Great day out with your MG? Post up a picture ?

[Jamesrr]

Another lovely day beside the seaside

 

[Shrink Proof]

Meanwhile, in the Highlands of Scotland...

 

[Archev]

Meanwhile, in the Highlands of Scotland...

View attachment 42957

There’s a lot going on in that beautiful sky

 

[Shrink Proof]

There’s a lot going on in that beautiful sky

The light in Glen Torridon yesterday was excellent. Turning round and looking in the opposite direction to Liathac (the picture above), it was like this:-

 

[Shrink Proof]

And since this is all about MG EVs, I took this shot from the driving seat of my MG5 just before setting off for home. You can see the top of the door mirror...

 

[securespark]

That's a belting shot!

 

[Archev]

The light in Glen Torridon yesterday was excellent. Turning round and looking in the opposite direction to Liathac (the picture above), it was like this:-

View attachment 42961

Magical, I like it

 

[Archev]

And since this is all about MG EVs, I took this shot from the driving seat of my MG5 just before setting off for home. You can just see the top of the door mirror...

View attachment 42962

Steals my heart

 

[securespark]

Magical, I like it

Yes, I'm very jealous of shots like that. I'm not really very good at taking people or animal shots. With people, I don't seem to catch their best side, with animals they are usually too far away or they move or are in the wrong position.

But I enjoy taking shots of landscapes, sunsets, buildings and such-like.

I did get a heron on Bollington canal last week.

It was on the other side, so I used some zoom, which is why it looks a little odd close up.

 

[salty]

That's a great pic.

 

[securespark]

Thanks. That's with my new Xiaomi 15T Pro with a Leica telephoto lens, so I'm told.

It was windy and the bird was moving its head, so maybe that contributed to the blur.

 

[Archev]

Yes, I'm very jealous of shots like that. I'm not really very good at taking people or animal shots. With people, I don't seem to catch their best side, with animals they are usually too far away or they move or are in the wrong position.

But I enjoy taking shots of landscapes, sunsets, buildings and such-like.

I did get a heron on Bollington canal last week.

It was on the other side, so I used some zoom, which is why it looks a little odd close up.

View attachment 42963

Lucky you caught him / her? So well they’re usually gliding out over the water by the time you see them.

 

[securespark]

It was a very cold miserable morning and maybe it was hungry. It stood there for a while. I think it was waiting for a fish to happen by!

 

[Shrink Proof]

I'm very jealous of shots like that. I'm not really very good at taking people or animal shots. With people, I don't seem to catch their best side, with animals they are usually too far away or they move or are in the wrong position.

The problems of animals (or people...) moving can be massively reduced by taking loads of shots. In the days of film that was ludicrously expensive, and only really practical for professional photographers. With digital, one picture costs the same as a hundred. I took twelve shots of the robin over about twenty seconds. Back home I selected (and, confession time, digitally manipulated) the most acceptable one. The rest I just deleted.

 

[Archev]

“my” heron was further away so i made up a story about our encounter instead

 

[Shrink Proof]

Thanks. That's with my new Xiaomi 15T Pro with a Leica telephoto lens, so I'm told.

It was windy and the bird was moving its head, so maybe that contributed to the blur.

The longer the focal length of a lens, the narrower the depth of field (that's the part of the image that's in focus). Telephoto lenses have really narrow depth of field - you can see that in the robin picture. The eyes and the beak are in focus but the tail and wingtips are blurred. Robins are tiny little birds, so the tail was only a couple of inches further away from the camera than the eyes, but with a narrow depth of field that was enough to put it outside the "in focus" zone. And the background, being much further away, is completely blurry. So, with a telephoto lens, a bird (or whatever) doesn't have to move far to be out of focus. Which is why some cameras are fitted with continuous autofocussing that keeps rechecking and refocussing to "hold" the subject in the zone.

 

[securespark]

“my” heron was further away so i made up a story about our encounter instead

View attachment 42964

Loving the reflections in the water.

