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[Lucky Forward]

These were taken last weekend in Gunpowder Falls State Park in Baltimore Co., MD.

I'm still pretty new to digital photography, and I'm just beginning to learn Photoshop. These were shot in RAW format, converted using Canon Digital Photo professional, and then I made a few tweaks and removed a few errant branches in Photoshop 6. I'd particularly like some advice about which corrections should be made while working with the RAW image, before conversion to a JPEG.

These were shot with a Canon 20D & 17-85 EFS lens, using a tripod, remote release, and mirror lock-up. I bracketed in one-third stops, and in most cases I preferred the darker bracket.

#1:

#2:

#3:

#4:

#5:

#6:

 

[Manabanana]

I really like #4. Nice shots

 

[robertsan21]

how do you make the water look like that?

i always wanted to know how the hell they do it like that cause it looks really cool!

 

[demon]

1. Could have been cool, maybe with a lower vantage point, but the composition is dull and could be a little 'brighter' or something.

2. Again, colors are kinda drab IMO considering the subject, and the top of the pic with the trees is just kind of distracting.

3. I kinda like it. I think it would have been better without the junk in the top left corner

4. This one's kinda cool, although same stuff as #2 regarding top of picture...I think maybe you should have either left it out entirely or put more of it in the picture, as it is the trees are just kinda 'junk' in the picture. I might have used a lower f-stop to focus on the rock/water and blur out the background/trees.

5. Could have been really nice, but the lighting's all off and I think it might have been better if it was angled down a bit or at a lower vantage point to get the water in a bit more of the shot.

how do you make the water look like that?

i always wanted to know how the hell they do it like that cause it looks really cool!

Easy: use a kind of long exposure. Maybe use a ND filter for an even longer exposure without everything coming out too bright.

 

[robertsan21]

1. Could have been cool, maybe with a lower vantage point, but the composition is dull and could be a little 'brighter' or something.

2. Again, colors are kinda drab IMO considering the subject, and the top of the pic with the trees is just kind of distracting.

3. I kinda like it. I think it would have been better without the junk in the top left corner

4. This one's kinda cool, although same stuff as #2 regarding top of picture...I think maybe you should have either left it out entirely or put more of it in the picture, as it is the trees are just kinda 'junk' in the picture. I might have used a lower f-stop to focus on the rock/water and blur out the background/trees.

5. Could have been really nice, but the lighting's all off and I think it might have been better if it was angled down a bit or at a lower vantage point to get the water in a bit more of the shot.


Easy: use a kind of long exposure. Maybe use a ND filter for an even longer exposure without everything coming out too bright.

okej so what cam do you use?

 

[demon]

okej so what cam do you use?

Me? I don't have a SLR yet (I want one, digital of course), but I just got the Canon S1-IS and some filters to mess around with.

 

[robertsan21]

Me? I don't have a SLR yet (I want one, digital of course), but I just got the Canon S1-IS and some filters to mess around with.

i dont know jack shit about cameras and filters and shit like that,but when you say filters what do you mean?

is it like something that you fit on the camera or??

and when you say that you would want a digital camera what do you mean, these pics looks like they been taken with a digital cam, how else would you get them on the computer?

i reallt suck at camera equipment so sorry for these stupid questions!

 

[AirBrian]

These were taken last weekend in Gunpowder Falls State Park in Baltimore Co., MD.

I'm still pretty new to digital photography, and I'm just beginning to learn Photoshop. These were shot in RAW format, converted using Canon Digital Photo professional, and then I made a few tweaks and removed a few errant branches in Photoshop 6. I'd particularly like some advice about which corrections should be made while working with the RAW image, before conversion to a JPEG.

These were shot with a Canon 20D & 17-85 EFS lens, using a tripod, remote release, and mirror lock-up. I bracketed in one-third stops, and in most cases I preferred the darker bracket.

#1:

#2:

#3:

#4:

#5:

#6:

Nice pics overall. I don't like #2 -- it's too busy. #1 and #2 are a little dark for my tastes, but that's a preference issue. #4 really stands out, and #3 is my favorite -- great color.

BTW, how do you like your camera so far?

 

[demon]

i dont know jack shit about cameras and filters and shit like that,but when you say filters what do you mean?

is it like something that you fit on the camera or??

and when you say that you would want a digital camera what do you mean, these pics looks like they been taken with a digital cam, how else would you get them on the computer?

i reallt suck at camera equipment so sorry for these stupid questions!

