Some Recent Shots from Gettysburg

[jeffmoll]

I'm pretty new to this site but have really enjoyed it thus far. My dream is to eventually make my full living on photography. Seems like it's not easy but I'm willing to do what it takes. Here are some of my recent shots. I'd love to have some feedback on my work.
~Jeff

[Peter Ryan]

Hi Jeff and welcome to CiC,

I love the evenness of tones in the shots. I would be interested to know the time of day they were taken and the shutter speeds as there is some small movement in the stars that would suggest some time lapse.

I normally try to correct for linear perspective distortion and I may have done so with #1 but the horizon line and angle of shoot may make this very difficult.

I don’t mind it at all in #2. I feel like a small boy again looking up at a really tall object.

I may have tried to correct the perspective distortions in #3 but again the tones are very nice.

In all three I like that there is still detail in the sky and not just a black hole.

I just like #4. The proportions, balance, diagonal lines, shallow DOF all works. Great shot.

[carregwen]

Very good shots, Jeff. I see you shot them late evening which suits the sombre nature of the place. I also think it worth people re-reading the Gettysburg Address. It's still one of the best pieces of English prose ever written and spoken. http://americancivilwar.com/north/lincoln.html

Welcome to the forum!

[jeffmoll]

I normally try to correct for linear perspective distortion and I may have done so with #1 but the horizon line and angle of shoot may make this very difficult.

I don’t mind it at all in #2. I feel like a small boy again looking up at a really tall object.

I may have tried to correct the perspective distortions in #3 but again the tones are very nice.

Hadn't really crossed my mind to do so, but I see what you're saying. How would one go about the correction? I'd love to give it a shot just to see what I can come out with. I'm only using Camera Raw CS4 for my tuning. My buddies all use Light Room 3 and are trying to get me to do so as well, just haven't wanted to shell out the cash since I just payed big bucks for a big cam . Kind of interesting, I used to shoot with a 1V which got me thoroughly addicted to the 1 series cameras, which is why I bit the bullet and bought a slightly used 1Ds mk3. After I got the thing though I realized that I had jumped into much deeper water than I had bargained for. In other words I realize I have book loads to learn about digital photography to really use the camera to its full potential. That's why I'm here... to learn .

#1 one was taken a little after 6:30 in the evening. The sun goes down right around 5:00 this time of year here. 69" bulb exposure f/4 at ISO 400.
Canon 1Ds mk3 with EF16-35mm f/2.8L II at 35mm.

#2 was a 120" bulb f/4 ISO 400 taken around ten minutes after the first.

As for movement in the stars, I'd be curious to know what ISO would you have shot? I though about pushing my ISO to get shorter exposure time but decided to place more value on image quality.

[Donald]

Jeff

Welcome from me too.

That's quite an impressive start to your life as a CiCer. That first one is my pick of a very good set. I like the composition. It's nicely balanced and proportioned. And it's well exposed.

Look forward to seeing more.

[iDad]

Wow...... been there.... almost felt like a flashback,lol excellent work!

[pwnage101]

These look wonderful. I can only come up with two minor bits of criticism:
-the star trails in the first shot could have been halved if you set the aperture to f2.8. I'm certain most of the image would retain focus, and negligible sharpness would be lost by widening the aperture of a professional lens.
-the second image is (barely) asymmetric, possibly by placing the camera too far left. Perhaps the camera WAS centered but the wall on the right is naturally short?

Looks like you have the skills (and the equipment) to attain your dream. Good job!

[Peter Ryan]

Hadn't really crossed my mind to do so, but I see what you're saying. How would one go about the correction? I'd love to give it a shot just to see what I can come out with. I'm only using Camera Raw CS4 for my tuning. My buddies all use Light Room 3 and are trying to get me to do so as well, just haven't wanted to shell out the cash since I just payed big bucks for a big cam . Kind of interesting, I used to shoot with a 1V which got me thoroughly addicted to the 1 series cameras, which is why I bit the bullet and bought a slightly used 1Ds mk3. After I got the thing though I realized that I had jumped into much deeper water than I had bargained for. In other words I realize I have book loads to learn about digital photography to really use the camera to its full potential. That's why I'm here... to learn .

#1 one was taken a little after 6:30 in the evening. The sun goes down right around 5:00 this time of year here. 69" bulb exposure f/4 at ISO 400.
Canon 1Ds mk3 with EF16-35mm f/2.8L II at 35mm.

