Welcome to today’s post for the great Blogging A to Z Challenge!

Today is Z is for Zoom.

The last post for this year’s Great Blogging from A to Z Challenge!  Can’t believe I made it.  But I have to say, this was a fun challenge that got me using my DSLR so now I’m ready to do more – and I’ll talk a bit more about that when I write my “debrief” post.  And congratulations to everyone who participated in the Challenge this year – I LOVED reading all your posts (and I now have many, many more blogs on my follow list!)

And for today, Z is for Zoom.  Not the supervillain from the Flash TV show, but Zoom as in getting closer to things with your camera without actually getting closer to them!

So, here are some pictures with me zooming in on Elliot.  Note that I should have remember to re-focus and re-set the ISO between each shot…

And after I physically moved closer (since I don’t have a telephoto lens):

But, you can do some cool things with Zoom too.  What do you think of this?

Zoom in

Zoom out

Well, it’s hard to tell what I did here, but you can set you shutter speed slow and then zoom in or out while the picture is being taken.  Obviously something I need to work on.  http://digital-photography-school.com/using-the-zoom-effect/

So, I thought about it more and considered:  what if I picked a subject with an obvious centre and zoomed in on it?  So, I took this:

And did this:

Ok, too bright, so let’s adjust the shutter speed (ISO and aperture were set as perfect as they could be for the light):

Ok, almost there…

Cool, eh?

If you want to try this or other zoom effect, which I do…sometime…, check out http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-take-photos-with-the-zoom-blur-effect-includes-printable-cheat-sheet/

Welcome to today’s post for the great Blogging A to Z Challenge!

Today is Y is for Yellow Filter.

Which is actually my sneaky way of getting Monochrome into the mix while at the same time finding something for Y, which was NOT easy.

There is a setting on my camera (and I imagine on most DSLR cameras, but I don’t want to assume) allowing me to take pictures in monochrome, which technically means “one colour”, but implies grayscale or black and white.

The Yellow Filter upon which this post is based (the letter Y, you know), is defined as follows: “With black and white film, colour filters were used to dictate how different colours in the scene were converted to mono, ensuring the result wasn’t a wash of dull midtones. The monochrome effects on digital SLRs let you recreate these filter effects. Choosing the yellow filter option darkens skies and makes white clouds stand out, while producing natural-looking results.”  http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2015/05/15/digital-camera-effects-from-a-z-2/#null

Let’s see what happens when I try this out on my camera.

So, on my camera, to set Monochrome, you need to Click the Menu button, and then set the Picture Style to Monochrome.  Then when you take a picture, you get a black and white image.  So, here is an image in Standard colour, then in Black and White.

And here is this same Black and White image with a Yellow Filter setting.  I don’t really see a difference.  Clearly I need some more practice with this…

I know I can also adjust the Yellow Filter in Photoshop Elements, but for the life of me I can’t figure it out right now.  But I’m ok with that, because these posts are about learning the mysteries of the DSLR, not Photoshop!

Welcome to today’s post for the great Blogging A to Z Challenge!

Today is X is for X-Polarization.

Otherwise known as Cross-Polarization.  Where else am I going to get an “X”??

X-Polarization is a photography technique that involved the use of a filter.  To be specific, a (drum roll please) cross-polarizing filter!

According to http://www.diyphotography.net/getting-started-with-cross-polarized-light/, “[p]olarizer filters can be used to enhance contrast and saturation in landscape photography and reduce reflections or glare on shiny surfaces such as water. ”

While the above website shows you many ways to build a polarizer filter thingy (rather than buying one) for your camera, I have neither the patience nor the skill to construct such a thing.  You can see them on the site though.    And you can see some examples of pictures taken using x-polarization at http://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/create-a-vibrant-lighting-effect-with-cross-polarization–photo-348.

In the meantime, since I don’t have a polarizing filter, here are some more pictures from my now long-ago vacation…