|
| Group |
Round |
C/R |
Comment |
Date |
Image |
| 36 |
Mar 24 |
Reply |
Thanks Bill
I do like the clouds, but I was sweating bullets hoping for a break for the moon to show through as the night was cloudy. I got lucky, even with all the planning.
There are some indirect spot lights aimed upward but the detail was revealed in Photoshop, some masking and a lot of fine brushing.
Yep, I've got a 600mm prime. In another lifetime I shot college football, basketball and baseball (some girl's softball too) I needed the 600. It is a really sweet lens and is also great for my wildlife shots. Its heavy but I'll take it gladly because I just love the results. But truth be told. I love my 200-400 f4 more And yes, they set me back a few drachma, but they have paid for themselves and then some. |
Mar 18th |
| 36 |
Mar 24 |
Reply |
Thank you for commenting, I appreciate it. |
Mar 7th |
| 36 |
Mar 24 |
Reply |
Trying to understand the "Bard" who does the Photopills videos is a challenge. I still he more to learn. |
Mar 6th |
| 36 |
Mar 24 |
Comment |
I like moody somewhat dreamy images and this is one of those. I like the soft light and the feeling of moving into an endless world. Personally I might drop the tree on the far right as it seems to spread out the image and I try a lower camera angle to make the viewer feel more like they are IN the image rather than looking over it. |
Mar 6th |
| 36 |
Mar 24 |
Comment |
You have a nice image of a magnificent gorge. However as you note the light is rather flat and it takes away the drama that the gorge would have under better lighting conditions. The only suggestion I can offer is that you might check out some of Matt Kloskowski's Youtube videos on processing. He using a lot of gradients to bring interest to otherwise ordinary images. |
Mar 6th |
| 36 |
Mar 24 |
Comment |
You seem to always be in the location when you can get these lovely moody, emotional images. I like the group of three element, the odd number works well. I'm always a fan of limited color palettes and this fall right into the category. The limited colors certainly ake each element stand out and draw attention. There seems to be so much balance, the sky in the upper left against the open see in the lower right. The massive rock formations to balance each other. It all just fits correctly.
I do have a tiny nit to pick on and that is I wish you had taken this either a minute early or a minute later. To me there is a dark cloud on the left side of the highest peak and seems to blend into the rock. Shooting just a moment earlier or later would have either hidden that cloud behind the peak or separated it so there would be space between it and the rock. But that is really being picky. It is another lovely image of a place you make me want to visit.
|
Mar 6th |
| 36 |
Mar 24 |
Comment |
Well I'm glad to see someone else has the same boring sunrise and snowless rocks that I had. I was pretty much in the same spot, just at sealevel.
You do have some nice color on the right side cliffs and I like the way the light brings out the texture of the rocks. That is the trouble with being a tourist, you don't get to pick the weather. Still it is a pleasing image of Acadia. |
Mar 6th |
| 36 |
Mar 24 |
Comment |
You certainly found a sky that has impact based on color and you framed the image quite nicely. In my opinion a sky is never enough to carry an image. It needs context. I feel the couple sitting on the bench are small and somewhat hidden in that they are dark and are essentially on a dark background. Since the sky pretty much the same throughout I would suggest cropping a lest a third from the top.. This would retain the impact of the sky,but would also make the couple in the foreground a bit larger and make them seem like part of the story. |
Mar 6th |
5 comments - 3 replies for Group 36
|
| 67 |
Mar 24 |
Comment |
Hi Susan.
It is the end of the month and I was going back through all the images submitted but couldn't find my comment. I know I wrote one weeks ago. Anyway, sorry don't know where it went but I can write another comment below.
Birds in flight are easy if you just use a fast shutter speed. Yours is plenty fast so no problem. While birds in flight are nice, having them doing something raises the quality of the image. So now you have an image that will qualify for Nature Competition. Well done. I think your original crop has two flaws. The dark band of color really should be cropped of--it is a distraction and with wild life you should always leave space for them to move into. Working in digital yuou don't have to crop for any particular size or ratio. Just cropp so your subject looks its best and all will be good.
