Pratice: Graydon Pool in my town

[Hui Song]

I like to shoot landscape and architecture photos during my family vacation trips (hand holding Camera in Auto or Scene Modes). But the camera is always in the drawer when I am at home. You can check a few of my Niagara fall picture in my last thread: "Beginner's First Try".
I started to take photography more seriously two month ago, when I began to practice shooting in my neighborhood area. I checked many parks within 30 minutes driving distance and did find a few of my favorite shooting spot. Armed with the knowledge I gained recently, I tried very hard to bring out the beauty of my town and those "ordinary" parks.
When I showed my pictures to friends last weekend, my wife reminded them that those parks actually do not look that nice. I argued that she does not go there at the right time or is not in the mood to catch the beauty.



Nikon D600, Lens 28~300mm f3.5
I buy this lens in order to avoid changing lens during shooting. Any comment on this?

Exposure 1.3 sec at F22 , ISO 100, Focal Length 28mm
I followed Bryan Peterson's suggestion in his book: set aperture at f22 and preset the focus via the distance settings at 3 feet to maximize the depth of field. Right now, this setting is like another kind of "auto" mode for me. It let my mind focus more on other things. I need learn more about the hyperfocal distance to try other aperture setting, right?

Filter: polarize filter + GND.
I do not have UV filter, so I always keep the polarize filter on as protection for lens. But I need to pay attention to whether I need the reflection or not. If I gain more knowledge about the filters and lens, I should get used to changing them.

Editing in lightroom 5:
Crop to level the compose. A little bit of exposure and vibrance adjustment in GND for the sky part. A little bit tone and tone curve adjustment for the whole picture.

OK, Eager to learn. Open to any suggestions

[Hui Song]

Another picture for the same view taken half an hour later:



Exposure: 20.0 sec at F16, Focal Length 28mm, ISO 100.

[Donald]

Hui

I think the thing that you should be most proud of at this stage is your determination to learn and your own ability to critically analyse your pictures and to ask yourself questions about how to make them better. None of us will continue to improve unless we continue to do that. So, my compliments to you for having that ability.

I need learn more about the hyperfocal distance to try other aperture setting, right?

Some people think that it is not important to understand about hyperfocal distance. I disagree.

It may not always be necessary to apply the 'rules' of hyperfocal distance, but knowing the theory does help you make judgements even when you do not strictly apply it.

Ans as for shooting in your home area - There are always pictures to be made just right outside our front door. The only restriction to seeing them is our vision and imagination. Once we start to 'see' as a photographer, many more images than we ever thought possible begin to emerge in our mind.

[Dave Humphries]

Lens 28~300mm f3.5
I buy this lens in order to avoid changing lens during shooting. Any comment on this?

Hi Hui,

I started with the 18-200mm for the same reason, well that and I had moved from a bridge camera with same focal length range and didn't want to be changing lenses all day (or missing out on shots).

These are slow (fairly narrow maximum aperture) and the wide zoom range means that more compromises have to be made with optical quality, especially at the extremes. All that said, I don't regret it for a minute, although occasionally I'd like a faster lens (e.g. f/2-ish instead of f/3.5 to f/5.6) to achieve a narrower Depth of Field or shoot in lower light - but since you're exploring f/16 to f/22 on landscapes at the moment, this isn't an issue for you.

I like that composition, but I prefer the first shot because of the cloud, the colours and the foreground interest.

My personal choice is not to shoot with a CPL permanently, I have a UV filter for protection and only add the CPL when needed - this gives me two extra stops of exposure and avoids the problems of a CPL used at 18mm on DX (or 28mm in FX) - uneven darker blue patches in skies due to wide angle of view when in landscape orientation.

Cheers,

[Geoff F]

I would certainly wonder about shooting at F22 as a normal option. Most lenses are getting soft towards their extremes and give best results around the middle distance. Say F8 to F11, but this range can be successfully increased depending on the actual lens.

Narrow apertures can also mean having to use a high Iso setting or very slow shutter speeds which often produce problems.

I do very occasionally use a polarizer, but usually end up ditching those shots in favour of others shot with some careful use of exposure compensation; or other crafty shooting techniques. A UV filter is normally used on my lenses.

And I wonder if you might be attempting to include too much in these images which is causing a little confusion over the main subject material. Would a little cropping, possibly to 5 x 4 ratio or a square crop, actually produce a more pleasing result.

I often make several different crops from the same original before deciding on which one to keep. That is one of the great advantages of digital photography; providing you retain the original without editing.

[Ken Curtis]

Hi Hui.

First thing is that I use the same lens on my D700 and love it. It is a great lens.

I do not use a polarizer or GND unless there is a really good reason to do so. I do not think I would have used any filter for your shot above. I also try to be very careful with my equipment and have not used anything to protect the lens, such as a UV filter. (I hope my luck continues.)

I downloaded an app for my Android phone called DoF Calc. I believe it was free. There are other similar programs to help compute where to set your focus point.

Your image does not look as clear as I think it could. Possibly it is the way the file is handled here on the forum, or perhaps when you reduced the image size, you did not check the sharpness. I also think you have to be careful about what Bryan Peterson says. He is correct, but given that your conditions are the same as his, e.g., focus length.

[Stagecoach]

Hi Hui,

Following on from what Ken has mentioned about the image being 'clear' I downloaded the blue one and opened it in Elements which is what I use. With the CiC image opened in the lightbox adjacent to the one opened in Elements there is a very noticeable difference in clarity/sharpness.

I would suggest the image posted here is not exhibiting the high quality it has due to downloading method perhaps.

Grahame

[Wavelength]

Nice

[Hui Song]

Hi every one, thanks all for your help. I do gain lot from each of your comments.

[Hui Song]

Your image does not look as clear as I think it could. Possibly it is the way the file is handled here on the forum, or perhaps when you reduced the image size, you did not check the sharpness. I also think you have to be careful about what Bryan Peterson says. He is correct, but given that your conditions are the same as his, e.g., focus length.

When I export the images from LR, I did not check the "output sharpening". I will export them again and set "output sharpening" to high.
It seams very hard to check the DoF by pushing the DoF preview button on camera. It normally likes very dark and I can not see the view clearly. That is why I use Bryan Peterson's way and do not even bother to check the DoF preview. But it only woks with F22 and Focal Length 28mm. I just download the DoF Calc to my phone. Thanks!

[Hui Song]

Following on from what Ken has mentioned about the image being 'clear' I downloaded the blue one and opened it in Elements which is what I use. With the CiC image opened in the lightbox adjacent to the one opened in Elements there is a very noticeable difference in clarity/sharpness.

I would suggest the image posted here is not exhibiting the high quality it has due to downloading method perhaps.

Grahame

I read the tutorial about the "Sharpening" today. I will export these two image a again with "output sharpening" set to high and post them later. Hope they will turn out better.

[Hui Song]

And I wonder if you might be attempting to include too much in these images which is causing a little confusion over the main subject material. Would a little cropping, possibly to 5 x 4 ratio or a square crop, actually produce a more pleasing result.

I did pay too much attention to the sky. I will post the new corps later with high sharpening setting.

I often make several different crops from the same original before deciding on which one to keep. That is one of the great advantages of digital photography; providing you retain the original without editing.

Great idea. From now on, I will do that.

[Hui Song]

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The new crops do looks better for me.



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