Posts by Satyre

Wow, outstanding curves, love it!

Quote from JeanPaul

NO HDR DAMNIT

One day, you'll enjoy HDR!!

I agree about a stronger post treatment... Dux, your version is nice, but we could improve the sky more by using the "picking selection" (sorry, but I really don't know what's the english for this setting ^^). The composition could also be worked better by placing the road at the right bottom corner : )

Classic, but good! Nice stuff : )

Thanks

I was really lucky to have a such exposure on the vertorama one. The sky was very dark in the background while the hill was lit by a short rift in clouds.

Love the mood on the last one but the sky seems to be a little bit greyish on it. I prefer the one on the first shot : )

That the normal exposure (0EV). This one is not a HDRi or other similar treatment . I've just assembled the two photos and improve contrasts, that' all.

Thank you for your example JeanPaul!

I agree with the fact a post treatment is needed for having a photo very close to ours eyes. Indeed, a camera isn't as powerful as eyes... It doesn't manage to work well strong contrasts, a high range of colors, and so on. On the other side, I understand well someone dislike touching up photos . Once again that's a matter of taste.

Well, I've finally gotten spare time for photographing, so here's a new set:

Countryside .:HDR:.

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Meadow .:HDR:.

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Thunderstorm (vertorama, 2 shots)

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Let's say Tree (very inspired)

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Hope, you'll enjoy them

That's pretty original! I love the B&W one with the bowl.

Hey

Quote from e-freak

while i like the motives and the grey-development on these photos, i can't help but think that the horizon is much too high, and there's far too few sky in these.

Don't sure the horizon is too high, I used the rule of thirds, with 2/3 of ground and 1/3 of sky and by placing trees near of the second third. I kept a lot of ground because I find it very dynamic and it leads ours eyes toward the trees, I think.

Quote from e-freak

while it partially works on the "vertoramas", the sea scene could sure use alot more sky. the reflections give the very same picture information but due to the shift of the horizontal line into the upper third of the picture it really feels constricted, which is conflicting with the motive and the lighting in the shot.

Indeed, I haven't seen that... thanks : )

Quote from JeanPaul

But editing images is not all about contrast. Play with the colors, try adding in more highlights, try adding more saturation to certain colors, etc etc. But if there is one thing that helps the most its burning and dodging.

A little bit like these photos? I've some difficulties to do that. I've not been into retouch for long and I use photoshop only... I guess others softwares are needed such as adobe lightroom to do that, don't you?

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Edit:

I've just read your thread, I partially agree with you about HDR... this is overdone and often ugly with oversaturated colors because everyone do that without experience just because of HDRi is The mode, and lots of tutorials are done by shitty people. My HDR images aren't good too, I admit... I'm learning to improve my skill, I hope.

On the other hand, with a good skill into HDR, certain photos are absolutely breathtaking. Check out the link above.

That said, it's just a matter of taste.

I really love the first one of the last batch and its atmosphere. Great work!

Quote from JeanPaul

Welcome to my town. 100% overcast most of the time

Arf...

I think you could profit from that though. Are you into HDRi a little bit? Overcast skies are often freaking amazing, using a HDR treatment. They give to the shot a very strong atmosphere and by seeing your shot with this abandoned building, sure you could catch some breathtaking photos.

Thank you.

What do you refer to? Improve colors, contrasts, tones...? If you have any tips for me, I'll be pleased to know them, I'm far from professionalism into that.

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Retouch: contrasts enhancement

My first vertorama (2 shots)

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Retouch: contrasts enhancement

A vertical panorama (2 shots)

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Retouch: contrasts enhancement

Ok, I'm working on it tomorrow...

By the way, another shot. I'm a little bit running out of inspiration in my poor country... I wish I had the sea next to my home

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Nice stuff! I really like the first one.

I've also drawn some paintings with my mouse, I know that's very difficult.

Well done

Another one

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I think it's a little bit short of contrasts...

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Quote from dux

Do you reduce these in scale in photoshop?

Yes

Quote from dux

Clicking the enlarged version of the 1st shot it looks quite blurry.

