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Photo of the Day: May 2011

Edinburgh Castle at dusk...

p780028301-4.jpg
 
When I drive to work each morning I pass a church. Around Easter every year, they plant numerous crosses in the lawn that form a pattern that always draws my eye as I drive past. This year I decided to try to shoot it and see what I could come up with. I feel like I missed, but I'm not sure what to change to really capture the scene.

Two pictures (yes, I know it is against the rules of the thread, but the first one is smaller to give a sense of the scene while the second is the *real* post for today).

5690124729_f03ff08f4f.jpg

Wide-angle showing the whole scene. (28mm lens)

5690511218_0cfe512d33_b.jpg

(50mm lens). What I ended up choosing as the best shot. I'm not really happy with it, but am struggling to figure out where I went wrong. Better with a wide-angle lens? Didn't use a telephoto as part of what I wanted to capture was the overall pattern and not an individual cross. For the same reason I didn't shoot wide-open as I thought at the time that a broader DOF would add to the image. May have been wrong on that count however.

Any suggestions welcome :)
 
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Pt. Reyes lighthouse. My first foray out picture-taking without the Zeiss :( Kit lens ftw!


Camera Canon EOS REBEL T2i
Exposure 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 55 mm
ISO Speed 100
 
kallisti said:
(50mm lens). What I ended up choosing as the best shot. I'm not really happy with it, but am struggling to figure out where I went wrong. Better with a wide-angle lens? Didn't use a telephoto as part of what I wanted to capture was the overall pattern and not an individual cross. For the same reason I didn't shoot wide-open as I thought at the time that a broader DOF would add to the image. May have been wrong on that count however.

Any suggestions welcome :)
Click to expand...

Exposure seems a bit off.

With something like that where there are definite patterns that go on for a distance I like to pull focus more towards the center or at least not directly at the closest object. So you have the foreground slightly out of focus and the background as well. It's not for everyone but it's something I like to play with. Gives it a certain feel you can't get otherwise. But I still like it :)

This is a basic example and honestly doesn't really do my point justice but all the good ones that I used this technique on I have posted in the past :)

5620246562_a6b89846a4_b.jpg
 
kallisti said:
When I drive to work each morning I pass a church. Around Easter every year, they plant numerous crosses in the lawn that form a pattern that always draws my eye as I drive past. This year I decided to try to shoot it and see what I could come up with. I feel like I missed, but I'm not sure what to change to really capture the scene.
///
5690124729_f03ff08f4f.jpg

Wide-angle showing the whole scene. (28mm lens)

5690511218_0cfe512d33_b.jpg

(50mm lens).///
Any suggestions welcome :)
Click to expand...
I like the wide shot better. It shows the full setting and puts the graveyard in context with the older building in the neighborhood. The shot at 50mm has potential, but the buildings in the background are in a strange point in focus. They are sharp enough to be identified and fuzzy enough to be distracting. A wider aperture might force the background closer to the zone of "bokeh" where something out of focus becomes a pattern.

macrumormonger said:
Pt. Reyes lighthouse. My first foray out picture-taking without the Zeiss :( Kit lens ftw!


///
Click to expand...
Very nice photo. Great viewing angle and colors. Might me a bit over saturated, but then it's been grey here for too long...:)

VaughnA said:
I guess I'll play for the first time.. A cigar shop in Lynchburg..

5675947119_4bfa9b83a3_b.jpg
Click to expand...
Nice photo. I'm not a big fan of HDR except for interior shots. I would like to see the original of this before post processing. Interesting location and dudes.

Dale
 
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Doylem said:
The first HDR pic with people in that looks 'right'. Love it...
Click to expand...

Thanks, pseudo HDR, Tonal Contrast adjustment on a single photo using Nik Tools Color Efex Pro. I tried Color and B&W with the original and it didn't have the character that this treatment has. YMMV.
 
First attempt with lightpainting. Still some issues with it. I didn't light the interior of the jungle gyms enough, under the thought that I didn't want the camera to see the flash burst. I didn't realize I could just edit it out later (as I did with the moon, star movement, among others things). Also there's lots of haloing around the foreground jungle gym which I didn't edit out yet, and if you look very clearly, you can see my legs walking along the path in front of the background jungle gym.

All in all though, since this only took about 40 minutes and it's my first attempt, I'm really quite happy with it. Comments & criticism are more than welcome! :)

17 exposures, most at ISO50, f/8, various exposure times depending on when I made it back to the camera. :)

whenwewereyoung-lightpaintingfirsttry.jpg
 
Finally was able to sneak out and grab some quick photos today. There is a combo junk yard and towing service company located in town with some neat old towing trucks just sitting around. Here's one of them:

oldtrucks25020110505121.jpg

f/4 1/640s 0 ev ISO 100 28mm
 
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