that place in Leeds.

Clever stuff, laser technology, soon you wont know what is real and what is not !!

LLL, I have just posted this on E4U because I couldn't get on here, but now I have.

Anyhow, try this for your remote shutter release query:-

The remote control for your camera is a ML-L3 wireless remote.
Each time you want to use this you need to set a ‘Remote on duration’ time via the camera menu. It is one of the custom functions and will be explained in your manual.
When you have set the time, say 15 minutes, you have that time to prepare and make your exposure. After that time has elapsed, the camera will ignore any remote signal from the ML-L3 trigger.
Do some practice shots to check how quickly the shutter release operates after you push the remote button.

Hope this helps.

AHHHH!! Voila and the light comes on! Gotcha Grandad!! Will try this with the remote.

This question might be so obvious it hardly warrants an answer BUT when you've gone on holiday or out for a special day and take a mega load of photos what elements are you looking for to turn your 'snap' into a picture you'd hang on the wall?

I realize there is a wide variety of tastes etc but what components do you look for to turn a simple snap into a proper picture?

Talk of photographing water drops has triggered a memory for me.
Many years ago ...like back in the early 80's I had a photography fanatic friend who want ed to do all sorts of clever images including the "water coronet" shot. I developed various electronc triggers for his camera's and flash guns and we succeded in getting some superb water drop images. Another one we did was of a crossbow bolt as it pierced into an apple.....juice in all directions! We also did the classic multi exposure of a tennis player stricking a ball. I think he was trying to copy many of the techniques pioneered in Nocons book. All good fun for a year or so. I should have patented those circuits and techniques as it was about 10 years before commercially available kit appeared that would permit others to emulate those images by simply buying the equipment.
The electronics were a combination of infrared beam triggers, sound triggers, flash sequencers and delay units.

Just found a link to some nice water drop shots
http://www.geneinman.com/waterdrops/h2BB1634#h1aa6daf0

But BB, those were the days of roll film and expensive printing and processing costs. Thank goodness digital has introduced almost cost free picture taking.

I would encourage LLL to have a go with that remote and take maybe 50 shots before you even look at them......good chance you will get lucky and capture that coronet that BB refers to.....It's a lot of fun trying.

As for holiday 'snaps' I would say that most pictures with either no people (unless it is a portrait) or people who are just incidental have a potential to be a pleasing shot because they appealed to the eye at the time of shooting. Further cropping and tweaking may make them a good 'picture'.

I went through my 681 images yesterday and have copied 70 of them into a 'work in progress' album for further work...maybe out of them I will get up to10 worthy of printing.

Very true Grandad. However we used a Polaroid (remember those) back on the camera to get almost instant test shots. That certainly helped save time working out the timing sequence.

I found this link on the net which gives a sort of tutorial for setting up these types of shot. It explains that the external flash gun with trigger is the secret for getting these images.

http://digital-photography-school.com/s ... ns-popping

The biggest problem we have nowadays with digital cameras seems to be shutter lag...the time between pressing the button and the camera firing.

It's nice to sit here trying to stay cool and think back to the"old days"...hehehe

Way cool water drops and the coronet BB! thank you for sharing. I haven't gotten too much further in trying to take these but during the cold wet of winter I'm going to set up to try these. Mostly more for the 'fun' of it than anything else.

When I'm trying to turn a snap into a photo I'm usually trying to decrease the glare of the photo and matching up a matt and trying usually to get a series of photos that compliment each other. Nothing wrong with a single shot but I like to see groupings on the same theme. I seem to be able to get ONE shot but can't get others to compliment it into an interesting series. I think I also want to "fill" the entire photo but yet not make it too busy. That could be more my own personal taste but I like photos of 1 object or flower or child etc. that is usually fairly 'up close'......

The shutter lag removal is starting to propogate down the price range of camera's now. IN the past, only the really expensive ones had zero lag.

Now the ram speeds are up and the processors are more powerful and at a cheaper rate, this techlonogy should be available through out the range.

I miss all the features of my old SLR 35mm Camera, TTL Metering and all that. Manually setting the shutter speeds and F Stops..
You set your shots up more carefully too, as each one cost money regardless of the outcome.
I took up home developing and playing around with effect's, back in my college days. Many a happy hour spent in the dark room..

I did an interesting water shot for a project many years ago, I put coloured tissue paper into a bowl of warm water to stain it blue, then dropped a very cold drop of clear water into it.. I borrowed my mates Nikon for that shot, as it could do 10 shots a second, and flash at that rate too !! The flashgun ATE battries like ther was no tomorrow !..
There were 2 good shots after 2 attempts..at 10 shots per attempt..

I havn't been tempted to move upmarket with my digital camera, I spend about 100 - 150 quid maximum, and a big memory card..
You can just point and click, then edit them at home on the PC, and still get some great shot's..

Wouldn't mind a tele-photo lens though, optical zoom, not digital..

Most of the compact (small!) digital cameras come with a 3x optical zoom. You say you spend about £100-150 - Fuji make the ideal camera for you with a 10x optical zoom and the ability to manually set exposure, aperture etc , and the newer Panasonic cameras go up to 18x optical zoom. My old Nikon has 10x zoom and gives excellent results.

The smaller cameras also have removed viewfinders in favour of a bigger screen - a big mistake in bright sunshine. The cameras I've mentioned have electronic viewfinders, so you see just what the lens is seeing, as in a SLR. The only disadvantage of these cameras against a true SLR is the shutter lag.

Going back LLL's bit on capturing water droplets this was one of the first exercises I set myself when trying to grasp the effects of shutter speed. Below are a couple of photos from my attempts - just over 2 years ago now when I first got an SLR.

I took the photos on the worktop in my kitchen. I got stainless steel bowl and set up a spotlight that went across the camera from left to right. I put the camera on a tripod and attached the cable release. I had a jug of water in one hand and fired off the shutter release with the other.

Looking at the properties of the photo I set the aperture to around 5 and the shutter speed at 1/125 second and ISO 100. I don't think I would use those same settings again but it was all a bit experimental at the time!

You may also like to check out Irene Muller's photographs - her series of Milk meets Coffee are amazing. Have a go at it LLL - it's great fun and the only way to learn about your camera settings.

http://www.pbase.com/daria90/milk_meets_coffee_splashes