This is a good selection of images to show the beauty of the gardens, Nigel.

Firstly, the features I'm not so keen on: The water in 10 - I prefer water to look like water, and the shutter speed here seems to have given it a sort of slimy appearance. Then there is some perspective distortion, esp. in 4 and 8, that feels a bit unnatural and therefore uncomfortable to me - a lower viewpoint might have helped, and/or some corrections in PP.

Secondly, the features I particularly like: The colours, which I think you have captured/processed just right for gardens, water features and vegetation such as these. The depth that is apparent to me in most of these scenes. I like most of them (this is one of those subjects I enjoy shooting) and, if I had to select, it would be 2 and 11.

Just my opinions, of course - I'm sure others will enthuse about the things I dislike!

Cheers.
Philip

That's the idea, John.

I think 9 is one in which I would lighten the landscape a bit to reveal more of the details there. The sun is still high enough to cause reflected light from the sky to illuminate the land. E.g.-




Again, just my opinion, of course.

Cheers.
Philip

I suppose that the following might be a matter of personal taste: for me, the lighting and colour are not quite there yet in the processing. As has been mentioned, gentle lightening of the darker areas would enhance some of the images. Also the late afternoon sun could be expected to give slightly richer colours than I see here, particularly in 1, 3, 4, and 9.

Nevertheless, these are lovely scenes, and the chosen viewpoints, angles and compositions are interesting and enjoyable.

Cheers.
Philip

By its feet, snout, and what appear to be the beginnings of tusks, it looks as though it could be the juvenile of a variety of pig or wild boar.

Cheers.
Philip

I agree. I particularly like the direction of illumination for number 6.

Cheers.
Philip

I generally agree with John and Bill.

I mostly shoot in the maximum size and quality JPEG file format, with the Custom Image usually on Natural, and +1 Contrast and +1 Sharpness. I find that, if exposure is controlled to keep the highlights within the histogram, those JPEGS can take quite extensive tweaking, if necessary, to give good quality photos up to A3 - the biggest I can print. Additionally, in some difficult lighting scenes, the Auto HDR Mode, with Auto Align, can produce useful JPEG files.

Cheers.
Philip

"Pining for Home"

Cheers.
Philip

+1 Smeggy.

In fact, it's clearly referenced on Page 17 of the user manual.....but no-one reads those, of course!

Cheers.
Philip

Thank you for that info, David. When I click on its Check for Updates button, it tells me I'm using the latest version, so I hadn't realised it was so old!

Cheers.
Philip

Hello David.

I've used Opera for Windows for many years, and now the latest version:

About Opera
Version information
Version 12.17
Build 1863
Platform Win32
System Windows 7

Cheers.
Philip