TREE THREAD - Post your tree shots here

[Peter Ryan]

Thanks Peter - that helps. I live in Canberra and I've been playing with macro shots a lot (flowers mainly) and some urban shots. Canberra - as you would know - has a lake and that can be interesting, particularly on foggy mornings. I like architectural shots and I find the buildings in Melbourne cbd inspiring. I haven't done any landscapes yet as I tend to stay in urban areas - that's to come. I'd love to explore the Victorian coast. I do like the calm of your rainforest shots so I'm keen to explore the botanic gardens in both Canberra and Melbourne. I'm also thinking of experimenting with Parliament House in b&w. I love the lines in the architecture of the main entrance. I've reached the point where I've got the basics and I know what I like but I need to explore the finer details more, so I hope you don't mind me asking questions.

Thanks

Not at all Raylee that's what the forum is all about. I ask many questions myself so please keep them coming and if I cannot help there are many more qualified than I to assist.

Most impotantly post some images so we can see what you do and hopefully can be more constructive.

[Donald]

The light filtering down through the rainforest bounces off the shiny leaves and can cause blown out highlights.

Call me stupid (ok, that's enough), but it never dawned on me about polorisers and light bouncing off shiny leaves. We had a discussion recently on here about the value of polarisers and I said that I felt as if my investment in one hadn't really been justified (although some people never go anywhere without one). Thanks, Peter, you've just added to the sum of knowledge.

[Peter Ryan]

Call me stupid (ok, that's enough), but it never dawned on me about polorisers and light bouncing off shiny leaves. We had a discussion recently on here about the value of polarisers and I said that I felt as if my investment in one hadn't really been justified (although some people never go anywhere without one). Thanks, Peter, you've just added to the sum of knowledge.

Hi Donald,

As I said in another post we have some pretty bright light down this way so we need to consider these things. By polarising the light bouncing off leaves you also saturate the colours in the scene, which I think you see from the images I posted.

[Colin Southern]

I think you see from the images I posted.

Hi Peter,

Not sure if it's just me or not, but my browser is flatly refusing to display the first of your two images above -- even when I paste the URL directly into another browser tab. Anyone else having trouble displaying it?

[Peter Ryan]

Hi Peter,

Not sure if it's just me or not, but my browser is flatly refusing to display the first of your two images above -- even when I paste the URL directly into another browser tab. Anyone else having trouble displaying it?

Hi Colin,

Raylee and Donald seem to have viewed it but it is the same image as Post 201 above.

[Colin Southern]

Hi Colin,

Raylee and Donald seem to have viewed it but it is the same image as Post 201 above.

Hi Peter,

I can see the image in 201, but not 219 - they also have different URLs

[mastamak]

;I was discussing with Steve the problems shooting in a rainforest where the light intensity is quiet different between the floor of the rainforest and the canopy.

Thanks for the comments, Peter, regarding photography in the rainforest - very helpful. I have been struggling with this for some time. A well known photographer here in Cairns told me he obtains his best rainforest images shooting on overcast and, preferably, wet days. This, of course, introduces a host of other difficulties not least of which is how to keep water off your lens.



Anyway, here is a photo of some Mangroves. These are really interesting plants as they provide a measure of the biodiversity of a region. There are 30 species in North Queensland including some that grow to massive height. This reduces to about 17 half way down the Queensland coast and the species finally peters out to just one by the time you reach the NSW/Victoria border.

By the way, I have been resizing my images to a max 2000pixels width then further reducing to message board size (640x480) using tinypic. Is this the best way to do it? I feel the images I post lose their sharpness by this severe resizing.
Grant

[Antonio Correia]

[Dave Humphries]

By the way, I have been resizing my images to a max 2000pixels width then further reducing to message board size (640x480) using tinypic. Is this the best way to do it? I feel the images I post lose their sharpness by this severe resizing.

Hi Grant,

Personally, I don't let anyone but me downsize my pics

The maximum size people will see here at CiC in a post is 700px on the longest dimension, so I always produce one to that size for inline purposes. If the image is worth it, I post a link to a bigger version.

By way of example, not that it is in anyway a noteworthy image, but I needed a tree in the picture for this thread, how's this?


Nikon D5000 + Nikon 70-300mm VR lens: 1/4000s f/8 at 300mm iso200

I downsized that to 700 myself, here it is again at PBase at 700px (I don't think I can see a difference) plus a full size at 2274 x 2284px for comparison.

