2016 Project 52, second quarter by Lindsay (CormacD)

[CormacD]

I’m a new comer to Project 52 2016, starting here in the second quarter. I will be mostly showing you landscapes from the district where I live. My objective will be to improve both my technique and composition throughout the rest of the year.

Sometimes I will be travelling within my own state on vacation and you will get a bit of a change of scenery as well as some street photography and cityscapes.

I live near the coast, on a canal, in the Peel District of Western Australia so my work will be mostly golden hour light, whenever I can. The Peel Inlet is where three rivers meet and then go to the ocean.

I have a checklist of composition and technique methods that I will draw upon to improve and I hope that some fellow C in C members will join in and offer some suggestions with critique and comment.

I’ve included the shot below to give an idea of my style of photography. I exposed onto the sky so it has turned out a little dark. Once I adjusted it the sky was too washed out so I cropped it down a bit more that normal. Your critique and comment will be appreciated.

I travel light using a Nikon 1 V1 with 18mm lens (50 mm equivalent) and a 30-100 mm. Also use a lightweight tripod.

I will be making my next post as Week 14.

2016 Project 52 - Guidelines, FAQ and Index For further information on this 2016 Project 52 check out this link

THE BUND ON THE PEEL F11, 1/125 S, 18.5 MM, ISO 100

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Lindsay,

Welcome to the P52 phenomena

Compositionally, I think this works fairly well with the tighter crop, although - if mine, I think I would have tried to include all of those trees in the top right corner, it is them being chopped off that jars most for me.


If you had exposed for the sky, I'd have thought it possible to get the foreground as it is AND the sky as it needed to be with judicious use of the controls in say, ACR (Adobe Camera RAW, part of Photoshop) or LR (LightRoom) - but I see (from the EXIF data) you used something called "Photos 1.3", which is unknown to me.


One other thing I'm not sure about is the White Balance (WB), it is probably more saturated than I would have produced, which may be misleading me, but I think it looks 'over yellow', again in ACR, I would have carefully taken a WB sample from various points on some of the foam bubbles, lit by the sky rather than reflected sand, and used that.
That said, it appears to have been been shot at 07:16, so perhaps the warm WB is entirely justified by the morning 'golden hour'.


At the risk of being seen as overly critical, although intended in a constructive manner, this is not as sharp as I feel it could be - did you do any sharpening after the downsize to 1600 px width? I usually use UnSharp Mask with an Amount of 100%, Radius of 0.3 or 0.4 pixels and a Threshold of say, 1 or 2 - but again, I'm not sure if "Photos 1.3" has that feature (or sub-pixel range of Radius control).

I hope you find that feedback helpful.

All the best, Dave

[Geoff F]

Looks OK to me.

As an alternative to the chopped off tree tops in the top right corner, I wonder about a slight crop from the right side to lose the bigger group of trees altogether? Which would then mean a different size ratio or take a similar amount from the bottom.

Reducing the land slightly would give more emphasis to the water.

I'm not saying this would be better, just an alternative option.

[Shadowman]

Nice effort, does appear to be severely cropped or composed at top.

[CormacD]

Hi Dave, thank you very much for your comprehensive critique and suggestions, this gives me a whole lot to consider to get the project moving in the next few weeks.

Yes I think the heavy crop at the top was a desperation measure for me to get rid of the washed out sky. I suspect my exposure and focus technique is a bit rusty and I'm not really sure what I did when I think back. I need to think carefully about what I am doing next time and make sure I lock the exposure and then refocus on a suitable part of the scene for maximum depth of field in this type of shot.

I only use Photos 1.3 as it is the standard issue Apple app that comes with my MacBook Pro. I have not had much practice with it and not really sure of it's limitations, although I suspect it does not do selective adjustments.

It was a golden hour shot and I wanted to highlight the glow on the rocks and an easy way to do that was to apply a chrome filter during processing, this may be too much.

Thank you for your advice on the post downsizing sharpening, I did not do anything and need to look at what I can do with the current software that I have.

Yes that was very helpful feedback and food for thought, thanks Dave.

[CormacD]

Thank you Geoff and John for your interest and comments.
I am going to go back to the RAW file and try again taking into account your suggestions.

[CormacD]

I followed up on my Peel Inlet early morning shot and was pleased to get these three, the bund at South Yunderup minutes prior to sunrise, amazing pink colours in a panoramic. After that is the sunrise followed by a shot in the Golden hour (which is only about 1/2 hour) Have to be quick to get these. Look forward to your comments and critique.

5 min before sunrise ISO 100. 18.5 mm, f/16, 0.6 s, 29/3/16



Sunrise ISO 320, 18.5 mm, f/14, 1/250 s, 28/3/16



Golden Hour ISO 400, 18.5 mm, f/16, 1/50 s, 28/3/16

[Shadowman]

Nice series, I like the golden hour and sunrise set, a bit dark on the foliage on both sunrises though.

[Geoff F]

Yes, I think I would crop the second one on the right to reduce the dark area by around half; which would mean a different size ratio or take a balancing amount from top and bottom.

[CormacD]

Thanks John and Geoff, yes I agree the foliage is a bit dark and imposing on the sunrise shot, I did play around with the crop a bit but couldn't quite make a decision. I think the composition was a bit rushed as I just looked up, saw it and took it.
I appreciate you comments.

[CormacD]

My project for this week was to gather together some early morning shots of the Samphire Cove Reserve in Mandurah City about 20 minutes drive from my place. Mandurah is where the waters from 3 rivers meet the ocean.

I have included 5 photos, so I hope that does not break any rules for posting or clog up the system. Anyway I doubt if I will be fortunate enough to get this many shots, if any at all, in the coming weeks.

