Project 52 by John B. Harle

[johnbharle]

My catchup photo. I actually took it over the Easter weekend. It's my first real attempt at HDR. I'm not usually a fan of HDR, but I always have trouble with the moon, so I thought I'd try this method. Still have trouble with the moon , but what came out of the program was this weird aura around the moon. It's rather spooky to me and somewhat catchy. I have a long way to go to become proficient at HDR (if I decide I even want to go further), but I guess this wasn't too bad of a start...

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Get disconnected from the Internet for a few weeks and you can miss a lot! You've captured some great photos over the last few weeks John. I especially like the Week 15 shot - a great abstract.

The HDR for me doesn't quite work - I like the spooky background but the foreground subjects have a fluorescent almost cartoonish appearance. Having said that, Jazz tells me that she likes it a lot, pointing out the subject in the centre framed by the moon and its interesting effects in the background - so personal tastes

[johnbharle]

Get disconnected from the Internet for a few weeks and you can miss a lot! You've captured some great photos over the last few weeks John. I especially like the Week 15 shot - a great abstract.

The HDR for me doesn't quite work - I like the spooky background but the foreground subjects have a fluorescent almost cartoonish appearance. Having said that, Jazz tells me that she likes it a lot, pointing out the subject in the centre framed by the moon and its interesting effects in the background - so personal tastes

Though you'd been awfully quiet. Glad you're back. I think you're right about the HDR. It's far from my favorite photo. But the spooky aura was really unexpected (and in none of the component images). I liked that part of it, but the rest is...je ne sais quois. I've played with one of the component images and I like it much better. However, it picked up some weird light rings (maybe in photoshop? I had to take it into PS to remove an artifact that I think is a very faint star. Can't see it with my eye, but it always shows up in my moon photos...). I still have to figure out how to photograph the moon so I can see the man, but I'll get there :-)

[johnbharle]

For this week, I went back to 2010. I came across this image I made with my Canon Point/Shoot. I was driving down the road from Hempstead to Bellville and shot this through the windshield. A very lucky capture. Today, I took it into photoshop and cropped it, then took it into the Nik array and cleaned up noise, etc. I really think the cropping helped...a lesson I need to learn continuously.

[FrankMi]

Hi John, you can't always tell based on the horizon but looking at the cloud base, I'd say that the image is tilted slightly CW. You may want to look at this as a 2:1 ratio crop and see what it looks like to you with less sky.

[Donald]

I'd agree with Frank on this one. And, despite it being taken through a windshield, I think there's quite an appeal to the big, broad sweep of landscape. I can well understand why you pulled over and grabbed the shot. I think Frank's suggested crop would only add to that sense of the wide landscape, 'big' sky and road sweeping off into the distance.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Though you'd been awfully quiet. Glad you're back. I think you're right about the HDR. It's far from my favorite photo. But the spooky aura was really unexpected (and in none of the component images). I liked that part of it, but the rest is...je ne sais quois. I've played with one of the component images and I like it much better. However, it picked up some weird light rings (maybe in photoshop? I had to take it into PS to remove an artifact that I think is a very faint star. Can't see it with my eye, but it always shows up in my moon photos...). I still have to figure out how to photograph the moon so I can see the man, but I'll get there :-)

I did a couple of moon shots a while back - nothing fancy and I know there are others that shoot the moon a bit but I've found that there's a tendency to let too much light into the shot when shooting the moon which give is the bright light ball effect.

Having said that, what you've produced here to me is much more appealing - that's more of a spooky effect - particularly with the weird haloing effecting in the photo.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

For this week, I went back to 2010. I came across this image I made with my Canon Point/Shoot. I was driving down the road from Hempstead to Bellville and shot this through the windshield. A very lucky capture. Today, I took it into photoshop and cropped it, then took it into the Nik array and cleaned up noise, etc. I really think the cropping helped...a lesson I need to learn continuously.

That is a great perspective you captured with those clouds John - I agree with Frank and Donald here. A bit of a rotation and a different crop - particularly since the top part of the frame where the clouds appear blown out don't really add to the picture. I don't think many of us would have seen the shot you saw here - nice one!

[johnbharle]

I'd agree with Frank on this one. And, despite it being taken through a windshield, I think there's quite an appeal to the big, broad sweep of landscape. I can well understand why you pulled over and grabbed the shot. I think Frank's suggested crop would only add to that sense of the wide landscape, 'big' sky and road sweeping off into the distance.

