Project 52 by Rebecca Humphries

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Originally Posted by Geoff F

They work well.

Just a couple of thoughts. With #2 there is a line, possibly a path, which runs across the scene, by the horse's mouth. I think I would be tempted to consider cloning this out.

And, the pigs would have looked slightly better with less space behind them and more in front, just a little though. I think there might just be sufficient space for a tiny crop of the left edge. But if this is already a crop I would change that slightly instead.

But just very minor suggestions. The 'piggy hop' with the front piglet is excellent.

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Hi Geoff,

Many thanks for your suggestions. Here are some tweaked images:

I have cloned out the line across the picture, you are right, there was an electric fence just behind the horse. I also got rid of the muddy path alongside the fence as it seemed a bit of a distraction and out of place once the fence was gone.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-P...399%2520v2.jpg

The piggy shot had no extra in the picture to the right, my fault as they raced off so quickly they almost got out of shot completely. Somehow in Photoshop I have managed to clone a bit of the background to extend it slightly to the right, and crop off more from the left. I agree with you that it is better when they are running into the picture, rather than out.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-b...462%2520v2.jpg

Thanks again for your comments, hopefully with practice I will be able to get it right first time :)

Hi Rebecca,

You did well with the cloning and extending canvas on the two reworked examples.

That leaves #1 which, to me, looks too blue - this is exactly the kind of lighting I avoided with my deer shots, the sun backlighting has some merits, but the cast (from a blue sky) on the unlit side just doesn't compliment this type of subject - that's why the best shot (in my Week 8) was when the stag turned and looked back towards the sun.

You could try removing blue and perhaps adding red, but I'm not sure what colour the animal is and you may need to be careful what happens to the grass behind.

It is also a slight shame the mouth is 'touching' the background long grasses and not just over the lawn part.

Hope that helps (and don't feel you have to rework the first),

Not much to add to what Geoff and Dave have said. The reworked ones look great.

Just thinking about the overall composition of the second photo (tree with horse), I'm finding that for me it's a little out of balance. Everything in the photo is on the emphasised on the left side of the photo - the grass, the horse, and even the trunk of the tree is positioned on the left. I'm not sure if having taken the photo a bit more on the right so the tree was on the right side of the photo rather than the left would have helped balance it out (that's assuming it is actually unbalance) - but food for thought :)

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Originally Posted by Dave Humphries

That leaves #1 which, to me, looks too blue - this is exactly the kind of lighting I avoided with my deer shots, the sun backlighting has some merits, but the cast (from a blue sky) on the unlit side just doesn't compliment this type of subject - that's why the best shot (in my Week 8) was when the stag turned and looked back towards the sun.

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Hi,

Yes I did have another go at adjusting the colours, but I couldn't get any better colours on the deer without ruining the background :( I was aware at the time that the lighting was difficult, but the deers were in an enclosure which I could only walk along one side of them, and unfortunately the sun was directly behind them! It took long enough just to get one of them to lift their heads long enough to take a picture. I shall try to be more careful in future with the lighting in my pictures. We shall have to try Richmond Park or Bushy Park for some better pictures next time I visit.

Thanks for your comments,

Rebecca

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Originally Posted by Goldcoastgolfer

Not much to add to what Geoff and Dave have said. The reworked ones look great.

Just thinking about the overall composition of the second photo (tree with horse), I'm finding that for me it's a little out of balance. Everything in the photo is on the emphasised on the left side of the photo - the grass, the horse, and even the trunk of the tree is positioned on the left. I'm not sure if having taken the photo a bit more on the right so the tree was on the right side of the photo rather than the left would have helped balance it out (that's assuming it is actually unbalance) - but food for thought :)

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Thanks for your comments Mal. Yes the more I look at it I do agree that it is a bit lopsided! Maybe next time I should start using gridlines when I am taking shots like this to help me think more about composition whilst I'm shooting, rather than waiting to crop the picture in Photoshop, as that doesn't really help with a shot like this.

