Cold this morning

[Robin128]

Brrrr! Nothing like that near the coast where I live...valleys, different kettle of (frozen) fish.

Rob

[dromia]

Pentax DFA Macro 100mm f2.8 WR.

Learning slowly...lighting is important, innit? :) And DoF.

Yes it is.

When I take close up firearms photos I use natural light in lieu of a couple of photo lamps, haven't sourced a suitable compact type yet so suggestions welcome.

The camera is tripod mounted so I can use a long exposure time and the camera is set to aperture priotity so I can adjust the depth of field. I use mirror lock up and two second exposure delay to avoid shake.

I usually shoot at the read exposure then one and two stops over.

I shoot in RAW and then convert to jpeg using the Canon software, I get a little less degradation that way rather than shooting jpeg on the camera.

My biggest issue at present is the loss of quality and sharpness when I shrink down the images. I've used Photoshop Elements 5, Irfanview, AVS Photoeditor, Canon and Minolta software.

I'm going to try taking photos at different quality settings see what difference that makes if any.

Any one else wrestling with this problem or have the answer?

[Robin128]

Thanks for knowledge Dromia...will bear all that in mind.

Got a Sto-fen Omni-bounce on order.

Rob

Dad's old camera. :lol: :lol:

[Sandgroper]

When I take close up firearms photos I use natural light in lieu of a couple of photo lamps, haven't sourced a suitable compact type yet so suggestions welcome.

My biggest issue at present is the loss of quality and sharpness when I shrink down the images. I've used Photoshop Elements 5, Irfanview, AVS Photoeditor, Canon and Minolta software.

My wife uses http://www.picnik.com/ to edit photos for her website (http://www.dragonflightdesigns.co.uk). She has a foldable lightbox (no good for rifles, but would be perfect for pistols), which she uses with a couple of compact spotlights or natural light. She got everything as a set from e-bay. Unfortunately, the spotlights are unmarked so I can't even point you in the right direction regarding them.

HTH

[Polchraine]

Yes it is.

When I take close up firearms photos I use natural light in lieu of a couple of photo lamps, haven't sourced a suitable compact type yet so suggestions welcome.

The camera is tripod mounted so I can use a long exposure time and the camera is set to aperture priotity so I can adjust the depth of field. I use mirror lock up and two second exposure delay to avoid shake.

I usually shoot at the read exposure then one and two stops over.

I shoot in RAW and then convert to jpeg using the Canon software, I get a little less degradation that way rather than shooting jpeg on the camera.

My biggest issue at present is the loss of quality and sharpness when I shrink down the images. I've used Photoshop Elements 5, Irfanview, AVS Photoeditor, Canon and Minolta software.

I'm going to try taking photos at different quality settings see what difference that makes if any.

Any one else wrestling with this problem or have the answer?

There is no real answer to the loss of quality when shrinking the image down as is needs to work out what each new pixel should be from the several that were there before. Sometimes it is better to have the camera further back or zoomed out so that the image takes less of the frame, then crop the image so when reducing in size the number of pixels forming the new pixel is less. Sometimes it works other times it will not.

However, ALWAYS stay as a non-compressed image whilst doing the manipulation - RAW, (PEF for Pentax), DNG, Photoshop (PSD), then shrink down at that point and only then save as JPG.

[dromia]

Thanks Polchraine, yes i keep them in RAW for the manipulation and convert last, it makes a noticeable difference but still not as good as the original. You are supposed to be able to do it through photoshop using bicubic sharper but I'm not going to spring for full photoshop any time soon.