Little Gems

Gallery: LandscapePosted May 13, 2010164 views8 comments

Standing in the drier part of a creek bed on a wet, miserable morning, I thought about some interesting abstracts I shot near the exact same spot last year. So this is an attempt to further that, cropped down about 60%, D-60, ISO-200, 1/50th at f-4.2, 26mm. Larger image please and any C&C welcomed!

Comments

8 comments

Comment posted by Greg Cope on May 13, 2010 at 10:49 PM

Love the concept! The mixture of colors of rocks and those greens are so nice. Not sure if you used a polarizer, but there is a glare coming off the rocks/water, and the colors may pop a bit more if that could have been toned down any more.

Registered on January 22, 2007, 212 Posts, 2737 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Maile on May 13, 2010 at 10:53 PM

Hey Greg, no polarizer yet, and it is a bit bright on the eyes cropped down this far. The full frame has running water on a good 40% of the lefthand side. I like that, but thought the crop was better. Maybe toning it down a bit would help though.

Registered on March 2, 2009, 984 Posts, 2518 Comments

Comment posted by Benjamin Glatt on May 13, 2010 at 11:59 PM

As Greg mentioned, a polarizer would help, but quite frankly, the image looks almost entirely out of focus!

Registered on July 15, 2007, 171 Posts, 3566 Comments

Comment posted by Scott Smorra on May 14, 2010 at 12:04 AM

This one seems a little soft on my monitor. As previously noted, I believe a polarizer would have helped this scene quite a bit.

Registered on November 2, 2009, 161 Posts, 2143 Comments

Comment posted by Andreas Resch on May 14, 2010 at 1:43 AM

This one has potential. I actually like the metallic quality that the missing polarizer created. A big problem is the lack of sharpness and detail though. Shots like that can't have enough of that. Imagine this one in 4x5 quality.

Registered on November 14, 2007, 322 Posts, 6101 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Maile on May 14, 2010 at 5:30 AM

Thanks everyone for the comments. Polarizer question aside (I can't shoot w/ what I don't have at this point, nor can borrow, unfortunately--but I can't wait to get one!) here is the original, minus a branch and the tip of my size 14 boot.

I don't see it as being blurry or soft at all on my monitor. The posted version is a fairly major crop with some slight contrast and color enhancement, and I'm not sure the posted image isn't suffering from that and the fact that it is not being processed in PS or Elements, but a lesser program. And that something is happening as I try to downsize shots from the D-60 I just started using to the posts here--because this isn't the first time, nor even the 2nd time, things look a bit OOF (or a lot OOF) when they were tack sharp on my screen. I have Elements available to start using, and will also relook at the good article about resizing for NPN galleries. Thanks all for your help!!!

Registered on March 2, 2009, 984 Posts, 2518 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Chambers on May 14, 2010 at 8:28 AM

Ditto the polarizer. It's always challenging to make a coherent composition from a scene like this, which is why it's fun. I think you did a pretty good job with it, however I would crop more on the left side and bottom.

Registered on April 10, 2005, 753 Posts, 21216 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Maile on May 14, 2010 at 2:49 PM

I can see different crop ideas for sure, but I kind of like the sheen to the stones on it.

Registered on March 2, 2009, 984 Posts, 2518 Comments