weekly Mr.Si's 52 Week Challenge - Final Photos Added

I like to look at the image, then look at the replies, that way I have my opinion without being swayed by what others have said.....I know its the easy way out, but I thought exactly what Graham above thought ........so

overbez said:
Great job with the cat pics - super low POV - great eye contact - lovely shallow DOF.... shame about a couple of distraction in the BG (car mainly). But nice presentation.

Not really feeling the light trails though. Think it's that the headlights start from nowhere, and normally I like starbursts but find these a but overpowering.
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:plus1: :D
 
Thanks both, I will see if I can adjust the image. As I said, it was my first ever go at this type of photo but I appreciate your feedback. I can't remember what was too high, possibly the ISO. I will investigate! :)
 
Nice colours in Nature and well composed. I'd order just the 3, though and loose thine with the car in the BG.

Action. Not really getting connection but good first attempt. Just watch your WB and distracting elements (ie RH side).

Cheers.
 
Like the Natural collection ... if I had to choose one it would be the first (top left).

Action: well done. I thought about doing one of these too, but got sidetracked.
 
I prefer the light trails over the cat.

If you cropped it slightly on the right the lights would be passing through the whole image instead of starting mid point, it would also get rid of the big light :)
 
Hi Simon

thats a lovely looking kitty there , some great poses all show natural kitty behaviour (y)

Like the layout but I'd also be tempted to go with just 3 images...losing the shot with the car in the bg , the other shots you've handled the DOF well to lose the impact from the bg (y)
 
A nice different take on the theme, it could do with a little more depth of field though (to me) as the top left 500 looks just a tad out of focus.
 
Its a good idea Simon, I like the composition and lighting, clean bg and reflections of the pieces (y), possibly a little ccw rotation :thinking:......Edit.....ignore that about the rotation, returning back it looks straight this time :confused::D

Now I'm still only learning miself, but I've had a look at your settings and I can only presume that the reason it looks a little soft in places is the aperture setting at f/16, I'm a little confused as to why so small :thinking:

Personally I would have started open, then gone slightly smaller, as required, to get the amount of dof I was after. I would have thought that no more than f/8 would be needed, if that.

Also your ISO looks a little high to me, if you used a tripod and remote ( or timer) ISO could be lower and a slower shutter speed:thinking:


Hopefully someone else will be along to either confirm what I said or put me right, as I said, I'm not 100% confident miself ..........its all about learning, for me as well :)
 
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Works well for the theme, always nice to get a double link where you can!! Nice shine on the pieces, love the little reflections too.

@Phil-D , i agree with what you say and it all sounds good to me. f/16 is about as small as 'they' say you can go on crop sensor before diffraction comes into play... f/8 or f/11 is generally the 'sweet spot' for sharpness.

ISO and shutter speed relate inversely as you say... presume this was already on a tripod, and not hand held at 1/6th

Also noise and sharpness are slightly related, you can do more sharpening to a non-noisy image than a noisy one, so lower ISO would have helped there.
 
Hi all, thanks for the comments! Re the technicalities, we actually used the floor as a mount for the subject so we used a few DVDs and a cushion to mount the camera. I chose f16 as last time I posted an image, someone suggested trying that aperture. I tried opening it up some more but then the DOF was shallower. Maybe I shouldn't have put the camera so close?

I almost moved it all to a table and used a tripod but didn't have the energy to do it in the end. But I agree it would have probably worked better... Ho hum, we were happy with our shot in the end.

It's only ISO 800 which for our house seems to work best.
 
A great take on the theme Simon! Like Phil, I also thought it needed a little ccw rotation at first glance, but scrolling down shows that the note is spot on, so I think it's the way the pieces are arranged that's fooling our eyes.
 
Hi, really good shot and a great idea using Monopoly, good advice about the aperture above.
 
Good thinking on the theme (y)

Perhaps a little petty, but I can see a few small (dust?) spots at the lower part of the picture. Now I've seen them I can't help but notice them more........sorry :whistle:
 
Hi Simon...catch up time....
Nature....super pics of your cat and I like the idea of putting them together, I think it works well.
Action....those light trails look great to me.....it never seems to work when I try it !
Mono is a smasher I really like mono when the black looks really black, and it's a great play on the word too...it has it all :)
 
I Like it! Simple but well placed, on theme too. well done getting nice even light in the drill bits and keeping the background dark. (y)
 
Hi Simon, have to agree with everyone i thought of drill bits myself but couldn't find a way of displaying them
you have done a good job, not an easy thing to light either (y)
 
Thank you everyone for your comments, it's nice to read them!

Here is the entry for week 18:

"Freshly Mown" (edited title).

Fresh by Mr_Si, on Flickr

I confess the ISO is completely wrong - it's set at 800! So I have had to try and un-blow the sky a bit to get some blueness back and break up the cloud a bit. Shot handheld on a whim on Monday afternoon. But I liked the picture and I haven't done a landscapey shot yet, so decided to submit it for this week.
 
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Hi Simon :)

Sorry looks like I have missed a few :(

Action - of the two shots I love the bright colours of the light trail, edit is even nicer, I haven't tried a trail for a good while, and seeing that great sunbursts, I'm dying to have a go again :)


Mono - A nice original idea, well lit, I'd prefer to see the sharpest focus on the Monopoly word to help add to the theme link and a bit of dust removal, other than those very picky bits, I really like the processing (y)

Twisted - Another great Idea, good placement on this one, blacks look much cleaner and plenty of detail on the bits, well lit too, good one (y)

Fresh - Although small, the red coated person grabs my eye too much, the image works great for Fresh Air, and you seem to have got quite a bit from the sky, don't you just hate it when that happens !!! :)
 
Dark Knight said:
Fresh - Although small, the red coated person grabs my eye too much, the image works great for Fresh Air, and you seem to have got quite a bit from the sky, don't you just hate it when that happens !!! :)
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Hi Dean, thanks for the comments.

Regarding Fresh - I know what you mean, it's a care home (a good one) garden and she was obviously enjoying the outdoors too much to move out of my way to get the perfect picture - it's just so un-thoughtful ;). Shame that it distracts, it's probably the fact that she's wearing red! Yeah I hate it when the ISO thing happens, I almost always forget to change it!
 
like it - nice forground interest, not creating a barriier to the rest of it - nice leading lines on the grass, altogether really nice.

the person in red - not a major problem, shame they so central though, could be cloned out if you wished without too much trouble
 
Hi, i see where you are coming from but I think the person needs to be more prominent to fit with your title
 
You've really captured the feeling of fresh air and I'd add Freshly manicured with that lawn!
 
Yeah, a quick should to the person in red to come towards you :)

Plenty of detail and nice colours. Looks a little dark and perhaps a slightly lower DOF to incolise the plants at the bottom.

I didn't notice any issues from ISO 800.

Cheers.
 
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