2017 Project 52 - 2nd QTR - Sandy(Skitterbug)

[Geoff F]

Flower groups are always tricky but this has worked out well.

[purplehaze]

This image made me think of Japanese painting for some reason. Quite lovely, Sandy.

[skitterbug]

Flower groups are always tricky but this has worked out well.

Hi Geoff ~ I had several clusters to choose from but this one seemed to be in the best position and had enough light to hopefully have good results. I'm glad you like it.

This image made me think of Japanese painting for some reason. Quite lovely, Sandy.

Hi Janis ~ Thank you for your kind words! I appreciate your encouragement!

[bnnrcn]

I like everything in the image Sandy. Nice composition and colors. The blur in the BG is good enough to make the beautiful flowers stand out nicely

[skitterbug]

I like everything in the image Sandy. Nice composition and colors. The blur in the BG is good enough to make the beautiful flowers stand out nicely

Hi Binnur ~ I appreciate that you checked out my photo! Thank you extra much for your positive comments!

[skitterbug]

So I really need some directions on how-to accomplish a decent picture taken through water. I know that I tried this when the sun was too bright but the situation said "do it now". I am hopeful that my subject will stay put until I figure this out. Or that sometime, he'll decided to sit behind the waterfall again so I get another chance. The other problem is that I believe my picture is too grainy as well as losing some of the detail by using the settings that I used. ISO1600 - 250mm - f/8.0 - 1/1000.
So any suggestions will definitely be appreciated. I was really glad to see him since I thought we'd lost them all to raccoons that came around one night causing mischief!

[skitterbug]

Here is another photo of Mr. Bullfrog so long as TinyPic behaves.... It is complaining again.

[Geoff F]

Second image works fine.

My suggestion for the first very difficult shot is to crop a little closer and try some selective brightness adjustment. Have a go at brightening the highlights slightly to bring out more contrast; but only apply that effect to the required area and avoid the bubbles which are already close to over exposing.

With care, I suspect this image can be made to work better.

[bnnrcn]

I wish I knew how to take a decent photo through running water . It seems impossible to me .. So, I prefer the second image

[joebranko]

Second image works fine.

My suggestion for the first very difficult shot is to crop a little closer and try some selective brightness adjustment. Have a go at brightening the highlights slightly to bring out more contrast; but only apply that effect to the required area and avoid the bubbles which are already close to over exposing.

With care, I suspect this image can be made to work better.

Great work on these. The second looks like artwork! The first, looking through the curtain of water I don't think I would have tried. I have no idea how to approach this. Sorry , I am no help.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[skitterbug]

Second image works fine.

My suggestion for the first very difficult shot is to crop a little closer and try some selective brightness adjustment. Have a go at brightening the highlights slightly to bring out more contrast; but only apply that effect to the required area and avoid the bubbles which are already close to over exposing.

With care, I suspect this image can be made to work better.

Hi Geoff ~ I've tried tackling the second one but have not been satisfied with the results - yet. If I can get what you suggest done and produce a "better" shot, I'll post it. It was a very bright day.
Thank you for the encouraging words.

[skitterbug]

I wish I knew how to take a decent photo through running water . It seems impossible to me .. So, I prefer the second image

Hi Binnur ~ I was tickled to see the bullfrog since I do like the challenge of capturing him in pics!
I'm still considering trying this on a less sunny day, have a tripod, set manual settings and have a go at it again. Of course to convince Mr. Bullfrog to return to his spot and try and keep my equipment from falling into the koi pond may add a bit of interest to my day! LOL
Thank you for checking out my photos!

[skitterbug]

Great work on these. The second looks like artwork! The first, looking through the curtain of water I don't think I would have tried. I have no idea how to approach this. Sorry , I am no help.

Hi Joe ~ And thank you! I appreciate the praise!
For the pic through the waterfall, I haven't given up the idea - yet. I keep thinking, there ought to be a way to do it! LOL Eventually, I'll either throw my hands in the air in disgust and failure or I'll get lucky and get the shot that I really want! So long as Mr. Bullfrog cooperates........

[Wavelength]

These last two images are superb; in the first image, if the frog were fully visible through water blade, it would not have been that much appealing; probably i like it more than the second mainly because of this veiled nature; of course i really liked the second too...

[skitterbug]

These last two images are superb; in the first image, if the frog were fully visible through water blade, it would not have been that much appealing; probably i like it more than the second mainly because of this veiled nature; of course i really liked the second too...

Mr. Bullfrog does look a bit mysterious hiding behind that curtain of water. I would like to see his eyes better but one streak of water seems to block one eye a bit. He thinks he is hidden there not realizing we can see him. He makes me laugh!
I appreciate your positive comments about these two photos! Thank you!

[Geoff F]

I have had a quick play around with the frog and waterfall image, Sandy to add a little more contrast and brightness to the frog and I think it is an improvement.

[skitterbug]

I have had a quick play around with the frog and waterfall image, Sandy to add a little more contrast and brightness to the frog and I think it is an improvement.

Hi Geoff ~ Thank you for giving it a go. On my screen, Mr. Bullfrog looks a bit brighter and you have cropped the pic. What application did you use to adjust the pic?

[Geoff F]

Started with a slight crop, Sandy, then selectively applied a Curves adjustment as a layer to increase the highlights a little while slightly darkening the shadows and brushed in the effect so it was applied only to the area around the frog. Also slightly reduced highlights on the bubbles.

Did the same thing with a slight Saturation increase as an edited layer.

Finally, created a duplicate layer and sharpened that layer with a little Unsharp Mask (anmount 50 radius 2 threshold 2). Put a hide all mask over the layer and gently brushed in some opacity so just the required frog general area was sharpened.

[Shadowman]

#116, I like the original better but the experimentation is worthy of posting; thanks for sharing your vision.

[skitterbug]

Started with a slight crop, Sandy, then selectively applied a Curves adjustment as a layer to increase the highlights a little while slightly darkening the shadows and brushed in the effect so it was applied only to the area around the frog. Also slightly reduced highlights on the bubbles.

Did the same thing with a slight Saturation increase as an edited layer.

Finally, created a duplicate layer and sharpened that layer with a little Unsharp Mask (anmount 50 radius 2 threshold 2). Put a hide all mask over the layer and gently brushed in some opacity so just the required frog general area was sharpened.

Hi Geoff ~ Thank you for your thoughts about this pic and supplying your information about your editing techniques for it. I followed along until I got to the part of your explanation about using an "edited layer...." And you used "brushes", etc. I don't have a clue how to do this yet.

I use Light Room and I have a feeling you are using Photoshop perhaps? Or is all your editing techniques located somewhere within LR? Learning how to use photo editing applications can be a bit frustrating and definitely time consuming.

Your crop did bring more focus to Mr. Bullfrog, but........ Here is a copy of my pic with an anomaly circled and it is part of the reason I didn't crop as you did. I left the feature there as intrigue. Something behind the curtain of water shimmering...... Although maybe I could have cropped the right edge a bit...... and still left the "unknown" in my pic. Hummmm......

And try as I might, I haven't been able to get another chance of a shot of Mr. Bullfrog behind that waterfall. When he does go there, it has been later in the evening. Trying to get lighting, etc. enough to even create a photo hasn't worked. Of course, I can't simply walk up to the waterfall either. This is where the longer focus lens that I crave, would come in handy. One of these days, I'll graduate to a new kit of equipment!