Since I got the camera I've been fascinated by the concept of off camera flashes and using multiple lights to create effects.

There are a few good examples of this done well out there, try flickr or The Strobist as places to start.

One problem I did have was what kit (yes, more kit) would be needed to do it. In my reading I was constantly confused by terms like "pc to hotshoe" and "pocket wizard" and I've been reluctant to put a huge amount of time or money into something which, as an outsider, looked complicated.

However, never one to shy away from having a play I found a set of triggers (essentially wireless hot shoe mounts for the camera and the flash) on ebay for about £30. I had read that this sort of solution was definitely the budget option, but I figured what the heck.

For £30 you get a wireless transmitter and a wireless receiver. Each of these have a hot shoe attachment and slot onto your camera and flash respectively. One thing to note is your flash should really have manual controls on it.

What I discovered however was that when I plugged them onto my flash I had problems. Big problems...

The kit I bought consisted of an RF-04 transmitter and a PT-04 receiver. When connected to my 430EX flash all was ok until I fired the thing. The flash would then continuously fire as it recharged.

It took until today before I found the answer was as simple as setting the transmission signal to '1N'. If you look at the transmitter and the receiver, there are two little switches labelled - O-1 and N-2, just set these and the problem went away.

So, if you're using a 430EX and PT-04 receiver, hopefully this will solve your problem.

Edit: Forgot to say, as well as the 1N setting, the flash gun will need to be in MANUAL mode or it will just cycle and fire continuously.

Firstly, thanks to everyone who sent entries in. I appreciate it was neither a pure photography competition or a great picture to build upon. That said, it was a bit of fun and I hope you had a laugh doing it.

Given how frequently cropping was used within the entries, I'm guessing nobody liked my original composition!

In order to make it impartial, I asked Dermot to judge the entries and provided them to him in an anonymous flickr page.

You can find a gallery of entries here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27345143@N05/sets/72157606014987089/


About the winner, Dermot said:

"A nice clever crop, good composition, a little bit of brightness tweaking to bring out the colours and give definition to the clouds, we don’t need to see the whole digger to know that it’s a digger…"


So, without further ado and with much ripping of virtual envelopes, the winner of the 2008 Learningtosnap challenge is.....




Andrew!


Thanks to all that entered and to Dermot for judging the entries.

I wanted to retake the image of Moira Station using a wider lens to see if I could improve on my first attempt at it. Without the constraints imposed on me at the time, I hoped I could make something more of the lines and the skies.

Well, Friday provided me with that opportunity (as well as the chance to revisit the tunnel), so I gave it a go.

(f/14, 1/25sec, 10mm, ISO-100, 04/07/2008, polariser used)

As well as some curves adjustments, I made a slight crop to remove my shadow.

 

I'm still not sure I like this more than the original.

OK, whilst I look at the entries for that competition and deliberate and conjugate and all those things the bloke on Master Chef did I thought I'd show you this.

I took it today, more to prove to myself that it was impossible to use the close up filters with the 50mm lens on a tripod.

Well, you know what.

Turns out you can.

(f/10, 30sec, 50mm +10 filter, ISO-100, 02/07/08)

 

This is part of the back of one of those pin pressions toys (just in case you're interested).

Folks, a final reminder that if you want to enter the challenge/competition thing I set up a few weeks back, then I need your entries by the end of tomorrow!

You can find all the details here!

 

Send them to me at paul(at)learningtosnap.com

I'm really going to have to pull my pennies together to get that Macro lens I mentioned. I can already see just how addictive taking that sort of picture could be.


(no exif information for you right now...)

One thing to note in this picture is that rather than make some tweaks in Lightroom myself to fix up contrast etc, I made use of a preset. Lightroom provides a number of "out of the box" presets which, while interesting, can be quite limited. However, there are a large number of presets available on the web (both charged for and free). these can have quite an effect on your image.

I'm not sure that using a preset isn't some form of cardinal sin - after all every image should be treated as a new challenge and one size probably shouldn't fit all. However, as a starting point (or if you like the effect), they can be really useful and give some impressive results.

One of the best preset selections I played with so far were referenced on ReallyJapans blog (kudos to him for sharing the find). You can find them here from the original author Kim Long (thanks to her for sharing them so generously).

...but increasingly they seem to be overstepping your rights.

A few months ago I posted a short thing on photographers rights, you can read it here.

Well, if you're interested, theres a new article about the same subject on The Register today. There's also an interesting video on the Lighting Mods blog about it too.

Well worth checking out, even if you're not a photographer.

Andrew pointed out a few flaws in yesterdays clips picture (I prefer to think of them as features), specifically that the focal clip was a little out of focus on the edge and there was some sort of smudge on it which was distracting.

Well, since he was right (but don't tell him I said it), here's some more clips.

(f/9, 1/60sec, 50mm, ISO-400, +10 filter used, 22/06/08)

 

As a point of note, I left the white balance much closer to the auto default setting this time, it gives the clips a nice bronze feel.

This is the reason why I want a macro lens.

(f/9, 1/20sec, 50mm, ISO-400, 22/06/08)

I follow a number of different photoblogs and one thing amazes me in all of them is colour. I've no idea whether they're using post processing techniques to tweak curves and saturation or whether they're using filters on the camera, but whatever they do it always looks amazing.

A couple of great examples of this are Oswegan and ReallyJapan blogs. Whether its abstract stuff or cityscapes, these guys seem to always make the photo stand out.

Given the amount I've spent on camera gear in the last year, I'm not really in a position to buy a lot of filters, so I think my summers work will be learning how to make small tweaks in Lightroom/Photoshop/GIMP to improve the colours in the picture.

That's right, as well as having to live with my blurred and poorly composed shots, you'll now need to bear with me while I mess up the colour balance and intensity as well.

 

Seemed appropriate to look to higher powers for inspiration.

(f/7.1, 1/30sec, 55mm, ISO-200, 20/06/2008)

 

What I wanted was to make the sign feel vibrant against the leaves and tree. To make it draw your eye in whilst still being legible. What I ended up with, well the dirt on the sign looks like noise and the blue looks a little too electric, but I do quite like it.