I only use digital cameras. But LuckyForward is using an SLR camera (a digital one), which is the mack daddy of the kind of camera you can get. Basically it's the kind of camera where the entire lense is detachable and interchangable. Filters are just filters you put over the front of the lense to create different effects. The most popular is a polarizer filter which essentially helps you prevent the sun from fucking with your picture; or ND (neutral density) filters that just allow less light to pass through the lense so you're forced to take a longer exposure (people use those for taking waterfall shots a lot to get the flowing water effect); different color filters; infra-red filters.....just look them up. When working with digital photography, a lot of the filter effects can be emulated with software (like photoshop), but still some can't.

 

[robertsan21]

I only use digital cameras. But LuckyForward is using an SLR camera (a digital one), which is the mack daddy of the kind of camera you can get. Basically it's the kind of camera where the entire lense is detachable and interchangable. Filters are just filters you put over the front of the lense to create different effects. The most popular is a polarizer filter which essentially helps you prevent the sun from fucking with your picture; or ND (neutral density) filters that just allow less light to pass through the lense so you're forced to take a longer explosure (people use those for taking waterfall shots a lot to get the flowing water effect); different color filters; infra-red filters.....just look them up.

thanks that was useful mate, now i just have to buy a good camera.
i have a crappy Sony digicam 5,1 megapixels

 

[Tortfeasor]

Can you do some hi-res versions of #4 for desktops?

I would love to have a 1280x1024 and a 1280 x 856 version

 

[Great King Bowser]

Above request seconded.

Gonna get an entry level DSLR in the Summer, probably a Canon EOS 300D/Digital Rebel. Some pretty nice shots in that bunch

 

[demon]

Yeah I fuckin want a Digital Rebel so badly.

 

[etiolate]

#4 is ace

 

[Lucky Forward]

Thanks for all of the comments.

how do you make the water look like that?

A long exposure with the camera on a tripod. Shot #4 for instance, was a one second exposure. I used a polarizing filter on all of these shots; it will not only deepen the blue of the sky and make clouds pop out more, it will also eliminate glare on trees and leaves giving a deeper green, and it can take the reflection off the surface of water letting you see down into the water.


Demon, some good points. A lot of times it's difficult to tell how much of a scene to include to give a "sense of place". The blue flowers were shot around six-thirty in the morning so the scene was a little moody; looking back I wish I'd done a few from a lower vantage point as you said, with a wide-angle to make the flowers really dominate the foreground. I have to keep reminding myself that with digital, film is free, and when I find a nice scene I need to really work it from many different angles.

Also, with one exception where I corrected a slight tilt, these are uncropped. I used to shoot a lot of slide film and I would strictly compose in the viewfinder. Now I need to re-think my compositions once I have the images in photoshop.

BTW, how do you like your camera so far?

The 20D is great, but I have so much to learn about it. Since I'm striving to do more than shoot in idiot mode, there's a lot to think about. The morning I shot these, I had to select my aperture (Av mode), set the exposure bracketing, set the mirror-lockup, change the ISO from where I had it last time, and remember to turn of the IS since I was using a tripod. And then think about composition, all at 6:30 in the morning. I guess it will become second nature after a while.

Can you do some hi-res versions of #4 for desktops?

I would love to have a 1280x1024 and a 1280 x 856 version

How do I resize to specific dimensions? I know that the proportions of 1280x1024 are different from the 35mm image format, but my attempts to crop the image to those dimensions are hit or miss.

Also, will photobucket host a high res image? Shots 1 and 2 are smaller because photobucket resized them since they were over 250KB. Didn't have that problem with the other pics, it must be the amount of detail in 1 & 2 that wouldn't compress much in a JPEG image.

 

[Lemurnator]

I actually was going to make a thread like this today however I made scans of my black and white photographs on a mac, but the pictures didn't work so I can't post them here and ask people what they think...

4 and 6 are nice.

I don't like digital photography as much as I like normal photography, personally. I like Black and White.

 

[nitewulf]

#1: underexposed
#2: underexposed
#3: levels are all over the place, better framing needed
#4: good, good idea on the silky water
#5: same as 3
#6: good, needs a focus, the branch would have been nice.