Santa's Canoe

[Ken Curtis]

I love driving around in snow storms to see what I can find to shoot. Ordinary things take on a special look when it is snowing. I was lucky enough to notice this canoe full of wrapped gifts as I was heading back to the car after taking a few shots in the town of Clinton, NJ. I suspect it is the way Santa delivers gifts to the river people.

Please feel free to make suggestions for improvement. I will be away for two days, so I will not be able to respond until then.

[JPS]

Hi Ken,
I believe you are correct, Santa has a number of different modes of transport, so that he can get everything delivered.
However, this is not a fool proof delivery method, he forgot to bring me a Hasselblad 24MP Lunar camera on Christmas day. I know it's not released until the 1st quarter of 2013 but I thought as I had been good he might of got one for me.

As is my normal practice when a member requested C&C, I try some adjustment myself to see if I think they work before replying. I tried a few things that IMO did not improve the picture so I disgarded them. I ended up using a little horizontal perspective correction, slight adjustment in contrast and then a little sharpen. I'm still not sure if this improved the picture or just gave it a slightly different alternative.
Anyway, just wanted to say I liked seeing a delivery canoe and not a sleigh.
regards
John

[Geoff F]

You may get away with a tiny bit more on the highlights, Ken, but otherwise I wouldn't bother about any changes.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Ken,

I was going to suggest shooting from just a little higher to separate the fence from the canoe more.

Taking a lead from John and trying it myself before I suggest it, here is the result. I won't post it inline here unless you give permission. A better job could be made with more times spent on it.



Cheers,

[Ken Curtis]

Sorry for not replying sooner, but was out of town. I appreciate the comments so far. Dave, you have my permission to post anything about my images without asking if it helps explain your ideas.

Dave, it was not possible to get up higher. There were vicious rottweilers preventing me from getting up higher. Actually, there was no higher vantage point except at the canoe itself, and there was a fence with a no trespassing sign to keep me away. I really wanted to get an angled shot instead of head on because I thought it would make for a more dynamic image but the fence kept me out.

[terrib]

I love this. I think you are right about the snow. I like that you got it while it was actually snowing. It's just a really fun picture.

[Dave Humphries]

Thanks Ken,

I have made the image visible in above post now.

By higher, I was only thinking of holding the camera above your head, if you have Live View and a variable angle LCD to be able to compose a lot easier. However, if you were a fair way off, the difference will be negligible.

Cheers,

[Mike Buckley]

Surely you're going to send this as a holiday card!

[rawill]

Surely you're going to send this as a holiday card!

What a great idea.

[Kathy O]

I love driving around in snow storms to see what I can find to shoot. Ordinary things take on a special look when it is snowing. I was lucky enough to notice this canoe full of wrapped gifts as I was heading back to the car after taking a few shots in the town of Clinton, NJ. I suspect it is the way Santa delivers gifts to the river people.

Please feel free to make suggestions for improvement. I will be away for two days, so I will not be able to respond until then.

Love the Snow!! Can I ask what camera and settings you used?? Sometimes that really helps beginners like myself. Love the photo. Thank you. Kathy

[Mike Buckley]

Kathy,

Can I ask what camera and settings you used??

It might be helpful for you to install some free software such as ExifTool at http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/ (I don't use it but lots and lots of people do.) Once you download the image to your computer, you can use that app to review all of the metadata. There are also some apps that don't require you to download the photo to your computer, but I'm not familiar with them.

[rawill]

Picasa 3 - freeware, will do the job on a downloaded photo

[Steve S]

Very nicely done, ken. The only thing i can suggest for improvement -----would be to add some saturation using LAB mode. (and mask the cyan's out except for the blue boxes. Just do a hue and saturation layer and turn the cyan channel all the way down and add a layer mask and bring it back in the blue boxes). I think it really picks the image up alot and adds some needed punch.

[Ken Curtis]

I have made the image visible in above post now.

Dave, I see what you mean. I will experiment doing exactly what you did. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Ken Curtis]

Surely you're going to send this as a holiday card!

Thanks, Mike. Sounds like a great idea.

[Ken Curtis]

Love the Snow!! Can I ask what camera and settings you used?? Sometimes that really helps beginners like myself. Love the photo. Thank you. Kathy

Hi Kathy. I use a Nikon D700 full-frame camera with a 50-500 mm Sigma lens. The settings for this image were f11 1/250th sec and ISO 800. The lens zoom was set to 95 mm. Of course, post processing was involved using Photoshop CS6.

[Ken Curtis]

Very nicely done, ken. The only thing i can suggest for improvement -----would be to add some saturation using LAB mode. (and mask the cyan's out except for the blue boxes. Just do a hue and saturation layer and turn the cyan channel all the way down and add a layer mask and bring it back in the blue boxes). I think it really picks the image up alot and adds some needed punch.

Steve, thanks for the suggestion. I will experiment and see what happens.

[Ken Curtis]

Very nicely done, ken. The only thing i can suggest for improvement -----would be to add some saturation using LAB mode. (and mask the cyan's out except for the blue boxes. Just do a hue and saturation layer and turn the cyan channel all the way down and add a layer mask and bring it back in the blue boxes). I think it really picks the image up alot and adds some needed punch.

Steve, I know it's been a while since you posted your reply, but I finally got around to trying out your suggestion. It worked very well. I never realized how much cyan was in the gray of a snowy day. Thank you for the suggestion.

[Ken Curtis]

Dave, I see what you mean. I will experiment doing exactly what you did. Thanks for the suggestion.

Dave, I know it has been a long time since you made the suggestion, but I finally got a chance to try it. Works great and will use it instead of the original. Thank you.

[Dave Humphries]

Dave, I know it has been a long time since you made the suggestion, but I finally got a chance to try it. Works great and will use it instead of the original. Thank you.

Yes I just did a staright line slice and patch, but with a better 'contoured' separation, it could be much better than my crude attempt.