A day on the hills

[crisscross]

The Malvern Hills are a bit tame compared to Lake District and Scotland (and even more to Rockies etc), but a couple of shots of people enjoying them and who knows what they will go on to

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Chris,

Nice shots, I like both for different reasons; the silhouetted action in #1 and the depth in #2.

I can't help noticing in both you have people touching the edge of frame, was this deliberate?
I probably wouldn't have done that myself, but that's certainly not to say I'm right and if you have a reason, I may learn from you.

Thanks,

[crisscross]

I can't help noticing in both you have people touching the edge of frame, was this deliberate?

You should have been in the diplomatic service Dave, except that diplomats are called on to tell outright lies.

On no1 I have tried nibbling a bit of Mrs' right elbow off, but don't like the result, I think the angle of the top of her arm aligned to the kite seems more important. I did remove Mr's back from the bottom right hand corner, so moving the camera hadn't been an option.

On no2 I did take another a few secs after but then (a) someone else is catching up and breaks the row (b) the gliders aren't as nicely aligned.

Let's say I found them interesting enough as a whole to keep despite less-than-ideal composition details. I am not a perfectionist, but if I belatedly became one it would help cut my galleries down by about 95%!

I have another more conventional one of the girl and kites which I will add later

[Dave Humphries]

No, no, you give me credit where none is due, I really thought I might be 'missing a trick'.

I would have been tempted to graft on rows of five or ten non-descript pixels to give a little breathing space to the edges of frame, just to make my 99.9% attrition rate a little lower.

Thanks for the honesty,

[Yan Zhang]

crisscross,

I like the first picture, it gave a great vision impact. One thing I am not sure: do you think it is better to use a polarizing filter to enhance the sky's color? Since I don't have a such filter, don't know the exact effect, but form I read, it maybe quite useful during the daytime shooting.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Yan,

A polariser might have helped, although it is most effective at 90 degrees (left or right) to where the sun is. In this case, I think the sun is just out of shot top left, so the effect would be less pronounced (in fact maybe there is one, Chris? EXIF says; f16, 1/320, ISO125, so there could be).

When shooting into the sun, the risk would then be from flare introduced by the two extra glass layers which, if not scrupulously clean, would bloom off any dust specs and reduce contrast further.

In this instance, to achieve the effect, maybe a boost of the blues would help in PP, but again, given the sun angle, it might look unnatural if overdone.

Cheers,

[crisscross]

I have uptil recently been unconvinced of the need for filters and none on this one. I have a GND filter on order as I have often found too much difference in exposure between sunward sky and the land or whatever in front. When I have seen how much nuisance the holder, converter ring and filter are compared to the benefit, a polarising one might be next on the list.

In this shot it works better with the figures silhouetted, so dead easy to get this amount of detail into the sky. I am not a great fan of the porcelain blue skies with white cloud style of things and would not choose to take PP further on this pic.

I take photos to help remember and share places or occasions and only take PP as far as capturing an essence much as an artist would. Then stop.

There are a set of PP filters (Effex) that give ready-made effects on top of NX2, but I tried and didn't like them and/or found it better to use the basic software which is pretty effective

[Yan Zhang]

Hi Yan,

A polariser might have helped, although it is most effective at 90 degrees (left or right) to where the sun is. In this case, I think the sun is just out of shot top left, so the effect would be less pronounced (in fact maybe there is one, Chris? EXIF says; f16, 1/320, ISO125, so there could be).

When shooting into the sun, the risk would then be from flare introduced by the two extra glass layers which, if not scrupulously clean, would bloom off any dust specs and reduce contrast further.

In this instance, to achieve the effect, maybe a boost of the blues would help in PP, but again, given the sun angle, it might look unnatural if overdone.

Cheers,

Dave,

Thanks for your input about polarizing filter.

In fact I am considering to buy a Singh Ray warm polarizing filter. I understand it works the most at 90 degree between the lens direction and sun, and therefore will not work well during sunrise and sunset times. But I saw some shots taken during dusk using Singh Ray warm polarizing filters and got a lots of color enhancement. Sometimes, I do take photos during the morning and afternoon where sun is in about 90 degree direction with the lens.

Regards,

Yan

[Colin Southern]

In fact I am considering to buy a Singh Ray warm polarizing filter. I understand it works the most at 90 degree between the lens direction and sun, and therefore will not work well during sunrise and sunset times.

Hi Yan,

It depends on whether it's direct light, or light that's reflecting off an object. At the end of the day, what we're trying to do is remove polarised light.

[Keith]

Very nice Chris, the silhouette being my favourite.

[crisscross]

Thanks Keith - should have thought of it, should have substituted birds for those hang-gliders for you! And maybe a fly-fisherman with one on the end of the line for the silhouette?

[Keith]

Thanks Keith - should have thought of it, should have substituted birds for those hang-gliders for you! And maybe a fly-fisherman with one on the end of the line for the silhouette?

I will try and beat you to it.