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| Group |
Round |
C/R |
Comment |
Date |
Image |
| 67 |
Feb 21 |
Comment |
Richard: Our photo club is going through the same thing. We have decided that you can use sky replacement or texture backgrounds so long as you took the picture of the sky or texture. Luminar and PS both have preloaded skies, but our club would consider that out of bounds if you submitted it in competition. So for the pic I subm itted for our PSA group, I took the landscape in Montana and the sky in northern VA, where I live. The trick is to make it look believable. Thanks for your comments. |
Feb 26th |
| 67 |
Feb 21 |
Comment |
Thanks Bud. I hadn't thought about using NIK Color Efex Pro. I'll give it a try! |
Feb 20th |
| 67 |
Feb 21 |
Reply |
Thanks, Michael. LIke Larry said, if I had not told you that the sky was replaced, I'm not sure too many people would have noticed. |
Feb 17th |
| 67 |
Feb 21 |
Comment |
The Beartooth range was my first experience of the Rocky Mountains and they took my breath away!! Compositionally you have two triangles that are appealing. The sugar coating on the far range is terrific.
Several suggestions for improvement. Suggest that you might have used a narrower aperture, like f18-22 so that the trees in the foreground and on the right edge are sharp. The other way to play it is to get close to an interesting foreground element like a =tree and let the background mountains go soft. You could deepen the blue of the sky by using a polarizer. Consider shooting landscapes during the first or last several hours of the day, when you get some interesting colors in the sky and longer shadow that help define the subject.
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Feb 8th |
| 67 |
Feb 21 |
Comment |
I sure don't have a cedar waxwing in my portfolio, so kudos to you!! The head and eye of the bird a tack sharp and so is the berry he is about to swallow! You've captured a terrific moment. I also like that you have reversed the image from the original. for some reason having the bird face left works better for me.
Areas for improvement: I am not sure what the yellowish blur on the bird's lower breast is? Is it a leaf that was blowing? But you shot it at 1/1250, which should be plenty fast to eliminate motion blur. There is a branch just behind the middle of the bird that is horizontal to the frame. To my eye it is too brigh. you can easily tone it down in LR or PS. The same might be said of teh branch taht the bird is perched on. Darken slightly. |
Feb 8th |
| 67 |
Feb 21 |
Comment |
Larry,
Love the story of you stalking the bird!
The subject is well framed with room on the right where the bire is headed. It seems sharp on the bird's head and eye and you got some catch light in the eye! Well done. You successfully blurred out the background to a soft sand brown.
Because you shot so wide open, however, the bird's mid-body through its tail are soft. I would recommend an f8 or so. Another suggestion would be to blur out the sand on the right in post processing. It is sharp so it takes my eye away fdrom the subject. |
Feb 3rd |
| 67 |
Feb 21 |
Comment |
Jason,
Nice moment! I particularly like the reflections and the elephants. I'm surprised that you were able to get decent sharpness on the elephants on the right, given that you shot this at f5.
I am most troubled by the bald sky. Seeing the original, I'm not sure what you could have done about it. I'm not sure it really qualifies as "high key," given the dark shades in the water reflections. I also think that the lead elephant's ear is far too bright. What to do? Enjoy it for yourself or perhaps experiment with sky replacement in PS or Luminar? |
Feb 3rd |
| 67 |
Feb 21 |
Comment |
Michael,
Love the simplicity of this composition. Personally, I am always challenged by silhouettes. You have elected to show some detail in the dark areas, which is I think the right choice. You also have the 2 birds almost separated. I love teh soft background asd well.
I am troubled by a few white specks on the tree stump, which you can of course easily eliminate in LR or PS. A little ore disturbing to me is the glow around the stumps. That is a flag to me that you probably have over processed this. |
Feb 3rd |
| 67 |
Feb 21 |
Reply |
Larry, Thanks for your thoughtful comments. Yes, I own a set of ND filters, but failed to use them on this scene. Thanks for the reminder. My goal for this shot would be to enter it into my camera club competition, if I could get it to look natural. Our club permits sky replacement if both images (sky and landscape) were taken by the photographer. You confirmed what I feared, which is that the scene is not quite "natural." I'll try it as a B&W as you suggersted. Thanks again. |
Feb 2nd |
| 67 |
Feb 21 |
Reply |
Thanks, Jason. I have been concerned about whether the sky looked over processed. I hadn't noticed the tree line problem, so thanks for that tip. |
Feb 1st |
7 comments - 3 replies for Group 67
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7 comments - 3 replies Total
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