Project 52 by PhotoByTrace

[kdoc856]

Great shots, Trace, especially #1- whereas I feel I'm a witness to the scene in #2, I feel like I'm IN #1.

Hope you had a great time in the US, but am glad you are back "on duty" at CiC

[dje]

Lovely shots Trace with excellent composition. I too prefer the wider angle of the first. Your exposure and processing of these shots is spot on IMO.

Dave

[Brownbear]

Exquisitely beautiful photos, Trace. I think I prefer the 2nd image because of the beauty of the rocks and the water.

Your post reminded me of your gorgeous back lit dog photo #7. I couldn't remember who took that photo but I did remember how much I loved it. If you have the time to share any details about how you managed that photo and the beautiful lighting, I would be most appreciative.

Thank you.

[Cantab]

Wonderful photos! I can't make up my mind which I think is best. They're both my favourite.

[PhotoByTrace]

Thanks all. I appreciate the feedback and am glad you enjoyed these waterfall photos. The morning at Elakala Falls was probably the photographic highlight of my trip... such a wonderfully peaceful morning with beautiful light and a very pretty setting. It was only the second day of the trip and sitting there was when I realised that I was feeling re-energized. I had been struggling with health issues in the months preceeding the trip and that morning I felt good: strong and focussed again.

These are a couple of photos from the forest walk near the falls. The light was filtering through the spruce quite beautifully, just highlighting parts of the forest floor.





And when I emerged from the forest I found the low cloud and fog starting to lift from Blackwater Falls Canyon.

[Cantab]

Trace, another set of wonderful photos! I especially like the last one, which is quite stunning when viewed fullscreen.

[PhotoByTrace]

Your post reminded me of your gorgeous back lit dog photo #7. I couldn't remember who took that photo but I did remember how much I loved it. If you have the time to share any details about how you managed that photo and the beautiful lighting, I would be most appreciative.

Hi Christina,
Is this the post/image you are asking about?

I got home in daylight yesterday. And the light was lovely, so grabbed my ever-willing models and tried to capture some back-lit photos. I'm now glad I didn't get time to mow last weekend This was my favourite photo from the set:

The camera settings for the photo are Shutter Speed:1/500 second; Aperture:F/4.0; Focal Length:175 mm; ISO Speed:160. It was taken with a full-frame (Nikon D600) and the Nikkor 70-200 lens. The photo was shot in raw. At a guess I'd say she was about 7 meters away from me. This photo was cropped from the top-right corner. In the original photo her eye was in the centre of the frame.

My aim when taking my "dogs in motion" photos is usually to blur out the background so that the dog stays the focus of the photo. So I'm aiming to use a reasonably large aperture. But I also want to keep a reasonable amount of the dog in focus so need to be aware of how my depth of field will drop away as I zoom in further.

I know that the dogs will usually be about 5-10m (16-32') from me when playing. So by trial and error I've decided that f4 gives me a shallow depth of field, but will keep the dog's face in focus even at 200mm and I'm also happy that my lens is sharp enough for my liking in the center at f/4. So at f/4, zoomed right in at 200mm if the dog is only 5m (16') away from me then I'm only going to get about 15cm (6") in sharp focus. If the dog is 10m (32') away from me that sharp zone will increase to about 60cm (2'). If I zoom out, at 100mm with the dog 5m away I also get 60cm (2') in that sharp zone. So I will vary my focal distance as my dogs move in and out to keep a reasonable depth of field (and preferably to keep their feet in the shot ).

On my camera I have the option of a user defined setting U1. This is the one I have set up for taking my dogs in motion. I have it set on Aperture Priority and I use f4 as my chosen aperture. Though to freeze the motion I also need a quick shutter speed. At least 1/250th is recommended; though I prefer to keep a minimum of 1/500th as my dogs are often moving towards me. To achieve this I could shoot on manual and adjust the ISO to keep me shooting with those settings, but when it is sunset the light is changing fairly quickly so instead I have set my U1 up with Aperture priority in conjunction with the auto ISO setting on my camera. Under the Auto ISO sensitivity I've defined the maximum ISO as 1600 and the minimum shutter speed as 1/500th (as I'm pretty happy with the performance of my camera's noise reduction through to ISO 1600). I then shoot at f/4.

