2020 Project 52 by Antonio Correia - 1rd Quarter

[Antonio Correia]

Yes - I can see that you have shot wide angle. The comments still apply.

I was meaning that wide angle lenses are very "this type of captures" friendly.
I didn't doubt or question for a moment that you could clearly see/realize that these shots were taken with wide angle lenses so, I was just enhancing them.

The Nikkor 28mm has a very strong vignetting and it is pretty sharp even near the edges.

[Shadowman]

Post 137, another nicely captured and exposed image, the shadows and angles really create a sense of rich depth and intrigue, is your lens a zoom and were you at the short end of the focal length, just wondering as the composition is tightly cropped at the top and a bit more of the ceiling area would add to the perspective; I understand though that by doing so you'd increase the distortion and the only other alternative would've been to move backward but that might've also been impossible to do so.

[Antonio Correia]

John, you are referring to this one, right ?

As you can see bellow John, I was almost as back as I could in zoom terms. The image has already some distortion introduced and I don't like the perspective of the table where Jesus is, for example. But that is not important as the hole composition is pretty strong.
As I may have told before, I was composing the frame with the lady on the right in the scene when the other came in. Lucky me !

At the moment I do not remember if I have merged 3 or 5 in HDR in LR. Anyway, the HDR effect was as controlled as I could...
BTW - When looking at this set there is something wrong regarding the sequence of images but at the moment, I do not have time to "investigate".

Thank you for commenting John ! Have a nice week end !

[Manfred M]

Antonio - I am not a great fan of HDRI because I find that the software never gets things quite right; it just maps tonal ranges to new ones; I tend to blend my images manually these days and find that I steer people to try the Enfuse plugin for Lightroom if people want to automate.

That being said, even when I use these techniques, I find I spend some time dodging and burning to readjust the image to say what I want it to. I find that the woman standing near the statue is an important element in the composition, as is the statue. Opening up (and burning down) some features in the shot gives the viewer a whole different experience. The interplay between those three elements is important in this image, I think.

I generally also straighten out vertical likes in architectural elements.

[Shadowman]

Antonio,

Thanks for posting your intentions, technique, and sequence of shots. You have a nice weekend as well.

John

[Geoff F]

Regarding the 'Rule of Thirds'. Yes I agree it is wrong to force a natural scene into an arbitrary fixed ratio, but I find an approximate 'guide of thirds' can often make a good starting point for a composition.

Maybe some of the shadows can be slightly brightened in your last image, as Manfred suggested, but I think it should remain chiefly a strong high contrast scene.

[Antonio Correia]

Thank you Manfred, John and Geoff for the time spent commenting the last photo.

As usual, I appreciate your comments, suggestions and so on.
I once downloaded TK Basic panel which I have used a few times and then stopped for no reason. Anyway, I wouldn't be interested in buying the better version as that would require an effort to learn to use and what I have to learn besides that is enough.
As far as I remember we have talked somewhere about the stacking of images. With the Sony I do it less and less.

To you all a nice week end.

[Antonio Correia]

Starting the week with A7 III + Metabones + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4

Two shots. Both manual focus of course, using focus peaking with some post processing work on LR and CC to taste.
With manual focus one has to take some time... but it's OK as it makes you to slow down a bit.

On the second photograph I am not sure if the vignetting on the upper left is from the lens hood as it is not the original but another in rubber I was given and not represented, or from my hand slightly deforming the rubber.

[Geoff F]

Well composed bright scenes there, Antonio. You are clearly getting better weather than here where it is just murky mist and a strong wind which has lasted for weeks. It is so long since I photographed anything, except for one tatty looking moth which was sheltering on one of my windows last night; so I photographed it for identification.

With the second image you could probably remove the vignetting without too much difficulty.

[Wavelength]

An excellent set of images !!!

[Antonio Correia]

Well composed bright scenes there, Antonio. You are clearly getting better weather than here where it is just murky mist and a strong wind which has lasted for weeks. It is so long since I photographed anything, except for one tatty looking moth which was sheltering on one of my windows last night; so I photographed it for identification.
With the second image you could probably remove the vignetting without too much difficulty.

The weather here is mild even in Winter as it makes some 4 centigrades during the night sometimes. But I am in Setúbal near the sea where there is a lot of humidity when the tide changes. During the day in the morning at about 9 for example, we have 10 and later goes up to 16, 17 or even 20.

Geoff, I left the vignetting on purpose even if I have tried to remove it... The 3 photos were taken at down when the Sun was setting down. I am just running all Nikkor lenses I have on the Sony.

And thank you for commenting, Geoff !

An excellent set of images !!!

Thank you for commenting, Nandakumar !

[Antonio Correia]

To end the week, flowers !
Freesias from my garden with a fantastic perfume.
Not a very refined photo as the time is short...
I should have had time to take care of the background, choose a longer lens - or shorter - and some other things...

[Geoff F]

Very difficult scene, Antonio, but you have nicely constrained those potential over saturation issues.

A good subject for image stacking, if you have suitable editing software and no subject movement.

[Antonio Correia]

Thank you Geoff for your comment
It was just to close the week...

[Antonio Correia]

Working on the week job

[Chataignier]

What a lovely little creature ! I see from the EXIF that you were quite close, so I presume the deer is tame...

[Antonio Correia]

Thank you David for commenting !
The animal was indeed very close and running away at that moment. However, this was shot in the wilde from a hight point !
I will show some more of this sessions later...
😀

[Antonio Correia]

Work in progress...

[Geoff F]

That is a tricky one, Antonio. I wonder about a slight crop from the sides and going to something like 4 x 5 ratio?

[Urbanflyer]

What a lovely creature!