Posting after a three week hiatus. Pics from my office cafeteria. EF-L 180mm macro lens @ f/3.5 Av mode.

I'd been trying to use GIMP for Sepia toning and stumbled across this article in gimp.org, which talks about doing Sepia toning using GIMP. Though, sepia can be easily done using the Old photo built-in script available in GIMP dialog : Script-Fu : Decor : Old Photo, the procedure outlined in the article clearly outlines how Sepia toning is done. But, the best part in this procedure is the fact that Sepia (Red=162, Green=138, Blue=101) is not the only tone / color which may be used here. Various shades of blue (especially for pics with water), green (especially for pics wth greenery) and a lot of other colors may be used too. In this picture, taken in August 2007, near Ponnani river, using my Canon Powershot S2IS, I used GIMP and a blueish toning (R=0, G=128, B=255) for this result.

The original and the sepia toned versions are below:

These pics are from my Thirunelli Brahmagiri trek, taken with the EF-L 180mm @ f/3.5 Av mode. I should have used a slightly higher DOF for the 2nd pic, with or without a tripod, but was running out of time and could not try it!

In the 1st two pics, its not as dark as it looks in the pic, neither is the sun that red (atleast to the naked eye) ... well .... this is what happens when the sun is right in the middle of the frame and the camera meters at a very low exposure time of the order of 1/2000s @ f/6.3. The only difference between the two pics is that the pic on the left has an exposure compensation of +1 steps. Both are taken using the EF-L 180mm lens in Av mode.

The last two pics are more or less the same even to the naked eye. They are taken in Av mode @ f/6.3, with exposure times 1/160s and 1/125s respectively.

I dunno what to call it, a bee or a wasp! Whatever it is, I've been trying hard to take decent macro pics for a while now and this is the closest I could go even with the new 180mm EF-L life size macro lens :(

First thing I learned is that macro photography is not about shooting with the lens wide open! I've been obsessed with blurred background for a while and my default choice was always a wide open lens (f/3.5 with the 180mm). Now, the DOF available for a life size macro pic at this 'f' is minimal. While, shallow DOF can give u gr8 effects sometime, most times it is not what u want. So, the obvious choice would be to try with narrower shutters, like say f/5.6 or even f/8. But, the problem here is that, at life size, even a small movement of the hand will look like an earthquake in the frame!

So, u r left with two choices, using the flash (external better quality flashes - defenitely not the pop-up - if u want natural looking pictures) or using a tripod. If u cant use either, even higher ISO is an option.

In this particular case, I had bright sunlight available, which is good and bad (bad, coz of the shadows) and once (for the 3rd pic), I used ISO-800. 3rd pic also is the closest with a higher DFO (f/8 and a good 1/800s) compared to the rest at ISO-100 and f/5.6. Anyways, after downloading the pics to the computer, I knew they cud've been better :(

A herd of sheep spotted in a field near Maddur, in Bengaluru - Mysuru road. All pics using the 180mm EF-L lens @ Av mode f/4 in the evening sun.

This is a trial of the 180mm EF-L lens on some garden flowers!

The 1st set of flowers are taken from a garden in a road side dhaba. All pics in Av mode, with five of them @ f/3.5 and three (bottom 3rd from left, bottom right and top right) @ f/5.6.

Pic of the red spongy flower is again @ f/3.5 in Av mode.

I believe I have a lot more collection of colors in the 3rd set and a few honey bees for variety :-) Here, its again Av mode, mostly f/3.5 and f/5 for only two (top left and bottom 3rd from left).

Some random bird pictures using the 180mm EF-L @ Av mode.

The first two pics are of a folk musician from Rajasthan and his lovely daughter, Manju! I did a bad job with the background in the 1st pic, by using Av mode f/4, since the girl was standing under a tree and in front of a wall, which is creating that distracting background. But, the man was a li'l taller and I didnt have problem with the tree / wall behind them. f/4 was gud enuf :-)

For the third pic, which is an indoor shot, the lighting was meagre and background was too bright. So, I turned to manual mode, with f/5 and 1/6s, using a tripod. Finally, I guess the pic came out a li'l blurry coz of the higher exposure time and bad focusing.

Fourth pic is another Av mode f/3.5 handheld shot, but with ISO-800 to bring the exposure time down to 1/30s. Raj Kumar ji is a gr8 fan of old Hindi films and or music and detests the newer one :-) Doesnt it show in his style? :-)

This is a huge spider web, completely covering couple of shrubs,  spotted near Maddur. All pics are taken against the sun, in Av mode @ f/20 using the 18-55mm EF-S lens. I was using partial metering and coz of the differences in the frame, camera returned different exposure times, 1/1600s for the 1st one, 1/4000s for the 2nd and 1/400s for the 3rd.