Trophy in Gower

[Steve]

Bought a new camera last week and tried it out in Wales at the weekend. God, there are some amazing roads there, if you can go in the week - do because the traffic is much lighter (virtually non-existent). The sunset pictures were taken at the top of Cefn Bryn, my favourite road in South Wales. All with a Canon 400D and no processing other than re-sizing.

Let me know what you think, I'm new to digital photography so it's a steep learning curve.

 

[theo]

Great shots, good depth of field use! The 400D is a cracking little camera! I am just about to return my 1D to Canon! Its being gay! lol! Enjoy ur camera!

 

[OliS]

Nice photos Steve, I really like the sunset pic (5th one down) and the last shot. 8)

 

[chiefbadger]

Love the third up from the bottom Steve, makes the arches at the front look almost integrale-esque.

 

[Olliev8]

the last one is cracking!!! :lol:

 

[Steve]

Cheers guys, I like the horsies one, they all started trotting off for the night and I had to work fast to get them in some shots.

theo - I didn't use the A-DEP for any of these, I used P (program AE) and played around with ISO to get a crisp image with a narrower aperture, I used sunlight and shade WB as I found the Auto a bit unreliable without too much white in the shots. Any tips you can throw my way would be greatly appreciated.

Can't wait for the brakes Olly, they are truly rubbish now and the tyres have had it, worn them down to canvas doing 600 miles in three days with some enthusiastic cornering.

 

[rube79]

Great pics, i think i need a trip to wales next week if this weather stays this good.

Love the last pics.

superb

 

[artdealer]

0215 looks best IMO. The orange sunset reflects in the vivid red paint vs the blue grey sky is nice use of complimentary colours. Wheels nicely defined too. Because there's less light the tints look darker and emphasise the shape of the glass too.

All these pics it's a bloody good job I put those stickers on straight

 

[theo]

theo - I didn't use the A-DEP for any of these, I used P (program AE) and played around with ISO to get a crisp image with a narrower aperture, I used sunlight and shade WB as I found the Auto a bit unreliable without too much white in the shots. Any tips you can throw my way would be greatly appreciated.

What focusing mode were you using in Programme mode? The single shot autofocus on the 400D seems to work very well with the multi point focus selection so you can get a good balance on depth of field
What lens are you using for these photos?
I tend to try not to shoot above ISO400 and try to keep it around the 250 mark for most of my work! It seems to work well there on my cameras with a good balance of colour saturation... As for white balance i know what you mean about using auto! If you want to experiment with Auto, try shooting in RAW and then processing the images afterwards. What software are you using? At work we use mainly CS2 with photo mechanic or lightroom for archiving and either CS2's RAW convertor or Capture 1 RAW convertor!
Experiment with Apeature priority mode, its always fun to play with depth of field in photos and see what effect you get. When you are happy, then try shutter speeds, and finally have a play in manual mode!
Depending on what kind of photography you are doing and what your main shooting is going to be, it might be worth getting a decent piece of glass infront of the camera, but its not cheap. I am happy to offer more advise on lenses and techniques

and thats the essay over for that reply! lol!

 

[quik5i1ver]

Sounds like an opportunity for some Trophy photography classes!

0215 for the bright, eye catching red hues in the car.
0185 for the offset against a nice background.

I keep trying to get out with my 350d but by the time the car's clean, it's usually dark or has started to rain, plus there are few.. if any.. really breathtaking places for photos around my area..

Did you use any filters on your lense? I always have a skylight and generally a polarising lense on mine.

Anyone got any pointers as to at what shutter speed you should be using a tripod?

 

[Cue]

i prefer 0208, has an agressive stance from that angle. A few of them seem to have had the colour feck up though :shock: :lol:

 

[Shabba]

Loving the sunset photos.

Best time of day to get an atmospheric shot.

 

[Steve]

theo - I didn't use the A-DEP for any of these, I used P (program AE) and played around with ISO to get a crisp image with a narrower aperture, I used sunlight and shade WB as I found the Auto a bit unreliable without too much white in the shots. Any tips you can throw my way would be greatly appreciated.

What focusing mode were you using in Programme mode? The single shot autofocus on the 400D seems to work very well with the multi point focus selection so you can get a good balance on depth of field
What lens are you using for these photos?
I tend to try not to shoot above ISO400 and try to keep it around the 250 mark for most of my work! It seems to work well there on my cameras with a good balance of colour saturation... As for white balance i know what you mean about using auto! If you want to experiment with Auto, try shooting in RAW and then processing the images afterwards. What software are you using? At work we use mainly CS2 with photo mechanic or lightroom for archiving and either CS2's RAW convertor or Capture 1 RAW convertor!
Experiment with Apeature priority mode, its always fun to play with depth of field in photos and see what effect you get. When you are happy, then try shutter speeds, and finally have a play in manual mode!
Depending on what kind of photography you are doing and what your main shooting is going to be, it might be worth getting a decent piece of glass infront of the camera, but its not cheap. I am happy to offer more advise on lenses and techniques

and thats the essay over for that reply! lol!

Wow, erm, I'll try and answer all that. I used the 18-55mm kit lense for all these, all in RAW format (I bought a 4GB Sandisk Extreme 3 card for £44 on amazon so I don't have to waste time with the inferior jpeg format). I've got a Hoya Skylight filter in the post but there was nothing on for these shots. I've been playing around with manual mode and it's good fun but a bit trickier to get right. I try not to go above ISO 400 and managed to take the sunset shot at 200, but it is a bit underexposed.

I'm looking to get a 55-200mm Canon EF-S lense in the next few months so i've got a range of focal lengths to play with. I use CS2 at home and at work and have about 8 years experience with photoshop but I try not to play around too much with the images afterwards as I'm a bit old-school in regards to getting the shot right in the first place, it makes it more fun. I will sometimes do the levels and crop but I don't like the idea of photoshopping things out, i have to use the clone tool so much at work with photomontages I try and avoid it for my photos, hence the reflections of me in a couple of the shots!

 

[theo]

Manual does take a bit of getting used to, but once you have it sussed, its great fun! Its all about playing around and finding what suits u best! The raw convertor in CS2 is a good piece of kit and a lot of photographers use it for adjusting levels.
If you are a bit under exposed, then try using either a smaller apeature setting, or a slower shutter speed. This may result in vibration tho so a tripod is useful!

I cant wait to get my 1D back from canon so i will be able to take some pictures when i get my Trophy

 

[FunkyMunky]

awesome picture

 

[SteveC]

I keep meaning to get my car washed and take the 350d out somewhere nice to get some pics of my car its just finding the time.

Nice pictures, just turn the fogs off next time lol :lol:

 

[Steve]

I had them on in some, off in others, I think they look good at dusk, adds a bit of contrast to the shot.