This is an example of one of my exposure blends although it looks a little unsharp when dropped in size and quality.

HDR was originally developed for gaming, and it was designed to give reproduce a wider tonal range to make it look more natural. HDR’s are tone mapped, and you get greater control in a dedicated program such as Photomatix however if you do think they look unnatural and over-processed try Exposure Blending, also in Photomatix. Essentially, a HDR photo is combined from 2 or more different exposures which include all the highlights and lowlights without being blown out or that have lost detail. Tone mapping was originally designed to A) improve the difference in contrast to provide a reproduced wider tonal range and B) pull out detail, however it was designed for games so when applied to photography A goes out of the window as you are combining 2 or more exposures anyway, not digitally reproducing that tonal range. HDR then just provides a way to improve detail and change the luminance of the colours shown, which often produces the over-processed look.

Exposure Blending just combines 2 or more exposures without tone mapping, often producing more natural looking image overall.

Going back to your original problem, use it in whatever manual mode you feel comfortable and as said above auto-bracket. In order to provide a familiar depth of field and sharpness you should use Manual, P mode or Shutter priority so that the aperture will not automatically change.

Garylake, try Exposure blending in Photomatix. It produces much punchier but natural looking results without ruining highlights or shadows.

I do agree it works with some things. Its a way of being creative, even though it was originally designed for architecture. I had a go with a wide angle portrait I shot last year and it came out looking virtually like it had been shot on a full frame at a ridiculous large F number. That program ruins colours, and nothings particularly sharp so it is just a bit of fun. I would much prefer to be using a til and shift digi ‘Blad though!

Fit components without names. No name stems, bars, seatpost, etc. I found black electrical taping over the decals works, and after its baked in the sun and had some rain on it its a pain in the a*se to remove. Slick cheap tyres if its a mountainbike, basic V brakes, singlespeed, no shiny shiny parts. Chavs are like magpies, they like shiny things. As someone said replace QR’s with allen key bolted things, same on the seatpost. Also, keep your brakes tight, so tight that even if they do undo the allen key bolt QR’s they cant undo the brakes to get the wheel out. Its all extra time that may make them give up. Big thick D locks tends to work, but also gives it the impression its worth nicking. I tend to find a thickish cable and motorbike disk brake lock (looks like a tiny D lock) works well and is more flexible. Finally, dark plain colours are best. Dark browns, blues and blacks. Bright colours are the fashion (as above) and instantly draw attention to it.

A friendly and confidence inspiring pat on the back? A good hand shake? A Mars bar? How about Park instant patchs and tyre lever set?

Very good, liking it. I would say if you tilt the camera down slightly it will compensate less for the brightness of the sky and give a better exposure overall as most of it is pretty dark. Great idea though!

practise. Ride the same sections over and over. Try new lines. Follow the lines of the fastest riders. Keep the bike setup as you want it, not what you think it should be.

Obviously you didnt take it but didnt retaliate either. You did do the right thing cos next time the small-minded thug like ape decides to do something else and they are reported to the police he will get pulled up on it. You did nothing wrong, he did. Its not a case of playground “im telling!” because it could have been more serious. Idiot could have pulled whatever from his van.

Im sorry to read about your colleagues, just go to show their are brainless idiots out there who dont think twice about messing up people lifes.

Weegee’s later stuff? Anything by Sebastiao Salgado would fit the bill…. Don Mccullins work…..

I agree, Im 23 and I f’ing love it. Just started playing it all on Dave now too! My mates (slightly younger) have never heard of it…

The Honda’s were pretty much scrapped, even team riders couldnt keep a copy. They pulled the plug all of a sudden, so it was almost like they came in, proved they could hire amazing riders, put them on a bike that rides very well and is unique whilst kicking ass then once they had some victories under their belt pull the plug, just because they can.

I love it, Roadies are nuts! Im guessing they probably do, but they can probably save more weight going for a number 2!

The only review on it says he could tear up the pavement for four hours. Id have thought the road would be more appropriate surely? :D

Better in the side than the front, still never nice! Hope hes alrite.

I have the same problem, and with the change in weather my diet changed slightly (less fatty/sugary foods, more decent stuff) and I did notice a difference (drop) Ive got a mate whos starting body building, all he eats is meat in 4 medium meals a day. He alo takes various protein shakes and other things and he stinks. He can clear a room easily without much effort!

At the time I was a skint student and the idea of buying a cassette and a semi decent chain were beyond me! Also, I reckoned at the time the width of the cassette would have made the chain jump off the front more.