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Originally Posted by beckyhumphries

Thanks for your comments Mal. Yes the more I look at it I do agree that it is a bit lopsided! Maybe next time I should start using gridlines when I am taking shots like this to help me think more about composition whilst I'm shooting, rather than waiting to crop the picture in Photoshop, as that doesn't really help with a shot like this.

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Yes, but if the horse and tree won't get into the correct relative positions and you can't move enough either, options are limited :(

You could always clone move the tree, or for better balance reverse clone it, I dunno how to do the latter, but looking at that level horizon, here's a thought ...
Open it in Elements, duplicate the Background layer, horizontally flip top layer, erase lower half of the top layer to let the lower one through, with horse in original position, Only problem is the sun is then shining from both sides :D and I think that might look odd, so this is not a serious suggestion for this image - more an idea for when the lighting isn't so obviously directional.

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Originally Posted by beckyhumphries

I shall try to be more careful in future with the lighting in my pictures. We shall have to try Richmond Park or Bushy Park for some better pictures next time I visit.

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I have got to that stage of my development where not taking the picture is a valid option, but for you, I think I'd say do keep taking, even though the results won't be perfect, because it is all good practice (and we know what practice makes :) ).

I must do my week 9 tonight :o

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Originally Posted by Dave Humphries

I must do my week 9 tonight :o

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Yes I am trying to do Week 12 tonight, and even I'm behind :o!

Hi everyone,

This week I travelled down south to visit the family, and the pictures are taken from Windsor (the swan) and Black Park near Slough (the duck and dog). We finally had some great weather so it was lovely to be out with the camera.

Swan flying overhead:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-T...12%2520304.jpg
1/4000 sec, iso200, f/5.6, -0.7step exposure, 216mm (35mm equivalent)

Water off a ducks back:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-a...12%2520256.jpg
1/1000sec, iso640, f/5.6, 0step exposure, 272mm (35mm equivalent)

This dog was having great fun splashing, barking and trying to eat the water!
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-H...12%2520187.jpg
1/800sec, iso640, f/7.1, -0.3exposure, 280mm (35mm equivalent)

All comments and suggestions much appreciated.

Thanks, Rebecca

Water off a duck's back - love it :D Really great photos Becky. Very sharp and you get a real sense of action in each of them. The water shots look just fantastic. Well done!

Hi Rebecca,

I agree with Mal, your images are becoming consistently sharp, well exposed, with good tonal range and local contrast.

There's really nothing to suggest to improve these :)
(although bigger still next time would be nice ;) )

Well done,

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Originally Posted by Goldcoastgolfer

Water off a duck's back - love it :D Really great photos Becky. Very sharp and you get a real sense of action in each of them. The water shots look just fantastic. Well done!

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Thanks Mal :)

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Originally Posted by Dave Humphries

Hi Rebecca,

I agree with Mal, your images are becoming consistently sharp, well exposed, with good tonal range and local contrast.

There's really nothing to suggest to improve these :)
(although bigger still next time would be nice ;) )

Well done,

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Thanks, I have to admit I think a large part of the improvement is due to the new camera, which I am unbelievably happy with.

I shall try increase the picture size next time, I think I made the 's' number 800 for these up from 500/600.

Somehow I have got a week behind, so I thought I'd better catch up! Here are 2 shots taken last Sunday by the River Thames in Windsor. Both pictures were taken quite far away so the detail is not as great as it could be, but I was pleased to be able to capture the swans in motion just as they were landing. They didn't give much warning before flying up the river, and they only seem to do it early in the morning (so not good for a lie in!).

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-F...12%2520313.jpg
f/5.6, 1/1600sec, iso200, -0.7exposure, 600mm (35mm equivalent)

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-3...12%2520314.jpg
f/5.6, 1/1600sec, iso200, -0.7exposure, 446mm (35mm equivalent)

All comments much appreciated. Thanks, Rebecca.

