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Nosedive wrote:Jeff, I hope you don't mind that I played around in PS w/ your shot. I readjusted the white/dark/midtone points; messed w/ the curves, levels, saturation selective color; and maybe sharpened it. However, I'm not sure if sharpening had an affect. My edits, I believe, strengthened the contrast without becoming noticeable, allowed more pleasing colors to hit the eye and placed more focus on the GGB. I'm not inferring, by any stretch of the imagination, that I am a better photographer than you, because, well, I'm not .

Any event:

You and I have different sensibilities when it comes to color. Most of the time I like a natural, yet vivid, scene and it looks like you enjoy a high contrasts and an almost neon treatment to your colors. However, the blue hues in the sky are very pretty in your version but I think the saturation is blown out on the bridge which makes it look garish. Granted, I could have tweaked it in post production a little more but that shot was a one-off 2 second exposure while I was shooting dozens of the moon setting over the ocean, and that's what was preoccupying my time last night during post production:



Ultimately, it's good food for thought so thanks for sharing your ideas.

That's a fair critique. If a shot is flat, it drives me nuts. I hate looking at things as if they're in a haze. I wanted to make the red and blues pop, if only to make a bit of tension. I overdid it on the reds, but by that time I was in "ah, screw it mode." I do strive, color correction wise, for a neutral colorcast, but I've noticed that what is neutral to me is actually a bit blue. Odd.

Union Pacific has a steam locomotive and some old passenger cars touring the western US and was stopped in Tucson this morning. It is an overcast day, so the lighting was awful. Can't pass up an opportunity to see a steam train though. If it is coming by you, check it out.

http://www.up.com/aboutup/special_train ... ails.shtml







Then went to the Desert Museum west of town and saw some aviation related things.

Northern lights:



They were actually rubbish at this point, having danced overhead while I walked up to the lake... by the time I got there, they were a fuzzy barely-green band. This is a 20-second exposure.

Need to get a wide-angle lens, though. And a tripod that doesn't fit in a shirt pocket. And take the filter off next time.

Imagine the stories a camera lens could tell....



I'm being watched...maybe.



Dos Duckies



Figured out how to manually control the shutter speed.

Bats on Peleliu Island now live in the caves that were made by Japanese infantry during World War II:

Now that's a cool shot.

First time I've ever stopped and looked at the shape of a bat's wing properly too.

ShanwickOceanic wrote:Now that's a cool shot.

First time I've ever stopped and looked at the shape of a bat's wing properly too.

Thanks, Ed. Lucked out on that one.

Diver in the Siaes Tunnel, Palau.

JeffSFO wrote:Diver in the Siaes Tunnel, Palau.

Jeff, I hate you.

Nosedive wrote:Jeff, I hate you.

That's okay, ND. I hate you, too.

So I got an intervalometer for christmas and have just finished my first timelapse (viewable at 720p HD- not that it matters for this one):



Lessons learned: more than 1 exposure per minute, and using Shutter Speed priority (let the camera pick the aperture) should be around half a second maximum, I used one second.

graphic wrote:So I got an intervalometer for christmas and have just finished my first timelapse (viewable at 720p HD- not that it matters for this one):



Lessons learned: more than 1 exposure per minute, and using Shutter Speed priority (let the camera pick the aperture) should be around half a second maximum, I used one second.

Graphic,

My 20D died. I'd like to get a new Canon and be able to do that sort of thing, simply for my own amusement (as I travel insane distances often). What equipment would I need to complete this task?

Besides the obvious (camera,lens,tripod) there's this:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1 ... _80N3.html

graphic wrote:Besides the obvious (camera,lens,tripod) there's this:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1 ... _80N3.html

Thanks. That's a lot less expensive than I'd imagined. Did you do anything special to secure the tripod? I'm not known for my ingenuity.

In this case I didn't, and there's about a 15 minute gap after the Devil's lake pit stop because during that time the camera sort of slowly leaned back. That second sequence, I had the tripod positioned more forward and above the dash, and with my sized tripod, that required some interesting finagling.

Some shots of a recent trip to Thailand...

Sorry, don't care enough-no cropping, no photoshop, no tripping the color balance....









Le Bateau ivre

Going on my motorcycle ride in Norther Vietnam in 3 weeks. Can't wait.

ShyFlyer wrote:
Dos Duckies

I like this a lot.




Beautiful symmetry, and not to get too cheesy, but the wonderful contrast between the dark and light also plays into the contrast between the industrial hard feeling of the upper portion and fluid natural infinity of the ocean. I would be very proud of this if I were you.

Fumanchewd wrote:

ShyFlyer wrote:
Dos Duckies

I like this a lot.

Thanks! I don't always take photos of duckies, but when I do....

Froze my ass off for half an hour waiting for this:



That doesn't even begin to do it justice.

Amazing.

Is that the Big or Little Dipper in the shot?

ShyFlyer wrote:Amazing.

Is that the Big or Little Dipper in the shot?

Big. I'm reasonably sure that the two bright ones at the bottom are Saturn and Mars.

There was so much fine detail, and so many shades of blue and purple, that were just lost in the movement - it was thrashing about like a wounded eel, the best I've seen by far. I need to do some more reading, and maybe try to get a shorter exposure. Those settings were fine for the static barely-green mush I had last time, but not for this.

Here are some shots from a guy in Norway: http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/mypics/417992

ShyFlyer wrote:

Fumanchewd wrote:

ShyFlyer wrote:
Dos Duckies

I like this a lot.

Thanks! I don't always take photos of duckies, but when I do....

... They're a breeding pair of mallards, oh dear I seem to be recalling stuff from a youth spent in the wilds of Europe. Nice picture!

Fumanchewd wrote:Beautiful symmetry, and not to get too cheesy, but the wonderful contrast between the dark and light also plays into the contrast between the industrial hard feeling of the upper portion and fluid natural infinity of the ocean. I would be very proud of this if I were you.

Thanks, I am proud of that shot, not least because the space under the pier that it's taken from is virtually inaccessible and took some getting to.