Learning Landscapes - Mountains & Mist & Industrial Machinery

[Brownbear]

Here I tried to capture the beauty of the fog and the mist on the trees on a mountain top. I think the image is pretty but somehow the subtle details of the trees in the mist is lacking compare to the real seen.

A zoomed in landscape, un-cropped because I would appreciate feedback on the composition and l would like to learn how to improve my compositions. I suspect the sky should be cropped out. (excuse the dust spots... healed out but there were a lot of them.

Aperture Priority F22 1/40 sec ISO 100 No exposure bias

Trees in the mist



Industrial Landscape


F22 3 Sec ISO 100 Exp Bias +.67

I'm not sure why I photographed this. Likely because the fog was beautiful but I suspect that I liked the colours of the scene. Albeit after posting the image looks too blue. I like that the machinery is sharp especially since I took this photo in the early morning when it was still dark. But I'm sure I will learn something from posting it.




PS If one is photographing a foggy landscape with a moving oil tanker (slow moving) and wishes to keep the water silky via a long exposure... is it possible to keep the oil tanker (any moving boat) while using a slow shutter speed and mirror up mode?

[Sponge]

Hi Christina, just curious why you chose F22 on the first image? I hardly stop down that far unless I have something in the near foreground and a background that I want in focus. Since the first row of trees isn't exactly too close I think you'd get a sharper image without stopping down quite so far. I think you could do without so much sky since it's not very interesting or at least try the gradient tool in Lightroom or ACR to bring down the highlights or exposure a bit and see if that helps maybe... Fog and mist is tricky for me to capture so I might not be the best to give advice but I'd say maybe play around with the contrast to see if more or less gives you the look you want.
As far as your oil tanker question, you'd probably have to take two exposures if you wanted a sharp tanker and silky water.

[Brownbear]

Hi Patrick,

I choose F22 to achieve sharp focus throughout the image for maximum depth of field. The next time around I will try a larger aperture. I agree the sky is bland.. I have a few other shots from different angles with cloud in the sky, so I will review those to see if that is a good thing or not.

Thank you for answering my question. Sad to to hear but good to know.

Thank you for your feedback.

Hi Christina, just curious why you chose F22 on the first image? I hardly stop down that far unless I have something in the near foreground and a background that I want in focus. Since the first row of trees isn't exactly too close I think you'd get a sharper image without stopping down quite so far. I think you could do without so much sky since it's not very interesting or at least try the gradient tool in Lightroom or ACR to bring down the highlights or exposure a bit and see if that helps maybe... Fog and mist is tricky for me to capture so I might not be the best to give advice but I'd say maybe play around with the contrast to see if more or less gives you the look you want.
As far as your oil tanker question, you'd probably have to take two exposures if you wanted a sharp tanker and silky water.

[Mike Buckley]

Review the histogram of the first image. Notice that it displays no true blacks or whites. I don't have a problem with that if that is what you want. However, make sure that is what you want. Personally, I think this image would be improved if you at least raised the black point.

I think the image is pretty but somehow the subtle details of the trees in the mist is lacking compare to the real seen.

Selectively use the Curve tool in those areas to make them whatever you want them to be.

Also, always remember that you experienced a three-dimensional scene with sights and sounds that affect your impression and memory of the event. It's inevitable that some of the detail will be missing in the image because, after all, you're eliminating one-third of the dimensions once you make a photograph.

Perhaps most important, unless you are photographing a subject such as a bird for documentary purposes, make the image what you want it to be, not necessarily to document what it was. Doing so requires thinking about that before you release the shutter. That leads to...

I'm not sure why I photographed [the second image].

That's a major problem that we can't help you with other than reminding you that that's a definite no-no.

[tbob]

Christina: The thing to bear in mind is that you can always crop the sky if it is to bland. Cropping to a panorama format will allow you to bring the other elements into more prominence

[Manfred M]

If one is photographing a foggy landscape with a moving oil tanker (slow moving) and wishes to keep the water silky via a long exposure... is it possible to keep the oil tanker (any moving boat) while using a slow shutter speed and mirror up mode?

Let me answer the last part of your questions.

Any time your are taking a long exposre, you can get motion blur in the image, depending on the speed of the object. You might not notice much blur from a slowly moving tanker, but it you do, the way I would handle this is to take a series of bracketed images of the scene as "normal" eposures at the same aperture you are using for the slow exposure. This way I won't have any depth of field issues and I will have a clear image of the moving object (the tanker in your example), and would have a number of images to chose from to ensure that I have a good match for exposure for it.

