A few shots from Cronulla

[Hyena]

Went down to Cronulla this morning to take a few shots and continue learning the ins out outs of my new D70. Nothing ground breaking or overly dramatic, just having a play and learning as I go (so far my decent:crap ratio is 1:10 )










This one seems very contrasty - It came out of the camera pretty much like that. A bit under exposed ? Most of the ones that I exposed more blew the sky out alot which looked no good. Perhaps the time of day is to blame - about 8:30am so the sun was pretty low in the sky and quite bright over the water(off to the left in the above shots)

Another thing I'd like to improve is the sky. Alot of the pics I've seen posted here have great looking skies and clouds but mine look pretty grubby. It could be just the day, or is it more in the filters and PP ?

Hit me with the C&C

Cheers
Jay

[zafra52]

Hello Hyena, I like the second photo best because everything seems to be in sharp focus and the third one because I believe it is an abstract montage very cleverly done, but it is only an opinion for what it is worth.
Now, in a book I borrowed from the library one of the tricks is how to create those difficult photographs you talk about. It suggests you take two pictures of the same landscape using a tripod. One picture should be taken with the correct exposure for the sky. The second with the foreground correctly exposed. Later you combine the two pictures in your preferred software package using layers. Once you get it right, you blend the layers to make the final picture. It is a technique that I haven't used yet because I am also new and trying to cope with learning the camera, its several lenses and the different software packages. I tell you, it is almost a fulltime job!
But possibly you already knew all of this in which case disregard my suggestion.

[Hyena]

the third one... I believe it is an abstract montage very cleverly done

I may not be as clever as you think it's actually just a reflection of the units along the edge of the beach in the rock pools below them. They were actually quite a fair distance away to appear in the reflection, which I thought was cool - hence the photo. The photo has been inverted, the reflection was upside down but seeing as there's no sky or ground or any thing else that would look out of place the rotation goes unnoticed

[zafra52]

What can I say...? I like it even more. You are clever and artistic enough to have an eye for a good photograph. I mentioned already in another thread ithat is becoming very difficult to tell a genuine photograph taken as is afrom a picture which is in reality a composite of several photographs. Don't tke me wrong, I can see the artistic and technical side of using software to the max and create spectacular pictures, and call me old fashion if you like, but when I see science fiction I enjoy for what it is and I know that is is not reality. Anyway, I still think you did very well. In fact, you should consider transferring it to canvas.

[Justin]

I like #4 - very nice. Try some fill flash on the foreground and you may get a little less contrast in the foreground (-1.3 to -1.7 on the on-board flash)

Zafra52 - do a search on a very long post by 'energypolice' and see where that leads.

If you composite three photos that you bracketed to get the exposure then that is not sci-fi! And let's not get into what is reality discussion - any photo you take is not reality but an interpretation of the scene. Just changing the shutter speed changes reality!

[zafra52]

Justin, I meant something quite different - no provocation was intended. In a book that I am reading, the author takes two different photographs and creates something different. He puts a glorious sunset, which was not there behind the silhouette of a bridge that had a rather poor background. Nothing wrong with that because it is a demonstration and it is besides a very pleasing creation.
I guess what I was trying to say is that personally when I see a picture I like to know what is possible with a camera and the skill of the photographer and what is beyond its limitations and only achievable with software. By the way, I like sci-fi.

[digitor]

Nice shots - #3 is my pick, very nice, good thought with the rotation.

One thing you will have learned from #1 is just how much barrel distortion the kit lens has at the wide end! Easily corrected in PP though.

Cheers