Travel to Chile

[The amateur]

In my recent trip to Chile, I packed only two Zeiss Batis lenses: an 18mm and an 85mm. While I regret not bringing along the 35mm Zeiss Loxia or the 55mm Sony Zeiss for some intermediate focal lengths, the weight of the additional gear was a deterrent.

These lenses would have undoubtedly yielded better results in certain scenarios, but as they weren't there, I had to make do with what I had. It's a familiar situation, isn't it?

I didn't take as many photos as I usually do on trips, opting instead to focus on carefully selecting specific scenes. However, due to shooting primarily during the bright midday sun, many of my images are quite flat and lacking in interest. The harsh lighting conditions proved to be a challenge.

In total, I only captured 616 RAW images. That's not unusual, as the success of a photograph often hinges on factors beyond our control, such as the quality of light. Even with the help of post-processing software, there's only so much we can do.

I intend to share some of these less-than-ideal shots. After all, we all have images that didn't quite turn out as we'd hoped. It's a natural part of the photographic process.

As usual, I primarily used aperture priority mode, resulting in a variety of depth-of-field effects. ISO is set to automatic between ISO 100 and 6400.

But enough about the technical aspects; let's focus on the images themselves.

[Manfred M]

I find that the second image is very strong and well executed. It shows the interior of the church beautifully.

In the first image, I find that the out of focus flowers on the bottom right to be quite distracting.

In both cases, the bright white border draws too much attention away from the subject. The image would be stronger without them and if you feel you need the border, one that is just a few pixels wide would terminate the edges of the images, without overpowering them.

[whited3]

Antonio,

As Manfred said, that first image is marred by the flowers...there's just too much in frame.

That said, the subject, colour and lighting in both is fantastic. I could be really picky in the second re some of the wall/ceiling/post alignment but it's really nothing and I assume given 18mm you've already done a bit of work in distortion.

Well done.

[Chataignier]

I really like the second image - a beautiful interior.
Less keen on the first for the same reasons as above - the flowers distract too much for my taste.

[billtils]

Agree with Manfred and Mark and prefer the image without the fuzzy flowers but I'm OK with the border - something like a 5px one would have been better or if you wanted a "frame" create one with bevelled edges.

[The amateur]

Thank you all for your insightful comments on the photographs I've shared.

As you've likely noticed, the first image was captured with the 85mm lens, while the second was taken with the 18mm. It's quite obvious, especially considering the foreground flowers in the first shot. I deliberately included them in the composition using a very wide aperture—the widest possible, in fact. Perhaps the result isn't quite as striking as I'd initially hoped.

The second image, clearly taken with the 18mm lens, underwent some perspective corrections. I also carefully selected specific areas to enhance the details in both the shadows and highlights. I found it impossible, however, to fully correct the perspective of the Santo Antonio, for instance.

I'm starting to think that the overall color saturation of the images I've shared so far, and others I've taken, might be a bit too dense. It could simply be a matter of how my monitor displays colors.

Here's another image for you. I've kept the bright white border, I'm afraid.