I would clone out the blurred tanker and then copy in the image of the one that is not blurred using a layer mask.

If your exposure is really long (say 1 minute or more) and a fast moving boat goes by, you will probably not even see the boat in your image.

Albeit after posting the image looks too blue. I like that the machinery is sharp especially since I took this photo in the early morning when it was still dark. But I'm sure I will learn something from posting it.

Simple fix - turn down your blue channel (or increase the amount of yellow), both will remove the blue colour cast.

[Digital]

Is it my eyes or do both of these pics seem flat?


Bruce

[Digital]

Christina, in some areas my PP skills need to be improved. I am wondering if this pic is an improvement over yours. Hope I am not being overbearing.
Bruce



I will remove this pic on your say so.

[Stagecoach]

Hi Christina,

I can not really add anything more than has been said already other than No 2 image is one I like. Having passed this type of scene many times in the early morning entering or leaving port I know what that morning fog and stillness is like. It can be given a bit more pop to the colours easily if that's what you want.

Grahame

[ajohnw]

The use of F22 might reduce the clarity of fine detail in a shot like that Christina. Dreaded diffraction effects. Some will say it never happens but they probably aren't using a 24mp APS sensor. It might but I doubt it after this level of reduction.

People get very excited about hyperfocal distances related to obtaining a decent depth of field. It's worth playing about with a calculator to get a feel for this aspect but really it's at it's best when there is a tape measure about. There are several calculators about on the web and a discussion on the subject in the CinC tutorials. In this shot I would be inclined to focus on the mid line of trees and set F16 as the front line of trees looks to be some distance away. There are alternatives eg when we look around things generally fade with distance so slightly out of focus far distances can look natural. As far as hyperfocal distance go some say focus 1/3 into the shot, some say some way into the shot. The aperture used in practical situations is a judgement call. In a shot like this one it is possible to guess distances, use a calculator and set the camera up manually to suit but there is scope for error. On the other hand if say a wide angle view low down where the foreground needs to be in sharp focus the distances can be measured or guessed with a fair chance of success. Some have the calculator on their phone etc.

I had 3 goes at it but did the same basic things to all. There is a large flat mist area to the right so cropped it off and also did what artists do with horizons when they aren't really part of the shot - cropped so that it's slightly above 1/3 of the way down. One of the few times you will catch me mentioning 1/3's. I also dragged down the curve a little way below mid tones to boost contrast in the mist.

Not sure what your packages can do so. All done in 10 mins and just illustrations really. Local work can do all sorts of things even paint some mist into the sky or dodge / burn a little bit of fuzzy detail there.

Fotoxx, as above and tone mapping to the low contrast areas only. In contrast terms from 0 to 1/2 way toward mid contrast only. Idea was to boost mist contrast and bring out more detail in it.



Rawtherapee. Tone mapping again but to the whole image irrespective. That allowed the curve to be dragged down even more to reduce the contrast boost in the trees.



Rawtherapee again. I suspect this is the best direction for the shot to take. I used the above one as a basis. Black and white conversion. Didn't like the look of the trees so reduced green luminance as much as the package allowed. Increased rgb gamma equally and added a slight exposure compensation - there is a little bit of scope there. I suspect most people would make the shot softer but there is nothing like a change. The colour changes alter what goes into the black and white conversion.



Colour doesn't do much for this image. An alternative would be to reduce the colour rather than complete black and white conversion.. That's the problem variations are endless.

John
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[Wavelength]

My feeling is that mist always reduce contrast and flattens the image; you may please add some contrast and brightening jobs..... Why can't you click an anchored container than resort to some technique to register movement of water against a steady object?

Wishing to see more from your landscape series

Regards

[mknittle]

The second one might be a good place for a night shot if the lights and reflections are bright enough.

[Brownbear]

Thank you to everyone for your helpful and informative replies, including several new things for me to think about and learn from.

Mike...

When I processed the image I didn't do much to it, which included not moving the black point much (if at all). My reasoning for that is that these were photographed in the fog, so I was of the mind that they should stay low contrast. I will revisit these today and apply more post processing. Thank you as always for your help.

