Project 52 by Mike (Myk)

[Myk]

After being inspired by some of the great 52 threads going on, I figured I could do with a project like this.
Maybe this year I can find as much time to get out and photograph as I spent reading up about it last year. Plus it would be nice to add to my pp skills to realize some gems locked away on my hard drives.
An excuse to share more often couldn't hurt either.
While this wasn't my best image from the past week something about the lines of the snow and the receding tide on the beach compelled me to shoot it. It was also the first time this year the timing on the tide was right to reach the point.

22mm 1/160 f8 ISO 200

[Wendy Stanford]

Hi Mike, Welcome to Project 52,
I like the image, the starkness is rather enhancing, the snow in the foreground leads the eye into the photo, the trees and buildings across the water are positioned of the third line which balances the shot,
well done, look forward to more

[Geoff F]

Looks good, Mike.

Only one very slight thing that I would change is on the horizon line there is an object, possibly a boat. It isn't large enough to have any importance but I find it slightly distracting, so I would clone it out.

[Polar01]

Mike very, very nice shot, now that object on the horizon could be a boat, because of it's shape, I would say lighthouse and if it is thaa that now gives me a reference point to distance so myself I would leave it in.

Allan

[FrankMi]

Hi Mike! This looks good to me as well. If the viewers are looking long enough for them to notice the object on the horizon then I'd say that's a good sign. Having a 'mystery object' in an image that causes the viewer to stop and explore is an excellent way of creating interest. Well done!

[Myk]

Thanks for the comments. The mystery object is a navigational marker (red reflector on top of a piling) which marks the end of the sand bar on the opposite point. It is the sort of thing I do tend to take for granted so I didn't even notice it. Thank you guys for pointing that out. For comparison here it is without:

[Myk]

This week seemed to slip by on me. Not having a chance to get out and about, I was having a re-read of Light, Science, and Magic; and decided to have a go at the brightfield technique for shooting glass. Being pretty much completely out of my element, I had a play with different spacings on a translucent background (paper) between the flash; and moving several glass subjects back and forth looking for the best edge definition and something that might make an interesting shot.


Next up I went hunting for other potentially interesting glass subjects, and settled on these glass horses. I also added the frame which as a sort of "smoked" glass frame seemed to suit it.

[Wendy Stanford]

Hi Mike, in both images I find the light and dark lines through the images a little distracting.
With the horses which I think are great if you had an all white background with just the outlines defined, this would possibly enhance the shot imo.

[Ricco]

Mike, I'm with Wendy. I think you have nailed the lighting. If you could get a seamless backdrop, the images would be great.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

I agree with Peter and Wendy as well (perhaps it's an Australian thing ) Using a white sheet or even a larger piece of paper that sits flat and then flows up behind the subjects might do the job.

[Myk]

Thanks for the input Wendy, Peter, and Mal. It's not an Australian thing, because I saw it as soon as I read Wendy's reply. I couldn't see the forest for the trees. I had a play with a seamless backdrop, and although that did away with the line dilineating the edge of the paper; the subject being placed far enough forward from the back to exclude light from the family of angles on the edges led to similar lines from the falloff of the light to the front. I think I will try it again, only this time try using a mirror. This week was to nice to spend inside toying with it, but I will reshoot and post up here in a later week.

This week I had a go with some astrophotography, something else I haven't tried before. Still hunting for an interesting foreground oriented the right way.


50mm 1452 seconds f10.
I cheated; adjusted the original, cleaned up some spots etc, copied the layer, rotated about the polar axis by 6 degrees, set to lighten only blending mode, a grayscale copy of image as layer mask, repeated 20 times.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Looking forward to seeing your redos.

I haven't tried the star photography stuff before but it looks like you got the hang of it. And is there such a thing as cheating? I thought it was just called creative licence

[Myk]

I have been pretty bad at keeping up with this thread the last month or so. Playing catch-up again.

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Week 4
The week following my previous week posted, I was playing with some astrophotography still, only using DSS (Deep sky stacker). I used a set of pictures captured around the same time as my last entry here. 10, 10 second exposures at F2.0 and ISO 640 10 dark frames (same exposure with the lens cap on). A bit of light pollution on the bottom of the frame, but overall I'm satisfied with a first attempt using DSS.

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Week 5
This week I got a reversing ring to try my hand at some macro type shooting, and I can say it is quite a pain to focus. Using off camera flash with a radio trigger helped
the light. Focus is a little difficult with my 50 1.8 backwards, and a huge pain with the 18-55 backwards at 18, although the magnification is pretty cool.

