My 2015 Weekly Photos - Part 3

[Cantab]

Geoff, what a wonderful collection. I've tried to choose a favourite but am having difficulty. I was intrigued in the third photo by what looked at first like a humungous rototiller, but turned out to be a motorized plough. I really enjoyed the traction engine photos.

[Geoff F]

Thanks.

A couple more images, and for Izzie, I have converted them to Black & White.

[IzzieK]

Thanks for indulging my request, Geoff...these two are very, very good to the eyes...exactly how Black and White should be done. I am not good at Black and White, but I am delighted at liking some of them and this is no exception...If I have to choose between the two of them, I'd prefer #1 because the tone is more evenly distributed (sorry don't know how to describe this...) whereas in #2 the upper part of the image with the dark shrubs/trees (?) is more stronger than the actual subject...I think you overdid the top a tad...
Cheers....

Thanks.

A couple more images, and for Izzie, I have converted them to Black & White.

[Cantab]

Thanks.

A couple more images, and for Izzie, I have converted them to Black & White.

Geoff, this photo spectacular! I've always loved black-and-white photos of old farm machinery. I have a few (120 film) which I took myself many years ago while visiting on an uncle's farm in Saskatchewan.

[bnnrcn]

Very nice series

[Donald]

I agree that this is a particularly beautiful image. A very good composition is strengthened by an excellent B & W conversion that brings out gorgeous tones and textures.

[Geoff F]

Getting good monochrome tones, Izzie, starts by adjusting the colour tints to selectively lighten or darken the eventual mono result. Which really requires a good subject to work well.

In #1 I was able to easily darken the blues and lighten the yellows.

The second image was more of a problem with many rather similar tones which needed to be widened and the contrast strengthened a little. The distant light green fields were looking too pale until I darkened the greens. But the problem was that the hedges and trees were already rather dark and there were potential shadow issues there. It really needed a bit of work with a mask to selectively vary the intensity of the green areas and to lighten some shadows a little.

The 'mini tractor' is pale blue with a red seat which had over exposed and the foreground field is yellow. So without 'stretching' the differences between yellow and green tones the fields tended to look the same.

I keep intending to do more B&W work - when I get a bit of spare time.

[IzzieK]

Thank you for the further explanation...as Bruce and Donald sez, #1 is a spectacular image...I would say fantabulous image.
Cheers.

[Geoff F]

Thanks everybody for the encouraging comments.

While at the Vintage Machinery Show I also had to help out at my local history society stall, which gave the main guy a chance to have a short break.

Week 34 - Salcombe History Society Events



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens. 1/80 F6.3 Iso 400. Inside that marquee the light was obviously distorted. I have done a little bit of correction but taking it too far towards 'correct' tends to look artificial; does that makes any sense.

A couple of days previously we had a stall at a Regatta event, and once again I was 'double booked' because I also had to put on a bit of a display for the Salcombe Neighbourhood Development Plan. So we combined both subjects under one tent.



Just my 'pocket camera' this time. Fuji X20 1/280 F8 Iso 200



1/600 F8 Iso 200

[Geoff F]

Week 35 - Ruined Farmhouse

This scene is at one of the sites where I photograph insects and I have previously thought about attempting a shot but the light has been wrong or I had the wrong lens etc. The only available angle meant going through the stinging nettles then poking my head through a barbed wire fence. So I was shooting a little nervously.

And even that position needed 180 mm to get anywhere close to an acceptable composition. The sky could have done with just a few fluffy clouds; but at the moment here, just plain blue is a welcome change!



7D with Canon 70-300 lens 1/320 F11 Iso 200

[Donald]

Week 34 - Salcombe History Society Events

Sorry for being a bit late. These 'slice-of-life' images are not just so important from the point of view of making a record of life in a community, but are just so pleasant to look at.

[Geoff F]

Yes, Donald, thanks for the reply. With our history society we tend to think that recording suitable elements of life today will be the memories and history of tomorrow.

There are so many quick snaps being taken on phone cameras etc now, mostly of poor quality, so it is assumed that there will be plenty of data for the future. But how much of this will become high quality reference material in 50 years time, or even longer?

The problem, of course, is deciding what will be of interest to future generations.