I was lucky that my bushwalking club had scheduled a walk in the Samphire Cove Reserve and the nearby Creery Wetlands for early morning and at least I got some good light for the first hour.

You will notice the samphire grass that grows in wetlands in most of the world is in the foreground of a number of the pics. Samphire is in fact an edible vegetable, tasting somewhat salty (probably because it grows in salty wetlands ha ha).

We were moving fairly quick so they were all handheld using my Nikon 1 V1 with 18.5 mm prime lens.

I have used a few different modes of composition:

#1 Swans in a Row, implied lines and foreground elements;
#2 Backlit trees in dry (end of summer) wetland, some shadows and golden light highlighting the colour of the samphire;
#3 Lone Tree, using space and simplicity;
# 4 Samphire Cove Reserve, taken from Mandurah Estuary Bridge, leading line to the city in the distance;
#5 Mandurah Estuary Bridge, leading line and horizontal lines.

#1 Swans in a Row 31/3/16, 0720 hrs, ISO 100, 18.5mm, f/16, 1/160s

#2 Backlit Trees in dry wetland 31/3/16, 0730 hrs, ISO 100. 18.5mm, f/14, 1/40s

#3 Lone Tree 31/3/16, 0732 hrs, ISO 100, 18.5mm, f/14, 1/60s



#4 Samphire Cove Reserve 31/3/16, 0754 hrs, ISO 100, 18.5mm, f/14, 1/80s


#5 Mandurah Bridge 31/3/16 0803hrs, ISO 100, 18.5 mm, f/14, 1/200s

[Geoff F]

The harsh light was certainly causing you problems with the first image, Lindsay; but I don't think there is much else that you could do under those conditions.

You have used the effect to your advantage in #2 although there is a fraction of extra brightness creeping in towards the top right corner. I wonder if that could be selectively toned down to match the rest of the scene?

#3 also makes the best possible use of some hard light. Ideally I would have liked just a fraction more space above the tree, but not really a problem for me.

#4 seems a bit over sharpened on the water. When I get this problem I usually use a duplicate layer with a mask to selectively vary the amount of sharpening around the scene. But that assumes you have suitable software. Also, I wonder if this is actually one of those occasions where a panoramic crop would be worth trying? Maybe lose some of the water up to the start of the land in the bottom left corner? You could also take a little from the sky if necessary to fit a standard size.

And the last one is excellent. Nice composition and this time you have the light working with you.

[joebranko]

All nice shots Lindsay. On the first shot I would consider dropping some off the bottom. The last shot, the bridge, beautiful!

[CormacD]

Thank you Geoff and Joe for your support and suggestions. I think some of the problems can be blamed on me as I was with a group of people and did these on the go without much though. I know, get to the location early take your time and think about the shot, the light, the composition, the settings etc. I'll have a look at what I can do to try out your PP suggestions. The issue with #4 is that I put it through a pseudo HDR processing and it has come out a bit overdone. Also I have been trying to compensate for loss of definition on size reduction for the posting and have overdone it a bit. Have a look at this redone # 4 where I went back to RAW and tried a more conservative approach and cropped to 16:9. Thanks again..Lindsay

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Lindsay,

I like the foreground better in the latest version of Samphire Cove Reserve, but the distant shore and sky have lost much

If this were mine, I would use a simple gradient filter in ACR (Adobe Camera RAW) so that the exposure could be made different between the two halves, by a stop or more (as necessary to get the best of both worlds).

Cheers, Dave

[Geoff F]

Much better colours in your second edit.

[CormacD]

Hi Lindsay,

I like the foreground better in the latest version of Samphire Cove Reserve, but the distant shore and sky have lost much

If this were mine, I would use a simple gradient filter in ACR (Adobe Camera RAW) so that the exposure could be made different between the two halves, by a stop or more (as necessary to get the best of both worlds).

Cheers, Dave

Thanks for your advice Dave, much appreciated. I currently do not have Adobe software but I intend to look into it and possible options for post gradient filters, maybe drag out my circular polariser...Cheers Lindsay

[IzzieK]

Nice sets so far Lindsay...

[CormacD]

I went to my brother in law’s birthday party on the weekend; he has a small farm near Boddington in Western Australia. The weather each morning was dark and murky, however, on Sunday the sun came out later in the morning. The light was not ideal as in the Golden Hours but sometimes one has to make the best off what is given.

The session was fairly quick as I had my wife and her brother waiting so they were all hand held. After taking a few landscapes I thought that they were a bit uninteresting (maybe when the countryside greens up they will be better), so I then decided to do some intimate landscape shots looking at some detail, using the available light to advantage and bringing out some textures. I’ve included some examples in this post.

# 1 Landscape example: Road Leading to Burnt Crops.
# 2 Something more intimate: Hay Bale
# 3 Another: Firewood
# 4 Another: Rock Wall

I look forward to your critique and comments.

# 1 Road Leading to Burnt Crops 10/4/16, 2.16 pm, ISO 100, 30 mm, f/11, 1/320 s



# 2 Hay Bale 10/4/16, 2.11 pm, ISO 100, 110mm, f/6.3, 1/400 s



# 3 Fire Wood, 10/4/16, 2.13 pm, ISO 100, 30 mm, f/7.1, 1/400 s



# 4 Rock Wall, 10/4/16, 2.18 pm, ISO 100, 44.2 mm, f/11, 1/125 s

[joebranko]

All really nice shots Lindsay, with beautiful light! If it were mine I would crop the landscape shot to eliminate the dry grass in the foreground, maybe all the way to the bottom of the winding road as I think it would improve the composition. But that's just personal preference 🙄