Izzie's P 52 month of February -- for C&C please

[IzzieK]

Thanks Marie and Geoff for the further information... different culture, different interpretation I guess...

[IzzieK]

I have been trying to upload these shots since Wednesday night (technically, Thursday very early dark morning...) but Tiny Pics wouldn't cooperate and allow me to submit multiple images in one post. Dave and I had a private talk about it and I will resolve this kind of problem happening in the near future soon. But this time I need to finish off this February P52 month so I can start another month in another post. So here goes...

1 'Woke up this Wedneday morning to make coffee for Bill and saw this blob almost touching near the door of our deck.


D810, 105mm at F2.8; 1/640 sec; Exposure f/5.6; ISO 3200

2 Moved further from the dinette table and saw that the fir trees that forms the sound barrier to our deck was heavily covered with snow from after 4am.



8007 D810, 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.0-5.6, 70.0 mm (in 35mm: 70.0 mm); Exposure 1/10 sec; f/8; ISO 64

Here is the same snow by the deck showing how the other firs were not affected, just this particular side of the deck door.

Nikon D810, Exposure 1/200 sec; f/9; ISO 800

Here is the other side of the fir trees where I have my bird feeder. 'Can't see it from here hoping it is OK and it did not fall down the other side where I cannot reach it. You will notice some dropping snowflakes but it is not really that bad. I think the worst was over by the time we woke up though the snow was still falling. 5-6" cannot be that bad…

Panorama 2 D810, stack of 4 images, 1/800 sec; f/9; ISO 800

Ah…the look of Christmas too late from the back of the garage….

Panorama 1 D810. Stack of 4 images, 1/100 sec; f/9; ISO 800

Thank you so much all for viewing. I decided to put this in my P52 this week as I won't be able to go out in that sloppy wet snow until Saturday…Any comments, critiques and suggestions will be appreciated.

[Shadowman]

I have been trying to upload these shots since Wednesday night (technically, Thursday very early dark morning...) but Tiny Pics wouldn't cooperate and allow me to submit multiple images in one post. Dave and I had a private talk about it and I will resolve this kind of problem happening in the near future soon. But this time I need to finish off this February P52 month so I can start another month in another post. So here goes...

1 'Woke up this Wedneday morning to make coffee for Bill and saw this blob almost touching near the door of our deck.


D810, 105mm at F2.8; 1/640 sec; Exposure f/5.6; ISO 3200

2 Moved further from the dinette table and saw that the fir trees that forms the sound barrier to our deck was heavily covered with snow from after 4am.



8007 D810, 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.0-5.6, 70.0 mm (in 35mm: 70.0 mm); Exposure 1/10 sec; f/8; ISO 64

Here is the same snow by the deck showing how the other firs were not affected, just this particular side of the deck door.

Nikon D810, Exposure 1/200 sec; f/9; ISO 800

Here is the other side of the fir trees where I have my bird feeder. 'Can't see it from here hoping it is OK and it did not fall down the other side where I cannot reach it. You will notice some dropping snowflakes but it is not really that bad. I think the worst was over by the time we woke up though the snow was still falling. 5-6" cannot be that bad…

Panorama 2 D810, stack of 4 images, 1/800 sec; f/9; ISO 800

Ah…the look of Christmas too late from the back of the garage….

Panorama 1 D810. Stack of 4 images, 1/100 sec; f/9; ISO 800

Thank you so much all for viewing. I decided to put this in my P52 this week as I won't be able to go out in that sloppy wet snow until Saturday…Any comments, critiques and suggestions will be appreciated.

Nice shot, we'll have to wait for the gremlins to calm down before we see the rest of your captures.

[IzzieK]

To continue with my upload...

2 Moved further from the dinette table and saw that the fir trees that forms the sound barrier to our deck was heavily covered with snow from after 4am.

This is what I get from Tiny Pic each time I submit my other images....



8007 D810, 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.0-5.6, 70.0 mm (in 35mm: 70.0 mm); Exposure 1/10 sec; f/8; ISO 64

[IzzieK]

3 Here is the same snow by the deck showing how the other firs were not affected, just this particular side of the deck door.


