Author Topic: Some stuff from the weekend  (Read 101425 times)

Re: Some stuff from the weekend
Reply #330 on: November 08, 2013, 14:40:37 PM

Stars Above by russellcram, on Flickr

Re: Some stuff from the weekend
Reply #331 on: November 18, 2013, 13:47:22 PM

Charlies Stack by russellcram, on Flickr

Bit of a naff sunrise on Sunday, but still got something

  • Offline zpyder

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Re: Some stuff from the weekend
Reply #332 on: November 18, 2013, 15:53:31 PM
I'm still in the process of processing the photos from Antigua. Got a few good shots. In a slight bit of trouble with the GF as I have a lot more photos of lizards than I do of her.

I found it interesting that the light over there was much more variable than other "hot" places. Spain/Portugal I found I could fairly reliably sort out the exposure compensation etc at the start of a trip and not have to fiddle too much. In Antigua though I'd have to fiddle with it every few minutes!

Re: Some stuff from the weekend
Reply #333 on: November 19, 2013, 14:00:48 PM
I'm still in the process of processing the photos from Antigua. Got a few good shots. In a slight bit of trouble with the GF as I have a lot more photos of lizards than I do of her.

I found it interesting that the light over there was much more variable than other "hot" places. Spain/Portugal I found I could fairly reliably sort out the exposure compensation etc at the start of a trip and not have to fiddle too much. In Antigua though I'd have to fiddle with it every few minutes!

Nowt worse that having to sort holiday photos, if you don't do it soon after you get back you forget where you were and what was in it.

I usually cheat when I'm on holiday and use aperture priority mode, let the camera worry about it rather than having to constantly change settings.  Having only really bean to Europe I can't say if it does change much but when you think of Spain etc it does seem to be a rather flat light, might be that Antigua is in such a position in the world that it is quite changeable not sure why it would be so but maybe its just a bit harsher so changes are more noticeable.

Old one from me, managed to find a slightly different way of editing photos thats managed to get good results from a few photos I originally thought weren't up to scratch, now I'll have to go through loads of photos and re-edit them doh!


Kyleakin Harbour by russellcram, on Flickr

  • Offline zpyder

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Re: Some stuff from the weekend
Reply #334 on: November 19, 2013, 17:46:54 PM
I tend to use aperture priority 90% of the time anyway :D That's what I meant about settings though, seemed something about the light made it a bit screwy even in Av.

What's the different way of editing photos you've discovered? I've started to experiment more with Dodging and Burning bits, as well as using Levels in Photoshop.

Re: Some stuff from the weekend
Reply #335 on: November 20, 2013, 13:55:14 PM
I tend to use aperture priority 90% of the time anyway :D That's what I meant about settings though, seemed something about the light made it a bit screwy even in Av.

What's the different way of editing photos you've discovered? I've started to experiment more with Dodging and Burning bits, as well as using Levels in Photoshop.

Guess its nothing new as such, just more like I'm actually doing it properly lol!

I don't really do anything inside PS anymore, its all Camera Raw for everything except sharpening.  What I've started doing is (using a copy of CS6) setting the black and white sliders holding down alt so you can see when it starts to clip areas, as soon as it starts to clip I then use either the highlights or shadows sliders to pull the clipping back to a max of about 80-90 on either slider, if that doesn't stop it clipping I'll drop the black or white sliders a bit.  Then I'll go on to adjust contrast, clarity, vibrance and saturation and chances are I won't even touch the exposure slider.  Oh and also using the noise reduction to try and get rid of some noise, noticed after printing all my photos out on a printer at work they looked a little noisey, could just be down to the printer mind!

In the past I'd have probably tried to use the shadows and highlights to adjust the image an hardly touch the black and white sliders, guess its really just doing the same as levels inside PS but that extra you get from the highlights and shadows sliders makes a big difference.  If I need to do anything like dodging and burning I'll do it using the adjustment brush as that's no-destructive (I always try and edit no-destructively so I can go back without having to start again)

  • Offline zpyder

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Re: Some stuff from the weekend
Reply #336 on: November 20, 2013, 15:40:58 PM
Hmm, I'll have to give that a go, as well as the adjustment brush!

In the past I've tweaked maybe the blacks and fill light sliders, white balance, and detail sliders. Only just really started to try and use more of the sliders to get a better feel for things. Bit like HDR I guess where you start out setting everything to max for the biggest HDR impact, and then tone it back a bit so the HDR is more subtle.

Will make a new Antigua thread with a selection of the photos. Actually quite surprised with how well the GoPro worked snorkelling. If I'd have known I'd have left the waterproof housing for my compact at home. Only downside is I have about 3000 GoPro photos to trawl through for a few good shots (had it set to take a photo every 0.5s, rather than faffing with buttons)

Re: Some stuff from the weekend
Reply #337 on: November 25, 2013, 22:44:17 PM
Hmm, I'll have to give that a go, as well as the adjustment brush!

