Ivan's Bri3fcas3

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Point-and-shoot

My wife went to oversea for business trip and took our DSLR (Nikon D40) camera along. So, I end up with my trusty Canon IXUS 55 point-and-shoot for my UK business trip. After couple for sight-seeing trip using the camera, there are some different expectation when using a DSLR and a point-and-shot.

First thing I have noticed is the metering. My Canon easily went to overexpose or underexpose when shooting high contract picture. Example in castle ruin. This is has caused me to reposition my camera focus point (manual focus) couple of time in order to get the correct exposure. If the picture gets too bright, I focus the camera to brighter area/color (so, the camera will think the subject is too bright and lower the picture brightness) and vice versa (if picture too dark, try focus on darker area). The metering I was using is evaluative and it failed almost 30% of the shot I have taken. Another way to adjust the exposure is the adjusting the exposure compensation, this mean you have to fiddle the menu. Please note that using the menu adjusting the exposure might leave you forgetting to reset it back and that will spell disaster for the rest of the shot.

Second thing I have noticed is when processing the those pictures. By the way, I only use Picasa3 to enhance my photo as the software is free and easy to use. When zooming the picture to 100%, part of my picture detail is blurry or lost. This is somehow caused by the color or the weather where there was not enough light (I'm not sure how much light the camera needed) and leaves me a bit depress. I have a habit checking detail on a painting/picture hanging on the wall. Therefore when I found details have lost in my picture, I have a tendency to rush out and get a DSLR instead.

However, to save some hard-earned money on camera tool, that I have no intention become a professional photographer. Here are some of the point that point-and-shoot is best for.

First, easy carry. (Enough said)

Second, my point-and-shoot will become a junk once I bought another DSLR. So, no point spending money on creating junk.

Well, 2 good points vs 2 bad points, which is equal and that leaves me back to where I am now (waiting unexpected accident happen on my point-and-shoot).

PS: Now you can create depth of field using Photoshop. It seems that there's nothing Photoshop can't do except snapping the photo in the first place.

Reference
How to Get Bokeh With a Point-and-Shoot.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Edinburgh

For the past 2 months, it has been busy for me. There a lot of issue in my work that I've spend most of the time updating my technical blog. Until now, I'm back to Malaysia and finally got a bit of time to update my personal blog.

I went to Edinburgh with my colleague on Boxing day (Day after Christmas) and it took almost 4 hours drive to get there from Harrogate. The first day we went around town just to check out the castle (which is not open), walk around the Royal Mile and some shopping area. The next day, we went into the castle and to the Holyrood park. On our way back to Harrogate, we stopped by Dirleton Castle before hitting the road again.

The whole trip seems rather short because the night fall around 3 pm and the temperature was cold. But one thing for sure, there are many castle around Edinburgh. If you like history and castle a lot, Edinburgh is one place that you shouldn't be missed. Furthermore, they offer the explorer pass that you can visit as many castle you want, which is value for money.

In short, Edinburgh is very nice place for travel but I think I only covered a small area. There are museum, exhibition, cultural and history tour that I didn't manage to get into. Not to mention, castles that may take weeks to discovery all of them.