The processing looks pretty good as well. You do not have blocked shadows or burned highlights so that is great. There seems to be a bit of a halo around the bird. That only happens if something is over done in processing, The likely causes are too much contrast, over sharpening or opening shadows too much. The best rule of thumb for fixing is just to reduce each step of your processing until it goes away and and then carefully continue your processing.
Getting a sharp bird in flight is a huge step forward for you. So kudos to you. The next one will be easier. |
Mar 29th |
| 67 |
Mar 24 |
Reply |
You are most kind.
I met a woman who chased lighting and usually shot along the Florida east coast. I found her lightning shots boring because the long exposure calmed the ocean and the flat water just didn't seem right with stormy skies. The big trick is to see the horizon. When the storms are far away you don't get much lightning high in the sky. You have to have the storm coming in close to the strikes high in the frame.
I had dinner one night at the Crazy Crab in Hilton Head. There was a little harbor with small shut down lighthouse. From the Harbor you could look west to the sunset and there was a lot of open sky with horizon. |
Mar 26th |
| 67 |
Mar 24 |
Reply |
Thanks Michael
This forum is about learning photography so I try to offer ideas when I can. We are never too old to learn. I've got the old part mastered. Now I'm working on the learning part. My plan was to make this look vast--it is one of the things I often thing about when in the everglades |
Mar 18th |
| 67 |
Mar 24 |
Reply |
Thanks Cindy. While there are of course, no guarantees to anything when the storm is miles away and this was likely 10 miles or more, This is about as safe as it gets. Note I was also sitting in a car with rubber tires and that also helps.
I agree about the crop with a vertical possibility but in this case my intent was to show the vastness of the everglades. (Plus it is easier to capture lightning when you have more sky area in play. :-)
I'm trying to do things that others are not doing (or that not many others are doing) just to have something more original. Same concept as with Moroni in group #36. No one else has that shot. We have the technology to figure these things out so I'm trying. |
Mar 18th |
| 67 |
Mar 24 |
Reply |
Thanks Bud. I've been practicing lightning shots for years and I've learned to pick the kind of skies that I think work best. Usually skies that have those heavy cloud banks---note the clouds at the bottom of this sky. I always use the lowest ISO (64) and as it gets darker just reduce the f stop. Some times I'll add a neutral density filter or a polarizer (it works the same). It is very flexible I just take what the light gives and and change on the fly. I actually never look at the actual setting, just dial in what I need. I get just as many,if not more, keepers than my friend who use triggers. But this night I was by myself---that's when I shoot my best. |
Mar 14th |
| 67 |
Mar 24 |
Reply |
I know, but I could have been killed in traffic driving home. But this way I have a really cool )maybe HOT) photo
Thanks for the compliment. But I think you are right there is a spiritual quality to this. It really is one of my best lightning shots. |
Mar 11th |
| 67 |
Mar 24 |
Reply |
This is the result of 40 years of shooting in the everglades Lots of practice and experience. The everglades are sooooo flat and vast that you can see for miles. The storm is actually pretty far away. And in my description I said I left early. :-)
Thanks for the compliment.
Just a thought---I want people on this list to notice how hard I work to get a photo and how little is left to chance. This is a shooting style I have chosen. to adopt. Preparation, and intent (matched with good technique) produces good results. Check out my image in Group 36 this month. There was some serious planning there.
This forum is really about learning from each other so we all become better photographers. |
Mar 11th |
| 67 |
Mar 24 |
Reply |
Sorry I did a poor job on this, but the file size was really small to work with. This is my interpretation, It likely does not match yours but I tried to put some life into the image. |
Mar 6th |
 |
| 67 |
Mar 24 |
Comment |
I've been back to this image now for several days trying to decide just what to do with it. I think (at least for today) that I would lose the cloud. Everything else seems to be so dark and the cloud, with its warm color seems to take over the image. It is like the rest of the scene is just not relevant. I feel that scene has so many possibilities that I would recompose using a strong center of interest and make the image about the scene and not the sky. |
Mar 6th |
| 67 |
Mar 24 |
Comment |
Like you mentioned these guys do a lot of hanging around ready to dive on some poor unsuspecting meal, they are characters. This image feel like the name in the lower corner should be Audubon. It somehow look like painting, Normally I would say the greens in the background are just to fake but here they seem to fit with the colors of the bird. The bird is sharp and well exposed. I do think you could crop that blue off the top. It just introduces a color that is not helping the overall image. And while you are cropping get the clone tool and on the right edge just above the branch there is a small dark brownish spot. Just clone it out so the entire background will have no distractions. I like the greenie image, even if he is perched on a stick and I think Audubon would agree. |
Mar 6th |
| 67 |
Mar 24 |
Comment |
I find it amazing how such a small group of penguins can so nicely balance that massive mountain on the far right. But that is exactly what they do. I'm fascinated by the number of rising diagonal lines you have included in the image. May that is what contributes to the feeling of balance. It is a interesting composition that seems well thought out.
