Bought myself a first generation Lytro camera of Amazon a couple of days ago.... basically liked the idea, but not the price, for a while now......
Logic in buying was that the price has been slashes to a pittance of its former loftiness and I was hooked...
Very strange, long, little square box with the lens at one end and a tiny, dodgy, screen at the other...
May post specs/photos later but its easy enough to find these on line and, for the mo, this is just post is just to keep track of the learning curve of blurred and "what the F*** is that" photo's I'm taking whilst learning.
First day's were all pretty much useless as just snapping away to sort how you actually frame these "living" photos.... You do have to rethink things somewhat.... a sound knowledge of photography helps up to a point and then you start thinking in 3D and stuff just starts to work..
2nd day photo of the little fox bronze in the courtyard off the high street in Stowmarket seem the best to date... if you have not seen one of these before... just click on the snowman's belly to refocus on him.... drag your cursor around to move.. or just press play... Have fun.
Well that was fun getting the photo on here.... future ref... ignore the info on the Lytro page and just switch to HTML and enter embodied code.. switch back to Compose and its there.... (Useful info for other "Lytro" Blogger users - make sure you have a couple of text lines below the embodied code link or you cant enter any as the player just keeps kicking in when you hit enter to start new text line.. had to go back into HTML to add an extra text line below and then the Compose page worked as normal)
Well its been a few days now.. but the weather here is just.... wet...so not to many pictures.. still getting to grips with the composition and separation of subjects..
Danger... Mechanic's at Work...
Badger Motorcycles.... Doug (in front) is a very talented motorcycle builder... might be a small, out of the way, workshop but every now and then, amongst the bread and butter servicing etc, out rolls a work of art...
Kevin, looking on, has an idea or three on how to.... lets say "improve" his motorcycle... Will see if he lets me take a few shots of the finished bike...
The picture is starting to look right... several things going on, nice separation between subjects and plenty on things to click on... Minimal or cluttered shots do seem to work better than "middle of the road" ones
Might need to try a mono/tripod as leaning my hands are non to steady these days and the shot is not as sharp as I would like....
My little Sage Statue...
Nice sharp photo for a "just hold my hand near the ground and see what I get" shot
The Led light in front was better shown in another shot but this was the sharper shot.. Not a lot of depth but it does work well when you click on the trellis... so learning that contrasting textures and colour have an effect.
Realising that these cameras need good light for the best results so may well invest in an Led ring light... Might as well start with a cheap Chinese job of flea bay...
Have seen some very cheap little, square, Go Pro led/usb lights, not very bright but might just be enough in a macro situation...
20/12/2015.. Playing with the Photo Editor
Realising that there is a lot more to Lytro pictures than just point - shoot - publish...... The editor built into the desktop app is a vital part of the process.... The odd little, or sometimes major, changes can really enhance the photo...
The edit options seem simple but have such a vast effect on the picture that it can quickly become a mess.... but the "restore to defaults" button at the bottom means that nothing is ever unrecoverable so try everything form max to min.... see what happens.... and restore if it does not work....
For me the first option that simply just worked was "Tilt" and "Rotation". Tilt alters the front to rear
aspect and rotation alters the angle of the depth of field aspect.... example..
Using just the "tilt" option so the depth of field worked from front to back did not rally do anything for this shot but adding "rotation" so it worked from the bottom left corner of the shot to the top right hand corner and the whole thing really starts to come together....
Having the two blue items in focus along the, drawn to, eye line of the paving slab edge just. simply, looks better....
Don't worry about messing things up.... as maxing out the "temperature" setting. just to see what happened.... I ended up with this..
Now this might not be the best shot in the world but, for me, it just kinda works "as is"... Even though the original sky colour was a crisp clear blue...
Using "tilt" on this shot just did not work.. the post in the foreground just went really weird, almost hourglass, looking....
No post in this one... just for colour comparison...
Using The "crop" effect can usually enhance any photo, and it is no different with the Lytro
The original had, pretty much, the whole cross as a foreground.... but cropping down to highlight the discolouration/patina made it pop...
I know these are not the best shots in the world... but snapping away at anything that looks like it might work is the way to go with the Lytro... as you learn more by taking an everyday photo and making it a great one than you do by just trying for that perfect shot.. They will happen.... some because of your "eye" and some that seem nothing when you take them..... but make you go "wow" later....
And finally... for now.... What is level...
There was a car parked in front of the gate and I had to look into the Lytro's tiny screen at an angle... so I was not as square on as I thought....
But the more I look at it, with the intention of going back and taking a better shot, the more it works as the pathway trees are, pretty well, vertical...
Used tilt on this shot as, even thought the "gates" are in the same plain, it brought out.... emphasised the dates, and the sentiment, better.
One of my better photo's, to date, that show of the Lytro's capabilities....
23/12/2015 Out in the Sunshine
The main drawback, I find, of the first gen Lytro is the fixed 1/250 speed. I know there is a lot of latitude within the shot but on cloudy days, or shooting indoors, getting a nice bright colourful shot is far from easy.....
So with the sun shining bright in the sky today I went out to the Cafe at Onehouse, Suffolk.
Bad timing as it had just closed when I arrived.... much to the amusement of the owners... who are in fact, my neighbours....
Still quite like this shot..
Using "rotation" helped to shift depth of field axis so it runs from the top left corner to the bottom right.... It really separated the blue swing seat, making it the focal point, and was well pleased that you could still read the "lakeside" sign when refocused...
As for the lake itself.... its a small but very picturesque fishing lake.... So a shot just had to be taken...
Just set this to F16 as it looks good just as is.... but it does prove the point that.... if the lights right, so is the Lytro.... as the shot is only spoilt by my, slight, camera shake.... must get a tripod or graph on some steadier hands...
Well that's my shots to date... Hope you are having fun taking yours....
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