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Last Saturday I attended my first Mini Meet. In fact it was such a Mini Meet it was myself and the meet insitgator, Cyanide. We met at 0700 hours at the designated location and managed to get some great shots. I had not attempted landscape photography before and was quite pleased with some of the results.

The first stop was Joseaphine Falls, (turned out to be one of many waterfalls visited for the day) and with the early morning sun got some nice lighting in the water. Then onto Paranell Park, followed by Milla Milla Falls and finally Dinner Falls and Sinkhole.

Comments and Critiques welcomed as I am here to learn.


This image is probably one of my favourites with the colour in the water in the shallows.


Taken at Milla Milla Falls around early afternoon. Not an inspiring shot but captures what a beaut swimming spot it is. Pity Im a sook and not a fan of cold fresh water. LOL


This image intreged me as it came straight from the camera and all I have done is crop it and border it. It looks like a HDR image but its just the settings I had the camera on. Dont know what they were but the result was something different.

Thankyou to Cyanide for a great day out. Great day had by all. Quality over Quantity. LOL

hrpremier

These were take at Dinner Falls and are my first attempts at HDR Images.
I've Still along way to go before I get to a standard Ive seen.
Still not a bad end result.






All Feedback welcomed

hrpremier

4869

I thought you handled the high contrast at Josephine Falls quite well in the first shot. Yes, the whites on the waterfall are a little blown but given how difficult the lighting was, this is a good result.

I quite like the off-centre framing of the falls in the second shot. It might be my imagination, but I think I see a *slight* lean in the waterline, as if it's not perfectly straight? But I had to crop quite a few of mine to get the photo horizontal so if this is "as-shot", then it's certainly not bad at all. (Mine were soooo much more slanty... how did I not see it in the viewfinder?!?!)

In real life, the ruins at Paronella Park stand out a lot more from the background greenery, but in photos they really blend in, don't they? Still a good shot. It would be great if there was some way to get a higher aspect on this scene, so that you could see into the pond in front as well - perhaps next time we should take a ladder?!

You talked about wanting to try HDR, so I was curious to see the results. You picked the most difficult of all the day's locations! What software did you use for this, and where did you get it? I'm not sure if I'm brave enough for HDR yet, but I'm still curious. I'm also wondering about the CA/colour difference in the merged shots (I assume this is related to the white balance) - is there a way to fix this via the software or is it something one needs to get right "in the shot"? Questions, questions....

I am still keen to try the cemetery at some point too, but the heat/humidity this week is putting me off - it's "only" 31 degrees but it feels like about 36!! Perhaps an early morning sometime.

I really like the colours in the third. In the second, I would have gone a bit wider or to the left slightly but you have done a good job of capturing the waterfall. As Cyanide says, the waterfall is a little blown out in the first. Did you have a tripod to lug around with you? Mini meets are a great way to learn from each other and share something with someone who has a similar interest.

I personally find the blown water highlights a little much, possibly if each image was underexposed a little more and levels used to bring out the best there might be an improvement. I find the HDR images a little flat for my liking, once again I'd pop them with levels.

Thanks to all who replied and left feedback. Good or bad Im always keens to obsorb opinions to improve.

I agree the white of the waterfalls where quite harsh but Im not photoshop smart to fix the problem properly.

The Milla Milla Falls shot I have cropped and tried to level as I to thought it a bit skew-if also but after trying to adjust I ended up with a similar result, (If the falls were level the foreground looked not quite right) so put it down to an optical illusion but I think it could still be improved.

The HDR Shots I know are each to their own. Some enjoy them, others dispise them but as I keep trying these type of shots I may learn to improve and get a more out of the photos.

Again thanks for your feedback.

hrpremier

4869