[Chris H]

I like things that fly LOL



http://www.chris-hamlet.co.uk/pictures/chopper3.jpg

http://www.chris-hamlet.co.uk/pictures/dragonfly.jpg

The dragonfly is grainy but was shot from about 14 feet away with my Tamron 18-250 as was the local chopper coppers

[Charlotte]

Nice chopper (I'm not a particular fan of choppers tho' )

Super dragonfly The grain doesn't bug me + I think it adds a nice gentle texture to the BG + doesn't detract at all. Very well done.

Welcome aboard C-Man

[Rob Barron]

Welcome to Pixalo Chris and well done on showing some pictures so quickly. It's great to see you getting into the swing of things on this forum, one I joined 16 months ago and am totally addicted to!

Good shots here of the choppers and the dragonfly. The 2nd chopper is intriguing as it looks like a militart helicopter that has just fired a passenger plane out of its missile launcher! Definitely makes for an intriguing and actually quite humourous shot.

The dragonfly shows plenty of detail and sharpness. I do find the grainy BG slightly weakens it but by no means enough to worry about and it tends to look worse on a computer screen than it does when printed. Lovely capture.

Perhaps you could fill in your Equipment Used section on your profile (you can get to that by clicking on UserCP on the light blue menu bar just below the top of this page) as I'd be interested to know what camera you used and any lenses if it wasn't a prosumer.

Good to see you here and looking forward to seeing more.
Cheers,
Rob

[Les Meehan]

Chris!

I like the light on the wings of the dragonfly and the BG is fine for me. I personally would tone down the lump of wood(?) the dragonfly in standing on. It is so bright it detracts from the main subject. I think if it could be darkened significantly the dragonfly would stand out much more.

The choppers (can't believe Charlotte doesn't like choppers!! ) are fine and the one with the jet in the BG is an amusing juxtaposition (did you see that or is it an 'error').

[jusu]

The choppers has a very nice feel of move, great shots

[Chris H]

Les it was pure chance.

One of those things you never notice until you do a first process. The chopper was flying over my house chasing a bank robber.
There are playing fields and apparently the local PC plod had chased them in and they where trapped.

I quickly got my 350D with Tamrom 18-250 and ran out and started to click away.

There are more to look at here

Choppers

The most amazing thing was that I actually for a change had a fully charged battery and a CF card in the camera, I'm a devil for forgetting one or the other

[Charlotte]

Originally Posted by Les Meehan

... can't believe Charlotte doesn't like choppers!! ...

I said I'm not particularly fussed about choppers, not that I don't like them A girl thing maybe

But just to show willing I went to look at your other chopper shots C-Man ... had a good giggle at the 'plane which apparently flew straight through the chopper You might consider tippexing it out if a giggle's not what you're after here, but I do like the shot + think you should leave it as is - humorous shots are generally few + far between

Before you comment Les ... tippex, clone, same thing

[Les Meehan]

Oh such an innocent dear sweet Charlotte!! It's a man thing!

[silkstone]

I'm not wanting to hijack...

.... but there's an interesting phenomenon in one of Chris's shots - the first in his link - the chopper blades appear to be curved. Why?

This cropped up somewhere else a while ago, and I did some research with a piece of cardboard and a lathe to find the answer. Any guesses?

Clue: It only happens with (D)SLRs.

[Les Meehan]

Originally Posted by silkstone

I'm not wanting to hijack...

.... but there's an interesting phenomenon in one of Chris's shots - the first in his link - the chopper blades appear to be curved. Why?

This cropped up somewhere else a while ago, and I did some research with a piece of cardboard and a lathe to find the answer. Any guesses?

Clue: It only happens with (D)SLRs.

This kind of thing is usually to do with the focal plane shutter. Since the blades move across the image plane, one following the other, as a narrow slit pats of the image are recorded before other parts and so it something is moving fast enough it will be in a different place at any single time during the movement of the shutter blades causing distortion.
There is a very famous picture by J. Henri Lartique of a racing car (» Focal Plane Shutter Distortion) showing this effect on the wheels taken with a camera using a very early 'moving blind' type shutter.

Is this is or is it something else you have found?

[Charlotte]

Given your clue, I started to wonder if it was something to do with how sensor's might record movement differently than film.

Then I noticed that, on careful examination of the chopper images, it is in fact only one of the blades which appears to be markedly curved. Hence I deduce that it's to do with motion blur, more particularly the direction + viewpoint of each blade, i.e. the blade which seems to be most affected (curved) is the one which is most parallel to our viewpoint + it's closest to us + it's direction of movement is directly across our vision, so that the blur has changed the apparent shape of the blade, which is accentuated by the change of colour along the blade, i.e. the band of yellow against the band of dark colour, which appears to give an angular effect in the shape of the blade.

My version doesn't seem to relate only to DSLR's, and I could be way off the mark, but this is my guess anyway

[silkstone]

Les wins the prize - except I don't have one.

It's because of the shutter on an SLR, which takes the form of a slit moving across the film or sensor. The reason that only some of the blades are curved is that a blade parallel to the slit is all captured at the same time and so appears straight. A blade at right angles to the slit is captured progressively as the slit moves across.

Somewhere I have a photo of a circular piece of card with diametric lines drawn on, which I whizzed around in the lathe and photographed. I can't find it right now - must be archived - but it shows the effect very well. Honest!

[Les Meehan]

Originally Posted by silkstone

Les wins the prize - except I don't have one.

Could have sworn you mentioned the winner would get a new Canon 1D Mk III with three top lenses? Have you edited your original post?!

Crew, is that allowed??

[Les Meehan]

This image also illustrates that the shutter of the 350D has a horizontal gap. How do you know?

[Chris H]

Errrrrrrr

Maybe coz the horizontal blade is straight and the vertical one looks a bit sort of bendy

It's a bit like holding a pencil between two fingers and wagling it, the pencil looks curved even though you know it's straight

[Les Meehan]

Bingo! Ya'got it! If the shutter had been a vertical slot type (horizontal travel) the distortion of the blades would have been on the horizontal one.

[silkstone]

Found it!

[Charlotte]

I don't like choppers anymore now

[PBugJulie]

However C-Man,
You do have a "wing" thing going on!
Chopper and Dragonfly.
Bravo.
Best,
PBugJulie

[Rob Barron]

Originally Posted by Charlotte

I don't like choppers anymore now

Don't tell me Charlotte, you've moved up to a BMX?

[Chris H]

What you trying to say " I've got a flying thingy fixation LOL


Click below


Another winged thingy

[Charlotte]

Nice winged-thingy shot Just a pity the focus locked onto the bird feeder instead of the bird, and the rope is a bit distracting. Nicely blurred BG.

Originally Posted by Rob Barron

Don't tell me Charlotte, you've moved up to a BMX?

How did you know

[Sonsey]

Originally Posted by silkstone

Les wins the prize - except I don't have one.

Originally Posted by Les Meehan

Could have sworn you mentioned the winner would get a new Canon 1D Mk III with three top lenses? Have you edited your original post?!

Crew, is that allowed??

The Pixalo Crew reserve the right not to fall for obvious attempts by members to try and extort expensive prizes from us that were not even offered in the first place.

[Les Meehan]

Originally Posted by Sonsey

The Pixalo Crew reserve the right not to fall for obvious attempts by members to try and extort expensive prizes from us that were not even offered in the first place.

Bum!