It took me 4 years to get this shot...

Thank you! Well, my tip mostly applies to low-light landscapes and other scenes. With a small camera like the G3, you already have a lot of built-in depth of field (because of the small sensor area), enough so that everything farther than 4 feet or so is going to be in focus if you use an f-stop like f4 (which I recommend you do for all your shots).

If you set the focus manually at infinity, you won't have to worry about the camera "hunting" for focus in the low light, either.

Great work Scott !

Scott -

I really love seeing your work. Keep it coming.
Thanks for always sharing information about your technique.

It is a real education seeing your work and reading your posts.

- Dave

What an excellent work! I love the color of the sky. Thanks for the tip on manual focus. I've been using it and it works great. Scott, would you mind sharing with us how to resize photos for web posting? Any techniques to avoid quality distortions?

Sue

Thanks, Dave! I'll keep using my G3 until they pry it from my cold, dead hands (or until the next model comes out!).

Thank you, Sue! I'm glad the manual focus technique is working for you, because it sure works for me! My resizing technique is:

- After all retouching, color correction, etc. is done (but before sharpening), I save my file as a "PSD" (full-size, PhotoShop format that serves as a Master copy of my photo in case I need it later).
- Then I resize the photo so that its about 650 pixels across (or 450 pixels up & down if its a vertical format). Most people use 800x600 screen resolution on their monitors, so this will fill up their screen nicely without being too big (especially if you add a border - see below). You NEVER want a photo so big that people have to scroll to see it.
- Now I sharpen (USM) in Corel PhotoPaint. I find PhotoPaint better for this than PhotoShop (but that's a topic for another post).
- If I'm going to add a border or drop shadow, I'll do it now (using a script or "action").
- Finally, I save the file as a JPG. I use enough compression so that the final file is around 150-160kb. Since I'm on dial-up myself, I'm mindful of download times for viewers. This size file is a good compromise between download times and compression artifacts. Also remember that different photos will require different amounts of compression to achieve the 150kb size. Photos with a lot of detail will be a larger file size unless you compress it more.

Hi, Scott

Thank you for your prompt response. Do you use PhotoShop or Corel PhotoPaint to resize your photos? I'm using PhotoShop. I usually saved my photos in PSD after retouching. Then I sharpened them by using unsharp mask. After that I resized them by going to image size under the image menu. I'm just curious whether other people are using "image size" to resize their photos or going to "File" -> "save for web". Any logics behind resizing it before sharpening it. If you're using PhotoShop to resize it, do you leave "resample image" checked? :P Lots of things to learn!

Sue

Oh Scott. Here I am in England with my tripod all set up, trying to take pics of the moon and checking on your settings and you push up a whole lot more beautiful pics for us all to see.

I think that you are the most incredible photographer and give me inspiration, when I see what you have achieved with your G3.

Thank you.

I Just saw a picture of the same lighthouse on Photo.net (not as good as these I might add) Thanks for posting. I think all your picture are great to look at.

Resizing changes the size of a photo, but keeps the same number of pixels. Resampling changes the size of a photo by throwing out (or sometimes creating) pixels.

If you're preparing an image that will be displayed on the web (like this forum), then you do want to check the "resample" button. That will let PS cut down the number of pixels, so that the image downloads quicker. For printing, use "resize", but leave "resample" unchecked.

The reason that you sharpen after resampling is that your image will get noticably fuzzier after you throw out all those pixels. You have to fix this by using the unsharp mask function.

Autumn wrote:
Oh Scott. Here I am in England with my tripod all set up, trying to take pics of the moon and checking on your settings and you push up a whole lot more beautiful pics for us all to see.

I think that you are the most incredible photographer and give me inspiration, when I see what you have achieved with your G3.

Thank you.

Thank you, Autumn. How did your moon pics turn out? Let's see 'em!

Thank you! There are always a ton of photographers at that lighthouse. Its pretty easy to get to, and very scenic. So I'm not surprised that there are lots of photos of it around. I like the challenge of trying to find new ways of capturing subjects that are photographed often.

Hi Scott,
Thanks for your tips!
Sue

Beautiful galleries Scott!

Beatiful shot and galleries Scott! I like the shot composition and color.

It would be really challenging however to get a nice night shot of that lighthouse!

I had such experience with a lighthouse nearby. It took me may be about 1 year to get a nice night shot - it was in a fog I have never seen before. I may need another 4 years to get a the same shot.
http://www.pbase.com/i​mage/1956095

Greetings,
Roumen

Hi Scott,

What better thread could i have chosen to make my 1st post on? Anyways, i just wanted to tell you that all of your photos are the reason and inspiration on why i bought a G5.

One question...what filters/lenses (if any?) did you use to take these shots?

You wait only 4 years......while i'll probably have to wait a lifetime.

Simply amazing!

Hi Mr. Sandman,

I thought this thread was long gone! Thanks for your comments.

No filters or add-on lenses were used. Every time someone here asks the question: "What filters or lenses should I buy?", I'm the one who says "You don't need any, just use what you have". I don't think that's the answer they want to hear, though!