Project 52 by Nicola

[Teton Chuck]

Nicola, I too enjoy your landscape photos. You have done some very nice work. I like the revised version of the road leading to the vineyard very much. I also like the boats, but it looks like both situations were tough light conditions.

I enjoy doing bird photography. Just a few things you might want to consider. Looking at the vegetation in the boat photo it appears that it is dormant, perhaps winter. Often it is much easier to photograph birds during their breeding season. Many of them are territorial and will tolerate a person being closer than during the non-breeding season. Next, be prepared to spend a significant amount of time getting a good photo. Sometimes one can luck out, but most of the time it is necessary to work for good photos. Learning about the species you are trying to photograph is very helpful. Try to learn what they eat, where they eat, and where you can position yourself to get a good picture. The prepare to sit for an hour, or two, or three or---. And do keep in mind that patience near a bird feeding station often pays off.

I hope some of this is helpful.

Cheers, Chuck

[Nicola]

Chuck
your feedback is very very helpful!! thank you so much!
I am so ignorant... i was thinking that breeding season were the worst moment...
thanks again!
have a nice day
Nicola

[Nicola]

after the failure of some weeks ago,
this morning I tried again to stack two images in one: I found in my HDD two shots made on the same scenario but with two different point of focus. I edited both and below the result:



one shot was focused on the branch in the foreground, and the other on the boat far away.
the results isn't perfect, anyway I think I'm on the right way. Am I?
Shot with 70-300mm @ 75mm f/4
thanks for viewing
nicola

[FrankMi]

Hi Nicola! Before the technical background matters, the composition must be able to work or the image isn't interesting enough to bother looking at.

In this case, the composition is very intriguing. You have the sailboat exactly centered so we are expecting a symmetry shot for this to work but then the driftwood isn't symmetrical. Usually either symmetry or asymmetry works but in this case you've achieved a 'balance in the force' and it really works well.

On the stacking, very well done. The image doesn't show any detectable signs in the colour, texture, shadows, blend points or any other of the typical earmarks of having blended multiple images. Even the reflections look accurate. Many panoramas are not blended this well so my hat if off to you on your accomplishment.

Can anything be improved? Well, ah, yes... I have water running out the left side of my screen so I think the horizon may not be level. LOL! Always something, isn't it! Congratulations on a superb image.

[Donald]

I endorse everything Frank has said and compliment you on another very fine image, Nicola.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

x3. Nice work Nicola.

[Nicola]

thank you guys for the appreciations!
to be honest, in the full size version @ 100% the small ends on the up-left side of the branch are too soft because are a bit overlayed by the boat layer... next time I will be more aaccurate!
Frank, sorry for the water I spilled on your desk... hope no electrical shock occurred!

I completely forgot to check the horizon... and to correct the "margins" of the lens in camera raw, they are clearly visible at 100% full size....
thanks again
ciao

[oldgreygary]

I think that I would prefer to see either one or the other in the image. When I look at it I keep bouncing between the two subjects. It just feels to me that it would improve the 'mood' of the image if you concentrated on one of the subjects? Just a thought.......

Cheers for now

Gary

[Wendy Stanford]

Wonderful image Nicola, you have done well with combining the two images, matched up well, and not overdone.
I like the Yacht in the centre of the top third, the image and the colours are very soothing to look at

[jeechu1970]

Very nice one..............very cool

[Nicola]

I think that I would prefer to see either one or the other in the image. When I look at it I keep bouncing between the two subjects. It just feels to me that it would improve the 'mood' of the image if you concentrated on one of the subjects? Just a thought.......

Cheers for now

Gary

many thanks Gary for your feedback,
I really appreciate it
your thought is a correct one, focusing on only one subject can be an improvement? I think that it depends on viewer's taste. what is my point of view? I really don't know.
As i wrote above the picture, i found the two source pics in my HDD, they come from 2010. I remember that day I was unable to choice what subject to shot to, so I captured two pics. when last week I saw the two pics I decided to try to stack them, just for PP practice. Image stacking is one of my project 52 goals...
thank you again for the feedback, this is the kind of feedback i prefer!
cheers
nicola

[Nicola]

thanks to Girish and Wendy

[Nicola]

since I'm used to shot landscapes, i usually shot with small aperture to increase DoF and thus increase the sharpness of the image at "all" distances.
for this and some following weeks, I will concentrate my efforts to "see and think" how a well manged blur can help in several photographic situations to create an interesting picture.
I mean, up to now I was thinking how to obtain wider DoF and fine detail all over the frame; for some weeks i want to learn how to use blur effect on my images.
I started on some kind of subjects it could be easier...
below a couple of example:
in my usual sunday excursion, I saw these flower standing beyond a gate. At first I tried to use the gate to create a frame around the flower, as it were in a painting. So I found a DoF that gave me fine details both on flower and gate (subject and frame of the "painting") but no details was requested on other surface:


then I tried to use contrast between colours and a narrow doF to let the flower pop out as the main subject:



there are some right thoughts? what's your opinion? did I reached my goal?
thax for viewing and for feedback!!
ciao
nicola

[Jack R Mann]

Great eye Nicola, yes snow is hard to work with but you managed to make them bolt look perfect. #2 is my favorite.

[FrankMi]

what's your opinion? did I reached my goal?

I applaud you for being willing to reach out and experiment with new ways of seeing the subjects, Nicola!

I hope my feedback doesn't come across as being harsh but it is given with the most sincere of intentions.

In the first image, the boards and top flower are sharp and the background and bottom flower are out of focus. The thing that is messing with my mind is that the bottom flower appears to be in front of the top flower and behind the boards. My mind is confused by going from the board (sharp) to the front flower (blurred) to the back flower (sharp) to be background (blurred). It may be that the bottom flower is actually further back than the top flower but even if it is, the stalk above and behind the bottom flower is in sharper focus.

