DSLRUsers.com

Just got s.back from a week away at currarong on the NSW sth coast and what a beautiful place it is. the weather was sublime for people photos, overcast all week but apart from one day there was no great skies to take advantage of. i took a shitload of shots and here are the first 4.

all taken with the 24-70 and lee GND's.

the first 2 are of the same rock and cant figure which one i like best. the second suffers from a bit of camera movement as the wave crashed around me. waist deep in water was tricky.









thanks for looking, your suggestions for improvement are welcome. PS: i know most people dont like the borders...take it as read that i realise not having borders will make these more appealing to some. i'm ttrying to get criticism on the shot itself to improve my landscaping skills.

Of #1 and #2 I actually prefer #2. The isolation of the main rock as a result of the extra water covering the rocks bottom left makes it stronger for me, making it a more focused subject. I also like the slight movement that has come into the rock care of you being swamped, it adds to the movement and drama of the image to me, and hasn't hurt the background at all.

#3 is probably my favourite, again I like the strong solitary rock as a subject, and I think the sky here is really nice as well.

#4 is also delightful. Nice colours, nice contrast and good control of the bucket load of dynamic range in the scene.

Everything dawesy said!

#2 has a slightly surreal feeling to it - absolutely love it. Only thing is just below the rock there is a small dust bunny - either quick PP to remove, or could even crop a little further. (actually just checked the other images and needs to be cleaned on them as well

#4 - only thing I would maybe attempt on this if you have the RAW file still - underexpose it slightly to drop the sun flare slightly, and then maybe merge (either manually in PS etc or via photomatix or similar)

Cheers
Tom

thanks dawesy. just to clarify...there's actually 3 GND filters on the sunset one.
1.2/0.9/0.6 which is 9 stops.
the 1.2 and 0.6 were at top of image. the 0.9 was around the middle.

tommy, RE: #4 i agree 100%. regretfully my PP skills aren't up to that standard. although i am going to do a PS course very soon to try and help with that. layers do my head in.

i'm ttrying to get criticism on the shot itself to improve my landscaping skills

landscape shots are alot harder than they look in my opinion, whilst it is easy to get a half decent one that most people will go' wow' to, its hard to really nail both the awesome composition and appropriate PP treatment.

The idea of nailing down a single subject within your scene is a very good option, however I find you still need that other element to lead the eye thru the scene. For this reason I really like #3, it has that really strong subject (the rock) but also has some leading lines (the flowing water) that leads the viewer thru the image and finally to the sky. I would like to see this shot as a pano, however without losign any of your foreground or sky

I think ur PP is quite nice on the first few images, the contrasty punch works well with the cloudy scene

currarong on the NSW sth coast

yes, very nice area, greenpoint and that area is certianly one of the better areas without all the tourists

Was your gear actually out in the rockpools? eg on tripod? did you manage to keep it all dry or did you use protective covers? wow, great idea, i know what i would like to do next time i'm down near the beach! would love to know if you did use protective gear if so what? or an explanation as to how you kept your gear nice and safe!!

bigsarg7 wrote:Was your gear actually out in the rockpools? eg on tripod? did you manage to keep it all dry or did you use protective covers? wow, great idea, i know what i would like to do next time i'm down near the beach! would love to know if you did use protective gear if so what? or an explanation as to how you kept your gear nice and safe!!

on a tripod. no protective gear. you just need to keep a close eye on the swell cos there are times that the waves came in about chest height in which case you gotta grab hold of the tripod and lift it over your head. needless to say rock spikes are a must.

Standing ovation for risking your D700 and 24-70 for these shots!!!

If you want to throw away your gear, either Gerry or myself will take them off you. no charge.


I think the strongest is #4 but would need to tone the sun down a tad. Depending on how your camera handles highlights perhaps you have some detail there to recover in one of your brackets. The leading lines with rocks, trees in the distance make this the most balanced image IMHO. The others images are very appealing from a technical viewpoint but not as strong to stand on their own.

3rd and fourth one screams beautiful mood

I like #3. It has nice movment in it for me.

Awesome sunset, very nice indeed

Even though I like #4, I think #3 is the winner of the 4 with both great composition and great colour.

I like #2 the best but none of them relly does it for me.

No. 3 is the clear winner from this bunch, for me. The composition and lighting on this is really nice.

The first two seem to have the main point of interest smack bang in the centre of the image, which I would have tried to take the shot with the rock to one side (though this may be a personal preference thing).

No. 4 is a nice photo but the blown highlight spoils it (for me).
I would also have maybe taken one closer to the ground for a different perspective and had the horizon in the lower third of the image.

Love the sky in the 4th though....it looks wonderful !

thanks for the feedback for those that took the time.