On the rocks

Two images from a day at Duncan's Cove, near Halifax, Nova Scotia. Your comments on composition, depth of field choice, and anything else, very welcome.

Taken in RAW, saved as JPEG, and only cropped in iPhoto (waiting for PS Elements to arrive this week!).





DA 18-55 @ 20 mm, 1/45 sec, f22, ISO 200, handheld





M 50 1.4 @ 1/4000, f2 (?), ISO 200, handheld, on my stomach! ''

Cheers!

Ouch I can feel the pain, well worth it though, I like 2

I like no1 the portrait format suits it well, nice texture, perhaps a shade under exposed tho'?

In my opinion the exposure seems just about right - at least on my monitor. Like the scene, wouldn't mint having it on my wall.

Exposure looks about right but it looks to me to be lacking in contrast. Could be that it is, or might be partly down to the colour space. Keith, was the image saved as AdobeRGB? If so, that would be why it looks a bit flat to me. sRGB is the best for web viewing.

Hope you don't mind, but I had a tinker with the contrast:




That's more how I would prefer it, but that may not be the look you were going for.

Dan

P.S. I like the simplicity of it, nice shot. ANd the second shot is even nicer.

I like number 1 myself. The different textures are great - smooth pebbles, jagged rocks, swirling clouds in the sky. I would definitely hang that on my wall!

Fiona

Hi folks,

Thanks for the feedback so far (keep it coming - all very helpful).

On the exposure, Lily you may well be right, as I'm still just figuring out my monitor's calibration. How does the second image look vis a vis exposure?

Dan, I like the increased contrast a lot. Thanks! I'm looking forward to using Elements, rather than what I imagine is a fairly blunt set of tools in iPhoto. (It is saved in sRGB, btw.)

This may be a "dumb question," but other than tinkering with levels in post-production, is there a way to consider contrast when actually making the photo in-camera? Is it a function of depth of field or exposure or...??

Cheers!

Not when you're shooting RAW. Contrast adjustments are made purely in post processing. Of course, if it's a really sunny day and you're going to get a more contrasty image than if it's overcast, but other than ensuring you have a good exposure (are you familiar with the histogram feature when reviewing the pictures on the camera's screen?) you can't actually make a shot like this more contrasty at the shooting stage.

In iPhoto (I haven't used it, just had a look at the Mac website), you have the adjustments tool, which looks like this:




The graph at the top is the histogram, which shows levels of dark to light (left to right). The little arrows underneath it are sliders, if you move the left hand one to the point where the graph starts (the bottom of the blue peak on the example above) that will mean that blacks are actually black, not dark grey. Likewise, move the right hand slider in to ensure whites are white, but not too far or you'll lose detail in the highlights. The middle slider affects the overall look of the shot, moved to the left the image will look brighter, but can look washed out. To the right and it will go darker over all, but can look too dark.

That's a powerful tool in itself, which can easily be overlooked, but it's the place to start when considering contrast. Have a play too with the sliders for exposure, contrast, saturation etc. Just don't take it too far! Also, remember to keep checking that histogram to make sure the changes you've made haven't moved the histogram around and meant that you're losing detail in shadows or highlights, you can always readjust those sliders.

Dan

Thanks Dan, that's helpful! I have been using those adjustment sliders, but hadn't yet got a handle on the histogram - your explanation makes sense (and I've got another book or two on the shelf to keep reading!).

I can see the in-camera histogram being really useful: on a bright day with glare on the LCD screen, it's a little difficult to tell just by eye whether a shot is exposed properly - but the histogram could give me those details. Do you actually use it very often yourself?

PS I appreciated the "simplicity" comment about pic 1 - that's something I've been giving a lot of thought to lately, both in photography and in life!

Learning,

I use the histogram on the camera a lot, it's the best way to see if you've got the exposure correct, and as you say, the screen isn't easy to see well in bright light.

A simple shot is often the most effective - if there's too much going on it can be a bit confusing (again, as you say, like life ).

Dan

I really love the second one. Have to give it a try next time I'm on the pebble beach close bye.
First one looks fine, too, but the second one does it for me. Great!

Prieni