Where to take my camera

[Special Ed]

What kind did you get?

My last camera lasted 6 years, wasn't the best optically, but it took a beating and kept on clickin'. It was the Pentax Optio W10, and the only reason I don't have it anymore is because I dropped it wading below the crap plant, and didn't notice. Went back to look a couple times to no avail.

She went with the same brand, but newer model, the Optio W80, and so far I like it a lot. I haven't had a chance to fully put it through it's paces just yet, but it's the best waterproof point and shoot I've used to date. Can't beat the $120 price tag either!

Where you thinking of going Thursday. I know spots just about everywhere if you're just guessing.

I was just going to pick a spot and hop in. I still haven't had the chance to walk below the old North Ave. area since they pulled the dam. I know around the bridge always held smallies and hobos. Further down is new territory for me. I figure 70 degree water and an 80 degree day is perfect for me to do some exploring. If I get wet, I'll just air dry on the way home.


Back to the photo thing...... I know I asked before about what you do in photoshop to clean-up your pictures, but I don't remember getting back a "real" answer. If it's too much to type no worries, but if you know of any online tutorials or tips, shoot me a link. I'm the proud owner of a legit copy of Creative Suite 5 and I'd like to get a running start with it.

[Ken G]

You obviously need clear water. The Fox may be a waste of time now with it's clarity. Maybe a creek, but it will still take a few days. Waubonsie maybe.

All around North Ave bridges would be good. I hear if you stand out in front of the island where the dam used to be and fish toward the island it could be good. Don't wade the east side. It really sucks. Did it years ago and I'll never try it again. Worth fishing around the railroad tracks on the east, but wading sucks.

Was at the west side a few weeks ago. Things have changed since Nicor drained and worked on that whole side. I think that was a couple of years ago. By the tracks again you can walk on the pylons, but never waded through it. Waded from the tracks pretty far down in the past. That was pretty good. I'm not sure I would attempt any of it till the water is below 1000. I have a feeling you'll be tripping over a handful of generators and pumps from the Nicor work.

Why do you need CS5? I'm still on CS3 and I use it to make a living.
In Photoshop it takes some playing around to get used to things. But basically you want to go to the Image menu, then Adjustments and play around with Levels, Curves and Shadows/Hightlights. Just play around with the settings till you start seeing what you want. Don't go too overboard, you want things to look enhanced not like something out of a bad hippy movie from the 60's. Then there's all the filters.

I hear CS5 has some cool automated features that makes things easier than what I have, but I've only seen them on the Adobe site.

My daughter showed me a web site called Picnik that does one click features of what I do in Photoshop with some screwing around. It may help you learn a few things since some of the wording in how things are done are the same. Plus you might get used to how you want thing to look.

Lots of playing around. I first used Photoshop in 1990 and use it often for work and play and to this day I have no clue how to use a lot of its features.

[Special Ed]

I build computers as a hobby and a side business. I got an offer from a relative who is a software guru for a free CS5 and license. So I built a rig just for it. Hi $$ Quadro video card, 3.2G quad-core, 8G ram, a few TB hdd space, lots hdmi, usb, firewire ports, etc....

It's at work and nestled neatly next to a big ole Samsung display that didn't work for the guys that do computer modeling on the IBM Blue Gene (Argonne Blue Gene/P network supercomputer).

Anyway, I'll be doing most of my video editing and photo editing on it with CS5.



I'm either going to start there or start below North Aurora. I hate that area though..... too many people = too much trash.

I almost wish I knew Darth's area better, he always seemed to have great summer reports.

[Ken G]

It's an expensive piece of software, so you got a deal. I hear you can build PCs for about $50.

Never bothered with movies. Too short of an attention span. Usually 20 seconds into them I'm looking to click out of them.

The plan was to get it, but all the money had to be put into practical use when I got laid off. Piss poor timing.

You'll like Photoshop when you start to get it figured out. CS usually comes with video tutorials, they might have something in there that will help. They're kind of basic, but if you know nothing, it's a start.

[Rob P]

I'm on my second pentax Optio!

first one lasted about 3 years when it was opened up underwater.

I bought it for the beach and ocean surf.
Takes great shots fishing or in the water and completely water proof.

rinse off let air dry and its good to go.

Bad part is its almost too dummy proof.
Its too hard to make fine aperature shots and the fast shutter is not fast enough..

For night time or specialty shots I use a much older digital pentax where i can adjust all the setting manually within seconds.

gotta post my collection of lightening pics sometime.

[Special Ed]

Those were my thoughts exactly, the W80 has 15 or so different "modes" , but what the shutter speeds and balances are for those modes, we will never know. Dummy proof is the perfect way to describe it.

I will say that the underwater video and pictures are pretty damn good, if the water is clear. Tough as nails too, but once that lens is scratched..... pfft, no protection for that thing, it's just "out there".

Oh, and I do know that the macros are REALLY good too.... well, for a point and shoot....


I might post a few pictures just for reference. It will take me some time to figure this camera out, so having a baseline may be helpful.

Panoramic shots would be cool, especially at the lakefront:



It's tough to focus past the fence:



With and without flash indoors:






Outdoors bright sunlight:



Grainy outdoors low light conditions:

[Ken G]

The one thing I don't like about the Canon D10 is that the lens is always out there too. It's macro feature is excellent though down to 2 or 3 inches. I played with the movie feature once or twice, but it seems that once you have it running you can't zoom in or out.

Forgot to mention the panorama feature in Photoshop. In CS3 go to File/Automate/Photomerge.

Stand in one place and take 3 picutures left to rignt. Try to keep a consistent horizon line. Then use the Photomerge feature. If you do it right you can barely make out the seams.



One of these days I'll have to read about how to use it instead of just pressing buttons and guessing. If I can find the box.

[Special Ed]

Nice.


The day I got the camera I took a few pictures of a pt of petunias my wife has on the front porch. Turned out nice, I should have saved them. Then I took it inside and explored the "1 cm macro" function. I took pictures of lemon rind, avacado skin, and my dirty fingernail from about 1cm away. The detail was amazing. Reminded me of the first time I saw a blue-ray movie in HD.

I'm looking forward to getting some cool fish eye shots. I have always been intrigued by the eyes of fish.