What caught your eye - Final Week

[PopsPhotos]

What caught your eye - Week 4
This is an exercise in going from the "hmmm, that might be nice" to "That's what I wanted."

What I'd like to see posted in this thread is 2 shots. First, an immediate shot of what caught your eye that said, "That might make a picture." The key word is "immediate." Raise the camera and take the shot as soon as you see the potential.

Second, the final composition, angle, exposure, distance, and all that, that makes you happy with the picture. Take more than one, but post your best (to your eye.)

This is what Bill Belknap used to call, "Photograph to Picture" exercise.

First, second and third weeks were great. Thank you all for your contributions. I'm learning from this, too.

Pops

[dharankk9]

It was raining and when I come out of my house see this flower with water drops ready to fall from the flower. I tried my best to highlight the drop but Unfortunately I couldn't .

Then I thought Photo of My niece can fit in this shot like this

If you are interested in a 500 years back culture see this video
http://s249.photobucket.com/albums/g...=Untitled2.mp4

[PopsPhotos]

I LIKE!

It is not clear from your description whether you placed niece in position and took the shot or photoshopped a previous photo of your niece into the picture. Either way, it works.

To get the hanging drops of water to show up, it helps to have some back lighting. I'm sure somebody with more experience than I in capturing them will chime in here.

Pops

[dharankk9]

I LIKE!

It is not clear from your description whether you placed niece in position and took the shot or photoshopped a previous photo of your niece into the picture. Either way, it works.

To get the hanging drops of water to show up, it helps to have some back lighting. I'm sure somebody with more experience than I in capturing them will chime in here.

Pops

I placed niece's photo into the picture (phot shoped)Used pen tool and copy paste.

[arith]

Found myself a nice spot out of the drizzle under a tree so that I could try out a GG2 filter; the idea is to bang the histogram up to the right so that blinkies show in unimportant bits where you know you can recover using photoshop, and therefore capture as much detail as possible. Of course it isn't the usual landscape and objects might get too shaded near the top but it is an experiment.



Then I used Topaz to reduce noise and sharpen the following image, and trying the newly discovered Orton method I saw in one of Robs threads, but with adaptation by adding a normal copy on top with 25% opacity and a sepia filter.

The Swinging 20's

[RockNGoalStar]

I like that Steve but, given the distinct lack of any obvious modern structures / features in the image, I think you should go further with the sepia effect and even age the photo somewhat to really make it look like it was taken back in the 1920's!

[arith]

Cheers Tommy.

[PopsPhotos]

Look good, Steve. I think Tommy's idea might be worth experimenting with. Might be fun to "old-time" it.

Pops

[arith]

I think sepia is wrong actually. I printed it and it isn't quite right. Maybe what I did before and just desaturate dull colours.

[PopsPhotos]

If sepia doesn't work, you might try good old B&W.

Pops

[Shadowman]

It was raining and when I come out of my house see this flower with water drops ready to fall from the flower. I tried my best to highlight the drop but Unfortunately I couldn't .

Then I thought Photo of My niece can fit in this shot like this

If you are interested in a 500 years back culture see this video
http://s249.photobucket.com/albums/g...=Untitled2.mp4

When you panned the camera towards the jungle I expected one of the Rathambhore tigers to emerge from the thicket, but this was probably taken near Goa.

[wilgk]

Thanks again Pops for letting us join in your lessons - what mine have taught me this week - is sometimes it's best just NOT to click that shutter.

#1 - I went back to the 'development eating up the pasture' area & had the sun setting where I wanted it...



BU...then i saw the wee red sign in the corner 'FOR SALE' and of course 'eureka' that sign strategically placed to suggest the whole valley/country was 'for sale' would have been perfect!

So I tried every angle, I tried moving it, still not happy as the weeds with yellow flowers were overtaking things, I didn't want the street lamp poles and then the proportions of the sign vs the countryside weren't right..
Then as you see on the sign it started to rain!
& finally the family rang wondering why it had taken me 1 hour to take the video back - when the shop is 10 mins away

so long story short this is perfect evidence of what you have told us - sometimes you have to go back & then go back & finally go back again!



