Project 52 by George (geoz)

[Geoff F]

With the rabbit, George, you had a slow shutter speed plus a shallow depth of focus with that aperture setting so either could have caused lack of sharpness problems. Which is a pity because it is potentially a good photo.

A little bit of extra sharpening may still be worth trying.

You obviously have a dilemma with #2. It looks as though the horizon is crooked; but is that actually a line in the water instead of a real horizon? Straightening the line will lose some of the reeds. Maybe slightly blur the line?

The last shot is certainly an interest record of that scene. An excellent composition angle which also includes the distant city; and with a good sky as well.

[geoz]

Thank Geoff,

As you would expect the spot is popular with birders, but that day I think there were more guys with big lenses than birds.

I'm not sure what happened with the rabbit except that it was very quick and I felt rather silly chasing it. Sharpening didn't help so I'm leaving it as is.

The reed shot is looking down at the water with a reflection of the sky. I shot it raw and did minimal PP except for cropping and sharpening. The blue is what came out of the camera.

The last one needed a lot of cloning to remove reeds cutting across and a couple of power lines and smokestacks.

[geoz]

20th Century "Flying Dutchman" - Actually a Martin 202 airliner from the 1950's at the Aviation Hall of Fame & Museum of New Jersey in Teterboro. I used the cockpit image to practice PSE selection tools and layering. Looks like they had more leg room back them. C&C welcome.

[geoz]

More from the Meadowlands this week. It was late in evening so the lighting is from the side. I posted the first for Mother's Day. Mike Buckley suggested adding some vignetting so I applied the radial filter from LR5 Beta here. Besides the mother duck and her ducklings there was a single egret so I followed it around a bit. C&C appreciated.
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2


3



4


5


6

[Geoff F]

Some good shots taken under what must have been challenging conditions, George.

With #1 the ducklings are spread out a bit, but you couldn't do anything about that.

#2 is a more compact scene.

Egrets are always tricky to photograph, particularly when the background is a little on the dark side, so you have done well here.

With #5 the reeds are possibly too dominant over the egret; and the bird is on the vertical half way position. So I wonder about a slight crop from left side and bottom.

The water in #6 seems a little over blue and dark. This is a problem which I frequently find with certain camera angles.

I usually try Curves on the blue channel and slightly reduce the shadow setting. The amount is critical; just a fraction too little doesn't work and the slightest bit too much loses the blueness altogether.

Sometimes I work on an Adjustment Layer (or duplicate layer) and set the blend mode to Luminosity. Any variations to Colour or Saturation should be done on separate layers.

This can be a bit of a fiddle but it does mean that you are able to make separate edits instead of having the saturation automatically change alongside brightness, as tends to occur with Curves on its own.

Also, the plane photos are good.

[geoz]

Thanks for the suggestions Geoff, I like both of them. Here is another crop of #5 shifting the balance to the egret.



Also in #6, I use Lightroom so I brought up the luminescence in the blue.



Unfortunately, I was shooting jpegs that day to see the effect of digital zoom. I wasn't very happy with it and it also limited what I could do with LR4.

[geoz]

Missed posting last week so here are a couple. First is Canada Goose family out for a walk.



Last week it was cool and rainy. I explored a local reservoir and got a couple of shots off before the rain came in. Color and B&W. C&C welcome.

[Brownbear]

very nice photos. I especially like the composition and colour of the goose shot, and the landscape in colour.

[geoz]

very nice photos. I especially like the composition and colour of the goose shot, and the landscape in colour.

Thanks Christina, The goose shot was just luck as I was driving on a backroad here.

[geoz]

A series for Christina this week maybe. She's from Vancouver but I don't know if she's a soccer fan. I rarely go to soccer (football to the rest of the world) games, but had a chance last weekend to see the New York Red Bulls vs the Vancouver Whitecaps. I had seats in the upper deck and when a corner kick came up just started continuous shooting. BTW Vancouver won 2-1. C&C welcome.

[Brownbear]

Hi George,
Great images! Nice and sharp, great colour... It must be challenging to focus on so many players all at one time. I photographed a teenager on a bike the other day as practice for my BIF and I hope to do so again.

I like #4 the best likely because of the goalie also because there is more field and less of the grandstand in the image.

I'm more of a dance, ice skating, skiing sort of sports fan but if I had to choose team sport, soccer would be it.

[geoz]

Thanks Christina.

I focused on the scene using tracking focus on the goalie. I use a Sony RX100 which is a very good fixed lens camera but has limited capabilities. In this case I was rather far away and zoomed in to the max at 100mm equivalent so getting everyone into focus wasn't difficult.

The images are severely cropped (about 2/3rds removed) to enhance the zoom effect and get the most interesting frame. I knew sharpness was going to be an issue because of the lighting (evening, under the lights) so my setting was 1/80 sec, f/4.9, ISO400 - not really recommended for action but it worked OK.

As for color I use the LR eye-dropper technique on the adidas bars. I also exported using adobeRBG rather than sRGB. I found that sRGB almost blowing out the reds and yellows.

The first is bit blurred probably from hitting the shutter button. This is also a technique I've picked up to shoot at hand held slow shutter speeds. That is, set the camera to continuous shooting and with luck one of them won't be blurred.

I like watching skiing, sometimes skating - looking forward to the winter Olympics. As for dance - time to play with Lightroom

[geoz]

I've missed a couple of weeks and need to get caught up so a series from the wilds of New Jersey. C&C welcome.

NJ Turnpike. In Jersey your exit is as good as your address.


A set from the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.

[Geoff F]

You have certainly picked some tricky subjects there, George.

Always difficult to make a road scene look interesting; but this does work.

The ferns are another potential nightmare both for interest and getting correct exposure. Once again, this has worked and there appears to be a series of circles coming from the branching ferns.

The bird seems rather lost amongst the greenery. But it does give a sense of scale to the scene.

And the grass growing in the water must have been a real struggle to achieve good exposure. It is potentially an over complicated scene; but you have managed a good balance between all the competing elements which nicely come together.

[geoz]

Thanks Geoff,

I know what you mean about ferns, but just happened to look down and see the pattern. The same for the grass, looked like fireworks.

As for the bird - since it is a wetland there are often many birds and birders there. But on that day there were neither. The red wing blackbird came by but was far away. I have a fixed lens camera and about the only birds I can take pictures of would be attacking me. This picture is heavily cropped just to salvage something. Here's the original 1//20 sec f/8.0 ISO 100 at 100mm equivalent.

[geoz]

Another from the Great Swamp. They have installed raised walkway over the standing water. Surprisingly not too many mosquitoes that day. C&C welcome.

[Geoff F]

Nice sense of perspective there. And once again, you have done well to manage your exposure under difficult conditions.

[Cantab]

George, I'm rather belatedly catching up on your Project 52 posts. The ferns really work well.

[Cantab]

Another from the Great Swamp. They have installed raised walkway over the standing water. Surprisingly not too many mosquitoes that day. C&C welcome.

I really like the composition of this. The winding walkway gradually leads the viewer into the depths of the scene.

[Brownbear]

I too think this is beautifully composed.

I really like the composition of this. The winding walkway gradually leads the viewer into the depths of the scene.