Project 52 by Geoff F

[FrankMi]

Neat images and a great story to match!

[Geoff F]

Thanks for the comments. Showing the area and things which happen here was part of my original plan.

On reflection, I'm wondering if the last image would be improved by a fractional crop to the left side and bottom. Just leave the outer tower of the old castle.

[ronlane]

Thanks for the comments. Showing the area and things which happen here was part of my original plan.

On reflection, I'm wondering if the last image would be improved by a fractional crop to the left side and bottom. Just leave the outer tower of the old castle.

Geoff, I don't know about that. I think if you crop it, you should crop from the red and white pole behind the boat and keep the water in front of the boat. [We may be talking about the same thing, but I didn't want to do an edit to any of your work without you okaying it.]

[Letrow]

Thanks for the comments. Showing the area and things which happen here was part of my original plan.

On reflection, I'm wondering if the last image would be improved by a fractional crop to the left side and bottom. Just leave the outer tower of the old castle.

I think it would work if you take away a bit of water and on the left side. The boat would still have a lot of space left to the right.

[Nicola]

IMHO, I think that you could also crop the water at bottom and right.
I see tha back of the boat and that make me feel that it is leaving. so I prefer more space to the left (from where the boat is leaving). and there aren't relevant details on the right.

[Geoff F]

What I should have done with this scene was to click a few seconds earlier. But at that time I was zooming in on a slightly different shot to show more of the old castle in the background.



And by the time I thought about a wider shot it was just a fraction late.

[FrankMi]

What I should have done with this scene was to click a few seconds earlier. But at that time I was zooming in on a slightly different shot to show more of the old castle in the background.

I think the original tells the story a little differently. You can see where the ferry is going. This one is OK but it feels more like the ruins, town, and ferry are all competing for attention. There are a number of different images, each with its own feeling, that are available from the original.

I think if it were mine, I'd experiment with more of a landscape ratio in the original by loosing some of the sky and perhaps a bit more of the foreground water just to see if it told the story any clearer.

[Geoff F]

Yes Frank, that was roughly my thinking as I took the closer zoom shot. 'I must show more of the scene' but I should have done it just a fraction earlier for the best angle.

Incidentally, a little more history about the ferry. They originally used two smaller boats which landed on a concrete 'jetty' which was actually the protective covering around a sewer pipe.

But after they moved up to a bigger boat the landing silted up so they converted an old WW 2 DUC (Dual Use Craft I think they were called) and used this as a mobile landing stage for many years. Eventually the current system was created.

A similar idea has been used for many years, just along the coast, to carry passengers from the mainland to Burgh Island when the tide comes in.

[Geoff F]

Bit of a struggle to find a suitable subject this week. Took a few insects but not much else.

Had a really weird and interesting night sky. Small patches of broken cloud looked like floating pebbles with a full moon directly behind them.

Quickly put some equipment together and went into my garden - one minute too late. All passed by when I was ready!

Next even produced an interesting sky in the west so, once again, grabbed a camera and lens and walked across the road to get a good position. Too late again.

But just a little further along the road I found this stormy looking cloud scene over the old distant bunker.



The scene was changing fast so I simply rested my hands on a low wall and took a couple of shots, which turned out to be 1/30, F11, Iso 200. By the time I thought about different settings it was too late and the scene had changed. 7D with Canon 24-105 lens.

When processing, I created a duplicate layer and set the blend mode to Soft Light at 40% to give the softer tones a fraction of a boost.

ps. More photos from inside and outside the bunker, plus information on my P base site http://www.pbase.com/crustacean/the_bunker

And the building on the right was the control tower of the old WW 2 airfield which once existed on the same site.

[ronlane]

I like that picture Geoff. I struggle with my T3i getting the dark and light to go together like this. (That's my excuse to say, that I'm jealous of your 7D and 24-105)

[Geoff F]

Nothing wrong with your equipment, Ron. It's all down to subtle editing.

Shoot for the highlights then recover some of the shadows during editing.

Examples include, duplicate layers, and masks, with various Blend Modes as I used here.

Or Local Contrast Enhancement, such as Unsharp Mask with a low amount but high radius. Such as 20 or 30% with 40 or 50 radius. This can also be applied to a duplicate layer and an edited mask if some areas become too strong.

And one of my favourites, shoot Raw then convert into two images with different exposure settings and combine the two; also with layers and masks.

ps. Missed another fantastic shot today. A few of us went by boat to a pub at the head of a nearby creek but I left my camera gear behind because didn't want to carry it around and not use it.

On the way home, as it was starting to get a bit darkish, a full moon appeared in a darkening sky over the helmsman's shoulder. And I realised that with careful use of flash I could have captured both him steering and the moon in the same shot.

