Grain

BrickHouse · May 31, 2014

Trying to work on developing my eye for light a bit better. Grabbed this in the front yard. C&C?

mmaria · May 31, 2014

I like shots like this... but... it looks a bit overdone in pp... what did you do in pp?

that left line of grass (how do you call it) is a bit distracting. Did you try composing in a different way?

BrickHouse · May 31, 2014

IIRC (if I remember correctly), I adjusted white balance (shot in auto wb and the camera missed what I was seeing) and then applied my standard preset with a touch of contrast bump, some sharpening, and the matte black shadows (not much black there in the original anyway). That was really about it. I tried for hours to do different things to get rid of what looks like a red chromatic aberration but couldn't get anything to look realistic so finally scrapped it all and kept it mostly original. Thanks for looking and for the c&c!

mmaria · Jun 1, 2014

see... with this kind of shot I wouldn't do anything that includes boosting contrast ( actually I would do something in curves which would do something with contrast but...) and I wouldn't have black in it. I get this like a soft dreamy, kind of nostalgic image that doesn't go well with contrast...

If I were you I would forget about this particular picture, it was good for you practice and go out and shoot another one. This time, carefully watch for lines and directions and possible distractions.

This is of course just my opinion

pjaye · Jun 1, 2014

I like it a lot. But then, I love these kinds of shots. I really like the warmth of the picture.

BrickHouse · Jun 2, 2014

mmaria said:
see... with this kind of shot I wouldn't do anything that includes boosting contrast ( actually I would do something in curves which would do something with contrast but...) and I wouldn't have black in it. I get this like a soft dreamy, kind of nostalgic image that doesn't go well with contrast...

If I were you I would forget about this particular picture, it was good for you practice and go out and shoot another one. This time, carefully watch for lines and directions and possible distractions.

This is of course just my opinion

The contrast bump was pretty minimal. My next day off I'll post what it looks like with just the white balance fix. I guess I don't see that the other piece of grass is that distracting but thanks for the comments!

Thanks Barb!! Loving your latest stuff on flickr.

limr · Jun 2, 2014

I've become somewhat obsessed with shots like this - backlit reeds, for example. I do like this the way it is, but am now curious to see the version with just the white balance fix, just for comparison.

sscarmack · Jun 2, 2014

I actually quite like it. Looks like you have some reddish ghosting going on in the middle. Maybe its chromatic aberration?

BrickHouse · Jun 2, 2014

sscarmack said:
I actually quite like it. Looks like you have some reddish ghosting going on in the middle. Maybe its chromatic aberration?

Thanks! Yeah, I seem to get a lot of CA with this lens. I know there's a way to remove it in LR4 but I haven't taken the time to learn it well enough (in the middle of 32 days straight without a day off, working 80hrs a week).

BrickHouse · Jun 4, 2014

As promised, here it is straight out of camera (except to fix the WB). When I went to reset the sliders in LR4, there was +10 of contrast, +4 clarity, and a bit of sharpening, also had a curves adjustment to matte the blacks a bit (not much black anyway).

SOOC by Bolt x4, on Flickr

AlanKlein · Jun 4, 2014

You might try stopping down to increase the DOF. Also, the line on the left is distracting. Nice shot.

keyseddie · Jun 4, 2014

I used to live in Camp Pendleton. I agree with AK above except for his last sentence. Stop down, wide open and in between as well. That way you have choices. If you didn't notice the line on the left, you were not paying attention. Isolate. The other reeds in bg compete with the viewers attention so look at different angles. The backlighting is cool and that's what probably attracted you. Shoot it again.

BrickHouse · Jun 4, 2014

sscarmack said:
I actually quite like it. Looks like you have some reddish ghosting going on in the middle. Maybe its chromatic aberration?

So, after looking again at the plant and the picture, the red is not actually CA, it's the plant itself. I didn't notice it at the time but the stem and core of the grass head are all maroon, with the little wispy pieces turning golden brown as they radiate out from the middle. Kind of cool really. Now looking for more ways to photograph it to see if I can accentuate that.

Thanks for the comment Alan and keyseddie. The whole idea was for shallow DOF and golden light to give a bit of a dreamy, memory-like feel to the photo but next chance I get I'll try to reshoot with it stopped down a bit as well. As I also seem to be the only person that doesn't get distracted by the piece of grass on the left, I'll try to recompose without any of those elements. Thanks guys!

BrickHouse · Jun 4, 2014

Ok, how about this one, where the grass is more of the composition and less of a distracting element. Work better?

Grain 2 by Bolt x4, on Flickr

AlanKlein · Jun 5, 2014

I'd leave the element on the left out of the picture. Move the camera down to eliminate too much blank space at top and include all of the grain in the picture. I don't think cutting off the tips of those two helps the shot.. But this is all my opinion.