To be anal as well, it was lighter than a full cassette :D

Formula have always been slow at the best of times! Ive been waiting for a new brake lever to come into CRC for the best part of 3 months at the moment…

Thanks Colnagokid. I didnt want to seem like Im blowing my own trumpet, but I am happy that I am more levelheaded than some.

Its the lack of reason that stumps me. Regardless of whether its mis-guided towards the wrong individuals, most are not bad kids but get mixed up with the wrong people. Mix alcohol, peer pressure and boredom and it causes problems. I had that in mind when I mentioned above that if you have to resort to violence, always go for the one at the front. Undoubtedly the mixed up ones will always be at the back of the pack.

Its weird how it differs between groups too. My old mates used to get so many bruises and cuts from violently moshing down at the local rock club. One of them had concussion from bouncing his head off someones elbow but I dont think Ive ever seen an alternative person hassling someone in the street for the sake of it.

National service is a very very good idea. I might sound old fashioned when I say that also sometimes (and I mean only sometimes) one parent families are no help either. Stability of the family home, no solid father role model to learn peer respect and genuine confidence.

I dont actually condone violence to little sh*ts. I walked through a bunch of them the other night, they were taking up the whole pavement. Why should I, a working citizen who pays his taxes and bills, move to the road to go around them only to get heckled about it? Im sorry, but sod that for sh*ts and giggles. Im not tough, I dont try to be. Ive had one fight with older teenagers that at the time were probably not much younger than me. They walked off after they realised I wasent going to sit down and take it. I didnt start it, and I didnt throw the first hit, but I ended it without much violence. Sometimes, if you are in situation that seems unresolvable Id rather throw the first punch and go from there. I would say thats going to give you a better chance than getting jumped on if you dont do anything. Thats not to say I have a short temper or I condone lashing out at people. It takes alot to wind me up, but as I am only 23 I dont speak with the age and responsibility some of you as parents do but I have respect for my elders, my peers, my teachers. I know my place, and I was brought up in a decent loving family so I agree that its the parents fault.

Alot of kids are misunderstood, but given the situations mentioned on here I wouldnt have done any differently.

EDIT: Solo, I agree totally.

Go to G’s partay, eat alot of her food and drink alot of her wine and then wee in her shoes at the end of the evening to teach her a lesson. Jobs a good’un.

I find I turn into a giggly idiot when most mixing spirits. Straight rum just gets me drunk. Skittles vodka makes me a little hyper. Cider makes me destructive and up for stupid things, so I stick to cider for the relaxed evenings and stick to the spirits for the drunkeness.

I find that I get an ache in my legs when Ive mixed too many spirits the night before.

Its a cheap lens but the quality of photos at that price is very pleasing. It is relatively slow and noisy compared to your current kit lens and it ‘hunts’ low light meaning it finds it hard to focus. For a Tele-photo the aperture range is slightly limiting, but for basic first use its pretty good. Certainly in good light it’ll be fine.

Maybe consider the standard version as what you get with the APO is the special coated glass and a case. It depends if you need those two things, I would say the glass is more important than the case and Id still pay it.

Edit: this was taken with my old Sigma 70-300mm APO on Macro. Focus isnt quite right, but its close.

How do you annoy lady GaGa?

Poke her in the face…

Two drums and a cymbal fall off a cliff

Boom boom tish!

Depending on what car it is it could be easy to change yourself. My bro’s mk2 Golf was a piece of cake to do. Trolley jack the engine up from the sump, undo the bolts, replace, retighten bolts, jobs a good’un! I wouldnt try it on a newer car though, not unless you know what you’re doing…

…eating a sandwich and writing an email on PDA too eh Breatheeasy? :wink:

It is human nature, and its another way of prooving yourself as a man. Physical exertion through peer competition is normal.

I dont see that many people on my commute, just the odd few. Oxymoron, where do you ride on the A38?

I borrowed a mates Cube Fritz to head down to the local post office to pick up a parcel last year (didnt have a commuter bike at the time) and came across a roadie pottering along. Had all the gear, and probably enough of an idea but was taking it easy. Anyway, off we go from the lights, and hes doddling along at 15mph. Whether intentional or not im not sure. I decided that as I needed the other lane of the dual carriageway Id speed up and match most of the cars speed. By the time Id over taken him and got along about a quarter of a mile cranking along happily in the not so hard 44-12 he comes hairing past at a rate of knots overtaking cars and all sorts until we get to the next lights. This time he did not want to be overtaken, and I couldnt help feeling smug that maybe I dented his pride enough to get his competition hat on and proove he could out-do me.

