Critique 6 PHOTO REVISED

What about this guys?

Any better?

Yes it is better Alistair, there's very little colour cast now. However, You won't be able to recover the blown highlights in the water and the overall image doesn't justify you spending a lot of time trying to tease more out of it in post processing. This is just my opinion of course and others may disagree - after all I thought the Countryfile 2013 winner was a bit average!

Regards
David

I agree with David.

I thought the Countryfile 2013 winner was a bit average too.

Questionable, my only advice is to develop a stronger sense of self criticism. Having said that posting stuff and gettign honest feedback will only help that

This doesn't excite me any more than the bronze colour casted other version

Not afraid of feedback Smegster its part of the process.

Talking of highlights that are blown whats the best thing to do - do you have a plolariser that you can recommend?

Hi Alistair

Where there is a particularly bright patch like this with the water at the top - but more shaded towards the bottom - your best bet is a set of ND grads.

Not sure how much you know about these - so a bit of information and forgive me if I am telling you what you already know.

Do not be tempted by cheap - with these - cheap = very poor quality and results.

Depending on how much you want to spend - in my experience - and I am sure there will be others that other members can add - in order of price and quality:

Kood, Cokin, Hitech, Lee

They generally come in 3 sizes - the size you will need depends on the filter ring size of lens/ lenses you want to use them on. Sizes are 67mm (A), 85mm (P), 100mm (Z). These are square/ rectangular filters and need to cover the whole of the front of your lens with room to spare- so if you were using a 77mm filter thread wide angle lens for instance - 'A' size would be too small, 'P' size would just about cope but you may get some vignetting around the edges - Z size would be more than adequate

You need to also buy a filter holder for the correct size and an adapter ring that screws in to the filter thread on your lens - these can be picked up on ebay for a couple of £ each for Chines copies (quality of the holder and adapter not so important) or £10 upwards for 'originals'.


Price wise - You can pick up a starter set of 2 Kood ND grads for under £20 from crookedimaging on ebay (good seller have bought many items). At the top end - a Lee set up would be a minimum of £300-£400

Most people who use them tend to have a minimum of 3 filters that cut out varying levels of light - e.g. ND2, 4, * etc. There are also hard and soft edge varieties. Generally hard edge are used where there is a definite line between sky and land for instance. Personally I use soft edge filters for all situations without any issues.


You also need to be on the look out for fakes - there are lots around - if it sounds too cheap it is probably a fake.

Used sets do sometimes appear on ebay - especially Cokin which are the most widely available and used.

Hope this helps

Carl

The best thing is to wait until the natural lighting in the scene is optimal. This could mean not photographing it and returning when conditions are more favourable.

If I just restrict it to the dynamic range issue (yes there are other problems with the shot as well as has been pointed out), then ND grads are an option worth exploring. Personally I don't think this particular scene is ideal for them, as the 'hotspots' are all around and surrounded by much darker areas, making the effective placement of a glass filter when actually shooting rather difficult i'd have thought.

I absolutely do not want to re-ignite any 'HDR vs Filter' debates - its just about a particular image and what may be possible - but as you've shown some good use of HDR before, I'm surprised you didn't shoot a few frames with very different exposures and try it out in Photomatix or something. I think with careful treatment you could create a well balanced HDR output that reflects the full dynamic range of the scene.

Lots to think about there guys- THANKS!

My recommendation would be no good for the image above, but might help in the future. Use good filters (ND Grad may have helped) and under-expose so that there are no burned out highlights. The dynamic range and lack of noise in shadow areas with the K-5 will allow you to pull the detail out of the shadows in post process. You can never recover burned out highlights like the ones in this image.

I don't think there's any need for HDR with the K-5 as it has enough dynamic range to balance the image, with a little help from the right filters.

This one is an example which was shot with a polariser (Hoya Pro1) but without a ND Grad. It was exposed as far to the right as possible without burning out the sky. If I had used the ND Grad it would have been better balanced, but I didn't have it to hand at the time. It was shot with the K-5iis and DA17-70; the shadows could be brightened a lot more but I've chosen to keep it this way as I like the atmosphere:




Hope this is of some help.

Regards
David