weekly mercurius's 52 in 2013 - Week 52: Water (and that's a wrap!)

Hi ya :wave:

Steps...gotta be 1# for me....love how you got a really low POV so you can look up through the image through the door to the other door....well thought out :clap: now get back there with a tripod & it will be one for printing & framing :clap:
 
blondie606 said:
Hi ya :wave:

Steps...gotta be 1# for me....love how you got a really low POV so you can look up through the image through the door to the other door....well thought out :clap: now get back there with a tripod & it will be one for printing & framing :clap:
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Thanks for your encouraging comments, Lynne. I might have to wait until the tourists have gone to avoid being trampled in the crush!
 
Managed to get my hands on some poppy heads for this week's challenge...


...but I can still see that the point of focus is soft. This is driving me up the wall now. I used my 18-105 kit lens on a tripod with IR shutter release and VR switched off and focused using LiveView. Where am I going wrong?
 
Can't say that the poppy head looks soft anywhere apart from the lower parts of the stem.... Even on the full res version.

I've heard it said that photobucket does a pretty bad job of resizing images from full res down to forum size....

The first steps on the last page looks possibly more like movement blur, your exif info has disappeared but I guess a pretty slow shutter speed from your comments re tripod.

This ones really rather good - detail and "scratches" in the side of the pod come through well, slight light mark on the BG left of the stem is all from me. (y)
 
Mono, I do like plants and this is one of my favourites. Good amount of detail and the BW really suites it.

I'd like to see a slightly tighter crop and, as has been said, the slight light patch on the LHS. Looks like you may have lost a bit od fetail in some small sections of the highlights on the head?

Good show.

Cheers
 
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Well, I think it looks nice.

Regarding the focussing thing... What aperture did you use? I find that as I get closer to things I need to stop down a bit to get everything sharp. I recently watched a product shot video and the guy didn't go tighter than f16 for table tops. I shot a snail a few weeks ago and had to go to f36 to get the whole width (not the length) of the snail in at about 30cm away with a 50mm lens. I know you are talking about your actual focus point but I would run a few tests on a solid subject with lots of points (like an upside down hair brush) if I were you. Quicker and easier to see the results if you shoot tethered! Also, don't discount floor shake if you are in an upstairs bedroom, and does your camera do mirror lock up?
 
overbez said:
Can't say that the poppy head looks soft anywhere apart from the lower parts of the stem.... Even on the full res version.

I've heard it said that photobucket does a pretty bad job of resizing images from full res down to forum size....

The first steps on the last page looks possibly more like movement blur, your exif info has disappeared but I guess a pretty slow shutter speed from your comments re tripod.

This ones really rather good - detail and "scratches" in the side of the pod come through well, slight light mark on the BG left of the stem is all from me. (y)
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Thanks for your comments, overbez. Photobucket certainly does something to my pics, this looks brighter in LR, but quite dull on Photobucket.

Thanks for pointing out the background noise in the BG on the left. I'll have a go to get rid of that.
 
posiview said:
Mono, I do like plants and this is one of my favourites. Good amount of detail and the BW really suites it.

I'd like to see a slightly tighter crop and, as has been said, the slight light patch on the LHS. Looks like you may have lost a bit od fetail in some small sections of the highlights on the head?

Good show.

Cheers
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posiview: many thanks for your comments. I am going to crop, remove the background on the LHS and knock back the lighting on the left of the head. this as suggested and see how it turns out.
 
Brian_of_Bozeat said:
Well, I think it looks nice.

Regarding the focussing thing... What aperture did you use? I find that as I get closer to things I need to stop down a bit to get everything sharp. I recently watched a product shot video and the guy didn't go tighter than f16 for table tops. I shot a snail a few weeks ago and had to go to f36 to get the whole width (not the length) of the snail in at about 30cm away with a 50mm lens. I know you are talking about your actual focus point but I would run a few tests on a solid subject with lots of points (like an upside down hair brush) if I were you. Quicker and easier to see the results if you shoot tethered! Also, don't discount floor shake if you are in an upstairs bedroom, and does your camera do mirror lock up?
Click to expand...

Thanks, Brian. I've checked the exif data and it was f22 for 3secs @ ISO 200. I don't know how to shoot tethered - sounds painful! - so perhaps I should look into that. I'll try an experiment with a hairbrush to see how that goes...It was taking on the living room floor and no my camera doesn't do mirror lock up (it's a D90). Many thanks for your help and encouragement!
 
Following feedback from you good folk, here's an edit of my poppy head picture with cropping, reduction of highlight on LHS of head and removal of flare in LH background.

 
Hi
The cropped version is much better in terms of the highlights but to be awkward i prefer the first crop, the focus looks fine to me :thinking:. Nice subject matter too :clap:
 
Hi-think everyone has already said it all. think I too prefer the original crop just without the mark.
I found that when I uploaded my pics to Flickr via the share option on Photoshop my pics were darker. Overcame that by saving them to my desktop and loading them 'manually'. Dont know why it happens.
 
