Official Photography Thread

[swampfrog]

Our skies have been smoky for the last couple of weeks. We had planned to hike up to see the wild flowers last weekend, yet weren't sure what the air would be like. Lucky for us, the day before we went was pretty windy and the smoke in our area was taken care of. It was a beautiful day:
[ATTACH]8106[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]8107[/ATTACH]

Where did you go? I haven't bothered to even try to go anywhere recently after our coast trip. Ridiculously hazy. Looks nice.

[Northwestcoug]

Where did you go? I haven't bothered to even try to go anywhere recently after our coast trip. Ridiculously hazy. Looks nice.

Canyon Meadow Creek trail near Three-Fingered Jack mountain in Oregon. It's a relatively easy ~6 mile round trip hike to the base of the mountain. We've been wanting to go for a long time, but the last few years we would either miss the flower bloom or there was still a lot of snow when we'd want to go.

[Katy Lied]

Northwestcoug: do you have a canon?

Swampfrog: the single pelican shot is fantastic. This is where I struggle with these kinds of pictures: I instinctively expose for the lighter areas, so the darker areas (shown in the snip below) would be dark and undifferentiated.
Pel.jpg

[Northwestcoug]

Northwestcoug: do you have a canon?

Swampfrog: the single pelican shot is fantastic. This is where I struggle with these kinds of pictures: I instinctively expose for the lighter areas, so the darker areas (shown in the snip below) would be dark and undifferentiated.
[ATTACH]8109[/ATTACH]

Yes, a Canon 7D.

[swampfrog]

Northwestcoug: do you have a canon?

Swampfrog: the single pelican shot is fantastic. This is where I struggle with these kinds of pictures: I instinctively expose for the lighter areas, so the darker areas (shown in the snip below) would be dark and undifferentiated.
[ATTACH]8109[/ATTACH]

That's is part exposure, part processing. Shooting flight almost always requires manual mode. ETTR is still very good practice for nature.

Note the Histogram doesn't quite touch the right side, though because of the white cap on the pelican is such a small part of the total picture, there is probably data right up to the far right edge. If I had let the camera decide what was correct, the entire histogram would move to the left to "center" the peaks which are really the background and sky. I don't care about properly exposing the background and sky, so I can't let the camera make the decision on shooting parameters. This was 1/2500 f/5.6 ISO 650 at 560mm.
histogram.JPG

Here's what the original capture looks like in that area.
pelican feet.JPG

The latest sensors are continually getting better such that recovering detail in dark areas is possible without as much noise as with past sensors.

[tooblue]

Shot these a few days ago; messed up the ISO, but ...

Original with basic colour edits:
mistonfield2.jpg

with HDR toning:
mistonfield2a.jpg

Original with basic colour edits (no desire to edit further):
mistonfield3.jpg

[swampfrog]

Shot these a few days ago; messed up the ISO, but ...

Original with basic colour edits:
[ATTACH]8112[/ATTACH]

with HDR toning:
[ATTACH]8113[/ATTACH]

Original with basic colour edits (no desire to edit further):
[ATTACH]8114[/ATTACH]

What did you do wrong with the ISO? The original capture looks clean (but noise is hard to assess on web-sized pictures), and properly exposed (didn't blow out the sky, yet there is still detail in the darker areas). Lots of different ways to process. The HDR toning approach is nice, give off a cool feeling which I don't do often enough. I seem to always gravitate towards warm.

[Katy Lied]

What did you do wrong with the ISO? The original capture looks clean (but noise is hard to assess on web-sized pictures), and properly exposed (didn't blow out the sky, yet there is still detail in the darker areas). Lots of different ways to process. The HDR toning approach is nice, give off a cool feeling which I don't do often enough. I seem to always gravitate towards warm.

Yeah the original pic with your basic color edit is amazing. I like that better than the HDR version.

