General Photography

You mentioned the round things in the background should be yellow, lemons? Here's what I did:

Temperature +31 to add yellow until very lemon-like
Tint +26 to subtract green, leaving a bit behind the fly's ass (lemons have some green in them)
Exposure -0.12 (I'm anal like that, probably could've left it but I went by eye, not a measure)
Contrast +12 to add to the colours popping
Highlights and shadows I left alone
Whites +12 to increase the dynamic range of the image a bit without burning the whites
Blacks -17 for the same reason
Vibrance +12 to make it pop
Saturation +7 to make it pop a bit more

I went extreme on the yellow :p

It looks good here at work, it might not look good on your screen. I'm on an ancient monitor that wouldn't know what it means to be calibrated :D

10801900_10155119527160104_1764873649018477934_n.jpg

Hope you like it, and I hope this is motivation to learn to take control away from the camera and put it in your own hands :)
 
Take two:

Temperature +2 to subtract a little blue
Tine -31 to add a lot of green
Exposure -0.48 to bring the overall exposure down a tad
Contrast +14 to spread things out a bit
Highlights +48 to add the shine to the wings
Shadows +33 to bring out some of the darker details
Whites -17 to spread the dynamic range without clipping details
Blacks -2 to bring out a touch more in the darker areas - I'd like to go further but the JPG doesn't have much latitude
Vibrance +14 to make things pop
Saturation +10 to make things go boom

Local brush over the fly to stop it from glowing green and give it a more yellow/bronze colour:
Temperature 17
Tint 77

10801900_10155119527160104_1764873649018477934_n-3.jpg
 
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Oj0 said:
Take two:

Temperature +2 to subtract a little blue
Tine -31 to add a lot of green
Exposure -0.48 to bring the overall exposure down a tad
Contrast +14 to spread things out a bit
Highlights +48 to add the shine to the wings
Shadows +33 to bring out some of the darker details
Whites -17 to spread the dynamic range without clipping details
Blacks -2 to bring out a touch more in the darker areas - I'd like to go further but the JPG doesn't have much latitude
Vibrance +14 to make things pop
Saturation +10 to make things go boom

Local brush over the fly to stop it from glowing green and give it a more yellow/bronze colour:
Temperature 17
Tint 77

View attachment 189287
Click to expand...

Attachment appears to be gone but yes as you said, been watching a few videos and seems letting the camera do your work is never good ( purely because what you see is not what the camera sees due to our brains already auto correcting and adding white balance etc ), but still learning all the nitty gritty's of the settings and when in the moment, especially with macro work, you don't have much time to set all your settings... well I don't because I'm still getting to grips with what should be good for what. Will be having to relearn settings again as its time to let go of my amatuer camera and step into the enthusiast zone.

Anyways all of that aside, the next thing I want to start doing is editing and would just like to get a feeling of what software I should go for. Initially I wanted to go Lightroom but again boils down to cost unless I can find someone who wants to sell their copy so now I'm looking at GIMP, which I have heard quite often around these parts, and from what I can understand, its pretty much an open source version of photoshop so hopefully it's just as good as I'll need to start getting glued to the youtube tutorials
 
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Setting your own white balance is pretty easy to do. Personally I use the lid from a tin of Nuk, the stadium roof, or the inside of my camera bag, but any old piece of white paper will do in a pinch. ;)
 
bwana said:
Setting your own white balance is pretty easy to do. Personally I use the lid from a tin of Nuk, the stadium roof, or the inside of my camera bag, but any old piece of white paper will do in a pinch. ;)
Click to expand...

That's why this place is the best. Tips and tricks from the pro's :)
 
I used my new 7d (mk 1) extensively last week and found it overexposes consistently by 2/3 of a stop. 40d, and even 350d, exposes much better.
 
Screen brightness :D :D :D :D

Check your metering mode as well. Evaluative, spot, partial and center weighted can all have a different effect depending on the scene.
 
BigAl-sa said:
I used my new 7d (mk 1) extensively last week and found it overexposes consistently by 2/3 of a stop. 40d, and even 350d, exposes much better.
Click to expand...

Can you post a typical picture? That will show the nature of the problem.
 
garyc said:
Can you post a typical picture? That will show the nature of the problem.
Click to expand...

Av, 0eV
IMG_0344-M.jpg



Av, -2/3eV
IMG_0348-M.jpg


This has nothing to do with the cloud shadow, I have dozens of pics (only these two uploaded to smugmug though). Tried evaluative, centre weighted and partial metering. Disabled Auto Lighting Optimizer and Lens Peripheral Illumination Correction. Even manual metering overexposes.

I have even upgraded the firmware, but that has made no difference.
 
I'm not surprised the first one came out wrongly exposed, even as is there are over- and under-exposed parts to that picture. I think that's a reasonable job considering the conditions.
 
Before i toss this anyone interested in it?

16362871157_f894e62d25_z.jpg



16362485599_6504041216_z.jpg



16548783995_dbc9413c22_z.jpg


Happy to ship,cost on you...condition is not terrific, it's been at a residence by the beachfront (open) without being looked after.
 
Oj0 said:
I'm not surprised the first one came out wrongly exposed, even as is there are over- and under-exposed parts to that picture. I think that's a reasonable job considering the conditions.
Click to expand...

Give me a chance, will put up a pic from a 350d with the same lighting conditions...
 
BigAl-sa said:
Give me a chance, will put up a pic from a 350d with the same lighting conditions...
Click to expand...

Rather put up a pic from each with identical settings and lighting conditions.
 
bwana said:
Rather put up a pic from each with identical settings and lighting conditions.
Click to expand...
You can do that in the field?

Just for interest, this morning was the first time I took pics in the field (not test pictures), with the 2.05 firmware and it really does look much better. I will put some pics up in the zebra thread shortly (shortly may be relative).
 
It's IronMan time again in the bay. Being a triathlon there are plenty of opportunities.
 
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