HI ya



sometimes ( a lot of the time actually ) we are our own worst critic's........fwiw I really like the 1st shot for mono , good conversion , love the placement in the frame & plenty of detail in the seed head . The lower stem being slightly oof - may just be the angle causing it as further away from the point of focus .....I know what I mean to say but not sure that last bit came out quite right ? the head on the edit really pops , just needs a little more room around it I think . just need to add :clap:

Connection...original take on the theme , lovely tonal colors & a great expression on here face....we should all spend more time connecting with nature (y)
 
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Lovely connection shot. Nice colours and composition and an excellently captured "moment". well done.
 
Some great shots there !!!

Beginning is too much of a snapshot for me, good for the theme but nothing to give it interest

Agree the Still shot is very nice and would be perfect if a tad more room below the LH pot and clone out the number and doorbell, very symetrical will lit and really nice tones and splashes of green (y)

Curve again a tiny more space top and left would work much better for me, great idea and good detail

Whimsical is a cracker and the best one out of the batch for me, a great moment caught (y)

Great catch up :clap:
 
'ello, Beginning, on theme but soesn't really grab me. Harsh light doesn't help.

Still, better lighting and well composed. Not a strong conneciton IMO.

Whimcial, absolutle cracker. Great expressions and bang on theme :clap:

Curve, well spotted and nice textures.

Good catch up.

Cheers.
 
Hi, have to agree whimsical is by far the best of the bunch fantastic expressions well done for catching it :clap:
 
Dark Knight said:
Some great shots there !!!

Beginning is too much of a snapshot for me, good for the theme but nothing to give it interest

Agree the Still shot is very nice and would be perfect if a tad more room below the LH pot and clone out the number and doorbell, very symetrical will lit and really nice tones and splashes of green (y)

Curve again a tiny more space top and left would work much better for me, great idea and good detail

Whimsical is a cracker and the best one out of the batch for me, a great moment caught (y)

Great catch up :clap:
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Thanks for your comments DK.
 
posiview said:
'ello, Beginning, on theme but soesn't really grab me. Harsh light doesn't help.

Still, better lighting and well composed. Not a strong conneciton IMO.

Whimcial, absolutle cracker. Great expressions and bang on theme :clap:

Curve, well spotted and nice textures.

Good catch up.

Cheers.
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Thanks for your constructive comments.
 
Hi ya :wave:

hope you had a great holiday mister (y)

Still.......I'm liking that , the tones in the brickwork, paint & door work really well against the 2 mini tree's ...I can see that maybe turned in to a water color & framed (y)

Curve...plenty of detail ,I like the placement & the blue string just breaks it up nicely

Beginning....good colors & detail but agree with others re a little snap shotish

Whimiscal....fab expressions , well caught & nicely sharp (y)
 
blondie606 said:
Hi ya :wave:

hope you had a great holiday mister (y)

Still.......I'm liking that , the tones in the brickwork, paint & door work really well against the 2 mini tree's ...I can see that maybe turned in to a water color & framed (y)

Curve...plenty of detail ,I like the placement & the blue string just breaks it up nicely

Beginning....good colors & detail but agree with others re a little snap shotish

Whimiscal....fab expressions , well caught & nicely sharp (y)
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Thanks for your comments, Lynne.
 
blondie606 said:
Hi again


Power......lovely old tractor there with good tones....shame about the clipped rear tyre though . Wonder if it make a contrasty B&W or even , dare I say it , a touch of HDR to really bring the colors alive ?
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OK, thanks for the suggestion. You asked for it! Here it is with a touch of HDR applied in Lightroom:
Power - HDR by carthurjohn
 
Hi, Power, wow, I could spend the whole day taking photographs of the tractor :geek:

The edit is nice, so much detail and character. The Bg wall suites the subject as well.

I do feel there is a better composition, though. Perhaps from the front, with a little more room around it.

Cheers.
 
posiview said:
Hi, Power, wow, I could spend the whole day taking photographs of the tractor :geek:

The edit is nice, so much detail and character. The Bg wall suites the subject as well.

I do feel there is a better composition, though. Perhaps from the front, with a little more room around it.

Cheers.
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Hi Andy, thanks for your comments. I tried taking it from different angles and really wanted a front view, but it wouldn't work. The tractor was too close to the end of the wall on the right (out of shot) and when shot from the front there was too much background clutter and lens flare as the sun was quite low at that point. I also wanted to include the engine in the shot as it is quite characterful. I have some separate shots just of the engine that I must try my new HDR skills on - perhaps with a b/w conversion! The great thing about you guys and this whole process is you push me out of my comfort zone and make me do things that I normally wouldn't attempt. Many thanks to all of you for your prodding.
 
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