Project 52 by Ron (ronlane)

[ronlane]

Thanks for the input Geoff. The blue sky is one thing I wished I could have gotten. It's worth a retake either early in the morning or late in the evening. This was taken about 3:30 pm so the sun was bright even with the storms in the area.

On the Crop, would it make sense to let the tracks ron diagonal from lower left out of the from upper right?

You are right about the 24-105 but I am going to get one, eventually.

[Geoff F]

With regard to the tracks, Ron, I think you need to take a lot of different angles and see which works best.

You certainly need to give the impression of tracks going on forever, into the sky. And make sure that the foreground is sharp.

Also try different shooting heights.

Too often, I have found that with scenes like this either my first couple of preparatory shots or the last couple, which are just shot without much thought after I considered that I had already captured the correct angles, often work out best.

[ronlane]

Here are the cropped versions of the last two as suggested by Geoff.


IMG_5476 crop by Ron_Lane, on Flickr


IMG_5474 crop by Ron_Lane, on Flickr

[Geoff F]

That is better, Ron; but think I may try cropping the first edit even closer at the bottom then add some selective sharpening of the foreground plus a little blur of the far distance to 'stretch the line' even further.

I think it would give the appearance of making the line seem more diagonal; as you previously mentioned.

https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/fo...7&d=1347387662

Just a thought.

[ronlane]

Geoff,

Went back to the raw file and then tried something different on this one. It's all PP, where I used another picture of the sky.


IMG_5476 blue sky by Ron_Lane, on Flickr

It's the cheesy way to do it and I have a LOT of work to get good at it, but what do you think? Does it help it?

[Geoff F]

That has considerably lengthened the line. Looks as though it goes on for infinity now.

[ronlane]

Wow, I did something right

Thanks for all the help Geoff, I appreciate it a lot.

[ronlane]

I may get some more pictures for this week, but I saw a video this morning and decided to do some portraits of my youngest. He was in a great mood this morning and we laughed as we took these.

[FrankMi]

It's all PP, where I used another picture of the sky. It's the cheesy way to do it and I have a LOT of work to get good at it, but what do you think? Does it help it?

Hi Ron, it does for me. If you are interested in doing a sky replacements, here is a link to some tips for this that I provided a while back: Project 52 by Frank Miller

[ronlane]

Thanks Frank. I will take some time and try that.

[Geoff F]

You have certainly captured the moment with these shots, Ron. And they are quite sharp considering the low shutter speed. I would have considered double what you used to still be a little slow.

I wonder if the second shot is a fraction high on the blue channel.

[ronlane]

You have certainly captured the moment with these shots, Ron. And they are quite sharp considering the low shutter speed. I would have considered double what you used to still be a little slow.

I wonder if the second shot is a fraction high on the blue channel.

It may be. I wb'ed them all with the eyes, but that one just came out different. I used a low shutter because of the lighting. We were using the natural light of the window to the right (our right). I see the improvement but I'm still frustrated because I know they could be better.

Thanks for the c&c.

[ronlane]

I was outside yesterday afternoon, watching the kids playing with friends and thought I would continue to work on portraits and lighting. This was natural lighting with on camera flash (that's all I have at the moment). C&C please.

I should have probably cropped it closer from the top to keep the blownout background out of it, but I wanted to share this one with their mom.


IMG_5843 by Ron_Lane, on Flickr

[ronlane]

Here is another portrait. Please let me know what you think.

[Geoff F]

Something looks odd here, Ron.

The focus, pose, etc, is perfect; but the light appears to be coming from the right. In which case, why is there a shadow on the right?

Shadows can be a tricky problem, unless you have the correct lighting equipment. Although they can sometimes be used to create a bit of extra 'depth' to a subject.

I'm not sure about the foliage in the background. I can see your intention but has it worked or just added distraction?

ps. The previous shot is very good, with natural expressions.

[ronlane]

Thanks for the input Geoff. I think I can help you solve that problem. The natural light was on the right from a window. On the left, I had a reflector and was using the on camera flash to help fill in the shadows. I need to get an off camera flash or a diffuser for the on camera. Having the camera on portrait is why the flash is coming from that direction.

The foliage is on the wall and I keep forgetting to take it down when I use this spot in my house. (Early morning for the lighting) I will be taking it down this weekend and trying some of these again.

Thank you for the comment on the previous shot. I thought it came out well even in the harsh lighting of the afternoon. I was really trying to blur out everything in the background.

[Geoff F]

I didn't realise the foliage was an accident, Ron, I thought you were attempting to get really clever and create a crown effect around her head.

[ronlane]

I didn't realise the foliage was an accident, Ron, I thought you were attempting to get really clever and create a crown effect around her head.

You are trying to give me WAY too much credit for creativity on that . That one and the ones of the boy were taken on Sunday mornings as we were ready for Church and I was in a hurry and forgot to factor that in.

I will take it down and try to redo both him and her this weekend.

[ronlane]

My wonderful wife and son accompanied me to our local photo store, where I tried out a few lenses before buying a new (to me) on camera flash. Here are a couple of the pictures with their glass. It's not L glass but I really think they are better than what I have. Really had to think about buying the 85mm f/1.8, but liked them both.

C&C is welcomed.

1. With the 85mm f/1.8.



2. He sat there most of the time.



3. He was reading his book.

[Geoff F]

Those work OK, Ron. Shooting faces under peaked hats is always troublesome but you have avoided any strong shadows here.

If you do manage to reshoot some of the previous images, I would suggest leaving the originals here and posting the reworkings alongside them.

That creates a useful learning experience for anybody else reading this thread.