When I get home, I'll play with the crop some more and see what "crops up." :-0 I tend to like the "cinemascope" effect of 2:1

[johnbharle]

That is a great perspective you captured with those clouds John - I agree with Frank and Donald here. A bit of a rotation and a different crop...

First off, thank you Mal!. Now as to rotation. Are you guys suggesting I make the horizon more horizontal? I've tried all morning and can't figure out what CW means. :-#

[johnbharle]

I found a Texas thistle at the bottom of my yard. Went out to shoot it the other day and found this little gal on top. She was shy and kept moving to the other side of the bloom, so this was the best I was able to get of her. But she's a pretty little thing. And so is the flower, for that matter.

[johnbharle]

The coriopsis are now blooming. Over the years, this has become my favorite flower. Bright and cheerful, even if you hungover :-0 I believe this one was on top of my hill. But there was a great pasture full going over to Hempstead. I haven't worked through that batch yet.

[johnbharle]

First off, thank you Mal!. Now as to rotation. Are you guys suggesting I make the horizon more horizontal? I've tried all morning and can't figure out what CW means. :-#

Ok, so I'm just getting dementia. Figured out CW. Sorry for the stupidity.

[johnbharle]

That is a great perspective you captured with those clouds John - I agree with Frank and Donald here. A bit of a rotation and a different crop - particularly since the top part of the frame where the clouds appear blown out don't really add to the picture. I don't think many of us would have seen the shot you saw here - nice one!

I tried a 2:1 crop and rotated as you suggested. Miraculous! It looks better! Thanks Frank, Donald and Mal!

[Goldcoastgolfer]

The thistle with the spider on it is pretty well done - you managed a pretty good DoF to get a lot of the flower and spider in focus. It's a shame the spider wasn't a bit closer but some bugs do have a tendency to get nervous, don't they?

I think with your coriopsis as it stands the image for me is quite overpower with the bright shades of yellow and green currently present. Have you considered darkening the greens a bit? It would add a bit more contrast to the photo and help the flower standout against the background a bit more.

[FrankMi]

Of the two images in your Week 17 set, the spider and thistle is by far the more interesting. We see pictures of spiders and flowers quite regularly and some of them are absolutely stunning but rarely do we see a thistle with such beautiful colors and the spider provides an excellent and interesting accent to the image. Very well done, John!

[johnbharle]

The thistle with the spider on it is pretty well done - you managed a pretty good DoF to get a lot of the flower and spider in focus. It's a shame the spider wasn't a bit closer but some bugs do have a tendency to get nervous, don't they?

I think with your coriopsis as it stands the image for me is quite overpower with the bright shades of yellow and green currently present. Have you considered darkening the greens a bit? It would add a bit more contrast to the photo and help the flower standout against the background a bit more.

Thanks Mal. The spider just didn't want to cooperate. (S)he kept moving to the other side of the flower from me. As to the coriopsis, well I hadn't considered it, but I will!...

{time passes}

Figuring how to do this in lightroom has been a good learning experience. Here's a couple of versions:

On this one, I deepened the green hue and lowered the green luminance



Here, I moved the tint over to the green side, but lowered the vibrance. Lost a lot of the yellow/red of the flower, but I find the effect pleasing.

[johnbharle]

Of the two images in your Week 17 set, the spider and thistle is by far the more interesting. We see pictures of spiders and flowers quite regularly and some of them are absolutely stunning but rarely do we see a thistle with such beautiful colors and the spider provides an excellent and interesting accent to the image. Very well done, John!

Thank you Frank. Coming from you, high compliments indeed!

[johnbharle]

The power company cleared the area under their lines on my property. I walked over part of the cleared area the other day and decided to exercise my LensBaby. On a Nikon, this requires an external light meter. Thank God for PP! This grass was growing alongside the fence on the highway Right of Way. I don't usually see grass like this in Southeast Texas and I wonder if it is wheat. Anyway, it was near sunset and the tassles caught the light well. 1/640 sec at either f2.8 or 5.6. ISO 400.

[johnbharle]

Since I had to manually adjust all my parameters, of course I screwed several up. This one is of a tree stump. It was completely overexposed. Even with taking the exposure down 4 stops in lightroom, it is still overblown. So I just started moving sliders around. This isn't a great picture by any stretch of the imagination, but I find the effect interesting and abstract.