In the second image, the board and background is out of focus and the flower is in focus but the flower appears to be in the same plane, and maybe just slightly closer than the board on the right given the position of the right-hand pedals. The flower is sharp from the closest pedals to the furthest stem so the appearance is one of significant DoF but the DoF doesn't take in the board.

In the first image, if you were soften the boards and sharpen the bottom flower, I think the DoF would be more natural.

Likewise, in the second image, if the left-hand board were more in focus and the right-hand board remained soft, it too, would be more believable. One additional thing you could try is to blend the focus of the left-hand board from soft on the left side, to sharp on the right side where it gets close to the flower. That would give the feeling that you were shooting at an angle from the left so the DoF would be, from the left and across the image, soft to sharp (at the flower) and back to soft. This should allow the entire flower to be sharp and still accentuate the expected DoF.

Hope this helps and doesn't sound overly critical.

[Nicola]

I applaud you for being willing to reach out and experiment with new ways of seeing the subjects, Nicola!

I hope my feedback doesn't come across as being harsh but it is given with the most sincere of intentions.

In the first image, the boards and top flower are sharp and the background and bottom flower are out of focus. The thing that is messing with my mind is that the bottom flower appears to be in front of the top flower and behind the boards. My mind is confused by going from the board (sharp) to the front flower (blurred) to the back flower (sharp) to be background (blurred). It may be that the bottom flower is actually further back than the top flower but even if it is, the stalk above and behind the bottom flower is in sharper focus.

In the second image, the board and background is out of focus and the flower is in focus but the flower appears to be in the same plane, and maybe just slightly closer than the board on the right given the position of the right-hand pedals. The flower is sharp from the closest pedals to the furthest stem so the appearance is one of significant DoF but the DoF doesn't take in the board.

In the first image, if you were soften the boards and sharpen the bottom flower, I think the DoF would be more natural.

Likewise, in the second image, if the left-hand board were more in focus and the right-hand board remained soft, it too, would be more believable. One additional thing you could try is to blend the focus of the left-hand board from soft on the left side, to sharp on the right side where it gets close to the flower. That would give the feeling that you were shooting at an angle from the left so the DoF would be, from the left and across the image, soft to sharp (at the flower) and back to soft. This should allow the entire flower to be sharp and still accentuate the expected DoF.

Hope this helps and doesn't sound overly critical.

Frank, thank you very much for the feedback!
please feel free to write down any kind of comment about my pictures, it is exactly what I'm looking for!!
don't care if your words seem to be too harsh!!!
replying to your observation, honestly, it seems a bit strange for me: the blur, the DoF and the focus are exactly as came out from lens. I mean, I didn't edit in PP neither DoF nor focus point. (I can show you SOOC picture if you don't believe me )
both images are a capture of the same flower. it can help you to place it in a 3D space.
In the first one, the upper flower is just a bit closer to the camera than the blue boards, I shooted from a (about)perpendicular position in respect to the board. the lower flower, is quite beyond the plane of the board (more far from the camera), in fact it is in the shadow. I set the aperture to achieve a DoF to let both boards and flower in focus and everything else OoF.
In the second image, the flower is further away the first board (as you can see in the first image), looking it from the new angolar position (from left). So the narrower DoF let only the flower to be in focus.
In both images I didn't apply any blurring filter, it is only lens blur due to aaperture.

anyway, thank to your comment, I can (at least) understand that both pictures are quite indecipherable!

thanks again Frank
cheers
Nicola

[FrankMi]

Fascinating! Now I am even more impressed with these images. One of the attributes of a really great image is that you don't just glance at it but rather take the time to fully explore all it has to offer. These images have certainly done that for me and more so as I am now viewing them again from a different perspective.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Nice choice of colours for these shots Nicola - I'm always impressed with your eye. I echo pretty much everything Frank said in the first photo - nothing more to add there. In the second photo to me the blurring of the boards isn't the issue so much as how much of the boards actually take up the composition of the shot. I'd be inclined to try a different crop - perhaps a square crop to bring the focus back to the flower rather than have our eyes exploring the boards so much which i think will frame the flower better.

[Ryogenetic]

The Blue the blue... Both are very powerful images because of the contrast.

Ryo

[Nicola]

Still playing with DoF...
as I wrote last week, I'm trying to "see the world" that i'm photographing, without wide DoF, as i usually do in landscape photography.
This kind of practice brings me to that conclusion:
the blur helps the viewer focusing on The Real Subject of the picture, or better creates an only one master subject of a photo. I try to explain: If I shot at a house with a wood and a muontain in the background with widest DoF, the subjects are the house, of course, but also the wood and the mountain: the subject is the whole landscape. If I use a very tight DoF the subject is only the house, the blurred wood and mountain adds the "ambient information", just to understand where that house is placed.
So I must choice a precise subject of the photo I'm capturing and focus on it. that leads (very often if not always) also to a tighter crop. In the previous example, the wood and the mountain should have not much space in the frame.
is it correct? maybe not, maybe it is obvious...

I found a good chance to applying this thought with some pictures of some barely domestic cats that usually spend part of the day nearby my girlfriend's farm...
I was trying to capture interesting moments, and after some shots, I decided my Subject was their "glance".
Below some shots taken from that serie...
I know that in #1 I should clone out the white and yellow spots over the head, but i'm lazy at the moment...
ah... I also know that in #2 the light is not so good... but try to understand me, i can't tell them "please avoid direct sun" or "can you make it again?"
thank for viewing and for commenting!
feel free to write everything you are thinking about!