Today's Travels Around the Province of Alicante

Ricardodaforce · Feb 20, 2011

I've been out and about today. Can't say I'm particularly happy with any of my pics, but such is life!

El Cielo Es Una Manta.... by Ricardodaforce, on Flickr

Shadows.... by Ricardodaforce, on Flickr

Sunset by Ricardodaforce, on Flickr

En La Sombra del Toro by Ricardodaforce, on Flickr

El Embalse de Tibi by Ricardodaforce, on Flickr

Bitter Jeweler · Feb 20, 2011

#2 and #5 are my favorites.
The sun is well placed in both

NayLoMo6C · Feb 20, 2011

I like #4, the bull looks very imposing with the sun shining behind it

Frequency · Feb 20, 2011

Richard,

You astonish me with your quality of images; these are simply outstanding :thumbsup:

oldmacman · Feb 20, 2011

I'm a sucker for dramatic skies. Love 2 and 4.

Ricardodaforce · Feb 21, 2011

Bitter Jeweler said:
#2 and #5 are my favorites.
The sun is well placed in both

Thank you!

NayLoMo6C said:
I like #4, the bull looks very imposing with the sun shining behind it

Thank you!

Frequency said:
Richard,

You astonish me with your quality of images; these are simply outstanding :thumbsup:

Thank you, you're very kind!

oldmacman said:
I'm a sucker for dramatic skies. Love 2 and 4.

Me too! thank you!

tyler_h · Feb 21, 2011

First and last are my favourites; particularly number 5. I like the composition on it; the cacti in the foreground are a little distracting but nothing compared to the blown out sky on the right. Is this just from post or the sun sitting right in behind?

Ricardodaforce · Feb 21, 2011

tyler_h said:
First and last are my favourites; particularly number 5. I like the composition on it; the cacti in the foreground are a little distracting but nothing compared to the blown out sky on the right. Is this just from post or the sun sitting right in behind?

The sun is right there I'm afraid. I am very new to this photography thing but am enjoying it immensely. One of the things I have discovered recently is something called a graduated neutral density filter, and from what I can understand, it would have helped me hugely with that image. I need to start saving!

oldmacman · Feb 21, 2011

Ricardodaforce said:
One of the things I have discovered recently is something called a graduated neutral density filter, and from what I can understand, it would have helped me hugely with that image. I need to start saving!

An ND Grad will be difficult to use when the horizon is not flat because you don't want to cover any part of the mountains with the graduation in the filter. It will show up as a dark area in the landscape. You could try exposing for the sky and exposing for the land (bracket) and then blend them with photoshop or create an HDR.

Ricardodaforce · Feb 21, 2011

oldmacman said:
Ricardodaforce said:

One of the things I have discovered recently is something called a graduated neutral density filter, and from what I can understand, it would have helped me hugely with that image. I need to start saving!

Click to expand...

An ND Grad will be difficult to use when the horizon is not flat because you don't want to cover any part of the mountains with the graduation in the filter. It will show up as a dark area in the landscape. You could try exposing for the sky and exposing for the land (bracket) and then blend them with photoshop or create an HDR.

Ah of course! When I say I know nothing, I mean I know nothing. I guess I have just made myself look very silly eh! If I took 2 exposures, one for the sky, one for the land, could they be blended in photoshop elements?

oldmacman · Feb 21, 2011

Ricardodaforce said:
Ah of course! When I say I know nothing, I mean I know nothing. I guess I have just made myself look very silly eh! If I took 2 exposures, one for the sky, one for the land, could they be blended in photoshop elements?

No, not silly at all. I don't use elements, but as long as you can layer and mask out the right area to combine the best of both images, you should be good. The trick is getting good at masking so that no transition is visible between the two exposures.

Ricardodaforce · Feb 21, 2011

oldmacman said:
Ricardodaforce said:

Ah of course! When I say I know nothing, I mean I know nothing. I guess I have just made myself look very silly eh! If I took 2 exposures, one for the sky, one for the land, could they be blended in photoshop elements?

Click to expand...

No, not silly at all. I don't use elements, but as long as you can layer and mask out the right area to combine the best of both images, you should be good. The trick is getting good at masking so that no transition is visible between the two exposures.

Thank you. And I assume they'd have to be tripod shots so the framing was identical?

Forkie · Feb 21, 2011

Love the bull! Love it, love it, love it!

Ricardodaforce · Feb 21, 2011

Forkie said:
Love the bull! Love it, love it, love it!

Haha thank you! As anyone who's has a look at my Flickr account will see, I have a thing for these Toros de Osborne. Here are two more for you to enjoy!

An Osborne Bull by Ricardodaforce, on Flickr

Siempre nos mira, siempre.... by Ricardodaforce, on Flickr

tyler_h · Feb 21, 2011

For the first one a soft GND would probably be ok; just have to make some adjustments in PS afterwards to tweak its effect, but as mentioned far too hard with the second. Shooting at a different time of day could solve that problem for you with that shot though.