Two Landscapes from today

[Stagecoach]

Three hours driving today looking for interesting scenes to practice with proved rather unfruitful but it has been a worthwhile exercise trying to produce something from them. The lighting was against me in that a journey that commenced with low dense cloud cleared to bright sun that always seemed to work against me.

The colour of this river is now common with many following rain due to land clearance and tree felling with the clay and mud getting deposited on our reefs.

1/60s, f14, 35mm


This one was taken with the light very much in front but I wanted to see if I could get a reasonable exposure on the scene.

1/250s, f14, 48mm


Comments welcome as always, they are not the best of compositions I realise but in learning it's better to attempt something than nothing. Well that's my excuse

Grahame

[Wavelength]

Grahame,

I like the images; they successfully convey the feeling of the beautiful places they are. I feel the first image needs a slight clockwise rotation

Regards

[ShaneS]

Grahame;

I concur with Nandakumar that the first needs a bit of straightening and I can sympathize with your statement:

they are not the best of compositions I realise but in learning it's better to attempt something than nothing

For me, the big picture seems to be the hardest to get right (and then to PP and the various elements!) and I have yet to master that skill myself. Having said that, and as a learning exercise for myself in analyzing a scene, I will throw out some thoughts on your second shot....

I like this composition and the triangle that leads your eye through the scene between the trees. I'm not sure if you have any room to the right but if you do try giving it a slight shift so that the pine tree in the forefront is at the edge (crop/clone out the tree with the double trunk) and then give the same amount back to the right side and eliminate the sky almost to the top of the trees. I think that this an possibly a lightly lower shooting angle (I know you can't do anything about that) would really enhance that triangle?

What do you and others think?

[Stagecoach]

Grahame,

I like the images; they successfully convey the feeling of the beautiful places they are. I feel the first image needs a slight clockwise rotation

Regards

Hi Nandakumar,

I'm pleased you have mentioned the rotation on No 1. I took a number of shots at this location and for every one my first impression was that it needed rotating clockwise which I have already done a fair amount on this one but will try a bit more.

Grahame

[Stagecoach]

Grahame;

I concur with Nandakumar that the first needs a bit of straightening and I can sympathize with your statement:



For me, the big picture seems to be the hardest to get right (and then to PP and the various elements!) and I have yet to master that skill myself. Having said that, and as a learning exercise for myself in analyzing a scene, I will throw out some thoughts on your second shot....

I like this composition and the triangle that leads your eye through the scene between the trees. I'm not sure if you have any room to the right but if you do try giving it a slight shift so that the pine tree in the forefront is at the edge (crop/clone out the tree with the double trunk) and then give the same amount back to the right side and eliminate the sky almost to the top of the trees. I think that this an possibly a lightly lower shooting angle (I know you can't do anything about that) would really enhance that triangle?

What do you and others think?

Shane,

I moved around the location of No 2 a fair amount trying to isolate the trees more but it was impossible to achieve what I wanted. The original has space both at the right and the bottom so I'll attempt a further arrangement following your suggestions but not sure I'm too good at cloning out complete trees.

Grahame

[ShaneS]

Grahame, I don't think that you have to clone out the tree completely (I probably couldn't do that either) but I think that the crop I suggested might leave you with a trunk that could be easily cloned out without looking wrong. However I defer to your vision on this and did not mean to imply otherwise in my exercise in analyzing your image.

I think that sometimes I have a vision that is unrealistic for a scene as well and often think that maybe I should step back and see what I can do with what I have rather than trying to force something that isn't there. It is definitely a challenge to eek of the best of what is in a scene while downplaying the rest and I have not yet mastered that skill

[Brownbear]

Hi Grahame,

Thank you for posting these. Beautifully photographed. I especially like the 2nd image and if it were me I would return at sunset or sunrise and photograph the exact same scene. ie; I think it would be an especially beautiful scene with the golden lighting in the sky.

I've placed my learning landscape projects on hold for a little while but I would like to ask where you placed your focal point in the 2nd image? I suspect it is on the trees on the left hand side which is about a 1/3 of the way in but I would be inclined to place it on the trees further in the background at the top of the triangle. ie; I'm still trying to figure out where to place my focal point in landscape photos for maximum depth of field.

Thank you.

[Stagecoach]

Hi Christina,

Firstly, I have missed your postings and very much look forward to seeing you resume your landscape project.

