Crickets not good - so off to the farm

[wilgk]

Late last evening on 1 of my 'drives' with 1 of our 2 learner drivers (I know you feel my pain)
I stopped and shot some 'round hay bales' images.
The Farmer was waving in quite a friendly manner - ...at fashionista I later realised!
And as the cricket has not been worth watching today - I have had time to process a couple for your critique.

I was trying for an almost silhouette here - but does it come across that way or more as oops just got the exposure wrong?



and I risked life and limb from snakes in the grass for this one.... whilst my young learner driver was blissfully unaware chatting to the farmer!

[Donald]

A TRACTOR! My favourite subject!!

See what you mean about the 'It's not quite a silhouette ...' effect. But it's still very, very nice. There's still detail in the shadows, so what if you were to give it just a delicate little tickle with a dodge brush, so that it didn't look like an attempt for a silhouette that didn't work, but brought back in just a hint more detail into the land and machinery.

The light on the edge of the furthest-away bale is glorious.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Kay,

I had a play, I hope you don't mind;



Levels: reduced white point to about 230, increased grey to 1.2 - revealing more foreground detail
Crop off top - to concentrate upon 'sun under the clouds' feeling
Dodging: concentrating on side lighting of bale, tractor tyres, machinery
LCE with USM; 15%, 30px, 0th - further enhances above dodging and brings a bit more detail into the grass
Resize to 700px, probably a mistake as looks a bit jaggy now
Sharpen resized with USM: 0.3px, 75%, 2th.

Any better?

[Wirefox]

A TRACTOR! My favourite subject!!

Oh God, now see what you have done It's only because someone told him Massey Ferguson played for Celtic. But by Jove I do believe young Dave has got it. I do like the image Kay, very moody

[Donald]

I know I shouldn't, but .............! It's because it's a tractor. I can't help it.

I hope you don't mind me illustrating what I meant.

As you know, I use the GIMP. So the actions will, I'm sure, be different than in that other package!

I put on a transparent layer and changed mode to Overlay. The took a white, soft-edged brush at 25% and selectively brushed over the land and the machinery. Never touched the sky, although does it look a bit darker on my edited version?



Your original

[wilgk]

Thank you Chaps
All very much - A cynical australian would suggest you can afford to be so kind and magnanimous given the impending result of today's game...
luckily for us I'm a nice NZer.....all the aussies can take comfort in is it's going to be a 'stinking hot' day here.....so they might take home some sunburn to go with their ashes

Thankyou again - I will try and get out again tonight and maybe take another and follow your leads on the pp.
They had 2 paddocks to go 2 nights ago.

Cheers

[Donald]

Thank you Chaps
All very much - A cynical australian would suggest you can afford to be so kind and magnanimous given the impending result of today's game...

But I'm Scottish remember!!

[wilgk]

yeah but they claim Andy Murray - so I figured you're all in the same boat

[Donald]

yeah but they claim Andy Murray

When he wins.

When he loses, he becomes Scottish again!!

[wilgk]

Australians were like that with Phar Lap did you know?
For the last melbourne Cup when he had a huge weight handicap they had 2 versions of the newspaper front page ready to go...
if he won - Australian Champion Phar Lap
If he lost - NZ horse falls short or some such....

Personally I will never forgive them for the under arm bowling incident....nope never (insert stamp feet and cross arms)

[MiniChris]

Cricket...that's the sticky wicket game, isn't it? I was here looking for those little chirpers that come out just before and just after a good rain...and you blokes are about knocking about a ball and screaming foul to some poor Scotsman...It is a wonder we all come from the same place...at least at one time, and lads, my Scot-Irish blood is as deep red as yours. By the by, what the hay is a sticky wicket? My Irish eyes are smiling.