Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Two

[UKCruiseJeff]

[TLCOhio]

Appreciate the wonderful above food picture from Jeff. Was this done with your new camera? After bagels earlier this morning, it reminds me that I need some "real" food now. BUT, nothing that good is available at home at the current time. I will "suffer" through and survive.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Enjoyed a 14-day, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure, getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for more info and many pictures of these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 119,306 views for this posting.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Hi Terry,

 

No ... I'm afraid food piccies at home is pretty much always ipad as it's so simple to upload etc.

 

Having said that, somewhat spurred on by Mysty and her new purchase I decided to spend a bit of time learning this camera to give me a bit of an edge over my old habit of just point and shoot and I have been really suprised at the amount you gain by a little effort. It has really great point and shoot capacity but it also has a lot of sophisticated in built and highly sophsiticated function and you can programme and entirely customise the camera a lot.

 

A couple of examples if you are interested. This is my play with dynamic range optimisation and adjustment (and auto adjustment!) and and HDR - Auto High Dynamic Range.

 

Auto HDR: The Auto HDR function shoots 3 images with different exposures and then overlays the bright area of the under exposed image and the dark area of the over exposed image to create an image with an extended range from highlight to shadow (aka gradation). The highlight detail in auto HDR is better than that in DRO and with reduced noise. However, as the shutter is released 3 times, using this function for moving subjects is not recommended. If you shoot moving subjects in an environment where there is a large difference in brightness, the recorded image may look multiply exposed.

 

DRO: The DRO function analyzes the contrast and produces an image with optimal brightness and recovered shadow detail. You can use this function even while the subject is moving or during the continuous shooting. When shooting with the DRO, the image may appear noisy because the image is corrected using image processing.

 

NOTE: Both of these functions automatically compensate for the brightness and contrast for still images.

 

 

Here is a couple of examples at what it does in situations where shadow and dark grass detail would be lost. It is all instant camera processing and not post processing. You'll notice that on the first piccy it has preserved the same exposure but just found the detail in the dark areas. To me this really avoids all that RAW shenanighans. All done in the camera instantly ... and a pocket camera at that. :)

 

Hope it's of interest.

 

Jeff

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 13, 2015 by UKCruiseJeff

[TLCOhio]

Hi Terry, No ... I'm afraid food piccies at home is pretty much always ipad as it's so simple to upload etc.

Having said that, somewhat spurred on by Mysty and her new purchasde I decided to spend a bit of time learning this camera to give me a bit of an edge over my old habit of just point and shoot and I have been really suprised at the amount you gain by a little effort. It has really great point and shoot capacity but it also has a lot of sophisticated in built and highly sophsiticated function and you can programme and entirely customise the camera a lot.

A couple of examples if you are interested. This is my play with dynamic range optimisation and adjustment (and auto adjustment!) and and HDR - Auto High Dynamic Range.

 

Wonderful pictures and postings by Jeff. YES, what can be done with digital cameras and/or pictures from them can be very exciting and creative. While I can get and have posted many nice food and other pictures just from my iPhone5, most of my best are done with my SLR, Nikon D7100.

 

BUT, on my MacBook Pro laptop, the Aperture program can do some nice "fine-tuning" to fix shadow issues, sharpness questions, brightness potentials, cropping, leveling, etc. Lots of different ways to get better pictures and solve little "distractions" that can take away from the images you are seeking to share. And in most cases, it does take that much time to do these "fixes".

 

Keep sharing such excellent examples for how to improve, via the camera and/or post-production, your photo images. OVERALL, just doing more "practice and playing" can be very productive.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 185,623 views.

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

Edited September 13, 2015 by TLCOhio

[UKCruiseJeff]

Thanks Terry, but I fear you are still missing my point about it! :)

 

To you the technical quality and playing and playing with it until it satisfies your highly critical eye is of significant importance to you. Perhaps it is never good enough. It isn't just the subject and the image, it has t be as close technically as you can achieve and you are prepared to spend time and effort doing that. And you will have a camera that you cannot keep with you all the time because you need it's lens. I'm not really that convinced that much of the post piccy work many do provides much incremental quality.

 

i think a camera like this gives you within camera, once you simply learn what it can do, achieves at least 90% of what you can do with all the post piccy adjustment, but arguable often even better and sits in the pocket ready for action gives more if what you want is perfect or at worst almost perfect memories. I think that an SLR can be imprisoning and restricting when traveling and hoping to collect as many precious memories as possible. I think many devout SLR owners do not understand how liberating it is!

 

:)

 

Just my two pennyworth!

 

Jeff

[brimary]

I see Jeremy Corbyn will have Tom Watson as his deputy leader.

 

 

 

The labour Party will be run by Tom and Jerry!!!

 

 

Should be a laugh and very popular then!!

