The Perfect Agapanthus?

Hi all, I drove Carla mad over Christmas trying to find and shoot the perfect agapanthus. I'm chuffed with this shot. Neil

Quick and Dirty tutorial to layers and masks in PS

I was asked today to put together a basic guide to using layers and masks in PS. I've written a the "Quick and Dirty Layers and Masks Tutorial" which can be downloaded from this address: http://www.limephoto.co.za/Tutorials/layers.pdf. Let me know if you like the tutorial, or if you would like to comment on it. For some of you it may be old hat, but for others it might be useful before venturing towards the more advanced tutorials offered (I mention in the tutorial where to go for more guides). If you like the tutorial let me know and I can start to create more quick and dirty guides.

E

Eclipse Tips?

So yesterday was eclipse day, well partial. I had a bash and would struggle to agree that I was successful. Has anyone done any eclipse photography and had any success?
Here is some of what I did and what concerns I had whilst doing it.


My fist concern was burning holes in the cameras CCD in the way that lasers sometimes do. However, working through it logically (not always the best way I will agree!) I decided that it wasn't a problem, as I, like many of us have taken images directly into the sun, backlighting objects etc etc without hassle. If anything, there should be less light during an eclipse.

I was also concerned about going blind. So I used some coloured theatre light filter paper to 'see' and to focus. I shot manually and bracketed heavily.

I also tried shooting through a red cokin filter (red 'cos it was all I had) with the intention of using photoshop to do a colour replacement, perhaps a de saturation.

By combining the above (bracketing and colour replacement) I hoped to merge a few images, HDR maybe. Didn't work too well.

Most importantly I didn't (don't!) have a long lens, or any fancy equipment so needed to try something that steered away from the usual orb and shadow filling the frame. Again I was hoping to blend (or double expose) a few frames. Thinking about it I realised it would be near impossible to achieve a visible foreground type image, as, in order to see the eclipse you need to under expose dramatically, thus rendering the foreground black and nonexistent (dah!) So I opted for a clean foreground that would work as a (faint) silhouette. As there was some cloud early on in the eclipse I used the opportunity to incorporate the haze as a natural 'filter' and ended up with the image I have posted here. By any standards it is not the most interesting of images and is annoyingly moon-like. Anyway, any input or experiences would be welcomed.
Here are the tech details: f/22 at 1/250th. Lens - 17 to 40mm at 40mm (Don't even think about saying that the sun should be bigger!) P/shop: mask on the building to lighten it a bit and a saturation of the blues for the sky.
Paul.

the old and the newbie1

Ok so I know this is off topic but I wanted to do this for a while. I really like Ansel Adams stuff and thought I would compare his original shot of half dome in Yosemite National Park and a shot I took from the same spot in Yosemite. I took this photo about 6 years ago and it was taken on fuji valvia I think..and then scanned..I tried to get the contrast between his black and white shots with taking my shot in autumn when the colours are out in full force. Any crits are welcome..