I have to agree with Gareth here I am a big fan of the cross proessed look and I think it works well on that image

Regards
PaulM

Hi All,

This is my first attempt at night / long exposure images and I specifically didnt want to do them in HDR.

All shot with the K200D and the 18-55WR kit lens, I kept the exposure as wide as possible and tried to aim for a point 2/3rds of the way in to keep everything in focus.

The bridge
[IMG]http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb113/pnjmcc/IMGP0670.jpg[/IMG]

I like this shot but I think the light on the R/H side in the arch keeps drawing my eye to it

Less Bridge and more of the city Skyline
[IMG]http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb113/pnjmcc/IMGP0665.jpg[/IMG]

With this one I was trying to use the bridge to lead in to the picture but I cant help feeling there is a lot of dead black space.

The Opera House

[IMG]http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb113/pnjmcc/IMGP0664.jpg[/IMG]

Its good but its not great, I just cant work out why

The Warf
[IMG]http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb113/pnjmcc/IMGP0677.jpg[/IMG]

This is may favorite of them all, I thought it was quite well composed with the line off the bridge taking your eye in to the photo, and shimmering colours reflected in the water.

What do you all think then?

Regards
PaulM
C+Cs please

Now they are shots that I aspire to be able to create.

I like the set but as with everyone else I like the Sheild bug the most due to the angle at which the bug is in the frame. Second (a close second actually) for me is the Dead Wheat picture. Good to see a macro lens used to take a picture of something other than a bug (a crime which I am most guilty of)

Regards
PaulM

Hi Don,

I have taken the liberty of photoshopping both of the above images.

In this one I have tried to emulate the Orten effect in an effort to enhance the flower

[IMG]http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb113/pnjmcc/DonsFlower2-misty.jpg[/IMG]

In the second I just used the colour select tool and tweeked the Hue to change the beige to a green

[IMG]http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb113/pnjmcc/DonsFlower-greenbackground.jpg[/IMG]

I admit I have only done this quickly and both could use a little refinement, so if you like the results let me know and I will type up a bit of a description for you.

Let me know what you think

Regards
PaulM

Was browsing another forum and I came across this link.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/08/russia_in_color_a_century_ago.html

Regards
PaulM

Thanks All,

i-Berg,
The Bee is sat on the hoop on our washing line, you can see it a bit better in the picture below
[IMG]http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb113/pnjmcc/Resting-Bee-2.jpg[/IMG]

Technoblurb,
Interesting, I thought te hoverfly was quite vibrant, is it the whole image that looks flat or just the detail on the fly?
Also I have done a bit more processing on the wire for you
[IMG]http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb113/pnjmcc/Dark-wire.jpg[/IMG]
Any better?

Mike-P
the Pentax Poet
I agree with you, I took the picture "just to see what it looked like" and didnt really expect any thing good. But when I put it up on the screen to see if it needed any PP I was quite taken by it.

Regards
PaulM

A good set Father Ted,

3 and 4 stand out to me.

I like the the detail of the dark er "vein" lines in the flower petals and the dropets in no2 and the repetivie yet different contour patterns in the sand on no 4. In fact if it was mine I would be tempted to crop out the majority of the sky!

Regards
PaulM

Good Shots Don,

The first one has great composition and I love the angle you took to accentuate that agressive pose. The detail is good and my only negative comment would be that it looks a little over exposed (could be my laptop screen though)

How did you get it to stay still enough to photograph? I have tried several times and they just leggit when they see me.

Regards
PaulM

Hi All,

I was suck in the garden looking after the kids on sunday. So I stuck the Samsung 100mm Macro on and went on the prowl

A bee Resting
[IMG]http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb113/pnjmcc/IMGP0392.jpg[/IMG]

A hungry Hoverfly
[IMG]http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb113/pnjmcc/IMGP0429.jpg[/IMG]

Twisted Wire
[IMG]http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb113/pnjmcc/IMGP0381.jpg[/IMG]

C&Cs welcome

Regards
PaulM

How far you go with post processing is really all down to personal taste and how you saw the image in your minds eye. That said I have taken the liberty of processing your picure, and described below the steps I took to achive it.

If you want me to remove it please let me know and I will do so asap.

So my choice would be to dogde the eyes to lift them abit and then tweak the levels a little more to try and remove more of the grey-ness in the over all picture.

so first I used the 'Dodge' tool (looks like a lolly pop on a stick) to lighten the the eyes, with the 'Range' set to 'shadows' and the exposure set at 8%. (you need to have this set low so its a gradual effect and builds up slowly). I did this with a small tool set at 60% hardness.

Next I added an adjustment layer (4 icon along on the bottom of the layers box on the R/H side of the display. It is a half white, half black circle) and basically fiddled first with the imput sliders and then the ouput sliders until I got something I was happy with (If you go to far and dont like it then hold down the ALT key and the 'Cancel' button turns in to a 'Reset' button so you can go back to the begining ad fiddle some more)

Then finally I added some unshap mask on to the picture (not the adjustment layer) to sharpen it a bit.
From the top menu Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask and I used the following settings 'Amount=49%' 'Radius=4.1' 'Threshold=0'

Results can be seen in the image below



Regards
PaulM