I'm pleased you like the images and have to say this is quite a challenging new area for me, but fun as I feel I'm making some progress. For the second image I recall locking focus on the second tree back on the left, re-composing, adjusting exposure and clicking. The original has a bit more foreground and this was acceptably all in focus at f14.

I have been undertaking a bit of experimentation in opening my aperture to improve image quality and judging my focus point into the scene a bit more carefully but to be honest with the wider angle shots such as these it's really not that critical from what the results show me.

Another method I experimented with for both of these shots was to focus at infinity and use a smaller aperture following an article I had read but to be honest I detected no difference in results for these subjects.

Golden hour here is short and can be spectacular at times the problem being that access roads to most of the locations for shooting are pretty ropey with the 4WD in the daylight let alone returning in the dark. My emphasis at the moment is on composition, image quality and exposure so if I can get these reasonable first they will be invaluable when I'm at a scene where I have the bonus of that golden light.

And as for golden hour, here's an image from last nights one where I was using my 50mm 1.4 shooting my own personal test range from my 1st floor balcony. The trees on the hill approx 1/4 in from the left hand side are 230 mtrs away according to Google



Have a great Christmas Christina !

Grahame

[Brownbear]

Hi Grahame,

Thank you for sharing. Truly appreciated. I did photograph a few landscapes while I was away but mostly birds because I didn't have that much free time, so birds became the priority. But with every landscape image I took I struggled with deciding where I should place my focal point, so your sharing your experience is very helpful to me.

Ahh.. Yes, I'm familiar with roads like that... In that case you need a wild cow on the scene.

Beautiful light!

[Brownbear]

Jeez... I forgot to say

Merry Christmas!

Hi Christina,

Firstly, I have missed your postings and very much look forward to seeing you resume your landscape project.

I'm pleased you like the images and have to say this is quite a challenging new area for me, but fun as I feel I'm making some progress. For the second image I recall locking focus on the second tree back on the left, re-composing, adjusting exposure and clicking. The original has a bit more foreground and this was acceptably all in focus at f14.

I have been undertaking a bit of experimentation in opening my aperture to improve image quality and judging my focus point into the scene a bit more carefully but to be honest with the wider angle shots such as these it's really not that critical from what the results show me.

Another method I experimented with for both of these shots was to focus at infinity and use a smaller aperture following an article I had read but to be honest I detected no difference in results for these subjects.

Golden hour here is short and can be spectacular at times the problem being that access roads to most of the locations for shooting are pretty ropey with the 4WD in the daylight let alone returning in the dark. My emphasis at the moment is on composition, image quality and exposure so if I can get these reasonable first they will be invaluable when I'm at a scene where I have the bonus of that golden light.

And as for golden hour, here's an image from last nights one where I was using my 50mm 1.4 shooting my own personal test range from my 1st floor balcony. The trees on the hill approx 1/4 in from the left hand side are 230 mtrs away according to Google



Have a great Christmas Christina !

Grahame

[Shadowman]

Nice tranquil scenes.

[Stagecoach]

Thank you John, they certainly were tranquil with nothing but the sound of a few critters around.

Grahame

[Stagecoach]

I have had another look at this image taking account of Shane's comments but after a lot of work decided my cloning was just not up to making a decent job of things.

So here's a slightly different perspective of the scene which has been PPd again from the start and I attempted to improve on the sharpness in it. This time I omitted the 'creative' sharpening totally and applied an LCE all over and then after re-sizing down to 1200px width applied a greater amount of output sharpening at 100% 0.3.

With my eyesight this appears noticeably improved in sharpness.



Grahame

[ShaneS]

Grahame, just catching up around here (things move fast!) and saw your rework.

I like the LCE and sharpening that you applied to the second version but now I am torn between the two images...go figure? I like the wider view and feel like a but of the effect of the Triangle is lots in the tighter crop. The tighter crop in some ways has a stronger leading line into the image but it is more obvious that there isn't a true focal point at the end of the path. Maybe this is one of those scenes where a person or animal walking down the path or some fantastic cloud formations would put it over the edge.

I hope that you don't think this to harsh because, lord only knows, I am no expert and am still trying to find those elusive images from a scene like this. I really love this series on the interior of Fiji and hope that you continue to explore and share your work as I think a series like this will evolve as you get a more intimate feeling for the landscape.

[Brownbear]

Hi Grahame,

I prefer the original crop because it includes more of the beautiful vista (which makes me feel like I'm hiking up there) but also because I adore the composition.