another Irfanview example

Once again... "improved" with Irfanview... FREE program... ask me for details and my free tutorial !..

Reduced Gamma to 90
increased contrast to 6
then cropped.
then saved.

Using Irfanview, to "improve" a pic

Two clicks and the difference is quite remarkable...

1st, move the "Gamma" slider to .60

2nd move the "contrast" slider to 6

click OK

then save....... job done.!.

I will delete this posting as soon as you say you have seen it....

In Car Entertainment

This is my new "toy"... MP4 player, with camera, digi movi cam, FM radio, webcam, games, and loads of other stuff !... I bought it from "BT Shop"... especially to play my Helene Fischer videos!... (I do have others on there too! !)..when I am waiting for " `er indoors " to come out of the supermarket with a trolley load  !..

I do not drive the car, with this setup!... it is all tucked away, out of sight, when driving...

The speakers were bought seperately, and are powered by a small battery pack (4 x AAA)

The sound quality is really very good, as good as my external computer speakers, and as good as my "proper" earphones...  Certainly makes a change from the boring stuff on Radio 4..... !

The Watercress Line .... or Mid Hants Preserved Railway.

Watercress Line..... or Mid Hants Railway.....

http://www.watercressline.co.uk/Home

http://www.watercressline.co.uk/Events


Either way, it is a super little preserved line, that runs from Alresford to Alton in Hampshire, southern England.....The line is known to the engine drivers and fireman as "over the alps", because it has some very steep gradients in the climb, therefore it needs BIG engines to haul the rake of coaches .... There are several BIG steam loco`s at the shed, and they usually take it in turn to steam on the weekends.... This last weekend saw the introduction to the fleet of an engine that has been re-built and refurbished, since it last steamed over 45 years ago.... the engine is a Stanier Black Five... general purpose loco, number 45379. Also on duty this weekend, was a Serbian built 0-6-0 tank engine, that had been bought and repainted in BR colours / logo , 30075, doing a shuttle service between Ropley, and Alresford, with an observation car in tow, while the "big boys" got on with providing passenger and goods services every half hour.... The other big boys on duty were 34007 Bullied Pacific "Wadebridge" ....  Number 88 on a visit from the Somerset and Dorset joint railway... .... 73096  BR standard Class 5 loco, and 92212 a Class 9F loco.....

There was so much going on, with engines being changed over, and the different services provided, that it was, without doubt, a very successful weekend for the staff..... Re-creating the whole atmosphere of how it used to be when I was a boy ..... way back in the 1950`s.....

Exakta RTL 1000 35 mm film camera

 CLICK ON THE PICS TO ENLARGE THEM.......


The lens on the camera has this info around it....

ORESTON 1.8/50 MEYER-OPTIK GORLITZ 534617  f1.8 to f16 and 12" to 30` or .33 to 10 mtrs (infinity)

The small lens on the bottom right has this info around it

SOLIGOR 1:2.8    f =28mm        f2.8 to f16
No 17102225          0.45 to 10 mtrs   (infinity)
Made In Japan          2` to 30`

The tall lens on the left has this info around it

SOLIGOR 1:4.5  f = 200mm     f4.5 to f22
No1680190         3 mtr to 50 mtrs (infinity)
Made In Japan     10` to 200`   (infinity)

There is an original Handbook and an extra handbook for the Penta Prism that is attached to the top of the camera. Also there is a "Johnson`s photography handbook"  and a Exakta History (hardback) (the one at the bottom)  a spare prism lens (I think) and a flash connector for the hot shoe.
The camera, case, and strap, are in very good condition, being made of leather, All the glass in the lenses looks like new, no scratches or dust.... and they all fix on the camera with simplicity and ease... they all focus well, and the shutter system works without a fault.

Portsmouth International Kite Festival 2010

Once again, the Portsmouth International Kite Festival was held on Southsea Common, this August Bank Holiday.   There was a pretty stiff breeze blowing, I would say about force 4, which gave plenty of lift for the larger exhibition kites.  The weather was dry, but the cloud base was very low, and at times, threatened to drench the show... but it never materialised, (at least not while I was there!)... in fact, from time to time there was a nice blue sky, as you can see from the pics.

