Project 52 by Rebecca Humphries

[beckyhumphries]

Difficult to say what is strictly level on the sailing scene.

If we regard the water line as being level, then it is definitely rotated too far clockwise. But that isn't an actual horizon so it may well be correct as it is. River and lake banks are so difficult to work with because receding shoreline is never totally level. And the shoreline is a bit 'wavy' as well.

A slight anti clockwise rotation would place the board more level. But I wonder if that would then become too square. Possibly it looks more natural when slightly heading away from the viewer.

Perhaps, try it and then decide which looks best.

Hi Geoff

Thanks for your comments. Here is an attempted 'straightened version'. I am still not sure it is straight but the grids make it look like it is so here goes...

[Geoff F]

That seems to work OK now.

[beckyhumphries]

Hi all

I thought we were on week 20 but a quick check on the sticky thread for P52 shows it is now week 22 eek!

So moving on with the next set of photos I have chosen my next outing out with the camera, which was to Windsor Horse Show on the 12th May. The weather was lovely and it was a great day out, however I was challenged by the cluttered backgrounds with all manner of people, vehicles, signs, fences, and stands distracting from the subject of my pictures. I was aware of this at the time but given the large size of the show, it was pretty difficult to avoid. I have tried to clone out distractions where possible and also used the blur tool in PP as well as selective contrast enhancements using layers. I also found shooting from sitting down on the grass gave a better viewpoint than standing up, where more clutter was visible.

This first picture was taken from a boat trip along the River Thames in Windsor, of Windsor Castle:

f/11, 1/400sec, iso400 0step, 200mm (35mm equivalent)

Action shot of the driving competition:

f/5.6, 1/500sec, iso200, -0.3exposure, 64mm

Pony club games which were great fun to watch:

f/5.8, 1/1300sec, iso500, -0.3exposure, 280mm

Desperately racing to the finish line:

f/7.1, 1/640sec, iso500, -0.3exposure, 280mm

The England team:

f/7.1, 1/1600sec, iso500, -0.3exposure, 82mm

Beautiful dun horse in the Welsh Section D class:

f/7.1, 1/1000sec, iso500, 0exposure, 108mm

All comments much appreciated.

Thanks, Rebecca

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Rebecca,

Taking these in turn (there's quite a few, which may be putting some people off replying, but I hope saying this will encourage them )

River scene:
The dark trees look just a touch 'muddy' - can you remember which threshold you used when sharpening? I'd try lower by one or two, if you can get away with it without sharpening noise.
I like the boat and the position of the oars in this (and the flag).

Action shot of the driving competition:
I would crop a bit off the right hand side, perhaps just leaving a slither of the vertical post to 'hold the rails up'.
A bit more blur brush used on the bright, distant left would help too.
Full of Action and good timing - we can see both faces and there was only a small chance of that between horses and driver.

Pony club games:
Another one with great timing and plenty of action
My only suggestion beyond what you have already done would be to clone out the open window behind the arm on right.

Desperately racing to the finish line:
Good look of determination on the rider's face
While you have horse+rider on one layer and background on another, don't just stop at selective sharpening/blurring, consider applying other methods too; like reducing the background exposure a tad - and saturation - those flags are awfully attention grabbing, esp the red one - you could have cloned that out and no-one would have known, would they?

The England team:
Quite good, but not as good as some of the others; nothing wrong with it, but it just doesn't grab me as much.
The white rails in background seem to have been sharpened, when missing that would have helped.
A wipe of the dodge brush on the faces might have lightened them a little.

Beautiful dun horse in the Welsh Section D class:
Quite tightly framed or cropped, a bit more space on left would help and you missed blurring a bit of background under the neck/chin of the dun.
Good leg positions and exposure.

On all, I'd be tempted to use the levels dialog to set the grey point at 1.1 before any LCE is applied, plus, as mentioned before, a slightly lower threshold on sharpening.