For this particular photo where I was looking for backlighting if I let the camera meter on matrix metering it would most likely make my dog way too dark and lacking in detail. For backlit situations I'll usually choose to meter on center-weighted. I also tend to use the exposure compensation to adjust the exposure if the camera isn't quite getting it to my liking... in this case I did not want to blow out the background highlights (even though this is accepted in backlit portraits much of the time).

As for the lighting... nature provided that. It was an afternoon when the light right before sunset was simply stunning, which is what "makes" the photo in so many ways. Having long grass helped provide the beautiful bokeh in the background. I was also laying on my stomach with my elbows up so that I was about eye level height with my dogs.

I can't remember exactly what I did in post-processing this photo. Though it would have included setting my white balance and adjusting the basic settings in Lightroom to increase contrast, bring out the shadows, control the highlights a little and then add a generous serving of vibrance. I would have also exported it to Nik Color Effex4 to use the darken/lighten center filter with the centre placed over her eye. I used that a lot with the dogs to bring out their facial details. I now have Lightroom5 so am using the radial gradient tool there instead to get the same effect.

Hope this helps you in trying to capture (and process) a similar scene.

[Brownbear]

Hi Trace,

Yes, it is! I adore that photo... the most beautiful back-lit dog in the world!

Thank you so much for sharing the details of how you photographed it, truly appreciated and yes I will be trying for a shot just like yours. I have U1 on my camera but as my camera is new to me I haven't tried it out yet, but all the manual details are truly appreciated, as are how you processed the photo.

Thanks a million!

PS Gorgeous photos. The fern is my favourite for the light and colour.

[PhotoByTrace]

Cullasaja River in North Carolina

I could have happily sat in this spot for hours...



Looking Glass Falls in Pisgah National Forest

[Brownbear]

And I could happily happily look at your beautiful photos for hours... Gorgeous images!

[PhotoByTrace]

Thanks Christina!
Last photos from the US trip...

Otter Creek on the Blue Ridge Parkway




And from tranquil water to energized water:

[Brownbear]

All lovely, but the image of Otter Creek is my favourite for the beautiful light and colour.

[PhotoByTrace]

I spent the weekend camping and competing at a dog agility competition. Between running my three dogs I took some agility photos. Unfortunately I ran out of battery power before the canine disc competition commenced, so missed out on some Frisbee action.

While I got some nice photos over the weekend I was also frustrated at myself for making "silly" mistakes:

• I learned to remember to check that BOTH batteries are charged before leaving for the weekend.
• I learned that it pays to double and triple-check my ISO settings before clicking madly (accidentally had it set at 25,600 for one set of photos rendering them pretty damned useless).
• I learned that I am not up to the challenge of changing my focus settings to a single focal point while tracking dogs in motion at agility. Certainly nicely sharp when I get it spot on, but frustrating the majority of the time given the distance I was working from.
• I learned not to leave my camera on a tripod anywhere near where dogs might be playing (no damage done this time fortunately).

Here are a couple of my favourite images from the weekend.
Heidi

Dizzy

[Cantab]

I really enjoyed these photos. Neither dog appears to be paying attention to what they're doing! Their attention is elsewhere, especially in the first one!

I'm sorry about the consequences of the mistakes you listed but it was good to read that even good photographers are capable of these sorts of errors, not just me.

[dje]

Great action shots of the dogs Trace and some very nice landscapes of the forests and streams.

Dave

[Brownbear]

Beautiful dogs in action... #10 is truly stunning!

[PhotoByTrace]

Thanks all. Bruce, both dogs were looking towards where their handlers were moving; they were essentially looking ahead for the next obstacle on twisty courses.

[PhotoByTrace]

A beach sunrise... it felt like a long time since I've been to the beach to capture a seascape sunrise. Sunrises, particularly over water tend to be one of my "staples", though as I look back over this year I find not as many as usual. I enjoyed this one. Always a peaceful start to the weekend.
I used a .6 reverse GND and a 4 stop ND for a 15sec exposure to just smooth over the waters and emphasize the reflections and corrugations. I took a 30 second exposure also, which provided a better histogram, but unfortunately the tripod must have moved slightly as the tide started to roll in, as it had some slight ghosting to the image.



My only disappointment for the morning was the time spent cleaning the dust spots out of the image, but I'll talk more about that in another thread.

[Cantab]

Trace, this is another wonderful photo. Thanks for sharing it.

[gregj1763]

Hi Trace, Love the dog agility photo's.
Sorry but I pinched the one of Heidi for my desktop background. I have a Black and Tan Kelpie so had a soft spot for that particular photo.
Cheers, Greg