The foreground seems much more alive than the mountain in the background. The mountain just seems flat and dull. It there any way you can bring that background to life. I'm think maybe a dehaze adjustment, maybe some contrast and texture. But I'mpretty confident that it would be more striking if that mountain came to life. |
Mar 6th |
| 67 |
Mar 24 |
Reply |
No problem for the original. you could have sent the four originals just as long as each was under 1MB. But I would have just merged them and resized the merged image keeping the total to less than 1MB.
|
Mar 4th |
| 67 |
Mar 24 |
Reply |
Only the edited v e rsion is posted becasue that is all that was submitted. |
Mar 3rd |
| 67 |
Mar 24 |
Comment |
Really a lovely shot of a bird most of us will never see or even hear of. The colors work well as green and semi red are complimentary. The image is critically sharp and the blurred part of the background just serves to show how small the bird actually is. There is nothing wrong with this image and it could stand as is. As a judge I would suggest 3 minor details that would give it slightly more visual appeal. I would suggest perhaps a small crop from the top to remove the black inthe upper left corner and then a bit of a crop in from the left side to balance the image. The bird is placed quite far to the right and that leaves a great deal of space in from of the bird into which he could move. But it also makes it look like the bird was places to far to the right. Cropping a bit off the left makes the image look more balanced. see attachment below. Third, there is a small blackhole behind the bird. Your background is really beautiful as it is not the usually artificial looking bokeh but entirely natural, it looks, well, actually natural. For this reason I would slightly open the shadow of the black hold so as just to provide a bit of detail to enhance the natural look. (I didn't do that on my cropped sample below---but you could) :-) |
Mar 3rd |
 |
| 67 |
Mar 24 |
Reply |
They are well earned. If I saws this in a PSA competition in the Nature Division I would be arguing that it deserves a Medal. Which one would depend on the others in the competition but this gets on the podium. This is a simple image but it has real Visual WOW! Plus some emotion. |
Mar 1st |
| 67 |
Mar 24 |
Comment |
I'll write my full review later but i just had to make the following comment.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE SIMPLICITY OF THIS BUT THE SYMMETRY AND FRAMING OF THE PAIR MAKES THIS AN OFF THE CHARTS AMAZING IMAGE!
Having strong visual impact is the easiest way to draw in a viewer. High Key, rarely used in wildlife photography, immediately draws attention. Subject separation from the background is another useful tool, your snow background immediately sets apart the coyotes. Simplicity is an image style that beginners seldom use but pros understand its value. when there are few elements in an image each one takes on greater important with only the coyotes here their impact a truly great. The use of a limited color palette works like simplicity as the eye doesn't get caught up in a maze of color and can concentrate on the few that are present. This composition is built around the sweeping curve of tails and the arched backs of the coyotes, even the ears barely break that arch. Additionally there are several repeating arches in the scene including thesnow they stand on the curving arch of the neck of the coyote on theroight completed with the belly of the coyote on the left. Technically the image is beautifully sharp, the coats of the coyotes fairly shine, and you have captured the eyes of both animals with a yellow glow that separates and draws attention to the eyes. The light is soft and this brings out the detail in the snow across the bottom.
There is nothing not to like in the image. It is a show stopper. |
Mar 1st |
6 comments - 10 replies for Group 67
|
11 comments - 13 replies Total
|
