mcbroomf wrote:
The sky was in fact very bright to my eye, but once the camera "saw" it, it dropped the EVF brightness way down and I pretty much saw this and captured it, dropping the exposure to kill the shadows and keep the clouds.
Mike
Have you tried using graduated ND filters? It's a nice sky, but details in the foreground are completely lost. A grad filter would have been helpful in this situation, just a tip.
Took my daughter out for a walk, whilst messing around with the settings etc she brought me this leaf and I snapped her with in camera B&W processing. This is a jpeg straight out of camera: f2 1/85 ISO200.
briantho wrote:
Have you tried using graduated ND filters? It's a nice sky, but details in the foreground are completely lost. A grad filter would have been helpful in this situation, just a tip.
Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. I like the shot as is.
**The entire story of how this picture was captured**
I went to work (military) to take photos of a promotion ceremony. Only brought the K20D and DA* 50-135, since it was my fastest lens. I would need a fast lens because the ceremony was indoors and dark.
Little did I know, almost everyone had Monday off. Well, I was already on base, with camera, so I decided to drive to the uninhabited part of the base and look for photos.
There is a particular small bridge where this Egret loves to fish; I've seen him there many times. Since I was wearing camouflage, I decided to sit next to the concrete bridge, blend in, and see if he would fly to his normal hunting ground (I had scared him off when I initially approached).
30 minutes pass and nothing, except a smaller egret swooping in to try to fish, then flying away when he saw me.
I'm *literally* starting to stand up when this egret comes swooping to his spot, but being very cautious.
I sat motionless. I knew I'd have to sit very still for quite a while before he would get close enough for me to capture with my rather short lens. I was afraid my mirror slap or focus beep (yeah, I forgot to turn it off) would scare him away, but it only initially made him cautious and then he ignored it.
One hour later and he had edged about 40 feet from where I sat. I was so close to the water that I had earlier noticed the snake swimming underneath (it wasn't very deep), but I thought the snake had gone down the stream.
All of a sudden the egret pokes his head down and I see snake come up with him, and I was ready with burst shooting. I initially thought the egret had caught the snake, the snake had bitten the bird, or the egret had just tried to piss the snake off.
Only later, at my computer, did I realize they had captured the same exact fish, simultaneously.
I was grilling kabobs and really liked how the colors looked, so grabbed my camera and decided to practice. I took me 7 tries to get the image I wanted. The first were too close, did not show enough surrounding. Then I backed up but then showed too much grill. I snapped a few more but they were boring. Just as I framed this, some charcoal fell and made a few sparks....I like.
cputeq, the bbq looks really tasty! Perfect exposure too, and the smooth / overcast light gives it some surreal quality, and definitely good pop there!
I'd like to share one that I'm very happy with, too...
I've been in the Netherlands for 1.5 years now, and there's still a couple of places that I really need to see. One of those is Kinderdijk, a collection of 20 or so traditional windmills. There's a pretty iconic / postcard take on the scene (really, every tourist shop sells it, you can't escape it!). I kind of fear places like that, you know, it's like going to Paris and taking a picture of the Eiffel tower - everything's been done and most certainly better than I could ever hope to do. But nevertheless, yesterday the weather seemed reasonably fine (no rain at least) so me and two friends decided to cycle there. I was happy to see a somewhat interesting sky (not plain gray as it usually is, and not plain blue, either).
First I tried to shoot the windmills with CY 25/2.8 since that was the lens I had mounted already, even though I was almost certain that it will be much too wide. Usually I would've used 35-70/3.4 for this, but since it's awaiting repair, no can do!
After that I tried a longer lens at ~100 mm, and got more of what the traditional shot is: Kinderdijk Postcard View by Johann D, on Flickr
When I returned home, after some cropping and small saturation boost on the foreground to bring out the green grass with flowers a bit more, I liked this one the most: Kinderdijk by Johann D, on Flickr
I like that it takes a second or two before the windmills draw attention, yet once you notice them you can recognize the place immediately! It shows hints of spring, which I'm glad to finally see just around the corner now! Also I'm happy to get some use out of the 25
jotdeh wrote:
I like that it takes a second or two before the windmills draw attention, yet once you notice them you can recognize the place immediately! It shows hints of spring, which I'm glad to finally see just around the corner now! Also I'm happy to get some use out of the 25
Nice. It has been many years since I was at that place. I had forgotten about this slide, until I scanned it recently. I am not sure whether these are the same windmills as in your captures; some trees must have disappeared. I think I used the Sonnar 2.8/135. Kodachrome colors:
last night whilst running a workshop the group was quite happy on there own, so managed to finally get my zuiko 24mm in to some field action!
three shots blended, two for the water, one for the sky f11 iso 100
Toothwalker wrote:
Nice. It has been many years since I was at that place. I had forgotten about this slide, until I scanned it recently. I am not sure whether these are the same windmills as in your captures; some trees must have disappeared. I think I used the Sonnar 2.8/135. Kodachrome colors:
Finally had a few moments of sunshine right at sunset after two weeks of bad weather. Snapped this with my new to me Contarex Blitz-Planar 50mm f2 @f2.8 on NEX5N.
It's beautiful light and beautifully composed, but I think I'd have given up the little bit of sharpness on the subject to get perfectly round specular highlights by shooting wide open here...the ninja-star bokeh is rather distracting.
I took a couple versions of this image but ultimately this slightly overcooked version is my favorite so far. I've been pondering what it means to overcook my images as I see some of that happening here maybe not in this thread but in this forum. While I still personally prefer images that mostly look out of camera natural, I can appreciate photos where an individual photo has had an hour or two of work done in post.
Still, I think what separates good post work and not as good is how "natural" the images feel. Like porn, you know it when you see it.
Another test here is that this image is being hosted in "High Quality" at facebook. I'm curious if their new quality JPG engine is very good or not.
FlyPenFly wrote:
Another test here is that this image is being hosted in "High Quality" at facebook. I'm curious if their new quality JPG engine is very good or not.
jpginess is evident.
still better than it used to be on facebook though.
This was staken yesterday (sunday) high up on the south downs national park in the UK. this is one of the more iconic places for a view with that dead Oak tree that has been there many years now standing proud.
I have photographed this scene many time and in differeing conditions and this year it seems that oil seed rape features on the farmers order book. i hope to return later this week when the weather clears as sunrise is nearly bang opposite. http://www.sussexlandscapephotography.co.uk/VU2R6852_1.jpg
1dsmk2 and cy28 2.8 @f11
single image with just a slight sat increase and a little contrast. no filters or blending required.