The colours in the second of these latest posts, don't seem totally right to me. Now, I apologise if that is how the light was and these are true colours.

However, the first one has just got everything going for it, including your timing. Superb. Just got it at precisely the right moment. Even the reflection on the water works wonderfully well.

Excessively dark wrongly coloured water has always been the bane of my maritime shots. At certain angles, with the sun behind you, it is often inevitable no matter what you try at the time of shooting.

My only (partially) successful remedy is to try to reduce the effect during processing. The simple suggestions start with altering the White Balance as much as possible without causing false colours to arise in other areas.

Next use Curves and select the blue channel. Very carefully reduce the shadows until the extreme saturation disappears. Watch the whites, and sometimes a little bit of extra blue highlights needs to be added to get the whites correct. But this is very little if at all.

I seem to get best results using Curves Adjustment Layers but changing the Blend Mode so that Luminosity, Colour and Saturation are independently applied on individual layers.

Often a bit tricky to get correct, at least for me. But this usually produces the best results because straight Curves adjustment is trying to adjust too many elements at the same time.

Using Adjustment Layers also allows for a bit of mask editing to carefully vary the exact amount and application area which can make a bit difference when there is a conflict between adjustments of both water and sky.

Excellent shots though.

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Originally Posted by Donald

The colours in the second of these latest posts, don't seem totally right to me. Now, I apologise if that is how the light was and these are true colours.

However, the first one has just got everything going for it, including your timing. Superb. Just got it at precisely the right moment. Even the reflection on the water works wonderfully well.

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Hi Donald.

I feel I may have overdone the contrast in PP leading to such a dark water colour against the white swan.

These were the originals:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-7...12%2520313.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-5...12%2520314.JPG

I think I will start afresh in Photoshop and see if I can get a more natural colour.

Thanks for your comments.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Geoff F

Excessively dark wrongly coloured water has always been the bane of my maritime shots. At certain angles, with the sun behind you, it is often inevitable no matter what you try at the time of shooting.

My only (partially) successful remedy is to try to reduce the effect during processing. The simple suggestions start with altering the White Balance as much as possible without causing false colours to arise in other areas.

Next use Curves and select the blue channel. Very carefully reduce the shadows until the extreme saturation disappears. Watch the whites, and sometimes a little bit of extra blue highlights needs to be added to get the whites correct. But this is very little if at all.

I seem to get best results using Curves Adjustment Layers but changing the Blend Mode so that Luminosity, Colour and Saturation are independently applied on individual layers.

Often a bit tricky to get correct, at least for me. But this usually produces the best results because straight Curves adjustment is trying to adjust too many elements at the same time.

Using Adjustment Layers also allows for a bit of mask editing to carefully vary the exact amount and application area which can make a bit difference when there is a conflict between adjustments of both water and sky.

Excellent shots though.

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Hi Geoff,

Many thanks for your detailed advice. I will have another attempt at PP with these two pictures using your suggestions.

To be continued...!

Well, in terms of action and composition I think you've managed to capture some excellent shots Becky - well done.

My week 14 picture was taken at Langley Park in Berkshire, where a band called Fingers in the Jam were playing this Easter weekend. I took this picture with a 50mm Nikon lens with adaptor on my Panasonic GH2. It was my first time shooting 'manual' focus without a tripod (which even that I have only tried once before) and overall I was happy with how the pictures came out. It took a while to figure out what settings worked with the changing light conditions as it varied from bright sunlight to shadow. It took a while to sift through the pictures to find one without a cluttered background consisting of people/cars/mic stands/instruments blocking part of the shot or being a distraction in the background. I *must* try harder with the composition of shots when I am out with the camera next time. Here is my top shot from the day:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-a...11%2520015.jpg
f/2.8, 1/4000sec, iso200

All comments much appreciated.

Thanks, Rebecca

Another picture to add:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-u...11%2520006.jpg
f/2.8, 1/4000sec, iso200