Happy Holidays everyone! I'm new to FM and fairly new to photography as well. I'm looking for some feedback on lighting and composition, or anything else you think might improve these shots (or future ones). Also, any thoughts on the depth of focus? They were all taken at f/4. Would f/8 or f/11 have added anything to the photos?
For just starting out, I'd say you've chosen a difficult setting and, with a little more most post-processing you're well on your way.
I've never had much luck with mist/fog and sunrises, somehow never convey what I was seeing or thinking when taking the capture.
I prefer #'s 3 & 4 over the first two: #1 is too 'head-on', imo, and looking straight into the sun, I think I'd try either more on a diagonal or looking away from the sun. For me, the condo or whatever in the background of #2, in an image having more snap, is distracting in that it competes with the vines for attention - I guess you could say there is not central subject.
I've taken the liberty of quick re-works on #'s 3 & 4. In both cases, if you look at the histograms you can stratch the histogram at both ends to both brighten and darken the images. In #3 I bumped the contrast using the LCH curve in Capture NX2 and sharpened; #4 much of the same except I cloned out several poles at the right side and tried to get some color back into the image aside from the sunrise...
Again welcome, thanks for sharing and we look forward to seeing more posts.
regards
Bob
Oh, it is often helpful to include the Exif data - I believe there is an option to include it in the Flickr upoad process, don't recall exactly where.
<EDIT> re-reading your post: f4 gives you nice DOF, especially in #3 with both fore- and background being thrown out of focus, a higher f-stop would tend to 'flatten' DOF which I do not believe would have helped - I think f4 is fine
Hi Jeff and welcome.
I agree with everything Bob has said. I find these particular lighting conditions especially challenging to capture, trying to hold the subtle greys and still come out with an image that is engaging.
I think Bob's processing nicely illustrates improvements to make the images more dynamic. And 3 and 4 are my favorites, because of the use of repetitive elements and capturing paths along an angle.
Scott
number 3 is my favourite but with all respect to Bob i prefer your original as i feel that the fog creates that mysteriouness and 'dares' my eye to go further into the picture to explore the unknown. which is also accentuated by the ackward slant of the posts. not our usual straight up and down - the slant gives me a slightly 'uncomfortable' or 'unusual' feeling. just my opinion though. however, Bob's recreation of your 4th picture is superb. that glow is the start to an absolutely beautiful day!! and yes...well done with capturing the fog. i usually manage to either hide everything behind it or blow it all out.
Thank you all for the input. I'm using Aperture 2 for my post-processing haven't figured out what everything does yet. I also have Photoshop Elements, but don't use it much.
Mark, I like what you did with the color in #1. I don't know what an s-curve is. Is that something I can do in Aperture, or another program? Also, how did you remove the bright green? I wanted to remove it, but didn't know quite how to do it.
Bob, I like what you did with #4. It evokes a completely different feeling than the original.
Thanks again for your help. I've going to spend some more time on these after the holidays, see if I can recreate what you've suggested.
Jeff, removing the green spots was actually fairly easy. (This is coming from a mostly Photoshop novice, so when I say it's easy, I really mean it.) In Photoshop CS3 and Elements, there is something called a "clone stamp tool'. You select that tool, hold down the ALT key to select the area to replace with (PC here) and then click to clone it in. The S-curve is something that I learned from reading about Photoshop. In CS3 I go to IMAGE, ADJUSTMENT, CURVES. This will pull up a very useful tool, which I actually use on every image. Down towards the bottom there is a histogram, which you can use like levels to slide around the white point, black point and grays and the top part looks like a graph with a diagonal line. Move the cursor to the middle of the line and click. Next I usually go about half way between the midpoint and the bottom of the line, click and hold and drag the line slightly to the right. Notice that as you drag the lower line the uppper goes a little bit the other way. Stop when it looks right to you and it will make a slight S-curve.
The end result of making an S-curve is increasing the contrast in the photo. I find curves to be one of the most powerful tools in Photoshop, and unfortunately i don't know if it is in Elelments. If not, it might be worth the upgrade. Also, if you have any further questions on Aperture, Elements or Photoshop any version feel free to post your questions on the Post-Processing and Printing forum. Great people on FM.
