Picture Of The Day

BradJudy · « **Reply #420 on:** 17 Apr 2008, 09:28 pm »

Quote from: PeteG on 16 Apr 2008, 12:14 am

Taken at Bird World inside the Denver zoo.
Canon XSi EFS 55-250 IS

It matches the vinyl in your avatar.

Wardsweb · « **Reply #421 on:** 19 Apr 2008, 03:12 pm »

Finally got the tank up and going at the new house.

PeteG · « **Reply #422 on:** 24 Apr 2008, 01:20 am »

Don't know if I like this shot or not, looks a little soft. The bird was half in the sun and half in a dark shadow, maybe a external flash?

ooheadsoo · « **Reply #423 on:** 24 Apr 2008, 01:49 am »

I'll be posting some pics from my Death Valley trip last weekend over the next few days. Advice on how to better them either in the composition or post processing would be appreciated. I have tons of trouble getting a nice sky. These were probably taken with a 2 stop ND graduated filter, which I did not find easy to use to GOOD effect at all. The toughest part was managing the graduated transition. Photoshop tips for improving the sky also appreciated.

Stovepipe Dunes Mudscape

Another one

Largest dune at Stovepipe Dunes

Mill at Skidoo, used for crushing gold ore

BradJudy · « **Reply #424 on:** 24 Apr 2008, 01:53 am »

Very nice. I think the second is my favorite. The fourth and fifth ones are almost surreal in color and contrast. The fifth is probably my second favorite.

SET Man · « **Reply #425 on:** 24 Apr 2008, 02:18 am »

Hey!

ooheadsoo, very nice series of pictures of Death Valley there.

Must be pretty hot there from the look of it

Thanks for sharing these.

Take care,
Buddy

ooheadsoo · « **Reply #426 on:** 24 Apr 2008, 02:23 am »

Thanks. As for the 5th picture, I knew the minute I saw it with my eyes that the colors/contrast would be through the roof, yet capturable with the camera. The 4th as well, although it was a fine balance and sheer luck that let me get one where the contrast range fell within what the camera was able to take. The 4th had very little contrast adjustment, and the 5th is practically straight from the camera, as far as the colors/contrast go.

I want to dodge #1 a little more, I think that was one of the ones I screwed up with my ND filter but seemed recoverable (vs. 97% of the rest which were beyond hope.)

Buddy, the weather was great! A nice 60-70F in the higher elevations, upper 80s to low 90s in the valley during the day at most, but with the breeze, it was great. We were able to keep A/C use down to a minimum. However, one of the days we were there was EXCEPTIONALLY windy, which was a problem because we camped in my old late 80's tent, which I was seriously afraid of blowing away during the day when we weren't there or collapse on us in the middle of the night. Because of the poor design of the tent, the 4 walls were essentially sails, and the tent could lose nearly 40-50% of its internal volume with any given gust. Three stakes pulled out that day, and the ground was hard, so we destroyed 4 stakes trying to pound them into the ground.

drphoto · « **Reply #427 on:** 24 Apr 2008, 03:32 am »

Very nice. I really like the fifth one of the dune. If you could have moved right, so that the dune went more diagonally across the frame, it would improve the composition IMHO. Probably wasn't possible to do, but diagonal lines are always good. Try shading the lens (or use a good lens shade) to get rid of that flare. If you had your camera on a tripod, you can look around to see if the sun is making a specular highlight on the front element. If so use, a card (or even your hand) to shade the lens.

I also like picture 3, but might think about moving the foreground element (wadi?) more to one side or other, rather than in the middle of the frame.

Please don't be offended. The pics are really nice, you said you wanted opinions, and these are mine.

Here's the photoshop trick for the sky. Duplicate the layer. Use Levels or Curves (which ever you like) to pull the sky down where you want it while ignoring what it does to the rest of the image. Now....create a layer mask. Fill that mask w/ 100% black. Now you image will look as it did before. Choose a large soft brush in normal mode, make sure the layer mask (of the newly created layer) is active, and paint in the change using WHITE paint. (this will create a hole in the mask) If you screw up and get some foreground too dark, switch to black paint and fix it)

Once you're happy, flatten the image.

If you're confused, just PM for more explanation.

All in all, they're really pretty images.

ooheadsoo · « **Reply #428 on:** 24 Apr 2008, 04:25 am »

Thanks for the tips, Doc. Not offended at all, I do want help. For dune #5, you're right, it wasn't possible to move right without losing elevation. The lens has a shade, but it's a pain in the butt from my experience during the last trip I made, so I didn't bring it. I used my hand to shade whenever I caught flares in the lens, but #1, they were hard to catch through the viewfinder, especially since you're usually facing the sun when it's occurring, and #2, the spot that needed shade was often both large and far from the lens. In this case, I probably just missed spotting the flare through the viewfinder. I may just bring the shade next time, but I don't think it will help a lot of these shots. I will try to do better next time.