[Yogs]

Sky click

[Geoff F]

Week 36. More farm machinery; but modern stuff this time.

I went searching for insects along the cliff path but found very little of interest; however, there was some interesting farm work going on in nearby fields.

Harvesting



7D with Canon 70-200 lens. 1/250 F11 Iso 200. All images are a merge of two Raw conversions to preserve some detail in the sky or to prevent over exposure areas.

Baling



1/320 F11 Iso 200

Grubbing out the stubble



1/640 F11 Iso 400

Cutting Grass



1/500 F11 Iso 200.

I've tried to pick out some representative photos but I'm not sure if these are the best; so the others are in my P base galleries.

http://www.pbase.com/crustacean/farming_020915

[Cantab]

Geoff, an interesting collection photos. I particularly liked the first one. My recollection is that when you merge two RAW developments, you use manually created masks?

I'm not sure that the pbase link is working the way you intended. It took me to only one very small jpeg.

[IzzieK]

Yup! 'Same here as Bruce...

[Geoff F]

Thanks. I've added another link. I didn't test the previous one, which is something I normally do, just to be sure. Probably that link was only to the gallery thumbnail image.

Yes, Bruce, create two conversions, eg one for the general scene and one for the sky, then stack as layers. Create a Hide All Mask on one layer and brush over the mask to show the required items.

With the Adobe CS or CC software you can open the first conversion in your normal editing window as a Smart Object then right click that layer information thumbnail and select Make New Copy. Double click on the new copy layer thumbnail and you go back to ACR to do the second conversion. You can return to ACR like this as many times as you require and do it on either the original or the copy layer.

That is most useful when you are trying to merge two, or more, tricky layers and you suddenly realise that what you thought was going to work isn't turning out as expected.

Then add a mask to the required layer, or layers and edit to show just what is needed.

It isn't true HDR but can be very helpful for scenes where real HDR won't work; such as in this case with moving subjects.

Getting the original shot just right is beneficial. For example using some exposure compensation so the shot comes out somewhere in the middle of both extremes; with a slightly dark foreground and bright, but not quite over exposed sky.

With these scenes I was attempting to show something of the landscape as well, in order to put the machinery into some sort of context, instead of simply zooming in tight on the action.

[Geoff F]

Week 36 - Inspecting Dormouse Boxes

It was Volunteer Maintenance Day at the wood and my job was inspecting the Dormouse Boxes which we erected deep in the damp wood about 18 months ago. Better than expected results; three had Dormice, one other mouse and half of the rest had old bird nests.

This quick shot of my assistant for the day inspecting a dormouse nest has a lot wrong with it but I rather like the image despite all the faults.



7D with Canon 24-105 lens 1/50 F8 Iso 800 and, of course my camera was stored in the backpack when I recognised a potential quick candid real life opportunity. So all taken in something of a click and hope rush. Deep in the dark woods and facing towards the light. I did look for a better light angle but nothing else looked suitable.

It really needed flash but I didn't have my flash unit so I just tweaked the settings a little and shot. Then edited as best I could.

On reflection, the camera pop up flash might have worked but by the time I thought about this and certainly by the time I had done a couple of test shots the moment would have passed into history.

[Cantab]

Geoff, an interesting and pleasant photo. I tried looking at it in lytebox but for some reason it's not cooperating. I saw some posts a day or two ago about folk having trouble with lightbox not operating in Chrome; however, I use Firefox and have never had any trouble until today.

Did you do much adjustment of the shadows and highlights to make all clear. There's good detail in the shade and the highlights don't appear to be blown out.

I gather from this project that dormice are something of ecological interest – not house mice trying to eat pieces of cheese! I'm intrigued that they appear to like nesting in trees.

[Geoff F]

I have lost the Lightbox for a while now when using Firefox, Bruce; and I have to use the Go Advanced posting option.

Dormice are a rather uncommon woodland species. Quite small (only around 80 mm body size). Mostly nocturnal and they hibernate for at least half the year. They have a shorter and more appealing face than most mice plus a distinctive bushy tail. Food is mostly flowers, fruits and nuts. They like young trees which have touching branches to make aerial roadways for the dormice.

That photo is another example of a merge from two different Raw conversions plus a bit of cloning over some totally over exposed spots.