You may recall I processed a few of your (jpg) shots from this series to print for Mum, they are here for comparison (although much bigger), I think I got a bit more detail in the darker areas of the pictures. Of course, going RAW is the next step

Hope that helps,

[Donald]

I think the gentleman above has captured the relevant technical points.

I do like the dynamism of the driving competition and the pony club games. I always have a notion of all forms of equestrianism being full of power and action. These images capture that in their different ways.

I do like the scenic landscape from the river. A very good example of what can be created when a longer lens is used for this type of photography. It doesn't all have to be done with a wide angle.

[beckyhumphries]

Hi all

Sorry for the long absence, been very busy recently but now the boyfriend has gone abroad for the weekend and the weather is terrible so I have some time to catch up on my P52

This weeks photos were taken from an anniversary weekend in Nottingham.

The first was taken walking along the river where the British Waterways building struck me with its bright red brick colour on a fairly dingy day. I took a number of pictures as I walked past but ended up liking this the best as it had the path 'leading in' to the building (or at least that is the intention).

f/8, 1/500sec, iso640, -0.3exposure, 50mm (35mm equivalent)

The second picture I took after a lovely guided walk around Sherwood Forest, where we got all the attention of our tour guide as we were unfortunately the only two people who showed up! I think this is a great character shot of our tour guide and my boyfriend (who is the one on the left!). Could be a bit sharper perhaps though.

f/5.6, 1/200sec, iso800, 0exposure, 116mm

All comments much appreciated.

Thanks, Rebecca

[Geoff F]

That seems a little strange. One well focused and one a bit soft. Possibly a distance thing due to using a wide aperture?

I would like to have used F8 but you are already at Iso 800 and you probably didn't want to use a slower aperture either.

[beckyhumphries]

Week 22 was taken at the beginning of June over the Jubilee weekend.

W22-1
My first picture is of a blackbird nest, very nicely concealed inside the engine of an old car waiting to be scrapped! Unfortunately they are not the cutest of chicks though... We were able to get very close as they carried on snoozing throughout.

f/5.8, 1/80sec, iso800, 0exposure, 174mm (35mm equivalent)


W22-2
I was trying to make the most of the vibrant flowers in blossom in Langley Park.

f/5, 1/1300sec, iso640, 0exposure, 28mm

W22-3
After watching a couple of bluetits hovering around the same tree with food we noticed that the other side of the tree (away from the path) was a nesthole with chicks that they started feeding as soon as we stepped back a bit. The hole was only about shoulder height and there was another closeby only one or two feet off the ground. They were incredibly quick at getting in and out of the nest so it was difficult on this fairly cloudy day to get the shutter speed up enough to reduce the blur as they quickly flew away, but hopefully these are not too bad.

f/5.6, 1/400sec, iso640, -0.7exposure, 600mm

W22-4

f/5.6, 1/400sec, iso640, -0.7exposure, 600mm

All comments much appreciated.

Thanks, Rebecca

[jprzybyla]

All look great to me Becky. Wondeful shot of the chicks in the nest, so dependent and helpless at that stage. Love the Blue Tits, nice detail and color...good composition.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Rebecca,

W22-1 no suggestions, fine as it is

W22-2 has an unfortunate positioning of the more distant tree directly behind the subject - in fact I'd even suggest cloning it out altogether and re cropping smaller.

W22-3 again, no suggestions, very nicely done

W22-4 I'd do a little more crop from right to eliminate the part bloom and a few tiddly bits of cloning to tidy up some admittedly very minor distractions.

The last two are better than mine of that nest, although you had the focal length advantage

[beckyhumphries]

I am on a mission to get up to date with P52!

Week 23 was taken at Bushy Park near London. I've done a bit of PP on the photo including cloning out a few distracting things in the background.

All comments much appreciated.


f/5.6, 1/320sec, iso200, 0exposure, 600mm (35mm equivalent)

[dje]

Nice capture Rebecca. About the only (minor) suggestion I have is to either reduce the Highllights a little or perhaps use a brightness gradient layer to reduce the brightness of the logs in the front of the picture.