Thanks for that PS tip. I know you've posted it before, but I'm a beginner at PS so it kind of went over my head. This time, I think I'm starting to understand. One problem I have is that the sky is very often unevenly exposed from left to right, not just up and down. Any tips for fixing that other than being careful with the color dodge brush?

ooheadsoo · « **Reply #429 on:** 24 Apr 2008, 06:22 am »

Three more pictures from the trip. I can't believe these 3 were the only halfway decent ones I got all of that day.

Racetrack in Death Valley. A pleya where rocks leave trails but have never been observed moving.

Dang, I forgot to burn the third rock in the square crop...
I feel like taking these down, I can process these a little better when I'm less tired.

Russell Dawkins · « **Reply #430 on:** 24 Apr 2008, 07:12 am »

Those pictures are amazing!

Are there any theories to explain the rocks' movements?

goldlizsts · « **Reply #431 on:** 24 Apr 2008, 12:20 pm »

Nice pictures

. What camera was used to take them? Thanks.

I actually have on the drawing board a DV trip, perhaps in October, but was ike 50/50; so now it may be 55/45 after seeing these nice shots. Still considering the route. Main objective is to drive the CA coast (not done that for any extended distance before), but would consider starting out from Vegas, through DV, Sequoia, Yosemite, and scoot over to Monterey to go north, ending up in San Fran for some dim sum and meeting cousins before coming back east.

ooheadsoo · « **Reply #432 on:** 24 Apr 2008, 01:26 pm »

The current theory seems to be that the pleya gets rained on or gets wet somehow and then high winds blow the rocks around.

Camera is my Nikon D40, but most any point and shoot could get similar shots. I'll be editing them a little more to my taste - or at least trying.

That's a great trip route you have planned!

ToddSTS · « **Reply #433 on:** 24 Apr 2008, 02:20 pm »

Is that first one of the rocks straight out of the camera? No tuning in photoshop? If so can you share your camera settings? I really like the lighting and contrast in that one.

Thanks.

Todd

nathanm · « **Reply #434 on:** 24 Apr 2008, 02:52 pm »

Great shots! The ND filter is blackening the hills in some cases, though. To deal with the sky I would essentially do what drphoto suggested; bracket a few frames, one exposed for foreground and one for the sky and then just layer and mask out the sky. Watch out for halos, though.

JohnR · « **Reply #435 on:** 24 Apr 2008, 04:08 pm »

Cool shots

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #436 on:** 24 Apr 2008, 08:56 pm »

Wow, fascinating how those rocks do that.
Here's a quick article regarding the phenomenon with more links at the end of the article:

http://geology.com/articles/racetrack-playa-sliding-rocks.shtml

{Correction: The spelling is "playa rock"}

Bob

PeteG · « **Reply #437 on:** 24 Apr 2008, 11:55 pm »

Very good pictures, I would frame this one

ooheadsoo · « **Reply #438 on:** 25 Apr 2008, 01:37 am »

Thanks for the compliments.

I dodged the first rock a touch. It's a few shades darker out of the camera. I dodged the 2 small faces carrying a bit of reflected light from the ground a little more than the others. As for camera settings, contrast was on +1, and so was saturation. This is not super important, I think my friend has normal settings on his D40 and I like his pictures of the racetrack better than mine. What is more important is the angle you're shooting at relative to the sun and the position of the sun in the sky...The high contrast in the first shot is because the sun is just less than 90 degrees counterclockwise from the direction the camera is pointing, and very close to the top of the mountains, rendering the mountains seriously backlit. Believe it or not, I don't think it was the ND filter that blackened the mountain (in this particular shot) because I distinctly remember setting it at an angle in that shot, to match the slope of the mountains.

I'm not too happy with the ND filter. I'll be sure to buy a polarizer before the next time I go some place nice like this. I have one, but it's for 52mm, which is way too small to be of any use on my current lens. In extreme situations, the 2 stop wasn't enough to be of any use. In good light, I don't think you needed the ND filter at all. This was my first time using the filter and I had no way to review any of the pics until I had gotten home. If I had known how bad they had turned out, I probably would have just stopped using it altogether.

How do you avoid the halos when using the masking technique? When I tried it last night, it seemed impossible, so I just used a gradient instead of brushing a mask.

jeffreybehr · « **Reply #439 on:** 25 Apr 2008, 01:54 am »

Heres' a DV-dunes pic I took years ago.