Nikon D810, Exposure 1/200 sec; f/9; ISO 800

4 Here is the other side of the fir trees where I have my bird feeder. 'Can't see it from here hoping it is OK and it did not fall down the other side where I cannot reach it. You will notice some dropping snowflakes but it is not really that bad. I think the worst was over by the time we woke up though the snow was still falling. 5-6" cannot be that bad…


D810, stack of 4 images, 1/800 sec; f/9; ISO 800

5 Aaaah…the look of Christmas too late from the back of the garage….


D810. Stack of 4 images, 1/100 sec; f/9; ISO 800

Thank you so much all for viewing. I decided to put this in my P52 this week as I won't be able to go out in that sloppy wet snow until Saturday…Any comments, critiques and suggestions will be appreciated.

I am sorry about my uploads. Now I realized that Tiny Pic does not like that image in #2 while it accepts all these others. Or maybe it righted itself while I am uploading the others first. Who knows?

Thanks for your patience, everyone...

[Dave Humphries]

This is what I get from Tiny Pic each time I submit my other images....

Hi Izzie,

That screen shot looks like you might have browser zoom applied, but it has 'gone wrong' - that's the technical term

I tried to replicate it on FireFox, but could not, however; not all browsers zoom the same way and I don't know which one you use.

Have you tried Ctrl+0 (zero)?
That's the quick way to 'standardise' normal browser zoom.

Failing that, you haven't recently enabled or changed any "accessibility" settings have you?
Or done anything odd in the way style sheets are applied?
I'm clutching at straws, I have to admit.

Puzzling, Dave

[bnnrcn]

Hi Isabel . #1 is the best of the set for me

[flashback]

Izzie, #1 is *ok* but really maybe too much snow there and not enough needles. And is there a blue cast to the image?
#3 like #1 is *ok*, for me it's a bit disconcerting to look at because the left hand vertical half is good, with the snow covered branches but the RHS is OOF background and it's just too much to look at I think. Maybe it's just me.
#'s 4&5 I like, with #5 my favorite, it has a very Pen & Ink look and feel to it. I think this one can be printed and hung, great winter scene and a great composition and image.

[joebranko]

Well done Izzie! I particularly like #5. As Flashback said this one could be printed and hung in your study!

[IzzieK]

I am puzzled myself so I prefer to forget it. I should had uploaded the rest of this two days ago as soon as I had processed them knowing now that this is the only image that Tiny Pic does not want to put in its cache for a while. Nevertheless I will do the PBase thing this Sunday as I am still busy with my Miniature People and now getting into something else related to food photography.

Thanks Dave...I knew it is not CiC's fault, just clarifying...

Hi Izzie,

That screen shot looks like you might have browser zoom applied, but it has 'gone wrong' - that's the technical term

I tried to replicate it on FireFox, but could not, however; not all browsers zoom the same way and I don't know which one you use.

Have you tried Ctrl+0 (zero)?
That's the quick way to 'standardise' normal browser zoom.

Failing that, you haven't recently enabled or changed any "accessibility" settings have you?
Or done anything odd in the way style sheets are applied?
I'm clutching at straws, I have to admit.

Puzzling, Dave

[IzzieK]

Hi Isabel . #1 is the best of the set for me

I like that one too, Binnur and the last one...Thank you.

[IzzieK]

Izzie, #1 is *ok* but really maybe too much snow there and not enough needles. And is there a blue cast to the image?
#3 like #1 is *ok*, for me it's a bit disconcerting to look at because the left hand vertical half is good, with the snow covered branches but the RHS is OOF background and it's just too much to look at I think. Maybe it's just me.
#'s 4&5 I like, with #5 my favorite, it has a very Pen & Ink look and feel to it. I think this one can be printed and hung, great winter scene and a great composition and image.

I tried to tone down the blue in Nik's by sliding the saturation a little bit. I had not done any saturation nor vibrance in ACR and tried to tone down the blue in H&S but it became yellowish and warm so I put it back to 0...I used to be able to do this but it has been a long time since I encountered this kind to try to make it white-white. I think at the time I used Levels or something and use H&S, I can't recall...I will try again when I have more time..

Thanks for your detailed comments. I do value your opinion and suggestions.

[IzzieK]

Well done Izzie! I particularly like #5. As Flashback said this one could be printed and hung in your study!

I will do that this coming Sunday or Monday...I will put in the time. Thank you for your preference. I am glad you like it. It is one of my favourites. I think I am getting the hang of stack focusing...Thanks again.