#2 was a 120" bulb f/4 ISO 400 taken around ten minutes after the first.

As for movement in the stars, I'd be curious to know what ISO would you have shot? I though about pushing my ISO to get shorter exposure time but decided to place more value on image quality.

Hi Jeff,

Having another look at #1 I am not sure you need to worry about the horizon given the angle you shot from you expect it to run off a bit. You say you have Camera RAW CS4 so I assume you also have Photoshop CS4.

There are a number of ways to align or transform your image but the easiest way to get started is to when you open your image in Photoshop, after RAW processing, choose Filter/Distort/Lens Correction.

To straighten and horizon or a building choose the second tool down on the top left hand side, which is an angle symbol. You can align either vertically or horizontally by clicking on the starting point of the horizon or the wall of a building, draw a line and your done.

Alternatively on the right hand side you can correct for barrel or pin-cushion effects or manually transform your image by changing the sliders.

Right at the bottom is a Scale slider. Moving this will crop you image to fit the canvass.

What you will find is that you may lose up to 10 – 12 % of you image so you need to shoot loose in camera, or with plenty of space around the subject, when you know you are going to correct perspective distortion.

I note other comments on aperture setting to freeze the star trails a bit. I persoanlly don't ahve an issue with ISO400.

I hope this helps and as you can see these are well received images. Keep them coming.

[arith]

Very good shots, Jeff. I see you shot them late evening which suits the sombre nature of the place. I also think it worth people re-reading the Gettysburg Address. It's still one of the best pieces of English prose ever written and spoken. http://americancivilwar.com/north/lincoln.html

Welcome to the forum!

Yes but the Osbournies are in control, and they think of it all in a very strange way. I like the top one, unsure if I could do it differently. Certainly nice.

[jeffmoll]

These look wonderful. I can only come up with two minor bits of criticism:
-the star trails in the first shot could have been halved if you set the aperture to f2.8. I'm certain most of the image would retain focus, and negligible sharpness would be lost by widening the aperture of a professional lens.
-the second image is (barely) asymmetric, possibly by placing the camera too far left. Perhaps the camera WAS centered but the wall on the right is naturally short?

Looks like you have the skills (and the equipment) to attain your dream. Good job!

Thanks for the tips! Yeah, I had wondered about using 2.8 and should have. I was a little paranoid about the point of critical focus since it was so dark I had a very hard time finding focus... although I'm learning that shooting wide angle there's a lot of forgiveness
I'd like to go back again in a week or two. I live about an hour and a half from there.

The second one I too noticed the slight asymmetry. The one wall was slightly shorter, but I could easily crop it in just a wee bit and fix that. Hey, thanks again! I love criticism because it gives me things to think about when taking a shot and makes for better images.

[Fleshpiston]

See that wall problem in pic#2 was bugging me because apart from that I think it is a beautiful capture. I hope you don't mind but I fiddled a little to get it a bit more centred. Now the problem with that is the steps are not level on the lower set so I had to crop a tad to negate it:

[jeffmoll]

See that wall problem in pic#2 was bugging me because apart from that I think it is a beautiful capture. I hope you don't mind but I fiddled a little to get it a bit more centred. Now the problem with that is the steps are not level on the lower set so I had to crop a tad to negate it:

lol! No, I don't mind a bit. Looks great! Hey, that's why I'm here, so you guys can help me learn how to make my images better

The one thing I noticed is there's a greater sense of the immensity of the monument with more of the steps in the frame. I worked it up a bit too and here's what I came out with.





I cropped in just enough to remove the shorter wall (it's one step shorter than the other side, but the more I look at it I do think I was a bit off center) and did just a touch of a warp to straighten the step. Then I upped the master saturation a touch and then dropped the yellows to preserve the color and tone in the stone. I like how the saturation adjustment added some depth to the sky... but perhaps it's overdone?

[Fleshpiston]

Thats it..... good job!
You still have a tiny line down the bottom that you could get out but that is being pickypicky

<(thumbs up smilely)>

[wallyjs]

I found your photos excellent in composition and the amount of detail in the shadow areas. I'm fairly new to photography (should have started when I was 17 instead of in my 70's) but have learned a considerable wealth of knowledge both from your photos and the many comments from other members.
I wish you much success in your goal of being a professional photographer. I can assure you that "anything is possible" when the desire and commitment is there.

[jeffmoll]

Thanks Walt!