Scuff

Thanks Phil. I was lying on the floor in the opposite doorway about 30ft away. I used a 580ex2 flash gun mounted on the hotshoe of the camera and bounced off of the ceiling to balance the light. A high shutter speed was used to keep the outside exposure within range, the flash lit the rest.

Here is one from a shoot at Kirby Hall on Saturday Shot with a Canon 1Ds2 and a 70-200 f2.8Lis. Edited in Lightroom and Colour Effex pro.

You are correcct. Exposure was calculated to keep the whites just in on the raw file. It was then processed in lightroom for high key lighting. A touch of brilliance and warmth in colour effex pro 3, then off to photoshop. A gausian blur was added to a duplicate layer, where the opacity was reduced until I got the effect I wanted. It was all visualised and planned before a shot was taken. I know what can be done with processing, so was able to visualise beforehand.

I have eaten the strawberries

Fruit by Tesco, helped by the healing brush in Adobe Lightroom

Shooting still life is an excellent way of learning about controlling light and composition. Here's one I shot today while it was peeing with rain outside. Shot in my kithchen with a Canon 1dsII and a 90mm tilt/shift lens. One studio flash head with a large softbox. The base was simulated marble floor tiles from B&Q stuck onto a piece of hardboard. The background was one of my lastolite portable backgrounds. Here is a mono version, processed with Silver Effex Pro and Lightroom. Which is your favourite????

Thanks

Thank you all for taking the time to make your kind comments

It was at Dunsfold Hedge.

Pleasing set of pics, well done.

I have sold everything except my G12 Amanda

I was shooting the air show for the organisers, but even though it's my job, I have loved doing it for over 30 years. I am still learning and I am still very enthusiastic whether I am getting paid or not. I still shoot for myself and enjoy entering exhibitions and club comps. I also enjoy instructing and seeing people improve and progress with photography.

A monochrome interpretation of The Eurofighter Typhoon against a moody sky.

That sounds like you had a great day Phil. I look forward to seeing some images

I have met that one phil! I live near to Kirby hall, and being a fan of architectural Photography myself, have taken many images there.

If we ever bump into each other, you can have a go with the kit, but it will all be chained to me.

I have both converters. I use the 1.4x on my long telephotos without issue. I occasionally use the 2x, which is ok stopped down a bit. I must admit that I personally wouldn't use either of them on any of my zoom lenses. Now if you were to pick up a nice used 300mm f4, and a 1.4x converter, that would be much nicer image quality. Don't get me wrong, the 70-200 is very good, for a zoom. But it doesn't really match prime lenses. If you must get a converter, use the 1.4x on your 70-200.

Mmmmmm, that would give you an equivalent of An 800mm f4 on yer 7d. That's not allowed

You definitely have your own unique logic That said, the two images you have shown are very nice, and very saleable with a little tweaking. Keep up the good work

Fast action photography is one of the few areas where you really need fast lenses and a decent AF. This will allow not only a nice diffused background and also keep the shutter speeds high. If the light is reasonably constant, I will always set up on manual exposure using an incident light reading. Using a spot meter won't help as it will only give you the correct exposure if the metered area is pointing at something 18% grey. ( I tend to use 12%grey for digital to move the exposure away from the 4bit end of the sensor to record more 'bits' in the shadow areas). I haven't used the 7d, but if it allows you to set up the AF for different scenarios, I would suggest using a single point AF with expansion in case you move off the bird accidentally. I would also suggest that you set up a slight delay for switching between subjects in case another critter flies in front of your subject. That should help the camera keep locked on. That should give you some ideas to play with Amanda. (And BTW, shoot in raw, you are throwing away sooooo much info by shooting in jpeg you nortee gerl :-)

Thanks for all of your kind comments. It really was like watching an ape in a hang glider Phill - It was 400asa shutter speed about 1/2000 sec on a 500mm lens wide open at f4. Hand held with IS on (though IS won't freeze the action, it helps stop the wobbles induced by the weight o the lens and camera).

This Peacock was flying around and landing on house roofs. I had only seen them strutting around stately homes before!

I will help the batting order for Canon The only non Canon lens is a 150mm Sigma macro. The Canon lenses are as follows. Zooms - 16-35 f2.8L, 24-105 f4Lis, 70-200 f2.8Lis Primes - 300 f2.8Lis, 500mm f4Lis Specialist- Tilt Shift lenses - 24mmf3.5L II, 90mm f2.8 T/C's - Canon 1.4x, Canon 2x My canon porn

It was a job, I had to get them right. But you were right Amanda, I only took around 200 shots of all of the competitors, and had to throw away 3! I just loved this one because of the expression.

A young rider taking part in the Grovely 'ride for life' event that I was covering.