Dazh, I do the same. Its fun on a single speed against the regular commuters on the their full sussers bouncing around but then thats probably too easy!

Or when they say its an issue they want it discussed….and its easier and less objective than saying I have a problem. Unfortunately sometimes, we are in a world where talking about stuff is encouraged over solving a problem with pure old fashioned violence.

To me, an ‘issue’ is when you dont like to admit you have or there is a problem, or that the topic in question is not bad eough that you actually would do something positive to correct it. Alternatively, it could be a difficult problem that isnt solved easily.

Maybe you need to get your ‘issues’ sorted out as that was a proper half-baked rant! :wink:

Looks nasty as anything, but the adrenaline was pumping so that probably helped. Looks like he went too close to the inside of the track and realised he was going to hit some nasty rocks. At the same time he did get pinged off a bit too. Good on Peaty!

The first 18 film I watched was The Nightmare on Elm Street when I was 7 (Im 23 now) and ever since then Ive had a strange fascination for horror movies….

My thoughts are the same as everyone elses; usual BNP rubbish which is exactly why they’ve never got very far. But, I can see them saying it as a joke or as one persons speculatative opinion and someone catching wind of it. It escalates because they dont want to seem like they are backing out on their judgements and opinions and before they know it its hit the news and they are up sh*t creek.

Alternatively, I could be totally wrong and they could be a bunch of disrespective spinning idiots. Maybe they thought “theres no bad press” and decided to raise their profile in a wrong way.

The SX110 is nice, but takes only normal AA batteries limiting it a bit…

Lovely looking rides in there, especially that Spesh of sq225917!

Latest Canon A590 also feels cheap and plasticky. I think as well that the A480 is the worst naffest rubbishy feeling digital camera on the market, seconded only by some Tesco own Technikas!

little Ixus camera’s are brilliant, normally reliable and picture quality is one of the highest in its range.

Not sure about free, but the lightsaber and air hockey is good. Also, the WOOOO button is funny for 59p and iPity for getting your MR T game on. Otherwise, useful things such as Torch, Wikimobile, Facebook, Backgrounds, Remote, Maps, and Google Earth. Theres also the touch drums and Zippo lighter.

I name a folder NoRp and put my porn in that. Then, it goes hiding in a couple of layers of folders in my program files on my hard drive so people looking through the average documents wouldnt find it. Girlfriend hasent so far!

I used the G1 and couldnt get on with it at all. Its small, but not small enough to get over the fact its still bulky. Its only about 1cm and a bit smaller in every measurement, putting it not much smaller than most entry level SLR’s.

GrahamS, the G10 dosent have an APS-C sized sensor, but I reckon if it did it would have even better performace. But then that would be taking away from the D-slr market. As for focusing, its something thats becoming popular on compacts. Higher end Sonys do it, Panasonics, some Canon compacts and I reckon itll start moving brands.

Oddly though, the SX1 and SX10 both have APS-C sized sensors, but they dont deal with noise any better or any less than the G10. Aparently, you can ‘unlock’ most Canon compacts to write Raw and have manual control too.

I quite fancy giving the Ricoh GX200 a go, just to see if it is actually any good.

The P6000 is pants from what Ive used of it! slow, poor quality at high ISo, not very sharp, exposure is poor and noise is bad. Likewise, the LX3 was set to be a great camera but at 800 ISO and above the photos resembled lego rather than a photo! Ricoh is a good choice, if they’ve sorted out the reliability. The older Ricoh semi-compacts were brilliant bit had a habit of failing. Lens errors, electrical problems or problems reading to cards were the common faults. Canon G10 has prooved reliable, better than the G9 anyway so far.

Heihei, the G9 and G10 run a smaller sensor than an SLR but keep the digic III and IV processor. Noise control is very good on both, kicks the ass off the Nikon and especially the LX3. Its only a fraction of a second slower than a DSLR, but when the G11 comes out itll have an automatic servo focusing mode, meaning its continually focusing regardless of wether you are half-pressing the shutter. its to decrease focus time aparently!

I think its to a certain limit. Ive sent payments for £70 and its not registered any charge for me, but under £20 is has…

Ian, now I know what rabbit insides look like! Tails, yeh, its pretty sickening!

You have to remember things were different years ago. That would have been shocking but also probably slightly motivating. People might have seen it as a challenge. Now, half the country complain about seeing a couple of bums on tv in adverts so this is going to be seen as bad taste.