[tooblue]

What did you do wrong with the ISO? The original capture looks clean (but noise is hard to assess on web-sized pictures), and properly exposed (didn't blow out the sky, yet there is still detail in the darker areas). Lots of different ways to process. The HDR toning approach is nice, give off a cool feeling which I don't do often enough. I seem to always gravitate towards warm.

My ISO is too high, there is just too much dot gain (noise, graininess) in the originals. That is literally the only image I have ever liked after applying HDR toning. Normally, I dislike HDR toned images, but this time I made an effort learning to adjust the settings myself, instead of relying on the canned solutions in the drop down menu.

I'm a novice photographer, but quite good at post-editing.

[tooblue]

Yeah the original pic with your basic color edit is amazing. I like that better than the HDR version.

I prefer the original also, but I was, for the first time ever, really pleased with the HDR toning results. My favourite image is the last one of my two youngest. They were the one's who noticed the mist and rushed into the house, telling me to get my camera. It's a much nicer image, larger and not compressed—its kinda got a spooky vibe, that my boys really liked.

[swampfrog]

The next morning was an early visit to Cannon Beach. We arrived before sunrise and stayed through the morning.

Seagull in early morning light (need to go back to this one and clean up the noise in the sky):


The pre-dawn light was fantastic that morning with some really great skies. I really should have setup the tripod and done longer exposures, but there were so many different images I wanted to make that I opted to go to ISO 1600 and shoot quickly.


Before the color erupted.


The bird makes this one.


Overemphasized the colors here. Wide angle vertical.


And the super wide angle landscape. Just a beautiful morning that corresponded with a fairly low tide.

[falafel]

Yeah the original pic with your basic color edit is amazing. I like that better than the HDR version.

Same.

[swampfrog]

Yeah the original pic with your basic color edit is amazing. I like that better than the HDR version.

My ISO is too high, there is just too much dot gain (noise, graininess) in the originals. That is literally the only image I have ever liked after applying HDR toning. Normally, I dislike HDR toned images, but this time I made an effort learning to adjust the settings myself, instead of relying on the canned solutions in the drop down menu.

I'm a novice photographer, but quite good at post-editing.

Same.

There are things I like about the HDR toning, and some I don't, but it's completely a preference thing. Having played with a lot of post-processing techniques (master of none), I'm a fan of blatant artistic license to treat the original as a starting point. I like what it did in the middle third of the photo, including the fence post. The bottom third with the flowers is just a bit too light for me and I don't care for the blue in the sky, I liked the purple better.

Was the vignette from the original capture, or was it added in post?

For composition, I'd get rid of the vignette (if possible), cut about 1/9th of the top off, and take 1/6 or so off on the right.

Something like this (some minor adjustments made to the original with Google Photos):

[Katy Lied]

I need help if you've got it. I will be on the Bonneville Salt flats tomorrow. Unfortunately at sunset because I have other plans at sunrise. I want to take some ethereal photos, but so far I have had no luck. I will be taking my Nikon D40 and my Nikon D300 and my good fisheye lens (Nikon 16mm f2.8). Last time I took pictures there, they weren't very good. Kind of like this photo (which I didn't take and may be copyrighted):
Snip2.jpg

I want to take something pictures more like these: (not taken by me)

The photo looks backlit but I am mystified how.


I think especially the second one is doable at sunset. Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

[Jeff Lebowski]

I need help if you've got it. I will be on the Bonneville Salt flats tomorrow. Unfortunately at sunset because I have other plans at sunrise. I want to take some ethereal photos, but so far I have had no luck. I will be taking my Nikon D40 and my Nikon D300 and my good fisheye lens (Nikon 16mm f2.8). Last time I took pictures there, they weren't very good. Kind of like this photo (which I didn't take and may be copyrighted):

I want to take something pictures more like these: (not taken by me)

The photo looks backlit but I am mystified how.


I think especially the second one is doable at sunset. Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

I don't have any suggestions, but that last photo. Wow!

Maybe my suggestion is to skip the drive and learn how to use Photoshop.