robnunnphoto.com

3July2009

Just One More Great Podcast To Listen To…. Lensflare35

Posted by Rob_Nunn under: news.

Okay. It won’t be the last “New” Podcast recommendation, ‘cos I’m addicted to them, but this really is rather good.

This one is called “Lensflare35″, it’s hosted by Dave Warner, and already he’s had such great guests as Rosh Sillars, Rick Sammon and Sandra Pearce. It purports to be “all about Canon”, but there’s no hard-sell here, and the talk is all very interesting and informative.

Less of me, why not get yourselves on over to Lensflare35.com, check it out, and make sure you subscribe!

Cheers, Rob.

3July2009

Soligor Stokes Bay Sunset

Posted by Rob_Nunn under: Uncategorized.

img_6908, originally uploaded by scalespeeder.

Picture the scene: The light was fading fast, and after several (unsuccessful) attempts to capture some half-decent shots of Sea-Gulls with my Soligor 90-230 and 2x Teleconverter, I turned around to see a beautiful Sun starting to disappear behind the clouds.

I rested the heavy zoom lens on the roof of my car and snapped off a few frames before the Sun disappeared.

It’s very soft, but look closely and you can see a bird to the left of the Sun.

Cheers, Rob.

3July2009

Adobe Bridge Thinks My Batteries Are Flat… Cannot Obtain All Files From This Device!

Posted by Rob_Nunn under: tutorials.

Occasionally, when I first started using Adobe Bridge, I’d plug in my camera (I haven’t got a card reader yet), try to “Get Photos From Camera”, and I’d get the following error message when the wizard tried to pull the photos off my 350d / Rebel XT:

“Cannot obtain all files from this device. Please ensure the device is connected properly, or that the battery is charged.”

Thinking that my camera’s battery was a little on the low side, I’d just pop in my spare, and everything would work fine – usually. However, sometimes even with a freshly charged battery they’d be a problem I thought it was just my old Canon Battery (the original that came with the EOS 350d when new), but what I’ve found is an easy work-around.

When you go to retrieve your photo’s, after Adobe Bridge has made contact with your camera, let it generate ALL of the thumbnails before you click “Get Photos”.

Now Adobe Bridge works for me every-time, low battery or not!

Cheers, Rob.

30June2009

Canon EOS 350D Noise Ninja Profiles For Free Download

Posted by Rob_Nunn under: news.

As an occasional user of the Noise Ninja noise reduction software, usually in the Photoshop plug-in form, I took half an hour a couple of days ago to create some custom profiles for the Canon EOS 350D Digital SLR.

They consist of basic profiles, ISO 100 – 1600, taken with a 50mm F1.8 lens, with no exposure compensation, using the Noise Ninja Chart displayed on my monitor.

To install them, save the profiles to your hard-drive, unzip them, fire up Noise Ninja, then click “Profiles”, “Install Profiles” and point the browser at the folder where you’ve unzipped the files.

Download the Canon EOS 350d Noise Ninja Profiles here.

Cheers, Rob.

30June2009

Another Great Podcast To Listen To: The Image Doctors

Posted by Rob_Nunn under: news.

When I fired up my new (second hand) pc, I had to re-subscribe to all my old Podcasts in iTunes, and came across this fantastic podcast, The Image Doctors.

Don’t let the Nikon slant put you off, Rick Walker and Jason Odell, and the occasional special guest, discuss techniques and issues common to all makes of cameras and photography.

You can download their cast directly here,

Or subscribe in iTunes.

Cheers, Rob.

28June2009

SCL Photo Podcast 51 – Turning Points

Posted by Rob_Nunn under: podcast.

Another ramble, this time through some of the turning points (or should that be pints?) in my life that have led me to where I am (photographically) now.

Subscribe on Itunes. (Will open Itunes, then you need to click on the “subscribe” button.) (Free)

Subscribe with other Podcatchers. (Google Reader, etc) (For Free)

Download / listen to the mp3. (Right-click then “save target as” / “save link as”.) (Did I say it was free?)

Download / listen to the LOW BANDWIDTH mp3. (Right-click then “save target as” / “save link as”.) (Again, free!)

Cheers, Rob.

26June2009

Photowalk 71 – Different Locations Please!

Posted by Rob_Nunn under: photowalks.

On Wednesday evening, I had a couple of hours to spare, so I grabbed my Canon EOS 350D / Digital Rebel XT, my camera bag, and jumped in the car. Scanning the skies as I drove, I realised I didn’t just want to go to my usual haunts – Priddy’s Hard, around the Explosion! Museum, and the local beaches – so I tried a couple of different locations.