Dave

[Geoff F]

I think I would also have a go at removing those purple spots (flowers?) in the background around it's head.

A good composition.

[beckyhumphries]

I am a bit behind therefore week 24 is my only recent processed photo (I have hundreds waiting to be looked at on the computer!).

This was taken at WWT Arundel and is a picture of my new obsession - the kingfisher. When I started taking wildlife photographs my 'target' bird was the robin. After achieving some half decent photos I then moved onto the heron, and now it is the kingfisher, which is by far the greatest and most exciting challenge due to their shyness and speed. I'm hoping to keep trying to get even better pictures, but I was chuffed getting this picture of it sitting on a branch for about 20 seconds before flying off again. I will definitely be re-visiting the site again - if only I could afford a longer lens to get even closer pictures.


iso 500, 1/500sec, f/5.6, -0.7exposure, 600mm (35mm equivalent)

All comments much appreciated

Rebecca

[FrankMi]

Hi Becky! Glad to see you posting again! You have set yourself quite a challenge in trying to get Kingfisher images, but setting lofty goals and working hard to achieve them is how we grow. Nice colouring and composition.

Perhaps if you ask real sweetly, your Dad will loan you his Nikon P510 so you can get closer to your subject!

[Dave Humphries]

Perhaps if you ask real sweetly, your Dad will loan you his Nikon P510 so you can get closer to your subject!

Ah, but Dad was sat beside her actually using it

[FrankMi]

Ah, but Dad was sat beside her actually using it

...and grinning from ear to ear I'll bet!

[Dave Humphries]

...and grinning from ear to ear I'll bet!

No - cursing the AF more often than not

Perhaps I, or Rebecca, need an SX50HS?

I too got my best ever Kingfisher shots, perhaps I'll post them in my long forgotten P52 thread later for comparison.

They are different, mainly by processing, but they're really not much better* than this one.
* and even that's open to debate

[FrankMi]

No - cursing the AF more often than not

LOL! It can sometimes be frustrating learning how to make the best of a new toy!

Perhaps I, or Rebecca, need an SX50HS?

My guess is that Nikon will also come out with a long lens camera that shoots RAW before long.

I don't have enough comfort just yet to upgrade as my SX40 is still less than a year old and I haven't seen any solid user reviews for the SX50. Tempting though. Very tempting!

I too got my best ever Kingfisher shots, perhaps I'll post them in my long forgotten P52 thread later for comparison.

They are different, mainly by processing, but they're really not much better* than this one.
* and even that's open to debate

That's the trick isn't it? Finding out what tools/techniques really work best then determining if that's the direction we really want to go.

I'd love to see how you made out with the Kingfisher even if you decide to post it to a new thread.

I'll be quiet now before Becky slaps me upside the head for hijacking her thread! Sorry Rebecca!

[beckyhumphries]

Perhaps if you ask real sweetly, your Dad will loan you his Nikon P510 so you can get closer to your subject!

This was taken on our first of two visits to the kingfisher site. From memory the first time he only used his D5000 and I insisted () if he used the P510 next time he would definitely get better pictures, and he sure did. I think we made a good team kingfisher spotting as you definitely need more than one set of eyes to keep a track of where they go! Looking forward to seeing his pictures when they get posted.

Perhaps I, or Rebecca, need an SX50HS?

This comment has probably just cost me £449! You have introduced me to 1200mm when I was wishing I had more than 600mm and that certainly covers it and more! It looks great on paper, I must do more research on handling etc. A lot cheaper than getting a superzoom lens for my camera. But part of me feels bad for 'cheating' on my Panasonic GH2 so I hope I wouldn't use the SX50 too much...

I'll be quiet now before Becky slaps me upside the head for hijacking her thread! Sorry Rebecca!

No of course not Frank, loving to hear all the comments and its been very interesting reading