Thankyou again - it has been a pleasure to take part
k

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Kay,

From my position some 12,000 miles away, it seems clear to me - since the sign is perfectly readable and in bold contrasting colours to the rest of the scene and if you could move it far enough ...

Put the sign on the roundabout, or the traffic island just beyond, then go back to the original viewpoint and take it again from there.

Of course, there are probably some words or numbers on the sign that would need photoshopping out.

I also appreciate that you probably didn't know for certain the text on sign would be so readable in the distant shot at the time, I wouldn't have.

Better still, take a helper and some 'recreational' walkie-talkies and have them move the sign about under direction (and put it back where it was undamaged afterwards).

Of course the only flaw in this plan is that depending where the photo ends up (given the environmental and local interest angles), it makes it more obvious (to the developer) that the photographer moved the sign to take the photo and that might still get you into trouble with the developer (or worse), so be careful not to break any laws. In this case, the picture isn't worth a brush with the law!

HTH,

[Donald]

Kay

This concept for this picture is brilliant. This is the sort of thing I like - a bold statement being made about humankind interacting with the environment.

Interestingly, I shared your frustration on a recent trip. I had the 'Single track road. Using passing places' sign all lined up with the road in question stretching off into the distance - in my mind! Could I get it to work in the frame ... !? I contorted myself into every possible position into which my old decrepit body would go - and still couldn't get it to work. But the picture that's still in my head is an absolute stunner!

[PopsPhotos]

This is exactly one of the things I want to bring to the students. Just because YOU can see the picture doesn't mean the camera will be able to see it.

This has been fun. I will be dropping this as a weekly entry next Tuesday. However, if you would like to see it as a continuing thread such as the ones we have going on about reflections and trees and such, I'd be glad to start the thread. The only caveat is that each post should be two pictures, to show what you saw to catch your eye, imagination, mind and so on - to be compared to what you were able to capture with the camera.

I do this exercise every once in awhile, when I find my pictures falling into a "postcard" rut. It usually brings me quickly back into focus about composition, frame, action, story and light/color balance.

Pops

[Peter Ryan]

Hi Pops,

One before you close this off. Just back from a couple of weeks away and I was at a zoo checking up on some new cheetah cubs. There are 4 cubs and 2 are what they term “King Cheetahs”; very rare in deed. These have strips or blotches rather than spots. This occurs in the wild occasionally but is more likely when both parents carry the same regressive gene.

I had been watching them for some time and noticed how they spontaneously fell into a game of ‘catch me if you can’. From their body language I gleaned this might be about to happen so I took the first shot to get my framing and range. The light has terrible with a low overcast winter sky ready to rain. I could not get a fast shutter but decided this didn’t matter as motion and action was what I was after.

Both shots were taken with Nikon D300s with 70 – 300 zoom. Focal length was around 200mm at f5.6 + .67ev.



I got one action shot away but observation and planning allowed me to get this one.

[dharankk9]

When you panned the camera towards the jungle I expected one of the Rathambhore tigers to emerge from the thicket, but this was probably taken near Goa.

Thanks for the comment. It is taken from Kerala(INDIA) And this Flower is common in vilages of Kerala Mostly used for pooja in templw.

[PopsPhotos]

Peter, that second shot is really nice. The blur on the rear-most cat adds nicely to the composition and story and the lead cat is stretched out very nicely. Did you put the camera on burst/continuous and just let it shoot? Or, were you shooting single frames?

Pops

[Peter Ryan]

Hi Pops,

I normally have my camera set to burst all the time (and use a very sensative fingure to get one shot away). In this case I only got one ot off and this is it.

[PopsPhotos]

That is nice. I, too, leave my cameras in burst mode and use the flicker-finger technique. Once in awhile I get surprised by an extra frame, but not often.

Pops