Project 52 by Nicola

[rtbaum]

I think that you nailed it in the first, the blur is very pleasant. By the way how does one pronounce Bokeh?

[Nicola]

I think that you nailed it in the first, the blur is very pleasant. By the way how does one pronounce Bokeh?

thanks randy
Bokeh is a Japanese word, is there anyone from Japan?
on wikipedia you can ear that sound... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh

cheers
N

[Nicola]

nothing very interesting to add from week 14... just some other shots to practice on DoF..

on macro world...


and with my "model of these days"

in the last one I managed quite well (in my humble opinion) the light sources: diffused light from sun filtered by a tree on the background, some rays of more direct sunlight on the cat from above-behind, fill flash from my built in speedlight (the only available in that time)
thanks for viewing
and, as always, your feedback and criticism are welcome!

[Geoff F]

Those both work well, Nicola.

I'm afraid that the Crane Fly is rather ordinary - in terms of insect identification. Plenty of fine detail there.

The cat is bordering on over exposure but in this particular case that really makes the shot interesting. If you had 'played safe' with the exposure, as many of us would have done, there wouldn't be so much impact.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Getting animals to cooperate for photography is a challenge isn't it? The more I do it, the more I realise that all of them have very unique personalities (animal types as well as individual animals). While they don't pose, the more you learn about their behaviour the more you can anticipate getting the right shot. You managed to get a pretty good DoF in your macro shot - what did you use there? I really like the shot of your cat - I think from a composition perspective because it's looking up a portrait rather than landscape to have more negative space above it would have worked really well here too.

[Nicola]

thanks Geoff, thanks Mal for your feedback!
I was quite doubtful about how people judges the cat's shot, but I recieved good feedbacks from you! indeed it's very bright and the crop isn't so common for the subject..
but I like it because the light and colour help to create the "vibrance" of spring time and matches quite well with the behaviour of the cat (as animal and as this cat as well). I choose the "landscape" crop because it shows up the position of the cat: layed close to the ground to camouflage himself
thanks
ciao

[Nicola]

I turn back to landscapes this week,
from the last weeks up to now the weather has been very variable, and it brings to us a very interesting light! unfortunately, I could take advantage of that only a few times..
below one of those.
is there too much road? needs a crop at bottom?
thanks
any criticism is welcome!
ciao
Nicola

[Donald]

My very first reaction, Nicola, was not that there is too much road, but that it is too bright.

I thought I would either want to capture the road with the lassoo tool and pull a curve downwards, or burn the road in order to darken it slightly. Both techniques would cause the tone to be slightly more muted and not so stark.

I'm interested to see if any others agree with those thoughts.

[FrankMi]

Hi Nicola, I'd agree with Donald about the road being too bright as it takes the attention away from the sunbeams.

I think I would have avoided shooting straight down the road for the reason you noticed, too much road in the image. I might have gone off the road to the right to include the road, but at a reduced size in the image. That would have also cut down on the bright reflections coming from the road's puddles.

[Andrew76]

Ciao Nicola! In my opinion, I like the image - good composition, and I like the sun's rays shining down. The road may be a little bright, but that's easy to fix.

[Wendy Stanford]

Hi Nicola, I like the image, I agree the road hogs the attention a little, especially the water, however I like the composition and the colours harmonise very well, the vanishing point is spot on, great looking clouds and sunbeams,
? did you take any shots with the fields in the lower third and the sky as the feature.
Cheers

[Geoff F]

For me, Nicola, the length of the road is fine, it is the width which is slightly problematic.

So I would say yes, try a slight crop from the bottom to reduce the apparent road width without significantly 'shortening' it.

I suppose, if you want to retain the same size ratio this would mean cropping a similar amount from the left side. Probably not too much of a problem.

[Nicola]

thank you guys for the feedbacks!

Frank suggestion for a diffeent point of view is very interesting.. i will try to shot again as soon as possible, but I've to wait for an other interesting sky...
I will try the other PP suggestions (crops, light correction) you suggested when I will be back home: in fact I'm leaving for one week vacation...
I'll be full of material for next project 52's weeks!!
thanks again
ciao
Nicola

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Late to the part which seems to be the case for me a the moment but I'll throw in my 2 cents worth anyway. My immediate reaction was that I did like it - I didn't have an issue with the road until I started reading through the comments. My eyes were drawn to the rays of light and i loved the way the road led to them. Once I was on the horizon the lines led me to the powerlines in the distance which I couldn't stop focussing on so I'd probably attempt to clone them.

For me, the focus is the rays of light in the distance and the colours of the photo so the road doesn't present a problem to me. However, to the point of the others, a darker road may add more contrast to the scene which could the photo stand out even more.

[Nicola]

i've been far away from here in the last month...
but anyway I 've taken some pictures every week for project 52.
one of my goals for the project was (at least) to capture some pictures every week to keep on shooting and learning

during week 16 (in the middle of april) I focused my attention on rain.
in fact, after a very dry winter, finally started raining (and it's still raining!)
the ground was so hard, rivers so small... the spring in delay.
that rain really made spring pop up! and I can't hide that made us all very happy...

so I captured these kind of pics

welcome to any kind of comment!
ciao
Nicola

[FrankMi]

Hi Nicola! Good to see you back in the swing of things!

I like the composition both images but the amount of each image that is in focus is so small that I want to zoom in on just the detail of the magnificent water drops to eliminate, particularly in the second image, the blurry foreground.

These water drops would make a fantastic macro image!

[Nicola]

Hi Nicola! Good to see you back in the swing of things!

I like the composition both images but the amount of each image that is in focus is so small that I want to zoom in on just the detail of the magnificent water drops to eliminate, particularly in the second image, the blurry foreground.

These water drops would make a fantastic macro image!

Hi Frank!
thanks for the feedback!
I know what you mean, but the drops were so small and my hand so "swinging" (no tripod that day sigh! )
that this is all my 100 macro could do...
below the sharpest pictures I captured

[Nicola]

Hi all!
i'm back in saddle for a quick ride...
on thursday I'll leave for holidays, but I'm going to spend this short time here in CiC
i've been away from here for a while, but I haven't turned off my camera for so long!
below you can find some pictures of "my" countryside captured around week 17. end of April.


f/8 1/200 ISO400 17mm on APS_C


f/10 1/125 ISO200 17mm on APS_C


f/6.3 1/1000 ISO200 300mm on APS_C
in this last one the too narrow DoF is a pity... I haven't had the time to set my camera...
thanks for viewing and comments & criticism very welcome!!

ciao
Nicola

[Geoff F]

Good shots there, Nicola.

With the last one, I wonder if a slight crop of the bottom and right side would tend to concentrate more on the flower and tortoiseshell which would help to overcome the focus depth problems.

[FrankMi]

I can almost smell the fragrant grasses in the first one and the second has wonderful leading lines. You are on target with your evaluation of the third - a bit more DoF could enhance the subject. All in all, a good set. Looking forward to seeing your vacation pictures when you get back!