[John 2]

Izzie, #1 is *ok* but really maybe too much snow there and not enough needles. And is there a blue cast to the image?
#3 like #1 is *ok*, for me it's a bit disconcerting to look at because the left hand vertical half is good, with the snow covered branches but the RHS is OOF background and it's just too much to look at I think. Maybe it's just me.
#'s 4&5 I like, with #5 my favorite, it has a very Pen & Ink look and feel to it. I think this one can be printed and hung, great winter scene and a great composition and image.

+1 from Me Izzie particularly no.5. It's a striking graphic comp. In general though, IMHO all of the highlights are a tad too bright. Pulling them back a bit brings out more detail in the snow. This is the sort of image for which the histogram isn't necessarily the best indicator. To get rid of the blue cast in ACR, just go to the HSL / Grayscale tool bar , select the saturation Tab and de saturate the blue channel. BTW, when I tried to uploaded a couple of images to have a play, they were in Raw format. That might be the reason that Tiny Pics is giving you a hard time.

[IzzieK]

John, I can reassure you that the #2 shot is a jpg file because I saved it twice to make sure. I will just go to PBase tomorrow and join there. It has been a long time since I had a paid account in both Photobucket and Flickr but as I had gathered, PBase is a better alternative. That snow shots were I thought a blessing as I can concentrate more on my food scene photography. Then I had problems with Tiny Pics for a few days...

I will start another post for the month of March. I will print #5 definitely. Thank you for the tips on the saturation slider. It has been awhile since I did it. I can't remember if I did it in Levels using the channels (which I usually do) or H&S. Snow white is a bit hard as we only have to live in antartic-conditions once a year (thank God for that!!!!)

I will try to go to that file again and see how I go but I am not going to upload it anymore...too late. And I will do a practice on the H&S and take note...

Thanks again. I value your opinion and was glad you gave me your time to comment.

+1 from Me Izzie particularly no.5. It's a striking graphic comp. In general though, IMHO all of the highlights are a tad too bright. Pulling them back a bit brings out more detail in the snow. This is the sort of image for which the histogram isn't necessarily the best indicator. To get rid of the blue cast in ACR, just go to the HSL / Grayscale tool bar , select the saturation Tab and de saturate the blue channel. BTW, when I tried to uploaded a couple of images to have a play, they were in Raw format. That might be the reason that Tiny Pics is giving you a hard time.

[Shadowman]

2nd and 3rd for me, nice captures.

[John 2]

Sorry Izzie, I am wrong. They are JPGs but they automatically open up in ACR - ?? Not sure what is going on there.

[IzzieK]

Thanks John (Shadowman) for passing by and commenting.

John (2) -- I have no idea. I will have to revisit the original NEF file but not today. I am falling asleep quick on my chair trying to watch politics and waiting for my images to complete from another shoot...maybe tomorrow I will have an explanation...I will get to the bottom of this...

Thanks again for your valuable help. 'Appreciate it very much.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Izzie,

Hmmm (brace yourself)

I think the thing is that when we shoot something very familiar to us that is unexpectedly different from how we see it 95% of the time, it seems very interesting to us, but often fails to impress anyone that's not familiar with the scene. That's possibly because we compose in a way to give us context, but when assessed for strictly photographic compositional terms, it is lacking.

Looking at these by the numbers;

#1 This composition looks to me like it is rotated 90 degrees from how it 'should' be; I 'want' the right hand side to be the top because it is brighter on the right and the snow is also mostly on that side - OK you know it blew there and stuck like that and why the light is brighter from that side, but we don't and it looks 'wrong'. Am I making any sense?

#3 This one has the balustrade to give us a cue to it being the right way up, but the composition just isn't enthusing me. It almost looks like it has been shot through the window/door because there's a white frame down the left hand side - and photos shot through windows (very) rarely have a good composition.

#4 Again we have the balustrade, but in this shot (even more than the last), it is 'keeping us out' of the scene, if you know what I mean - it is a barrier between us and the subject, again, this is (very) rarely a good thing compositionally.

#5 Ah, something more creative, without anything 'in the way' - I assume it was shot at an angle, this works due to the shaping of the trunks and branches - well done. I like this one.


I feel a bit bad for being so negative this week, but we know each other quite well by now and I know you prefer me to be honest with my thoughts. I hope you won't be offended or upset with me

Looking forward to some more miniatures/little people shots.

Cheers, Dave


PS Afterthought = Dave's inquisitiveness.

I wouldn't have suspected that focus stacking was necessary to achieve the necessary DoF in #5, but I see it was shot at 82mm at f/9 on full frame, at ISO 800 and ss 1/100s, so going to f/16* would have meant increasing ISO and/or reducing shutter speed, both of which might be unwise.