In the past I've tweaked maybe the blacks and fill light sliders, white balance, and detail sliders. Only just really started to try and use more of the sliders to get a better feel for things. Bit like HDR I guess where you start out setting everything to max for the biggest HDR impact, and then tone it back a bit so the HDR is more subtle.

Will make a new Antigua thread with a selection of the photos. Actually quite surprised with how well the GoPro worked snorkelling. If I'd have known I'd have left the waterproof housing for my compact at home. Only downside is I have about 3000 GoPro photos to trawl through for a few good shots (had it set to take a photo every 0.5s, rather than faffing with buttons)

I've gone through a few photos over the weekend and its definetly making a difference to some, found a bunch more to upload just haven't had the chance.  This is very much like that, guess all it really involves is setting the black and white points properly, which is what you do with levels really, and then adjusting it to suit.

Never really had anything to do with GoPro's but they do seem to produce good results, just a tad expensive if I remember right, don't think I could justify buying one for anything, now one of these I think I could, especially with next months Christmas bonus:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bitbangerlabs/pixelstick-light-painting-evolved

hmm am slightly tempted...

Re: Some stuff from the weekend
Reply #338 on: November 26, 2013, 13:45:20 PM

Snot Rock by russellcram, on Flickr

Another old one I didn't think much of first time around but re-edited over the weekend.

Re: Some stuff from the weekend
Reply #339 on: December 11, 2013, 13:21:53 PM
Couple from a couple of weekends ago:


Orange Dawn by russellcram, on Flickr


The Thin Orange Line by russellcram, on Flickr


Sunrise in the Bay by russellcram, on Flickr

And one I took a while ago but only got happy with the edit recently:


Its My Canon And I'll Fire it If I Want Too by russellcram, on Flickr

  • Offline zpyder

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Re: Some stuff from the weekend
Reply #340 on: December 12, 2013, 11:17:29 AM
I love Sunrise in the bay. Looking at it though I can't tell if the horizon is level, or distorted? Went so far as to get a piece of paper and put it against the horizon. Do you use lens corrections in lightroom/photoshop? Really picking at nothing there, just trying to think of if there was anything that could be tweaked. It could also be an illusion caused by the clouds?

Re: Some stuff from the weekend
Reply #341 on: December 12, 2013, 16:45:42 PM
They look like Whitby? Except for the gun one.

Re: Some stuff from the weekend
Reply #342 on: December 12, 2013, 22:50:46 PM
They look like Whitby? Except for the gun one.

Not quite, they're all just at the coast from Newcastle at Tynemouth, haven't managed to get to Whitby for any photography yet, does seem to be popular with photographers seen some cracking photos from there.

I love Sunrise in the bay. Looking at it though I can't tell if the horizon is level, or distorted? Went so far as to get a piece of paper and put it against the horizon. Do you use lens corrections in lightroom/photoshop? Really picking at nothing there, just trying to think of if there was anything that could be tweaked. It could also be an illusion caused by the clouds?

Don't always use lens correction, sometimes it just spoils the look of the photo especially with the vignette that normally comes from using a few filters (I could put a false vignette on but it doesn't always look the same) but I've just checked and I did use it on that photo.  Just tried the old paper test myself and think its straight but could just be a tiny bit off quite hard to tell tbh, it could be the clouds though, that curve that's under neath the left hand side of the clouds could be making it look a little bit wonky, can't really correct that one though.

Trying to work out some sizes to get some photos printing out and its giving me a bit of a headache, want to get them to fit a mount and frame but trying to work out if I need to size the photo to leave a small margin around the photo so its doesn't get cropped by the mount is making my head hurt.  No where seems to actually tell you and it doesn't help that the mount sizes are all metric when the photos are all imperial and the two of them are different aspect ratios too doh.

And to top it off I've got to think if I should get myself one of these with my christmas bonus from work http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bitbangerlabs/pixelstick-light-painting-evolved they look great but might be a bit expensive.

  • Offline zpyder

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Re: Some stuff from the weekend
Reply #343 on: December 13, 2013, 10:44:25 AM
My next big spend might be a photo printer, not sure though as the ones I was looking at were ~£300-500. For what I want it's probably cheaper to just get the next 3 years worth of photos printed somewhere, unless I plan on framing lots and trying to sell them at a craft fair.


Re: Some stuff from the weekend
Reply #344 on: December 13, 2013, 13:56:20 PM
My next big spend might be a photo printer, not sure though as the ones I was looking at were ~£300-500. For what I want it's probably cheaper to just get the next 3 years worth of photos printed somewhere, unless I plan on framing lots and trying to sell them at a craft fair.

If your going to be printing them to sell then your probably better off with getting them printed rather than buying a printer, I imagine that even for that sort of money the printers are good but expensive to run and if they go wrong they're expensive to service etc.  Have a look at http://www.dscolourlabs.co.uk/ they're incredibly cheap, a 12x8 print is 55p against photobox being £1.39.  That's who I'm going to use when I sort out sizing etc, lots of people seem to use them on talkphotography and always speak highly of the quality of the prints.

Ordered/kickstarted a pixelstick last night, lets hope they actually deliver!

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