It's my bag, I tell you! Mischief afoot...!

[Leeloo]

I know these aren't great in terms of exposure etc but it was in a fairly dark hallway at 11pm last night - I couldn't resist the opportunity to snap some pics of one of our cats, who'd crawled into a canvas Asda shopping bag, so I was flat on the floor! :D quite pleased that the flash didn't reflect too badly into his eyes. I think the focus is OK in most cases - having the camera on the floor helped a lot!

I have resized them so I really hope the file-size is OK!

[theantiquetiger]

Great shots, especially #3. You may want to darken the blacks of the eyes a little, the flash grey'ed them out a little.

[Marko]

Cute set Leeloo, I also favour shot 3 here.

[Leeloo]

Thank you muchly :) What's the best way to darken specific bits of a pic? I have either Photoscape, Microsoft Picture Editor or Paint Shop Pro to work with. I've brightened them a little and cropped/resized but that's all at the moment.

[Iguanasan]

Nice set and I favour shot three as well. You should re-create the set up and try your flash on "fill flash" mode or on "slow sync" (see pages 49/50 of your manual) and see if you can cut down on the harshness of the light. Do you know what mode you are shooting in as I wonder why the camera would pick 1/44 sec and ISO 100 for a shot like this?

[aubintbay]

Cute set!! Love the last one!

[Mad Aussie]

What's the best way to darken specific bits of a pic?
I think PSP has a dodge and burn tool?? I'd use that for this one. Burn set to shadows and about 5%.

[Leeloo]

Nice set and I favour shot three as well. You should re-create the set up and try your flash on "fill flash" mode or on "slow sync" (see pages 49/50 of your manual) and see if you can cut down on the harshness of the light. Do you know what mode you are shooting in as I wonder why the camera would pick 1/44 sec and ISO 100 for a shot like this?

LOL to recreate it I would probably have to staple or velcro the cat inside the bag!! :)

Iggy (may I call you that? Easier than typing in full :) ) Re the shooting mode, I'm not sure, I just selected the "smart shoot" thing on the dial and let the camera get on with it. The hallway was quite dark even with the landing light on, although I'd put the lights on in the nearby rooms to try and make it a bit brighter - could that have anything to do with the settings it chose?

Mad Aussie - thank you for the PSP tip, I will have a rummage and see what I can do :)

[Iguanasan]

LOL to recreate it I would probably have to staple or velcro the cat inside the bag!! :)

Iggy (may I call you that? Easier than typing in full :) ) Re the shooting mode, I'm not sure, I just selected the "smart shoot" thing on the dial and let the camera get on with it. The hallway was quite dark even with the landing light on, although I'd put the lights on in the nearby rooms to try and make it a bit brighter - could that have anything to do with the settings it chose?

...snip...

Well, you could used a stuffed animal or some other toy or something instead of the cat :) Herding cats can be difficult! :laughing:

Absolutely, everyone else does :) The Smart Auto mode requires a particular scene selection. Do you know which one was selected? (see page 32 of your manual for more info) "Portraits at Night" would likely have been the right choice for this set up. The nice thing about that camera is that as you learn more you can experiment more since it allows full manual mode where you can select aperture, ISO, and shutter speed.

[Leeloo]

Well, you could used a stuffed animal or some other toy or something instead of the cat :) Herding cats can be difficult! :laughing:

Absolutely, everyone else does :) The Smart Auto mode requires a particular scene selection. Do you know which one was selected? (see page 32 of your manual for more info) "Portraits at Night" would likely have been the right choice for this set up. The nice thing about that camera is that as you learn more you can experiment more since it allows full manual mode where you can select aperture, ISO, and shutter speed.

Eeeh, it's been one of those days - I never even thought about using a stuffed toy in place of the Talus-cat!!!! The thought didn't so much as even tippy-toe across my mind. D'oh :) I will have a go at resetting it up tonight or tomorrow (minus cat, unless he's cooperative..) and see what it says on the display of the camera. :)

I think, for the money I had available and the reviews I read, that the WB700 is a pretty decent bit of kit for what it is - a compact. Perhaps if I get hooked and get better I may eventually dip into the world of dSLRs but that's a way off at the moment! :)