Saturday, December 29, 2012

Lake Somerset Sunset

Here's a beautiful Autumn sunset at Lake Somerset for you. Have a lovely weekend!
I plan to do some blog catch ups this weekend.











Sharing with the following memes:
Skywatch Friday         Click to see the rules and to take a badge for yourself.

Friday, December 28, 2012

Photography Tips: Long Exposure Shooting

I've had this post sitting as a draft for a couple of months waiting for a particular meme to start again but, the person who hosts it has found that her time is limited and she probably won't be continuing (which I totally understand). So, I figured I would post it anyway...

I don't profess to have a lot of photography knowledge. I am mostly self taught both with my camera and in post processing (where I use Lightroom 4).

This is one of my first long exposure shots, taken at the end of August, and shot in AV mode (as I had no idea of settings back then). As you can see the original SOOC RAW image is quite dark (it wasn't that dark when I took this). The lights on the bridge, the reflections on the water, the ferry trails & buildings are not as clear or bright as it was when I took the photo.


So, I increased the exposure, and added a little clarity. The buildings now stand out, the reflections, ferry trails, lights & buildings are much brighter & clearer.

Finally, as I don't own a wide angle lens (I use my 18-55mm kit lens for landscapes) I straightened the buildings using the lens correction, vertical perspective, tool. And this was the finished product.

The only other change I would make (if I owned a remote) is to increase the exposure from 30 seconds to 60 seconds so I can capture the full ferry trail around the bend in the river. However, the longest exposure I can set without a remote is 30 sec.

If this had been a JPEG image, there is no way I would have retained the image quality with the small amount of editing I did.

The beauty of shooting in RAW is that the image isn't pre-processed by the software in the camera. Shooting in JPEG is OK but it means that the camera software does it's own editing/processing and discards certain details of the image that the software doesn't see as necessary; you can't get those details back.
RAW images are much bigger than JPEG (usually twice the size or more) but what comes out of the camera includes every minute detail the camera sensor captured. When you edit the image you won't lose image quality like you do editing a JPEG image.

I do hope this has been helpful.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Brisbane City by Night

I went out for some long exposure shooting on Saturday night, to teach my friend. We had a great night. Here are my favourites from the night.

Brisbane city & Story Bridge from Wilson's Outlook (with a bonus crescent moon)

Brisbane city from Kangaroo Point Cliffs

The city is so beautiful at night!!

Sharing with:
Weekly Top Shot        

Project 366 Rewind {Week 48 & 49}

Still behind but here's another 2 weeks worth:
 
Day 330 (November 25) - Glasshouse Mountains sunset from Wildhorse Mountain. Not the best sunset cloud or colourwise but it's a steep walk to the top so I wasn't going home without anything. 

Day 331 (November 26) - Brisbane is a mass of Poinciana red in December.

Day 332 (November 27) - Afternoon cloud reflections in city buildings

Day 333 (November 28) - Whiptail Wallaby. I'm pretty sure there's a joey in that pouch!

Day 334 (November 29) - Eastern Yellow Robin at O'Reilly's, Lamington National Park, QLD.

Day 335 (November 30) - Crimson Rosella photobombing my sunset at O'Reilly's, Lamington National Park, QLD.

Day 336 (December 1) - Flight of the Eastern Curlew, Wellington Point, QLD.

 
Day 337 (December 2) - Seeds & bokeh.

Day 338 (December 3) - King Island off Wellington Point on a beautiful Summer's day.

Day 339 (December 4) - Under the Jetty, Wellington Point, QLD.

Day 340 (December 5) - On the Jetty, Wellington Point, QLD.

Day 341 (December 6) - Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike (Juvenile), looks nothing like the adults!

Day 342 (December 7) - View of the Scenic Rim from Rotary Lookout, Mount Tamborine, QLD.

Day 343 (December 8) - Crimson Rosella on Witches Falls walking track, Mount Tamborine, QLD.
 
Sharing with Gina & Sarah:
 
Naptime Momtog

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Wild Bird Wednesday: Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

One afternoon, last month, I arrived home and saw a familiar bird in our common grassed area. We have many birds in our large townhouse complex (and our backyard) but this was one I hadn't seen in the complex before.

In the afternoon shade of the many Macadamia trees, was a Sulpuur-crested Cockatoo picking up numerous Macadamia nuts. I wasn't aware at the time (but I did Google it afterwards) that these birds beaks are strong enough to crack the shells of Macadamia nuts. I also discovered that Macadamia trees are a favourite.






Linking with Stewart's meme:

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Project 366 Rewind {Week 46 & 47}

Still behind by quite a few weeks but here's 2 more weeks...

Day 316 (11 November) - Water droplets and rose ruffles.

Day 317 (12 November) - Gone to seed.

Day 318 (13 November) - Overgrown.

Day 319 (14 November) - Juvenile Butcherbird.

Day 320 (15 November) - HMQS Gayundah wreck off Woody Point, Redcliffe, QLD.

Day 321 (16 November) - Woody Point Jetty, Redcliffe, QLD.

Day 322 (17 November) - Silver Gull sentinel.

Day 323 (18 November) - Sunrays at sunset.

Day 324 (19 November) - Hornibrook Bridge long exposure, Brighton, QLD.

Day 325 (20 November) - "The Avenue of Honour", Anzac Avenue, Beerburrum, QLD. These trees are unique because they’re the only identified trees in Queensland which were initiated and planted by returned World War One soldiers.

Day 326 (21 November) - View of Mount Beerwah & Mount Coonowrin from the Lookout Cafe in the Glasshouse Mountains.

Day 327 (22 November) - "Bob" the Butcherbird. He is the resident thief of the Lookout Cafe. He will steal chips, potato wedges and anything else right out of your hand. The cafe provides water spray bottles on the tables to scare him off.

Day 328 (23 November) - Sometimes we need a shift in focus to see the importance of the smaller things.

Day 329 (24 November) - Tree Fern.

Joining in with Gina & Sarah:

Naptime Momtog
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