About the why for some images. I suppose it is because I'm learning something new, so sometimes a scene just captures my fancy or it is just a case of I wonder how one should photograph that scene. For example, yesterday I headed out to take an image of the city at sunset. I hopped on the wrong bus and by the time I noticed I was a mile from my intended destination and had to run (carrying my immensely heavy tripod) in order to be there for the golden hour. The golden hour turned out to be a bust... So I thought I would photograph a night scene.. While I was doing that an enormous fog cloud rolled in to cover the buildings, so I tried photographing that (perhaps that scene will be a first ever in the world , and then I couldn't see any buildings at all, so I tried photographing a pier, and then it was just pitch black and I couldn't see anything including the dials on my camera. A lot of new things to think about photographing, that are constantly changing that I'm trying to figure out how to photograph, and it is all new.

Manfred and John...

Thank you for your detailed explanations and very helpful advice. John your post processing examples are very helpful. Manfred about the boats, very helpful. Indeed I do have one boat that is almost blurred away. That I can't capture an image in the 3 dimensions that I see the scene is something I have never thought about, so good to know.



Trevor... I'm hoping to be able to photograph a scene without cropping ie; hoping to take the image as seen. I will try a crop but I will also try and find one with less sky that works.

Bruce, Grahame and Nandakumar

Thank you for your input. Truly appreciated.

Yes, the images look flat... Bruce I am most appreciative that you would take the time to process one of my images so I may learn from you. And I prefer your version.


I will revisit the images I took today and apply more post processing, crop etc, and re-post.
Thank you to all!

[Mike Buckley]

When I processed the image I didn't do much to it, which included not moving the black point much (if at all). My reasoning for that is that these were photographed in the fog, so I was of the mind that they should stay low contrast.

That's reasonable for the areas of the scene that include fog and mist. However, the trees in direct sunlight can benefit from the typical contrast applied to the mid-tones and attention to the black point.

it was just pitch black and I couldn't see anything including the dials on my camera

Keep a small flash light in your camera bag. I also keep a small LED light and a remote control on a cord attached to my tripod. I think the LED light cost only $1 and it fits my needs perfectly.

[NorthernFocus]

Hi, Christina. You've already gotten plenty of feedback on processing etc. and I'm no hand at landscape anyway. I'll stick to the technical stuff..

Per John's comments, you can do a little research on hyperfocal distances for the lens lengths you are using and use much larger apertures when shooting far off subjects. On the D7100 you can improve sharpness by staying at f8 or larger whenever possible. I think the theoretical value may even be 5.6 for that body.

Regarding seeing your settings in the dark, if you press the info button then the LCD on back of the camera will light up briefly with all the same info that shows up in the top panel.

[Mike Buckley]

Regarding seeing your settings in the dark, if you press the info button

Finding that button can be a challenge in the dark.

[NorthernFocus]

Finding that button can be a challenge in the dark.

Know thy gear... and carry a light as previously suggested

[mknittle]

I have one like this so I can use both hands.
http://www.cheap-batteries.com/p/HD33A1EN.html

[Brownbear]

Thank you to all for enlightening me on apertures and focal distances, very helpful to know. And also for the tips on gear and the light button on my camera. These recent images are the first seriously trying images that I've taken in the dark (before sunrise or sunset) other than full moon shots.

Here is my edit of the trees and mist. I chose a different image with less sky, not cropped but likely could be. I followed Mike and John(s) suggestions adding contrast selectively and bringing out the mist in the trees selectively. While not perfect I think I did a fair job of it given that I'm still learning to post process. I struggled with the colour of the sky (it's not right) and selecting things finely along the tree line.



Grahame. I'm truly sorry but it seems I'm rather quick to delete landscapes versus wildlife shots. I deleted the industrial image so I can't try another edit but I understand the idea.

Following is another image taken that day in the fog. I think I did a better job of the composition and capturing the drama of the sky. During post processing I used curves to bring out the clouds and something is not right about the clouds. I focused on the highrises but I think I should've focused on the rocks in the foreground (f22 again) Comments and feedback on the composition and best aperture would be truly appreciated. Thank you.

[Mike Buckley]

Gorgeous composition in the last one!

I would have focused on the water a bit past the foreground rocks. You now check your histogram to make sure that you've got it right. Also be sure to blow up the image in the LCD to check sharpness if you're not already doing that.