Dark, overcast, flat light

RobNZ · Oct 15, 2010

Went out last night with another local photographer, which was nice to have the company and share ideas and techniques.

First time I have been out with my gear in light rain/drizzle.

Only 2 that I feel are good enough to publish, they all seemed better when onsite, but the lack of colour from the thick grey overcast skies really killed anything I got.

1. A Maori warrior guards the entrance to the harbour. (4th time I have shot this scene, and I will have to keep going back until I get the shot I am after).

2. The Marina at night. I feel this is way to busy with all the yacht masts, the only thing that keeps me from binning it are the reflections.

Anyone know if you can stop flickr from applying sharpening to the original sized image?

Any feedback appreciated

stev · Oct 15, 2010

TBH there's nothing i like about the frist one but i love the second one, very nice colour & reflections.

Where about in NZ are you from?

jackiejay · Oct 15, 2010

I really like both nice pics

Babs · Oct 15, 2010

I really like the second one. The reflections are great and the light is lovely.

I don't like the first one. To me, it looks like you took a picture of a bunch of rocks and there just happens to be a Maori warrior in the background; rather than focusing on the Maori warrior and the foreground leading the eye to the statue. Maybe try being a bit closer? Would that be possible at low tide?

12sndsgood · Oct 15, 2010

i like the second one. the masts make it a bit busy but the water is so calm. kind of a good mix of both.

KenC · Oct 15, 2010

Babs said:
I don't like the first one. To me, it looks like you took a picture of a bunch of rocks and there just happens to be a Maori warrior in the background; rather than focusing on the Maori warrior and the foreground leading the eye to the statue. Maybe try being a bit closer? Would that be possible at low tide?

Exactly! You could also try stepping back and framing it with a normal or short tele (space permitting of course) instead of a wide angle. That would even up the perceived sizes of the rocks and the statue.

grantjames · Oct 15, 2010

The second one is absolutely stunning!

I don't feel the large amount of masts makes it too busy. Because there are so many and they're so close together I feel like they're 1 entity in the picture. The colours and reflections are just...wow.

Ron Evers · Oct 15, 2010

The first one would be improved by setting your focus @ infinity & shooting @ f11. That would require you to up the ISO from 100 as this one was shot.

peacock · Oct 15, 2010

#1 looks like someone did a bad HDR job, but I think you could improve it by adjusting the colour tones.

But the 2nd one is really really sweet. I love it. Bravo. :thumbup:

girl_with_brain · Oct 15, 2010

great pics.
#2 the clouds on the right look awesome just like if the sky were on fire. pretty cool.

RobNZ · Oct 15, 2010

stev said:
TBH there's nothing i like about the frist one but i love the second one, very nice colour & reflections.

Where about in NZ are you from?

Thanks stev, not so keen on the first one either really, hence I will have another go, getting some good ideas from the posts here.

Im in Papamoa, and you?

jackiejay said:
I really like both nice pics

Thanks jackie

Babs said:
I really like the second one. The reflections are great and the light is lovely.

I don't like the first one. To me, it looks like you took a picture of a bunch of rocks and there just happens to be a Maori warrior in the background; rather than focusing on the Maori warrior and the foreground leading the eye to the statue. Maybe try being a bit closer? Would that be possible at low tide?

Good points, should be able to get over to the small sandbar at low tide.

12sndsgood said:
i like the second one. the masts make it a bit busy but the water is so calm. kind of a good mix of both.

thanks

KenC said:
Babs said:

I don't like the first one. To me, it looks like you took a picture of a bunch of rocks and there just happens to be a Maori warrior in the background; rather than focusing on the Maori warrior and the foreground leading the eye to the statue. Maybe try being a bit closer? Would that be possible at low tide?

Click to expand...

Exactly! You could also try stepping back and framing it with a normal or short tele (space permitting of course) instead of a wide angle. That would even up the perceived sizes of the rocks and the statue.

Agreed, will post the reshoot here when I do it, thanks for the idea's, I have been struggling with this subject for months now, it's a shot I want to get but because of its location and the way the warrior is facing it seems to be eluding me. Sometimes you just have to work that little bit harder.

grantjames said:
The second one is absolutely stunning!

I don't feel the large amount of masts makes it too busy. Because there are so many and they're so close together I feel like they're 1 entity in the picture. The colours and reflections are just...wow.

thanks

Ron Evers said:
The first one would be improved by setting your focus @ infinity & shooting @ f11. That would require you to up the ISO from 100 as this one was shot.

Yeah I kinda screwed up there Ron, I was doing test shots at the wider aperture for compostion and once set I did forget to stop it down :er:, camera was tripod mounted so ISO 100 isnt an issue. Actually your the 2nd one to point out the aperture setting, the first guy noticed that area being softer, it wasnt until you pointed it out as well that I actually double checked the aperture setting f/3.5!!!!!

The rest of the shots from that night were in the f/7-11 range, when wide on the 18-55mm.

peacock said:
#1 looks like someone did a bad HDR job, but I think you could improve it by adjusting the colour tones.

But the 2nd one is really really sweet. I love it. Bravo. :thumbup:

Correct, it is a bad HDR job, but its not the HDR thats at issue, its my processing, just seeing if I could recover a fairly meh shot with a bit of bling post HDR (even the HDR is very flat with little colour, as shot), the feedback I am getting from you guys is awesome, because it confirms my own suspicions. Thanks for your input. The 2nd one is the one I was really not sure about.

girl_with_brain said:
great pics.
#2 the clouds on the right look awesome just like if the sky were on fire. pretty cool.

Thanks, the clouds are vapour plumes from a fertiliser plant, lucky theyre in the shot I think, they give the sky some much needed interest.

syphlix · Oct 15, 2010

first one i like the foreground... the mid/back isn't great though... looks soft and the colors are wonky...

the 2nd one is pretty nice imo... it's a really nice reflection and the colors are great... could it have been shot 20-30min earlier so the light bulbs would be less standing out? (bad english i know lol)

manaheim · Oct 15, 2010

Um... holy cr@p that second one is jaw-dropping.

I don't see many pictures on TPF that impress me. This one... wow. I'm literally floored.

DirtyDFeckers · Oct 16, 2010

The 2nd shot is incredible... Nice work.

sam_justice · Oct 16, 2010

The 2nd shot is fantastic, the sky looks like smoke.
The 1st one is a nice shot, but I can't tell whether the background is not in full focus or if you used to high an fstop. I would've aimed at f11-16 for that. You don't need HDR for those sort of shots, just a whisp in the adjustment brushes in ACR would fix that.