I think this is the first time in the whole last year where someone posted photos that I thought were really well done and actually worth seeing. A bit like that phrase "So shineth a good deed in a weary world." The net is filled to the brim with cr@p photography. Sometimes I just want to poke my eyes out with a hot-iron. I'm a harsh critic when it comes to photography but yours were a pleasure to see. (Even when I had to wait 10 minutes to let them load on my rural dial-up line. I went and made a load of cookies and threw them in the oven to pass the time.)
A nice addition to show the benefits of using CHDK too.
I'd be interested in hearing what you did to obtain/create the rural night scene. Was it actually done at night? Or did you just do a lot of editing on a daylit photo to obtain that? (Moonlit photos are almost indistinguishable from sunlit ones, when exposed properly. It's a careful exposure and editing balancing-act to make moonlight look like moonlight.) While photo editing isn't supposed to be a CHDK forum topic, if it required overridden shutter speeds for a true moonlit shot, then knowing how it was done would qualify for being on-topic.
Well done. Thanks.
The blueish one with the cool sky is actually my back yard. I saw the clouds and instantly thought that it would be a neat shot, i bracketed like 3 or 4 exposures and tried merging them into an hdr but it looked like [admin: avoid swearing please] as it was a windy day and the clouds moved between pics. After ditching the multiple exposure idea i took the raw from the normally exposed one and created an hdr from that one, it actually turned out quite nice. It was mid day for that one.
As for the urban pictures, those are from last night. My friend (who just bought a nikon d40x) and i went downtown, i may not look as professional with my p&s on a tripod vs his dslr on a tripod but my pictures combat his. It was a muggy / damp night, it actually started raining right after we left. The only light in those pictures was from the alley lights, as soon as i saw it i knew it would be a cool picture. glad to see someone liked it =D
By far the most useful feature that i've grown acustom to using now is shooting in raw, you can just get such a better looking end result when you edit a raw vs editing a jpg. Without CHDK i would not be able to make pictures nearly as good as what i can with it. Thank you again to all of the developers i love my camera now =D