A new set of pics using EZ and a 1.4 teleconverter

To see a larger version , click on each pic.....

Firstly , the location... The pink flower is about 10 feet (3 mtrs) from the camera. and the object behind it is about 3 feet (1 mtr)...

There is no "scientific" or "technical" expertise involved in taking these pics.... just a random thought that came into my head....

The first two pics are taken with the Sigma 1.4 X teleconverter lens screwed onto my FZ28 movable zoom lens. The camera has had the MPX count reduced from 10  to 7 mpx. to give the EZ (Extra Zoom) feature, this makes the 18X zoom into 21.4 X BEFORE bringing into account the Digital Zoom..... NO digital Zoom is used in these shots. So, with the Zoom set at 21.4 X and the 1.4 Teleconverter lens added, this brings the Optical Zoom up to almost 30 X...(29.96 ).... ALL the pics are taken "hand held" standing up....

The third pic has the camera mpx reduced to 3mpx.... giving MORE EZ...!... Zooming out to the "normal" 18X zoom position (before you go into digital zoom) and adding on the EZ, brings the ZOOOOM out to 32.1 X optical zoom.... (NO teleconverter used on this shot)...

The Fourth pic is a crop of the third one.... Cropped by about half the total of the orginal pic, to illustrate that having 3mpx as the EZ setting does not necessarily mean a huge degradation in picture quality  when cropped.... (It does show some serious degradation if cropped really close, i.e. to show the hover fly at the left of the flower head)...

The next two pics are a repeat of the previous two, as a double check on picture quality....

The last four are similar operations, except that I have added the 1.4 X Teleconverter lens to the camera, now giving a fantastic 45 X optical ZOOOOOM  (32.1 x 1.4 = 44.94 X optical zoom)

Check out the two "crop pics" to see the quality of the pics.... (don`t forget to click on the pics to see a larger version.)

Good enough for viewing on a computer screen, at 3mpx, maybe a little rough if printed out above the normal "postcard size".... but hey!.... Photography is supposed to be fun ! ! ! ..

Auto Adjusting pics with Irfanview

see a larger version of each pic, just click on it.....

Just a few experiments to show what difference "Auto Adjust" can make to a pic, using one or two clicks only..... with IRFANVIEW.... a quick and simple program for editing your pics.... You can do quite a lot of stuff with it.... including straightening the verticals or horizontals, cropping, inserting text, colour changing (RGB- GRB, and other combo`s) vertical flip, horizontal flip, (mirror image effect), and of course you can adjust the colour balance, either by manually adjusting the R G B sliders along with the Brightness, Gamma, Contrast, and Saturation.... You can add raindrops if you want, turn the pic into a negative, and B&W, or even make it look "old fashioned" by making it a Sepia colour... The program is FREE to download, and FREE to use.... Download the main Irfanview program from here,

http://www.irfanview.com/

and install it,..... then download the "plugins" part, and install that.... it should automatically go into the original Irfanview setup program, so you don`t have to mess about with it... and within 10 minutes of your first download starting, you have it up and running !...

In a "low light" situation, (such as a sunset) you may want to include the "foreground" in the pic, so this is where the AUTO ADJUST comes into use.... as you can see, the first pic is very dark, almost black, in the foreground, yet with one click on the auto adjust, you can make out the line of the roadway, and the houses...

The same situation with the spider`s web.... 

You can see how the Sepia effect works, and this too can be "improved" with the use of the AUTO ADJUST

Yes, it IS Optical ZOOOOOM. 36X on the FZ28

One of my contacts on flickr, was asking about my Sigma Telephoto lens (1.4X) and during my reply I suggest that they get the TCON 1.7, and the adapter tube, as my Sigma is not available any more, (half a days searching on google).... I suggested that by reducing the MPX count from 10 to 7 would give a big improvement on the Optical zooom.... ! then I thought about going down to 5mpx. and here is some remarkable results...
The pics have text installed on them to show what zoom was used. I must say, the quality of the last pic with the 36 X zooooooom is quite impressive....

click on the pic to view larger.... and then click on the pic again for even bigger versions

Bear in mind this is a 1.4 X telephoto lens, that screws directly onto my FZ28 lens, NO adapter tube is used... The TCON 1.7 will give a bigger zooooooom capability.