Re: The Great Chuck & Colin Bird / Boat Challenge!
OK...we are on. I've looked everywhere and I don't have a picture of a boat...except for the attached. It's a scale model of Noah's Ark built to the model railroad N-gague size for comparison. I'll never see Aararat so I digitally parked it in the Sierra Nevada Mountains - at sunrise. The guy who built it is literally a rocket scientist. So this is the only boat I have in my inventory. Now I have to get out there and shoot a real boat.
This is my first attempt at posting an image and I have no idea if it will work.
Re: The Great Chuck & Colin Bird / Boat Challenge!
I actually got a pic of a boat when was out walking last night. It was test shot for HDR since been messing with that lately. Haven't figured out how to stop the washed out look when tone mapping photos but fixed as much as could. It's a quick n dirty edit, ideally I'd like to redevelop/tonemap with lower exp to get a higher contrasting water that looks dark but shows the light reflections more and blend that into the image.
This is another ship taken from the same place (but a few months ago), just the opposite side of the dock. It's not from HDR so bit more vibrant. I liked the colours, was actually walking home when noticed it, and though long exposure would bring them out (even though bright parts are blown I liked it) and it did. Enhanced the colours a tiny bit but nothing over the top.
My crappy camera is limited to 15sec exp so unfortunately the water was not still enough to get a mirror surface and not fast and rough enough to get a more uneven but dreamy look. Hardly the greatest pics I know. It's ironic since I really like boats but get seasick, especially when sleeping on them (you don't want to know how I found that out, ewwww).
Re: The Great Chuck & Colin Bird / Boat Challenge!
"My crappy camera is limited to 15sec exp so unfortunately the water was not still enough to get a mirror surface and not fast and rough enough to get a more uneven but dreamy look."
The easy solution there is simply to take a bunch of the shots (16 or 32 would work well) - throw them into photoshop as layers on a single image - and then change the opacity to that the bottom layer is 100%, next layer is 50%, 3rd up from the bottom is 33%, 4th 25%, 5th 20% etc etc etc - this does two things ...
1. it smooths out the water, and
2. It reduces noise.
Sometimes it creates problems with the non-water portions of the image (primarily due to movement), but it's easy just to process the multiple shots as per above - flatten the image - then throw on just one image as an additional layer - and mask it so that only the smooth water, but sharp ship are showing.
Re: The Great Chuck & Colin Bird / Boat Challenge!
not entirely clear as to the nature of the challenge, but this is one of my favourites
Colin will be pleased to see it is a Canon shot; I did try before jumping....boat
Last edited by crisscross; 12th January 2009 at 10:24 PM.
Re: The Great Chuck & Colin Bird / Boat Challenge!
The rules of this challenge not having been set forth with specificity, I would like a bit of credit in both categories with a boat-bird. (Until I can go boat hunting)
Re: The Great Chuck & Colin Bird / Boat Challenge!
This is a bird that could become a boat if it isn't careful. Actually, I'm trying to post in the manner suggested by Colin but keeping the theme. (IT WORKED!)