2019 P52 - 1st Qtr - Sandy(Skitterbug)

I wanted to let everyone know that I'm still an active CiC member :D.... I just don't have any images of interest to post. This has been one very unpleasant winter. We took some short trips to see if we could find anything worth while but nothing peaked my interest. Hopefully, things (weather mostly) change soon! In the meantime, I'm enjoying looking at the photo work of the group but I am becoming restless. :)

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Originally Posted by skitterbug

I wanted to let everyone know that I'm still an active CiC member :D.... I just don't have any images of interest to post. This has been one very unpleasant winter. We took some short trips to see if we could find anything worth while but nothing peaked my interest. Hopefully, things (weather mostly) change soon! In the meantime, I'm enjoying looking at the photo work of the group but I am becoming restless. :)

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Hi Sandy,

Same here, I've done a few experimental efforts shooting snowy scenes but even those had mediocre subjects, I've mostly been experimenting with macro photography but when practicing on the same subject even those aren't worth posting. Keep at it.

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Originally Posted by Shadowman

Hi Sandy,

Same here, I've done a few experimental efforts shooting snowy scenes but even those had mediocre subjects, I've mostly been experimenting with macro photography but when practicing on the same subject even those aren't worth posting. Keep at it.

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I've been experimenting with printing. I find that it is harder than I thought it would be. <grin> I've also decided to mount some printed images on wood and making plaques for gifts. So the blah winter season is good for exploring different uses for the photos that I do enjoy!

Hopefully, the weather breaks soon and I can start to venture outdoors again! Thanks for replying! :)

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Originally Posted by skitterbug

I wanted to let everyone know that I'm still an active CiC member :D.... I just don't have any images of interest to post. This has been one very unpleasant winter. We took some short trips to see if we could find anything worth while but nothing peaked my interest. Hopefully, things (weather mostly) change soon! In the meantime, I'm enjoying looking at the photo work of the group but I am becoming restless. :)

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Restless is good, it will come into its own when the weather improves.;)

Restlessness is increasing and I'm looking forward to better photo conditions! My last entry was for Week 8. I'm going to say that Week 9 and 10 were certainly unproductive. So beginning again with Week 11! Daylight Savings Time is here (commentary - I certainly wish the "powers in charge" would keep their hands off our clocks!)

The weather improved a bit. I was counting on some waterfowl being active at a local pond and they were. I ended up with two photos that I felt inclined to edit and the results are as follows:

I used EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM lens and found that I don't really like it much. I'll explain that feeling when I post an image for week 12.

8153 Geese - Settings used ISO160 - f/11 - 1/400

Before editing

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...TFxBT8h-X2.jpg

After editing

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...3TFBLfH-X2.jpg


8157 Geese
Settings: ISO100 - f/11 - 1/400

Before editing

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...j6qJKDG-X2.jpg

After editing

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...6vvGrjC-X2.jpg

Sandy, I enjoyed both edited photos -- particularly the body language of the geese in the second photo.

In the first photo, the shoreline appears to be precisely at the halfway point. There can often be good reasons for breaking "rules" but I wonder whether cropping up slightly from the bottom might strengthen the image (but still leaving some water below the bottom Canada goose).

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Originally Posted by Cantab

Sandy, I enjoyed both edited photos -- particularly the body language of the geese in the second photo.

In the first photo, the shoreline appears to be precisely at the halfway point. There can often be good reasons for breaking "rules" but I wonder whether cropping up slightly from the bottom might strengthen the image (but still leaving some water below the bottom Canada goose).

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Hi Bruce - The water scene was difficult for me to decide just where I wanted to crop. I had extra "stuff" on the left that I should not have included but couldn't do much with the lens I had unless I wanted to wade out into the water! <snicker - and no thanks!> If I cropped too close to the goose at the bottom, it also seemed like there wasn't enough "swim space" and that it just seemed to appear. So I ended up with what I had. I know I definitely didn't want to crop the wooded area. I liked the way the trees appeared. What it indicates is that I should have composed the image a bit better to begin with.

Glad you enjoyed the second pic. The pond is by a restaurant and I could almost imagine the geese talking about their meal as they headed out! :)

Thanks for commenting!