First stop was the “new” flats at Mumby Rd. I say new, but they’ve been there for years. I’ve always liked the architecture, and was determined to try to get a shot. There’s a handy car-park right next door, so I strolled around clicking away, with the 350D sporting the Canon 50mm F1.8 Mk II on the front. I was looking for a nice angle, and the prime 50mm forced me to move around rather than use a zoom to re-frame.

This shot is a black and white HDR, processed from 3 images using Photomatix. I was exposure bracketing with plus and minus 2 ev, much more than I used to with my Fuji S5700, and I have to admit I was shooting hand-held, when it would have been better to set up a tripod, but hey, I’m a spontaneous kind of guy! (In other words I was too lazy).

Mumby Road Flats

The next photograph is another HDR, this time I toned down the colour a bit.

Mumby Road (Towards Town Centre)

Next up I jumped in the car and headed to Gosport’s Boat Lake, and the rather unusual Cafe.

Peppers Cafe (Gosport Model Boating Lake)

Peppers Cafe Entrance

Behind the boating lake is a large car-park, which was mostly empty at this time of night. I liked the different shapes on the horizon.

South Street Car Park

Next is a photo best viewed large. It’s another HDR, but I had to do some masking with the Swans, who had come out blurred after going through Photomatix. I opened the Tone-Mapped HDR in Photoshop, then copied the original, middle exposure, into the same file on a different layer. A quick “Edit”, “Auto-Align Layers”, and a mask on the normal image, then I could “paint in” the OK water and swans.

Peppers Cafe And Model Boat Lake

Finally, the glowing Sky called me to Lee-On Solent, with another HDR. This time I had to “mask in” the walkers, and quite a lot of the detail.

Lee On Solent Sunset

To finish the night, a “normal” photo, from a slightly unusual angle.

Street Lamps Against Sunset

All photo’s in this set were taken with the 350D / Rebel XT and the Canon 50mm F1.8 Mk II lens.

Cheers, Rob.

22June2009

Lee On Solent Sunset

Posted by Rob_Nunn under: Uncategorized.

Lee On Solent Sunset, originally uploaded by scalespeeder.

Ahhh! I’m sorry, I know I’ve shot loads of photo’s from this view, but I love it! If only we could afford a house at Lee so I could watch this every night….

22June2009

Macro Photos From The Canon EOS 350D / Rebel XT, Pentacon 50mm F1.8, Extension Tubes… And Flash

Posted by Rob_Nunn under: technique.

It’s that time of year when the opportunity to play around with Macro photography becomes irresistible. The flowers are in full, glorious, bloom, and I’ve got a new camera, the Canon 350d / Rebel XT to play with.

I switched to the Pentacon 50mm F1.8 lens that I got from the car boot last week-end, using my M42 lens mount adapter on the 350D, and a few extension tubes. The extension tubes allow you to focus really close, but the depth of field is minuscule, so camera shake doesn’t just lead to movement blur, but also the subject actually moves out of the zone of sharpness.

Instead of digging out my tripod, I decided to try something different, and activated the pop-up flash on my camera. Dialling in some exposure compensation to darken some of the shots, the results were alright for a first try with this lens combination. For really sharp shots I’ll have to set up my tripod and tighten up the aperture a bit.

All these photographs were shot in RAW, and processed in Adobe Camera RAW and Photoshop. Although still dipping my toes into the world of uncompressed files, I have to say that the flexibility of RAW is amazing, especially when it comes to white-balance. Just flicking through the White Balance options in Adobe Camera RAW gives the same photo some different looks, without adding the noise and artifacts that sometimes happens with .jpg.

Thanks, Rob.

21June2009

SCL Photo Podcast 50: Back From The Beach

Posted by Rob_Nunn under: podcast.

Bit of a ramble today (my apologies), as I decided to go shooting rather than prepare the ‘cast….

Subscribe on Itunes. (Will open Itunes, then you need to click on the “subscribe” button.) (Free)

Subscribe with other Podcatchers. (Google Reader, etc) (For Free)

Download / listen to the mp3. (Right-click then “save target as” / “save link as”.) (Did I say it was free?)

Download / listen to the LOW BANDWIDTH mp3. (Right-click then “save target as” / “save link as”.) (Again, free!)

Victor W’s new site, The Inverted Image. (Go and say hello!)

Cheers, Rob.