[mysty]

J....your new posted pictures are excellent! I haven't yet strayed too far off the basic point and shoot from Chapter 2 of the excellent resource book. The grip I ordered should be delivered tomorrow and I think I will feel more comfortable holding the camera with that bit added. To clarify for my inexperience with this camera...the first shot in the serires is the Auto HDR and the second of the series is the DRO?

[specialcruisegirl]

Sunset....I will indeed be in that special place and shall raise a glass to you both remembering our interesting conversations....:) you still have your lovely voyage to look forward to....btw...how is furry baby?

 

Terry, you have a good memory! Yes it is Istanbul to Athens...very port intensive with six Greek Islands plus two Turkish resorts, none of which I've visited before.

I have no plans to tour around as to me the ship is the destination and my holidays are for pure rest and relaxation. I will of course probably wander ashore for a couple of hours if my get up and go allows..;)

 

Sophia :)

[UKCruiseJeff]

J....your new posted pictures are excellent! I haven't yet strayed too far off the basic point and shoot from Chapter 2 of the excellent resource book. The grip I ordered should be delivered tomorrow and I think I will feel more comfortable holding the camera with that bit added. To clarify for my inexperience with this camera...the first shot in the serires is the Auto HDR and the second of the series is the DRO?

 

Hi M,

 

They are both taken with Auto HDR. I think it's be helpful if I can explain why so you will know when to use each.

 

They both try and deal with the same problem. That is a picture where there is a lot of bright bits and a lot of dark bits. So detail is lost in both. The best solution will always be Auto HDR in ideal circumstances. This is because it takes three piccies quickly. One at very open exposure one at very closed and one at optimimum. It will extract out of the over exposed pictucture details that are in the dark bits. It will extract out of the under exposed picture detail that was lost in the too bright parts of the image. It will combine those three images to form a perfect image. But that clearly works best in an image that isn't moving too much. It might blur with moving images. I haven't seen the problem yet.

 

If however you are taking faster moving images the AUTO DRO is the best bet. What it does is constrain the camera to a narrow light range ie it trys to tell the camera to be not too dark and not too light. I have over simplified. It will however trechnically provide a slightly less perfect picture althouygh I haven't noticed it.

 

I cannot see why you wouldn't leave the camera in AUTO DRO mode but reset it to AUTO HDR in preferecne if takings stuff that is still. I have programmed this into a function button to make it quick.

 

Does all that make any sense. I have over simplified what it has taken me a few days to try and understand myself.

 

As a bit of further help in your playing with the camera. You don't need to write down all your settings when you are out and about learning what is good and bad.

 

If you plug your camera in to the Sony site so that it knows you are a genuine customer, it will allow you to download the image data converter which is basically more a RAW assistant. However if you use it to look at your jpegs it will tell you what you set for the camera and every single decision and action the camera took. So just mess around with it on all settings, get back to base download the piccies and the use the image converter to look at the pictures you are pleased with and it will tell you what you set it at and all the things the camera did.

 

Does all this help?

 

Jeff

[mysty]

YES!!!! It helps immensely! Thanks once again Professor! I really appreciate all your guidance here! Once it stops raining here (almost time to build the ark) I will wander around the neighbourhood and see what I can come up with. And post! :)

[UKCruiseJeff]

Great, pleased to help!

 

One more thought ... perhaps longer term ...

 

If you happen to use Mozilla Firefox, (my preferred browser on the pc ...) you can download an extension that shows exif information about all piccies that have it. So for example, if you see one of Terry's piccies that you particularly like and want to know what he set it at basically, as your cursor goes over the picture it tells you what camera was used and all the main settings that were used.

 

Happy snapping,

 

Jeff

[mysty]

WOW Jeff! We do use Firefox and that is a brilliant suggestion! I'll talk to my favourite IT guy and see what he can do. :) Thanks again!

[mysty]

J..... My IT dude got an extension called FxIF but it doesn't provide any meta data for the pic unless I copy it to the desktop and open it with Firefox. I think we got the wrong extension. Which one are you using? Sorry to be a bother! :(

[UKCruiseJeff]

J..... My IT dude got an extension called FxIF but it doesn't provide any meta data for the pic unless I copy it to the desktop and open it with Firefox. I think we got the wrong extension. Which one are you using? Sorry to be a bother! :(

 

Good morning.

 

No, "Exify".

 

Good luck!

 

Also very impressed with the wifi capability. There is an uploader app and an imbedded app for Flickr. So you can upload directly from the camera to Flickr as backup.

 

Jeff

[jpalbny]

Hi all - heading home today... :(

 

Blog to follow. I took down some notes from the first half but got too busy and tired to even download pictures the past few nights. Typical whirlwind trip! Lots of fun. Hope to tell you all about it soon.