A chance which will never be offered again.

[FrankMi]

On the way home, as it was starting to get a bit darkish, a full moon appeared in a darkening sky over the helmsman's shoulder. And I realised that with careful use of flash I could have captured both him steering and the moon in the same shot. A chance which will never be offered again.

That's why they put a flash on a cell phone camera!

[johnbharle]

I love the sky, but am not so fond of the black landscape below it. Of course, the best solution would have been a graduated filter attached to your camera. But there's never one around when I need it. Sounds like you were in the same situation :-) In Lightroom, I can apply a digital "reverse" graduated filter and lighten up the land a stop or so. Don't know if you use LR, though.

[Geoff F]

I could vary the exposure on various parts of the shot by different Raw conversions. But I tend to find that 'foregrounds' need to be either well exposed or totally in silhouette to work well.

When they are darkish but not one thing or the other I find they just become distracting.

Graduated masks on adjustment layers are another method.

[Letrow]

The sky is beautiful Geoff. I am not sure about what you can do with that foreground. I think I agree with you, because even if you would follow up John's idea, that foreground would still not be that great I think.
Difficult...I shot some sunrise shots in Monument Valley a few years ago and experimented with every setting I could think of. I think in the end I liked the ones with a bit of foreground detail best, but it is a difficult choice.

Here (Monument Valley sunrise) are some examples, which I have put in my own Project 52, so as not to disrupt your project too much.

[Donald]

I am not sure about what you can do with that foreground.

As Peter writes, the sky is indeed beautiful.

As to the land at the bottom, I wasn't so bothered about seeing black, but I felt there was just too much of it. I think it sets context, but we maybe don't need to see as much it for that purpose.

So, I looked at a 16:9 ratio crop that starts a just a bit from the existing top and places the 'thirds' vertical on that telegraph pole and includes about half the amount of land that we see at the moment. The same end, if you wanted that, but keeping the existing ratio could also be achieved by a crop, but that would take out more sky.

[Geoff F]

The previous version is a slight crop.

Possibly, as you say, Donald, the black area could be reduced by around half. And there is probably sufficient scope for a little more to be lost from the right side to keep the same ratio.

Here is a closer crop.



I did try a substantial increase in brightness to recover something from the dark area but it looked terrible. Very blotchy mix of fields and trees.

[Geoff F]

Tried a different wildlife site this week. I'm not usually keen on 'Wildlife Reserves' as they can become over managed with neat paths so the intended purpose becomes obscured.

But this area is a bit distant from habitation (at least by UK standards) and being a rather wet site it doesn't appear so popular with casual walkers etc.

Found some interesting species including a few lizards; but they saw me coming and quickly scurried away. Except one which carefully returned to have a good look at me, although from a safe distance.



My usual insect kit, 7D with Sigma 180 macro lens plus 1.4x converter on a tripod with flash.

Unlike some countries, timid UK lizards are designed to blend into the foliage. At best, I edged to within 4 ft of this little creature. It was about 4 ins long.

At this site, they use a low running cost method for grass cutting.



24-105 lens 1/125 F11 Iso 200. I used a little negative compensation but the white area has still lost a little bit of fine detail.

Angles were a bit restricted by the sun position and ground obstructions, mostly rather wet areas. Also the one on the right was a little too friendly and kept coming very close to me; probably wanted to check out the shot on my view screen.

He certainly tried to give my camera a good lick! Hoping for a tasty treat I suppose.

[Geoff F]

Another week of dismal weather, and not much to photograph. These tomatoes are in the greenhouse but going by the advanced weather forecast I have doubts about all of them fully ripening. Particularly as there is some blight on the leaves.

Marigolds are grown amongst the tomatoes to prevent whitefly.



7D with 24-105 on tripod; 1/20 F11 Iso 400. Tried flash but it gave too much in the way of hotspots.

Merged from two shots with different focus points.

When the rain eased I saw a few soggy bumble bees but by the time I got switched over to macro gear they had buzzed off. So I had a go with some wet flower shots instead.



With the 24-105 but flash used. 1/50 F11 Iso 400. Merge of two conversions from Raw with different exposures. Tried to reduce background noise with a blur brush.



With the Sigma 180 macro lens 1/250 F14 Iso 200. Needed a fairly high shutter speed to cope with wind rock.

A few brighter spells today so went to the quay but didn't photograph anything interesting. Found a few insects in my garden but I will post them in the Insects thread.

[Letrow]

I like that wet spiderweb Geoff. And wet flowers always look good, unless they are really washed away.
The spiderweb is great when you can actually see it, like here. But there is some vagueness in there, so I wonder where your focus point was.
The flower is nice and sharp, what kind of macro does the sigma get...1:1?