New Camera

[Loftaris]

Hi all. I posted in another thread, but I'll retype it here as it's probably a little more proper.

I recently purchased a Canon Rebel XSi(450D), and has been my 2nd camera. My last camera is rather old, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-F7. The cameras battery died about 3-4 years ago, and I haven't taken a picture since, but when I had it, I took thousands.

Obviously, the learning curve is STEEP, but I'm loving every minute of it.

Within an hour of owning the camera, I went and took these 2 pictures. I do apologize, they are fairly large(10megs each), but like I said, I'm learning.

wolf.sasktelwebsite.net/rocks.jpg
wolf.sasktelwebsite.net/water.jpg

It was storming the last couple days, and there was a break in the storm, I couldn't believe how amazing the clouds looked, it was quite calm at the time I took these pictures(only droplets of rain.) They were taken at about 10:30am right after a graveyard shift at work.

Two days later, I took this picture. Again, rather large. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel that taking the picture at the best resolution and quality possible will allow me to scale it easier, no?

wolf.sasktelwebsite.net/cityscape.jpg (I photoshopped a large blue sign our of one of the buildings, it really took away from what I wanted to see.)

All 3 have been done as HDR. A friend taught me the technique and I find it amazing.

Please, any/all comments are welcome. I'd like to learn more, and seeing what you guys have been doing has been inspiring.

Sorry for the ramble. Enjoy.

[Dave Humphries]

Welcome Loftaris,

I'm sure you'll learn a lot here, but never under-estimate your own abilities, I'm sure we can learn from you too.

I'm going to launch straight into 'constructive feedback' on the images above;

a) You've uploaded the full size images there and I find they take some patience waiting to download (8MB), you might want to consider a half (or even quarter) size version for general consumption, unless you have an image where the ultimate resolution is the main point. There is also the fact that if anyone wants to rip off and re-publish/sell your pictures, you've given them the full resolution to do so.

b) The cityscape could do with correction of the angle to make horizontals horizontal and verticals vertical - the latter may involve perspective adjustment. It's always a good idea to correct such basic errors - as you may have noted from my thread I do generally need to correct tilt in most of my pics

I've yet to attempt HDR myself - your friend has (to an extent) started you off on quite a complex procedure there. Therefore, I haven't commented on the HDR aspects of the shots as I have no experience to call upon - and, as I said at the beginning, we (or I) may learn from you too, even if you are just starting out.

Anyway, welcome to the forums and we look forward to seeing more of your photos.

Kind regards, Dave

[Loftaris]

b) The cityscape could do with correction of the angle to make horizontals horizontal and verticals vertical - the latter may involve perspective adjustment.

I didn't get a tripod until just today. I did notice when I took the shot that it was a little crooked. I rotated and cropped it at work, but unfortunately left the fixed copy there.

Thanks for the feedback.

[taken]

sorry looks like i have very little patience ur pics are still opening but my advice to you would be to read mrrusty reply at least twice and do like wise looks like its gonna take some more time for your pic to open, so i will close my reply now with out any comments on your pics

[Loftaris]

My apologies friends, I'll repost them at a proper size. Guess having them 4000x3000 doesn't matter since they're resized in the browser anyways, huh.

http://wolf.sasktelwebsite.net/rocks1.jpg
http://wolf.sasktelwebsite.net/water1.jpg
http://wolf.sasktelwebsite.net/cityscape1.jpg

[taken]

well.....i think i like ur exposures on the first two pics called rock1 and water1 they are sort of perfect to me very little disturbance in the composition though! the third pic needs a lots of improvement,though i like the pic in parts the left part of the pic looks good! the right part can easily be ignored unless tweaked creatively in ps

[Loftaris]

the left part of the pic looks good! the right part can easily be ignored unless tweaked creatively in ps

It's a shame you say that. The right part of the photo was what I caught my eye. I initially tried cropping out the parkade below, but it added glare off the building on the right, which is what I wanted to capture. That with the glow from behind the buildings from the morning sun, I thought it all blended together really well.

What PS editing would you have done on the right side of the photo Taken, I'm interested to hear your opinion.

Thanks for the feedback btw, appreciate the kind words.

[taken]

mrloftaris........i have no idea who ever told u that i was ashamed to say that the right part of the pic,with bright sunlight reflections on the glass ......can be easily ignored! i repeat i am not ashamed to say that! we just cant have every one to like our pics. its totally impossible to please one and all! i prefer keeping my bad pics safe,cz they end up teaching me more! good pics,well applauded pics dont!

[shreds]

I am with Rustyshutter on this one.

His comments are much as I would have noted. It is interesting what you say about the parking lot, as I also wondered whether the shot could manage without this, but since you have already had this thought, my conclusion is that with a little straightening, the shot is in itself quite interesting and to me at least, memorable. I like the glint off the tower block, absolutely makes it.

Hope you enjoy shooting with the tripod. They do make a difference especially when you critically review shots later at 100% on the computer.

[rc53]

For quick and simple correction of wonky verticals try ShiftN. It's easy and it's free.

http://www.marcus-hebel.de/foto/links.html

[Loftaris]

For quick and simple correction of wonky verticals try ShiftN. It's easy and it's free.

http://www.marcus-hebel.de/foto/links.html

Thank you very much! It's blocked from work, but I'll check it out when I get home.

[Dave Humphries]

Yes, do get Shift N for home, especially if you only have access to photoshop at work.

I used to use Shift N myself (until I bought Elements 6), as I recall, Shift N can also (optionally) rotate to correct sloping horizontals too.

I agree the parking lot should stay in shot, if nothing else, it also contains yet another reflection to lighten and 'warm up' that corner of the photo.

[shreds]

Shift N - Just had a look and regrettably it is MS Windows only. Ok for a lot of people, but for those who do their photo processing on a Mac, unfortunate. I shall give it a go on my Windows laptop as it looks interesting nevertheless.

Certainly of use for those photographing architecture and buildings, especially as it is freeware, although I wouldn't deny it a donation as I always take my hat off to those who can produce such wonders.

Looking at Marcus's website too, he is quite a dab hand with the camera, some really interesting and well thought through images on there. Perhaps we can tempt him to CiC?