you can always shoot in manual Matthew, I can get pretty close that way but tend to shoot in AV so my depth of field is better- I sometimes use the depth of field feature in Adobe elements to help
Also Matthew believe it or not the Etsy app allows some limited background blurring. its actually kind of nice in a pinch. But if you arent using the app for listing, then it would not be convenient Im sure.
Pennee, I always shoot with manual exposure (so I set both the aperture and shutter speed). This camera does not have a manual focus (another disappointment).
The autofocus is pretty good - I can tell it to spot focus anywhere I want it to, and if the lens can do it, it gets it in focus. If it's too close to focus, it does the best it can and gives me a warning.
Wendy...enthusiasm for driving is a good thing. My nieces didn't want to learn and have had a really hard time with driving. They are 18 now, and have been driving for under a year...and they leave for college this fall. Their parents won't let them drive much on the highway...and I'm not sure how they are going to handle traffic when they are away from home.
Matthew...I like the first one for the reasons CG said. I think it shows off the workmanship and the natural grain of the wood better. I found the textured background a bit distracting. Maybe if the texture was softer, I would like it more.
I lived in Boston as an older teen. I had no need to learn how to drive, and I had enough trouble scraping money together for school. so a car or gas for a car was out of the question.
I didn't learn to drive til I was 19 or so. But I had the T, and buses and my feet that took me everywhere.
D has none of that. he will need to drive to do anything at all. I honestly know that... I just worry. You know. mom stuff.
The worry is completely understandable. I don't even have kids of my own, but I worry about those that I am close to. It's probably a good thing that I didn't become a parent...I am stressed enough as it is, lol.
Suspending a pen from fishing line: I've thought about doing something like that (I'd especially like to be able to have the pen point resting on the plexi sheet with the clip end "floating" up in the air.
But since these are OOAK pieces, I have to watch the trade-offs between how it looks and the added time. As much as possible, I want to spend less time on photography, not more. :-/
<--- late to the party as usual but as to Matthew's photos.. I prefer #1 but am wondering if you can make the vignette a little wider. It just seems like it's crowding the pen.
When I took my brief photo class from a great photographer but a lousy instructor who was mean and crabby and didn't make it fun. He said the focal point on an object is 2/3 of the way up the frame. He did give us some tricks to direct lighting with aluminum foil and helped me learn how to recognize hot spots before I shoot.
On another note, hubs made it home safely and we went to the movies and saw Eddie The Eagle. A very nice feel good movie.