 

The new car is a rocket. Hit 215 kph on the Autobahn yesterday and it wanted to go faster. Not the best weather so we didn't take it on the Nürburgring - oh well, maybe next time!

[mysty]

Good morning.

 

No, "Exify".

 

Good luck!

 

Also very impressed with the wifi capability. There is an uploader app and an imbedded app for Flickr. So you can upload directly from the camera to Flickr as backup.

 

Jeff

Thanks J! So much to discover! Still raining here. The ark is just missing a few top boards. Hope to finish soon. :(

[mysty]

Hi all - heading home today... :(

 

Blog to follow. I took down some notes from the first half but got too busy and tired to even download pictures the past few nights. Typical whirlwind trip! Lots of fun. Hope to tell you all about it soon.

 

The new car is a rocket. Hit 215 kph on the Autobahn yesterday and it wanted to go faster. Not the best weather so we didn't take it on the Nürburgring - oh well, maybe next time!

Hi JP! Your trip sounds amazing! Looking forward to reading the play by play. Have a safe journey home!

[TLCOhio]

Thanks Terry, but I fear you are still missing my point about it! To you the technical quality and playing and playing with it until it satisfies your highly critical eye is of significant importance to you. Perhaps it is never good enough. It isn't just the subject and the image, it has t be as close technically as you can achieve and you are prepared to spend time and effort doing that. And you will have a camera that you cannot keep with you all the time because you need it's lens. I'm not really that convinced that much of the post piccy work many do provides much incremental quality. i think a camera like this gives you within camera, once you simply learn what it can do, achieves at least 90% of what you can do with all the post piccy adjustment, but arguable often even better and sits in the pocket ready for action gives more if what you want is perfect or at worst almost perfect memories. I think that an SLR can be imprisoning and restricting when traveling and hoping to collect as many precious memories as possible. I think many devout SLR owners do not understand how liberating it is! Just my two pennyworth! Jeff

 

Yes, Jeff, I get "it". As I have noted earlier, the many, many options with digital and how the improvements are coming fast and being so varied has been wonderful. Lots of potentials and ways to achieve what each of likes and with which we work.

 

My photo history goes back a long, long way to the 1960's. This includes my dad having a camera store in the smaller, eastern Ohio town where I grew up. PLUS, working while in high school and college for the local newspaper, doing darkroom work, printing pictures and dodging prints, etc. Lots of photo and graphics experiences!! Love where digital has taken things and the amazing options now available. PLUS, what is to come for the future. Do regular session with Apple to keep up with trends, techniques, etc. The more you learn, the more you realize that your options are almost LIMITLESS! Only so many hours, however, in each day.

 

More later on photography, but needing to get back to several work projects being done this week.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Enjoyed a 14-day, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure, getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for more info and many pictures of these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 119,374 views for this posting.

[TLCOhio]

Hi all - heading home today... :( Blog to follow. I took down some notes from the first half but got too busy and tired to even download pictures the past few nights. Typical whirlwind trip! Lots of fun. Hope to tell you all about it soon. The new car is a rocket. Hit 215 kph on the Autobahn yesterday and it wanted to go faster. Not the best weather so we didn't take it on the Nürburgring - oh well, maybe next time!

 

Appreciate this great update from JP. Look forward to hearing and seeing more. BUT, watch out for the New York State Police!! Don't think you can do 215 kph or 134 mph back here.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio.

 

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 185,731 views.

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

[TLCOhio]

In preparing for our trip last year to Australia, I followed closely some of their political battles and issues down there. The more conservative candidate ended up push out the left-focused Prime Minister in September 2013. BUT, within the past hour, the members of his party dumped the relatively new PM during an internal party "coup". From the BBC, the headline is "Australia PM Tony Abbott unseated by Malcolm Turnbull". Both of these men have degrees from Oxford. Abbott was born in London/UK, to an Australian mother and a British father. They emigrated to Sydney with in 1960.

 

Interesting to follow these aspects of "politics" within political parties.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Enjoyed a 14-day, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure, getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for more info and many pictures of these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 119,374 views for this posting.

[Mark_K]

A little bonus in today's egg purchase ...

[mysty]

"Jonathan Woods, the longest-serving director of Ohio State University's marching band and a music professor who helped lead the group into the computer age, died Saturday, the university confirmed. Woods was 76."

 

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/13639635/jonathan-woods-long-ohio-state-band-director-dies-76

 

A piece of OSU history is gone now. But I think his legacy lives on. This must be a name you recognize Terry. Sorry for the loss!

[mysty]

A little bonus in today's egg purchase ...

 

 

Is that a goose egg Mark? :)

[Mark_K]

Is that a goose egg Mark? :)

 

 

:) No, Chicken. The woman I get them from has one hen that doesn't lay as many eggs, but when she does they're usually really big and double yolked.

[mysty]

Bonus indeed then Mark! Enjoy!