Dear All, Thanks for your previous help. Here's some more for your consideration. Thanks, Pat Naughtin Geelong, Australia Photographic aperture: � When you are not actively using your camera leave it set for a chance shot. Use these settings to produce properly exposed pictures: Set your shutter speed as close as you can to the ISO rating of your film and your aperture to 16 to create images on a bright sunny day. Use the same shutter speed and an aperture of 11 for an image of a full moon; use an aperture of 8 for images of a half moon; and use an aperture of 5.6 for images of a quarter moon. This will work with all films and all film speed ratings. Photographic aperture: � When taking pictures into the Sun open the aperture by an extra one and a half stops so you will be able to see detail in subjects in the foreground. Photographic composition: � Professional photographers laugh at amateurs who have a natural tendency to place all subjects in the centre of the picture. Professionals call this the 'bulls-eye syndrome.' To avoid this place the main subject anywhere but the centre of the picture. For example, place your centre of interest, vertically or horizontally, at the 1/3 and 2/3 points in your viewfinder for a strong composition. Photographic composition: � Scan the top, bottom, and both sides of your view-finder � circumnavigate the view � checking that your main subject goes close to, but not over, these boundaries. Another way of looking at this is to mentally divide your viewfinder into four quarters. Look at each quarter, in turn, and assess how the background relates to your main subject. Photographic 'rules': � When people talk to you about photographic composition and they use the word 'rule'; be cautious. There are probably no rules in photographic composition, only considerations. Planting Seeds: � If you have lost the packet, plant seeds at twice their width, that is plant a 2 millimetres wide seed at a depth of 4 millimetres. Points: � In an old car you can adjust the points in an emergency using the thickness of a paper match as a feeler gauge. A paper match is about 400 �m thick. A pack of matches is, in any case, a handy accessory to have in your car's emergency kit. Posts: � Generally 20% of a post should be in the ground. A 3m post should be 600 millimetres in the ground and 2.4 m above ground. Pottery: � To calculate the amount of clay for a casserole use 500 grams per person; 1000 grams for a two-person pot or 2 kilograms for a four-person casserole. Pressure: � If the entire atmosphere of the Earth was all at standard atmospheric pressure (~ 100 kPa), and did not become less dense with altitude, then our atmosphere would be about 8 kilometres deep. In its natural state, the Earth's atmosphere is regarded as 100 kilometres deep.
