Just got a Canon 100mm IS L macro. Now what?

[ScottyP]

It is winter so bugs are in short supply. I have a good tripod. I have only played a bit with it but it has fantastic bokeh for my girls' birthday cake in front of our Christmas tree.  :). 

Any my suggestions on how to dive in?

[RobertTheFat]

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@ebiggs1 wrote:

You've lost me.  I think I will go for a walk.

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Actually, I found Waddizzle's disquisition on recursive images pretty interesting, but maybe that's because I'm a computer programmer by trade. Since almost all digital photographers are into computers at least a little, here's an example of recursion that may be a bit easier to get one's head around. It's an algorithm that calculates the factorial of any given integer (inefficiently, as it happens, but that's beside the point):

Define integer recursive procedure FACTORIAL(N) where integer N tobe

if N <= 0 then 1 else N * FACTORIAL(N-1) ;

Note that this algorithm is self-referential in a way that's conceptually identical to the embedded images in Waddizzle's example.

Nitpicker alert: The algorithm is stated in a language you probably never heard of, but for which I used to help write compilers many years ago. It has the advantage of being somewhat more self-evident than many modern computer languages are.

[ebiggs1]

Bob from Boston,

I have no problem understanding what he is saying.  I just don't see any rea,l or pro, photgraphers using it.  They use Photoshop.  Most of the one's I know, BTW, can barely turn a computer on.  Let alone program or know how it works.

They can work wonders in PS or LR, however.

Going for the walk now.

[Waddizzle]

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@ebiggs1 wrote:

Bob from Boston,

I have no problem understanding what he is saying.  I just don't see any rea,l or pro, photgraphers using it.  They use Photoshop.  Most of the one's I know, BTW, can barely turn a computer on.  Let alone program or know how it works.

They can work wonders in PS or LR, however.

Going for the walk now.

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Hey, you.  Get back here. If I could grab you by the ear, I would.   🙂

I didn't explain it well, and I'm usually very good at explaining complex concepts in plain English.  I had written up a reply, somehow goofed it up, and had to re-write all over again.  The second time around, I omitted remarks about how you're asking the wrong question.  You asked how do I EDIT photos.  I'm not.  I am GENERATING images from scratch with ACAD, not doing edits to existing images, per se. 

I can click on an image within ACAD, and open up an image editor [which I can specify, currently Elements 10] and do actual edits to an image if I wanted to.  As I said before, I do not need to use Elements to create a masking layer.  I can create a geometric shape within AutoCAD, which can cut out a much more precise mask.  Not only is it more precise, the edges of the shape can be editied, modified, and corrected whenever, or wherever, it's needed. 

I have only used ACAD on rare occasions, only when I had a set of images that I wanted to stack up.  My Elements 10 doesn't let you grab portions of other photo files and add them as layers in the current image being edited, as I later discovered, as readily as PS CC allows you to do.  You can combine multiple images in PSE 10, but it is awkward.

Why do I like use the ACAD for some stuff?  Mainly, it is a comfort zone.  But, I can also create stuff that is totally self documenting, something which I'm sure that a programmer like Bob can truly appreciate.  In other words, if I create something today, I can include DETAILED notes about every step involved along the way.  I have noticed that PS includes a history window, which is nice.  My ACAD doesn't have that, although it does have sophisticaed UNDO commands, the information for which is discarded whenever the file is saved.

I have also begun tinkering around with combining subtle CGI elements into photos.  My conference room scenario has a large projector screen on the real wall, which serves as the equivalent of mirror reflections going off into infinity.  That "projector screen" will actually be a CGI element in the final assembled image.  I am at the "proof of design" stage of that project, which means that I have been making tests to prove the process.  A programmer would call it debugging.  Since I cannot get out and walk in the snow as much, I plan to have a busy winter letting my fingers do the walking  🙂

Imagine your bird on the top of that branch, which you posted recently, suddenly flapping its' wings, and then returning back to it's original position.  Or, imagine the bird sitting there, and the environment fading into something else.  I'm very good at brainstorming.  Like I've said before, sometimes I think too much.

[ebiggs1]

"You asked how do I EDIT photos.  I'm not."

And there my interest ends.  That was an easy short answer.  BTW, you do not need an image to make a photo in PS.