The Giving Landscape

[purplehaze]

While most people were eating their Thanksgiving dinner, my friends and I were on the beach taking in some of the day's best light. I highly recommend cultivating artists as friends; they are most accommodating of the photography enthusiast's anti-social schedule. C&C welcome.

I didn't take the tripod as I had the dog with me and so I had to shoot high ISO.

#1
[IMG]DSC_0225 - Version 2 by onesun1moon, on Flickr[/IMG]

#2
[IMG]DSC_0234 - Version 2 by onesun1moon, on Flickr[/IMG]

[Shadowman]

Nice captures, good tip on cultivating friends.

[Marie Hass]

Nice. Love the clouds in both. And, i am a sucker for the colors in #2.

Would have preferred some rock detail, but that probably would have come with a longer exposure.

'Rie

[purplehaze]

Thanks, 'Rie. Yes, I regret not taking the tripod. You never know what treats the heavens have in store for you.

[Nicks Pics]

The first is very soft and pleasant. In the second the clouds are fantastic. Very nicely exposed to capture them that way.
I must have missed Thanksgiving this year... Thought it was next week

[Stagecoach]

It's No 1 for me Janis, I very much like simple along with the tones in this one.

Grahame

[John 2]

Like both of these Janis. I agree about the detail in the rock but it looks a bit solid so I don't think even the RAW file will give up much.

[Donald]

I agree that the colour in the sky in the second one is great. But it's the same as in everyone else's sunset photos. That's not to be critical of people making sunset images, but unless the composition has got something that makes them 'different',. they do all become the a version of the same thing.

The first image of these two, on the other hand, has, I think, wonderful tone and shades of colour. To me there is harmony and balance in that image. The amount of detail and texture in the cloud is just right. I really like it. And it is different.

[FrankMi]

The second one has a lovely sunset Janis. As others have pointed out, the rock in the foreground provides a great focal point given it's prominence in the scene but needs to be able to reveal more detail. I don't recall if you are doing layers in post processing but anytime you have a wide exposure range as in shooting directly into the sun, it is well worth capturing bracketed exposures even without a tripod. You could then blend in the detail from the rocks.

I tripped across this video of shooting a sunset and processing it mainly in Lightroom. It may provide you with some options for a scene like this. Hope this helps!

[purplehaze]

Thank you, Nick, Grahame and John. I just checked, John, and no, there is next to nothing to be pulled out of that rock.

Thanks for the suggestions and the video link, Frank. By sheer coincidence, I had stumbled across some of that guy's tutorials just yesterday. I have in fact barely breached the threshold of Photoshop. I picked up the Missing Manual some weeks ago, to help me get started, but it is breaking my wrists. They should have split it into two volumes. Nevertheless, I will start bracketing my exposures again, for the time when I can do that blending thing, which I hope will be real soon!

Donald, you're quite right about the sunset image, but it served a useful PP exercise in pulling out colour and texture. I'm glad you and Grahame saw something in the other, though, as it is my favourite and I do wish I had been able to shoot it at lower ISO. I don't actually think my processing does it justice and expect I will revisit it in future.

[Donald]

I don't actually think my processing does it justice and expect I will revisit it in future.

Ooohh! I think your processing has got it 'spot-on'. I can't think how you make it better. But it's not my image and you know what vision you have for it.

[Mike Buckley]

Well done with both photos. I am just aching to see the first one converted to monochrome.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Janis I love both of them. I don't agree with Donald about #2. A sunset image is a sunset image of course, but colors and compositions make them different from each other and they all have different moods. May be they can be grouped generally as 'sunset images' but they are all different from each other for me. In #2 I like the shape of the grey clouds and the orange sunshine very much.And those reflections on the water are so nice. I appreciate your efforts for such a good PP work and I can certainly say that your PP is eye pleasing. I also like #1 very much as a natural looking image, very nice composition and nice details on the rocks

[Texas Dave]

It's a beautiful world to those that can see it. Great captures.

[purplehaze]

You're very kind, Dave. I wish I could say I always know what I am going to get from the camera, but I'm not there yet.

Hey, Donald. I think I'm at that place where, in learning the PP tools, I have a tendency to overuse them. Apart from indigo storm clouds over golden wheat fields and glorious sunsets, ours is a subtle beauty here on the Canadian prairies--often rather monochromatic and low contrast. My challenge is to learn how to render that beauty more faithfully than I now do and work within a more limited palette of colours and range of tones. But I guess maybe one has to learn the whole scale before one can play variations inside it.

Mike, I will try to give you monochrome.

Binnur, thanks; your remarks are very encouraging!