* I suggest f/16 because that would give a hyperfocal distance of about 14 metres/yards, so everything from about 7m back should have been 'sharp enough'.

So, stacking probably was a valid decision since it avoided compromising further on ISO and shutter speed.

[IzzieK]

Hi Izzie,

Hmmm (brace yourself)

Don't I always?

I think the thing is that when we shoot something very familiar to us that is unexpectedly different from how we see it 95% of the time, it seems very interesting to us, but often fails to impress anyone that's not familiar with the scene. That's possibly because we compose in a way to give us context, but when assessed for strictly photographic compositional terms, it is lacking.

Looking at these by the numbers;

#1 This composition looks to me like it is rotated 90 degrees from how it 'should' be; I 'want' the right hand side to be the top because it is brighter on the right and the snow is also mostly on that side - OK you know it blew there and stuck like that and why the light is brighter from that side, but we don't and it looks 'wrong'. Am I making any sense?

I should had warned you that the shot is the bottom of Picture #3, if you will look closely at the two set of fir leaves ...

#3 This one has the balustrade to give us a cue to it being the right way up, but the composition just isn't enthusing me. It almost looks like it has been shot through the window/door because there's a white frame down the left hand side - and photos shot through windows (very) rarely have a good composition.

If I had shot that outside, I will not have room to shoot it but end up shooting the back of it because that shot is about inches away from the door, if you look closely at Image #2 where I show the mistake from Tiny Pic.

#4 Again we have the balustrade, but in this shot (even more than the last), it is 'keeping us out' of the scene, if you know what I mean - it is a barrier between us and the subject, again, this is (very) rarely a good thing compositionally.

Dave -- the temperature outside was waaaaaaaaaayyyyyy under my age! And as Randy once said of his window shot, it is always a fight between the dog drool and the clear side of the window where to shoot.

#5 Ah, something more creative, without anything 'in the way' - I assume it was shot at an angle, this works due to the shaping of the trunks and branches - well done. I like this one.

Oh goodie! Finally I did something right... I've always wanted to do a shoot of that tree and wanted to use my UWA because that tree is yuggghhhe!!! located near our fence but too near to use my 70-300mm but I didn't want to go out in the cold. Call me chicken..

I feel a bit bad for being so negative this week, but we know each other quite well by now and I know you prefer me to be honest with my thoughts. I hope you won't be offended or upset with me

I will never be upset at you for telling the truth about how you feel (even with others). I used to be defensive when I first came to CiC but after a hiatus, I decided it is no good being defensive because if I keep feeling offended I will never learn...I will still be stuck from where I was before I joined this photo group. Many are good people here and they really want to help each and everyone they feel who needed help. Some are pushy, some are gentle like Sergio.

Looking forward to some more miniatures/little people shots.

Cheers, Dave

I am working on it, Dave. I went to Walmart today to buy some mini people (as they called it) but I still prefer the O train gauge characters better. I might find some better in Australia when we go over there soon.

PS Afterthought = Dave's inquisitiveness.

I wouldn't have suspected that focus stacking was necessary to achieve the necessary DoF in #5, but I see it was shot at 82mm at f/9 on full frame, at ISO 800 and ss 1/100s, so going to f/16* would have meant increasing ISO and/or reducing shutter speed, both of which might be unwise.

* I suggest f/16 because that would give a hyperfocal distance of about 14 metres/yards, so everything from about 7m back should have been 'sharp enough'.

So, stacking probably was a valid decision since it avoided compromising further on ISO and shutter speed.

No Dave...I am still studying about focus stacking and I can tell you that that shot wasn't what one will call proper focus stacking. I was so much in a hurry because of the cold wind coming from inside the garage, that was handheld and I took 4-6 shots and run inside, settled down (read this as defrosted my blood because I thought I was dying...) then processed the images I had shot. I was so thankful for nature for giving me the opportunity to have an ending to my February P52 submission, then the problems with Tiny Pic made me wait another two days. Now, that wasn't funny then. I was tearing my hair out... and had nightmares about it too . Poor Bill had to wake me up because I was crying in frustration because I was late according to my dreams and Dave will not forgive me. I kept saying that over and over again. Oh well, that is life.

Thank you very much for your assessment. I am really enjoying photography and looking at others' work too. I feel good now and ready to rock and roll. 'Appreciate your passing by and your comments.