I haven’t been able to do much shooting for planes and such so I have been stuck in my backyard and taking shots. Just a couple of simple shots with my 100-400 on the A6500 with a polarizing filter on. Going through all of the notes for my camera the Phase Detection focusing only works below F11 so I am testing out different ND filters to see what will allow me keep the aperture down so that the Wide Angle focusing with focus lock will work. One reason to always read the manual so that you can find out about the individual quirks of the camera systems that you are using.

A nice lizard just sitting there sunning itself and then our really scraggily Schnauzer Sydney.

While I have been home I have been watching the KelbyOne videos on Youtube and watched this one about Photo Printing so I decided to test it out and see what worked best for me. I did most of what Scott Kelby recommended and included screenshots of my settings down below. I then submitted the photos to Bay Photo to test out their service as an 11×14 print. I think the biggest thing I learned was the sharpening and then the brightness for printing. I used this photo as my test photo:

This is Spanish Shawl Nudibranch that I shot while underwater. Unfortunately my prints never looked as good as the screen. So hopefully after this test I will have photos that look better. I chose Glossy for the photos as I am printing on Luster with Bay photo.

The photos came in and I have to say that the 20% looked the best and most closely resembled what I was looking for. Now that I have these settings I am going to keep going forward with printing some more photos and displaying them around my house. I mean what else do I have to do during the safer at home order. Might as well make my area pretty and enjoy it.

This is my blog to help improve my photographic skills and to be able to show what it is I have done and how I have improved.