I think that's because of the upload compression...

Thank you to you both.

A small pano

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Colors version

Hey!!

I've just come back from my holidays, with new photos : )

Thank you e-freak

Quote from e-freak

Well your fotos look great but while you may enjoy doing PP to them I think you put too much weight into this. A good photo is more than just pressing the correct button in Photomatix.

Yea, that's right! I agree with you, a good photo is done with the camera before everything else. Neither softwares nor scripts can rectify a missed photo, btw...

I don’t think I put all in photomatix. I use it in a way very soft and "not" for correcting overexposed parts.

Quote from e-freak

There are two tips I want to tell you: 1) Try to work out correct camera setting for one-time exposure, considering you are using a Polefilter, in most cases you wouldn't even need any PP for correct sky-blue, just the correct angle, shutter-speed and whitebalance.

I don’t need any software for having a blue sky ; ) (except for photos taken against the light whose sky is shining hard). I know my camera well. Ok I’m far from professionalism, but I manage to understand it well (shutter-speed, aperture, white-balance, ISO and so on… are okay)

Actually, I only use photomatix for having very dynamic colors, not for correcting skies. I admit I’m not really satisfied with the result, but I’m learning : )

Quote from e-freak

2) If you want to do PP (which is completely legit and nearly everyone is doing it anyways), try to find out what changes and why it changes

I know what I do when I crank up bars ^^. I’ve read many tutorials.

Quote from e-freak

That said, the shots are nice as they are but I think you could work on your choice of perspective (and corresponding on your choice of lenses). If there's enough place around you may want to shoot that church from further away with a larger zoom extended to help the image lines (in this case vertical lines) flow more parallel (the obilisk in the foreground is bowed to the right due to short f-stop, don't know the exifs but I'd bet that's around 22 mm), while the windmill is shot from too far away (imho and I don't know if another perspective might have ruined the shot), but considering the large blades and the fence as foreground element, I think you could have shot from further below and closer range with a shorter f-stop too help the decreasing width of the mill and the length of the blades. I don't know the locations and I can only imagine different angles so you might just not listen to what I just said but might keep the general idea in mind.

Yea, you’re totally right!!! Indeed, I had a great deal of room (?) around me to take them further, and I have got a powerful-zoom lens… I didn’t think of using it :\.

Generally, I don’t use it because it might be dusty and shots taken with it are blurry… I also can’t set up my polarizer on this lens.

Well, here are some new shots:

Crazy lights #1 .:HDR:.

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Retouch: HDR (there are real sunbeams)

Crazy lights #2 .:HDR:.

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Standard one-exposure version (reduced)

Retouch: HDR (there are real sunbeams)

With a little bit of imagination, we can imagine a face in clouds.

Phantom clouds .:HDR:.

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Retouch: HDR

And a couple of photos from my holidays:

Peyresourde village .:HDR:.

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Retouch: HDR; contrasts enhancement

And for you e-freak, one-exposure photo

Peyragudes

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Retouch: contrasts enhancement

Other photos are going to come...

I use a Canon 450D with a Canon EF-S 18-55mm lens and a polarizer Canon 58mm circular PL-C .

But the Canon PowerShot SX110 IS is enough to do good photos with . When you manage to understand it well, you can catch pretty cool shots.

Does it get a tripod adaptation? If yes, I sincerely advice you to buy a tripod, mainly if you're interested by HDR

Shortly

As soon as I get a photomatix licence

Two other pics I've taken:

.:HDR:.

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HDR treatment (3 shots: -2EV; 0EV; +2EV) in photomatix using details enhancer

.:HDR:.

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HDR treatment (3 shots: -2EV; 0EV; +2EV) in photomatix using details enhancer

How about borders and watermarks? Better?

Quote from dux

Wow, how do you get your pictures to be so colourful? Do you do something in Photoshop?

Hi dux,

I added some descriptions below each pictures. No description equal no retouch

I have been doing photo for around 7 months, I have learn a lot during this time but I still have a lot of knowledge to learn... So I think experience and practice are the fundamentals to do good photos .