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Week 6
Still playing with backwards lenses. It is neat to see some things so very close up, but using this technique, nothing moving or spontaneous. Get focus set up right on tripod, lighting off camera,
and trial and error the exposure. A real macro lens is now on my wish list. I was running with the theme of technology, old or new.

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Week 7

This week I was working on pp a bit. I started with an older photo that was kind of neat but pretty busy. I used a gradient or two in LR to bring up the foreground in the yard, another to underexpose the sky to bring out the colors, a pile of cloning; telephone poles (3), corresponding wires, a few trees, some stray branches. I'm still not entirely happy with the result, but it was good practice.

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Hopefully I can keep on top of it now, or at least not fall a month behind again.

[Wendy Stanford]

Welcome back Mike,
#4, Wow, you have put alot of work into this image, I feel I am a little out of my depth commenting on something I know nothing about. however the image is sharp to look at, I wonder how it would look if the main area was a little off centre, or even in the corner radiating outwards, not sure how much you have to play with, (ps what is light pollution)

#5, very clear with good detail of the coin, I like the textured look and colour .

#6, Nicely in focus, I like the lines and the circles particularily on the diagonal, would be tempted to crop on the bottom to remove that bit that looks like it turns over, doesn't add anything to the overall image, and you would still have the lead in lines.

#7, What a wonderful looking sunset, great colour and the texture of the clouds really enhance , the foreground spoils it a bit, anyway you could have taken from the water side if the buildings,
Cheers

[Goldcoastgolfer]

#4 looks great to me. I can imagine trying to figure out what area of the sky to actually focus on would be a challenge.

Wendy - light pollution is where you get the light reflecting from the earth (eg city lights) bouncing up into the sky and overwhelming the actual light from the stars. You tend to see more starts in the country where there are no city lights than you do in the city where you might find the night sky over the city filled with a kind of whitish hazy light.

#5 - never tried a reversing ring as we have our macro lenses but it looks like you can get pretty close. I think there are a couple of blow outs just on the edges of some of the numbers.

#6 - Is that rust on that chip? Good perspective to ensure the image doesn't appear flat but I agree with Wendy about cropping the bottom. Incidentally, I can recommend the Tamron 90mm macro as a budget alternative to the Nikon macros. It's a good compromise of focal length for insects and still lifes.

#7 - You 've done a great job of enhancing the colours and using gradients to balance out the exposures. I've actually been amazed at what you can do with Lightroom without having to resort to layers and HDR. That tree in the centre foreground is the only thing that I find a distraction but otherwise a good photo.

Keep up the great effort

[FrankMi]

Hi Mike, I like the coloring on the week 7 image even if it appears to be a bit strong to me. I think the thing that is throwing me is the foreground foliage. Under these lighting conditions, the grass appears almost electric. If the original is toned down a bit, you might consider trying to blend back in some of subdued color from the original in the foreground. It might help reduce the foreground's competition with the sky and help balance out the overall effect.

[Myk]

]Thanks Wendy, Mal, and Frank.
4- I chose that area of sky based on one of the few stars I actually could recognize, Polaris, placed on the left side of the upper third line.

5- You can get very close with a backwards lens, the loss of af is not to big a deal, no exposure meter, or aperture control makes it very challenging. The coin was a nickel, and the date and location stamp cover about 7mm, so this was around 3:1 magnification. Thanks for recommending the Tamron 90, I am already considering that lens.

6- This was the chip on the side of an old inkjet printer cartridge, what looked like rust was probably ink. I do agree about cropping off the corner, much better imo:


7- I believe I pushed this one a little bit too far, staring at it for too long and thinking maybe just a little bit more. It was primarily an exercise in removing wires, telephone poles, tree branches, and other things while maintaining the texture in the clouds, roof, and back of the house. A little miracle of shooting in raw at base iso as well. With the comments I will try to tone down the foreground a bit, and maybe get rid of the other tree as well.

I've actually been amazed at what you can do with Lightroom without having to resort to layers and HDR.

Sooc converted to jpg:


The autotone version that was sitting in my library when I started the recent work:

[Myk]

I got out today between rain storms, and found some flowers starting to pop up. A reminder that spring is just around the corner.
1/200 f5 iso 800 90mm

[Goldcoastgolfer]

It's a great perspective you've captured - the flower bud really does seem to pop out of the ground. It almost has a three dimensional quality to it. For me, the bottom right of the photo has some elements to it that are bordering on just being distracting but the flower bud holds my attention enough to ignore it. Great capture!

[Ryogenetic]

Those are some great colors. I like that purple, and the way the flower has that thick new look to it. It really does give the hint of spring with the green buds coming up out of the ground. Good focus, and nice DOF.

Ryo