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Took the family to Maroubra Beach yesterday and tried out the Tamron 70-300mm.

Pretty happy with most of the shots. Posted some in my Pixspot gallery http://www.pixspot.com/index.php?cat=10041

Would love to hear some feedback.....this is the first real outing I have had with the camera.

Cheers
Deb

Deb - considering this was one of your first real outings with the D70 I must say I am impressed - especially with the lens (and of course you).

Now I suppose to bring in the required critique
1 Victory is had. . . background distracting if the birds had been photographed with the sea as the background it would have made them more prominent.
2 Man this heavy. . . straighten your horizon in PS
3 It’s a hard . . . I really like this photo but, again, the people in the background are distracting
4 Looking for shells... lovely shot - sharp. Horizon needs a tad straightening
5 Single guy - fine
6 Yep, pole. . . I do actually like the pole out of his head it suggests that surfcraft are not permitted on his head

7 The fight is on. . . the same as 1 plus there seems to be some over sharpening in this pic - halation around birds legs
8 Lifeguard. . . in this one I would straighten the verticals
9 Acckkk. . . I like - childrens expressions are timeless

Hope this helps Deb - remember it is only my opinion.

Please also check Birdies post on councils banning cameras from beaches!!!!

Chris

Great explosion of colours - seagull feedings and the surf life saving people. I thought the single seagull one was a bit too overprocessed (Auto contrast and/or auto levels look to it).

When photographing children direct eye contact can give an image a lot more power. That is not to say that every pic should have eye contact....but try a few with and a few without and I'm betting you'll tend to like the eye contact shots best most of the time.

Thanks Onyx and Chris, I am in serious need of feedback so truly appreciate the time you took.

The pp I did on all images was quick and nasty....a simple levels adjustment using the levels command (not auto), resized and then sharpened.

I agree on the oversharpening on some of the images. I used the same on all photos......one I used to run over my images taken from my Olympus..which looked good but maybe the Nikon doesn't need as much.

Will go back and look at the images that need straightening and see what I can do. I was feeling very obvious sitting on the beach with this huge camera....got some very strange looks so I guess didn't spend as much time composing as I should have.

I loaded the Digital Agfa Optima curve the other day and with these pics I think it did an OK job.

Oh, and I am happy with what the tamron did yesterday. The beach was completely covered in spray (which did concern me some) and although you hear little good said about the tamron I think it did fine. Some of the shots at the 300mm end weren't great.....but you can't have everything.

Cheers
Deb

Ok, had a small play is photoshop......are these fixes OK?

Original
http://www.pixspot.com/displayimage.php?album=71&pos=11

Fixed (needed horizon straightened)
http://www.pixspot.com/displayimage.php?album=71&pos=12


Original
http://www.pixspot.com/displayimage.php?album=71&pos=8

Fixed (needed horizon straightened)
http://www.pixspot.com/displayimage.php?album=71&pos=9


Original
http://www.pixspot.com/displayimage.php?album=71&pos=3

Fixed (needed verticals straightened)
http://www.pixspot.com/displayimage.php?album=71&pos=4

Any better? I think I might of gone too far in the other direction with the surf rescue boat.

Cheers
Deb

A lot better Deb.

What process do you use in PS to straighten? Do you use the measure tool or progressive guessing!

Chris

I tried to use the suggestion here.....but it didn't seem as easy as they made it sound....so I guess I missed a step somewhere......so something between the two is probably more like it.

Deb - if you are referring the post made by Marvin to use the measure tool then that is correct:


”An easy way to straighten your horizons in Photoshop (CS is the only one I have so not sure if you can do it in others) is to select the measure tool (if you right click on the eyedropper you will see it). Then rule a line from one side of the crooked horizon line to the other. Next, select "image", "rotate canvas", "arbitrary". Then just click OK and your canvas is rotated to straight. You then need to crop it.” Quote thanks to Marvin

Once you get used to doing this method it becomes second nature.

Chris

OK, so when I clicked the measure tool, placed the line across the image and pressed rotate canvas arbitrary the next prompt was for an amount....to which I guesstimated and pressed enter (or OK whatever it says)...the image moved, the line dissapeared and I had to start all again if I didn't guess the amount correctly.

Is that right?

Boy, am I glad I am in the first photoshop workshop.....I really need it

HappyFotographer wrote:OK, so when I clicked the measure tool, placed the line across the image and pressed rotate canvas arbitrary the next prompt was for an amount....to which I guesstimated and pressed enter (or OK whatever it says)...the image moved, the line dissapeared and I had to start all again if I didn't guess the amount correctly.

Is that right?

Boy, am I glad I am in the first photoshop workshop.....I really need it

No - wrong. OK with the measure tool selected (by the way I use a mac so maybe slightly different) place the mouse so that the point of reference is over one end of the horizon. Click and drag to the other end of the horizon and release. You will end up with a line running across the horizon. Then go to image in the menu bar and scroll down to rotate canvas - arbitary. When you look at the dialog box that comes up it will show an angle - just click OK and your horizon will be level.

Hope this helps

Chris

And the fog clears.....

sirhc55 wrote:Hope this helps

Thank you, it does.