The longer the focal length of a lens, the narrower the depth of field (that's the part of the image that's in focus). Telephoto lenses have really narrow depth of field - you can see that in the robin picture. The eyes and the beak are in focus but the tail and wingtips are blurred. Robins are tiny little birds, so the tail was only a couple of inches further away from the camera than the eyes, but with a narrow depth of field that was enough to put it outside the "in focus" zone. And the background, being much further away, is completely blurry. So, with a telephoto lens, a bird (or whatever) doesn't have to move far to be out of focus. Which is why some cameras are fitted with continuous autofocussing that keeps rechecking and refocussing to "hold" the subject in the zone.

Thanks for that. Every day is a school day!

 

[securespark]

The problems of animals (or people...) moving can be massively reduced by taking loads of shots. In the days of film that was ludicrously expensive, and only really practical for professional photographers. With digital, one picture costs the same as a hundred. I took twelve shots of the robin over about twenty seconds. Back home I selected (and, confession time, digitally manipulated) the most acceptable one. The rest I just deleted.

Now I'm disappointed!
Just kidding...

 

[Gomev]

Yes, I'm very jealous of shots like that. I'm not really very good at taking people or animal shots. With people, I don't seem to catch their best side, with animals they are usually too far away or they move or are in the wrong position.

But I enjoy taking shots of landscapes, sunsets, buildings and such-like.

I did get a heron on Bollington canal last week.

It was on the other side, so I used some zoom, which is why it looks a little odd close up.

View attachment 42963

One year during the Countryfile Children in Need Calendar appeal a professional photographer recommended that you shouldn't zoom in if you only have digital zoom, like on most phone cameras, but instead should take the picture then enlarge and crop the resultant picture for better quality.
This seems to be verified by other online sources and I have been doing this since then.

ETA. Have found this.
Zooming in on a phone camera while taking a photo and expanding (cropping) a photo after it has been taken are technically very similar, as both often rely on digital zoom—cropping the image and enlarging it.
However, for better quality and flexibility, it is generally recommended to take the photo without zooming and edit it afterward.
Here is a breakdown of the differences, techniques, and best practices:

1. Zooming While Taking the Photo

• How it works: You use the 2x, 3x, or slider on your camera app before shooting.
• Digital Zoom: Most phones use digital zoom, which crops the image and magnifies it, often causing the photo to look grainy or blurry, particularly if you zoom past the phone's optical capabilities.
• Optical Zoom: If your phone has a dedicated telephoto lens (e.g., 3x or 5x), using that specific zoom level will provide a higher-quality, clearer image than digital zoom.
• Pro Tip: If you must zoom, use only the native optical zoom levels (e.g., 2x or 3x) and avoid going deeper into digital zoom, which just degrades quality.

2. Expanding/Cropping After the Photo (Post-Processing)

• How it works: Open your camera's Gallery or Photos app, select the photo, tap "Edit," and use the crop tool to zoom in on a specific area.
• Advantage: You retain the original, uncropped photo, which provides more freedom to re-edit or zoom differently later.
• Quality: The result is often the same as digital zoom, but it saves you from losing data on the original photo, and lets you choose the exact crop without relying on the camera's auto-composition.

Summary: Which is Better?

• For best quality: Get closer to the subject physically ("foot zoom") rather than using camera zoom.
• If you cannot move closer: Take the full, unzoomed picture and crop it later.
• Exceptions: If your phone has a high-quality, dedicated optical zoom lens (like a 5x or 10x telephoto), using that lens is better than cropping later.
• Newer Tech: Some high-end phones (e.g., Pixel 9 Pro/10 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S25) now feature AI-powered "Zoom Enhance" or similar tools that can improve the quality of a cropped image after it has been taken.

 

[securespark]

Forgive me for sounding like a complete ID 10T, but how do you do that? As you can probably guess, I'm fairly new to this.

Using software on a laptop/ PC?

Scrub that, you added stuff while I was typing!

Thanks.