If you upload at a large size, and then let a web site downsize, they will always tend to scrimp on quality as larger filesizes eat up their bandwidth quicker (in other words, it costs them more).

Here's what PBase do when they downsize 2284px to 400px (height)


and here's one I downsized to 400px (and sharpened, of course).


Not too much difference, but that's partly why I use PBase, they're not as bad as some other hosting sites (my personal view - YMMV).

Hope that's helpful and not too much off topic,

[Antonio Correia]

[Peter Ryan]

Thanks for the comments, Peter, regarding photography in the rainforest - very helpful. I have been struggling with this for some time. A well known photographer here in Cairns told me he obtains his best rainforest images shooting on overcast and, preferably, wet days. This, of course, introduces a host of other difficulties not least of which is how to keep water off your lens.



Anyway, here is a photo of some Mangroves. These are really interesting plants as they provide a measure of the biodiversity of a region. There are 30 species in North Queensland including some that grow to massive height. This reduces to about 17 half way down the Queensland coast and the species finally peters out to just one by the time you reach the NSW/Victoria border.

By the way, I have been resizing my images to a max 2000pixels width then further reducing to message board size (640x480) using tinypic. Is this the best way to do it? I feel the images I post lose their sharpness by this severe resizing.
Grant

Hi Grant,

You have some great tropical rainforest up your way. We have the temperate rainforest down here but both are the same to shoot. I certainly agree with your photographer mate. I normally only go into the rainforest on bright overcast days. There is enough clutter to minimise in your images without competing with light beams and shadows. I do not bother on rainy days as the rainforest floor is quiet dark so you need a tripod and exposures are longer. I do not like exposing the camera to the elements like that.

As for your postings I normally downsize my images firstly to 72 ppi and then fit the long side to 700 pixels. You also need to convert the image to sRGB for showing on the web. The web colour space is not set up to show Adobe RGB as well and the image will appear flat. When you downsize an image you need to resharpen as some of this is lost in the transition.

I hope this helps.

[Peter Ryan]

Another good composition here Antonio. I like your work.

[Antonio Correia]

Another good composition here Antonio. I like your work.

Thank you Peter.
Just postcards... Nothing really creative.
I wanted more, more creativeness, more boldness but I keep doing this kind of work which I like anyway.
At this time - about 4 years ago - I was a lurk - still am - and I was not careful about the skies. I do have some shots burned in those areas.
These days I am careful and I chimp.
More images soon.

[mastamak]

Thanks Dave and Peter for your helpful advice both on uploading images and photographing in the rainforest. I can't wait to put this in practice. By way of thanks and to keep on topic, here is a picture of a tortured tree at Sandymount Road, Otago Peninsula, NZ. I have been to this place twice, once was a sparkling day when the picture below was taken but on the second occasion, the following year, I was able to appreciate how the tree came to be growing in this fashion as I stood in the face of a roaring southerly gale.

Grant

[ScoutR]

C&C always welcome
Wendy

[Antonio Correia]

Wendy, this is nice

[ScoutR]

Thank you Antonio. I've been lucky enough to have the chance to shoot in the early morning fog a couple times in the last month and a half. Fog is good.The cars in the parking lot behind the trees are barely visible. I wish I had not cut off the side of the right hand tree though. I always manage to do that. I'll have to get famous and call it my style.

Wendy

[arith]

C&C always welcome
Wendy

Top shop stuff Wendy.

[Donald]

C&C always welcome

Wendy

That's a really well put together image. Really nice to just sit and stare at for a few minutes of calmness and relaxation. A real peaceful feel to it.

You make to the point yourself about the right-hand side. Am I right in saying that there are trees to the right-hand side (as we look at it) of the right-hand tree? The reason I ask is wondering whether it would have been possible to walk 15/20 paces to the left and shoot from there. That would have moved the sun off centre (and I'm not sure if this would have worked) to more over the left-hand tree and could have put the lower left branches of the right-hand tree (is this making sense?) wholly against a background of fog, rather than against the tree in the background. But, if theer are more trees out of shot on the right, then that would have defeated the exercise.

Haven't a clue whether this would have worked. But it was just a thought that crossed my mind.

Good one.

[Antonio Correia]

... I'll have to get famous and call it my style. Wendy

Wendy, I like your humor... Very subtle. I do understand it pretty well.
If you are famous you can burk at dinner that everybody will applaud and say it was a nice sound to emit.
The hole idea is to get there if you willing to play the game