With the first image, Sandy, I would have cropped tighter at the top.

I can see an argument for including the trees but you have a seriously out of focus branch coming in from the top left corner which spoils the scene for me. So I suspect that a tighter top crop, plus a little bit of clone work will remove that problem. Maybe end up with something like 3 x 2 ratio? That would still leave enough of the trees to give some context to the shot.

Second image looks very good with your bit of editing work.

Hi Geoff - Yep, I noticed that branch. It doesn't seem to be attached to anything? Curious how nature does that! Thank you for your suggestions! I appreciate them! :)

Nice set and much improved with the edits.

Thank you John! I appreciate that you took time to look at these images and comment! :)

Week 12 - Hubby ordered new golf clubs (Irons) so spring must be close! :D There are also signs of spring flowers popping up which make me happy to see. Another road trip during a fairly pleasant day. I thought about this ethanol plant and the clouds of vapor it spews into the atmosphere. This image is the best of the lot that I captured.

I used EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM lens that I mentioned in Week 12 post. My grief with it is chromatic aberration that it causes. I've noticed this with other images but thought at first it was me. But now, I believe the lens is causing the problem. I've attempted to edit for it so hopefully the finished image is okay but of course suggestions are welcome. Any good suggestions of a lens that would take the place of this "thing" would also be helpful or suggestions on how to better use it to avoid the problems of chromatic aberration.

Settings that I used for the outing: ISO100 - f/11 - 1/400ss

Before editing

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...XsnQGSb-X2.jpg

After editing
Processing corn for your car!

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...S59rLDW-X2.jpg

Week 12, nice efforts. This review mentions the CA and attempts to correct it.

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/can...6-is-usm-c16/3

Sandy - Chromatic Aberration is a "feature" of your lens and there is nothing you can do to avoid it when taking a shot. Fortunately most post-processing software makes it easy to remove it in the raw conversion step. Check your software manual on that.

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Originally Posted by Shadowman

Week 12, nice efforts. This review mentions the CA and attempts to correct it.

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/can...6-is-usm-c16/3

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Thank you John. Interesting article. I was hoping that this lens would do for those times when I wanted to go light and still have a bit of reach. Apparently, using it in telephoto work should be okay but I'll still need to be on my guard. Hindsight - I probably wouldn't have purchased it if I'd done a bit more homework about its reviews. <sigh>

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Originally Posted by Manfred M

Sandy - Chromatic Aberration is a "feature" of your lens and there is nothing you can do to avoid it when taking a shot. Fortunately most post-processing software makes it easy to remove it in the raw conversion step. Check your software manual on that.

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Hi Manfred - Yes, I have Digital Photo Professional 4 as well as Adobe Lightroom and they both do a decent job of removing the annoyance. I'm curious if my edited image still shows any CA? I can't spot any on my computer system but the flaw does concern me.

Thanks for commenting! :)

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Originally Posted by skitterbug

Hi Manfred - Yes, I have Digital Photo Professional 4 as well as Adobe Lightroom and they both do a decent job of removing the annoyance. I'm curious if my edited image still shows any CA? I can't spot any on my computer system but the flaw does concern me.

Thanks for commenting! :)

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If you can't spot it, then all is good. Both DPP and LR automate CA removal. If you can still spot any, LR can definitely let you manually clean up CR as well. I find ACR / LR generally automated functions do the correction quite well.

Hi Sandy, hope you are doing fine; i am doing fine too :)

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Hindsight - I probably wouldn't have purchased it if I'd done a bit more homework about its reviews.

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You might not have escaped the issue even if you had bought the replacement for that lens, the EF-S 15-85, which was introduced about a decade ago. I used one as my walk-around lens when I shot in APS-C format. The 15-85 is an improvement in image quality compared with the 17-85, but it still suffers from CA at the extremes: https://www.the-digital-picture.com/...ns-Review.aspx. It's particularly apparent when you have a sharp, high-contrast edge. Fortunately, it is usually not that hard to get rid of it in postprocessing.

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Originally Posted by Wavelength

Hi Sandy, hope you are doing fine; i am doing fine too :)

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Hello Nandakumar! Welcome indeed - it is great to "see" you again! :D