A Day about town during Tulip Festival

[Sailorstu]

This past Sunday I enjoyed an early morning downtown taking in the city scenery and the tulips. Here are a few photos for which I welcome any C&C.

#1 - Tulip beds with the Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica in the background.


#2 - Tulips at Major's Hill Park downtown.


#3 - The Basilica with tulips in the foreground.


# 4 - The library of Canada's Parliament basked in the early morning sun.

[Shadowman]

Interesting series, the first doesn't work so much as the flash is too intense. I think everything above the field of flowers is more interesting in this composition.
The second is nicely composed, was this done with fisheye or software? Just wondering.
Third, nice juxtaposition.
Fourth, nice exposure and composition.

Looking forward to seeing more.

[IzzieK]

What? No tulips on the last one??? Oh well...I enjoyed each and every image you showed here for that matter -- the tulips....All good shots.

[Geoff F]

Unfortunately you were 'fighting against the light with some of these images.

As John mentioned, using flash on #1 didn't really work in this case.

#3 is OK but once again the light angle isn't doing you any favours with those dark tulips in the foreground. Not really any simple alternative though; except shoot at a different time.

#4 would have worked for me if you had managed to get the foreground foliage in focus, but at the moment it is just too distracting.

[bnnrcn]

Nice series Stu I agree with the other comments about #1. I like the other shots, nice compositions. May be a bit more sharpening ?

[Sailorstu]

[QUOTE=Shadowman;520020]Interesting series, the first doesn't work so much as the flash is too intense. I think everything above the field of flowers is more interesting in this composition.
The second is nicely composed, was this done with fisheye or software? Just wondering.
Third, nice juxtaposition.
Fourth, nice exposure and composition.

Looking forward to seeing more.[/QUOTE

John, thanks for reviewing for me. Yes, I was in a quandary for #1. When I first arrived at my photo site the sun hadn't risen high enough yet to touch the tulips, so I thought I would try the flash to illuminate those closest to me as opposed to blowing out the sky by increasing the exposure - so the flash was the lesser of two evils so I could keep the sky. Any other ideas on what to do in this situation? Unfortunately I didn't have my diffuser with me which might have at least reduced the harshness of the near lighting?

#2 was taken with a relatively inexpensive Opteka 6.5 fisheye. It isn't spectacular but does offer some fun variety, albeit I think at a lesser quality.

I'll put up another few from this session later this evening in part II of the series. Thanks again for having a look.

[Sailorstu]

What? No tulips on the last one??? Oh well...I enjoyed each and every image you showed here for that matter -- the tulips....All good shots.

Thanks Izzie - I do have many more with tulips but there was just too much variety to limit myself!

[Sailorstu]

Unfortunately you were 'fighting against the light with some of these images.

As John mentioned, using flash on #1 didn't really work in this case.

#3 is OK but once again the light angle isn't doing you any favours with those dark tulips in the foreground. Not really any simple alternative though; except shoot at a different time.

#4 would have worked for me if you had managed to get the foreground foliage in focus, but at the moment it is just too distracting.

Hi Geoff - thanks for reviewing. Fully acknowledge I was wrestling with the light, I was prancing around like a kid in a candy shop at 5:30 am (by myself which was nice!) when I realized I should have just slept in another hour to allow the sun to get a bit higher in the sky! The flash was a bust although I was intrigued to find that my older sister who is an accomplished artist quite liked it! Because of #1 I decided to avoid the flash in #3 so the white tulips ended up a littler darker than I would have like. #4 presented a big challenge because I needed to use the foliage on the left to hide an ugly tower to the left of the library building that is under construction. I'll be honest I didn't consider playing with my F stop to allow both the foliage and the library to exist together in focus.....next time. Thanks for the help - I have a few others to put up tonight in Part II of this series.

[Sailorstu]

Nice series Stu I agree with the other comments about #1. I like the other shots, nice compositions. May be a bit more sharpening ?

Thanks Binnur - I'll try bumping up the sharpening a bit more. I'm struggling with my PP software (Photo Plus X7) that came with a new computer my wife purchased and I certainly need to do some more self learning.....but that takes away from time taking pictures!

[wtlwdwgn]

I'm partial to #s 3 & especially 4. Nice light, good comp and exposure.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Stu. I agree with you that learning a software is time consuming and it might prevent you from taking photos, but after learning the software , your images will improve. So, IMO it is worth spending some time on learning rather than shooting

Thanks Binnur - I'll try bumping up the sharpening a bit more. I'm struggling with my PP software (Photo Plus X7) that came with a new computer my wife purchased and I certainly need to do some more self learning.....but that takes away from time taking pictures!

[Sailorstu]

I'm partial to #s 3 & especially 4. Nice light, good comp and exposure.

Thanks Steve. My preference is #4 as well. It really is great when the sun falls perfectly on the subject.

[Sailorstu]

Hi Stu. I agree with you that learning a software is time consuming and it might prevent you from taking photos, but after learning the software , your images will improve. So, IMO it is worth spending some time on learning rather than shooting

Of course you are right Binnur - I'm back to the computer now!