Blue Mountains

[dervish16]

I recently went to the Blue Mountains to take some photos. Would love to know what you think of it. I know in some images I should have used a ND Grad filter but don't ahve one at the moment and didn't take multiple exposures to make a HDR image. Hope you like them

Chris

This is the three sisters with the moon in the background and a nice pinkish sky.


This is a friendly parrot near my cottage I stay at. Love the strong red feathers with the soft grey steel roof.



This was my first long exposure of flowing water.



Panorama of the Blue mountains bush. Took 6 shots and stiched together on CS5. Was taken with a B+W MRC CPL filter to bring out the blue sky and increase the saturation in the image. Although was a bit concentrated in the middle of the sky.

[CraigVTR]

Hi
Some nice shots. The parrot looks like a friendly little fellow, I you get another chance to shoot one try dialling the flash back a little, say one stop, to see if he can be balanced with the background a little better. Lorrikets (not that I am saying he is a lorriket) are prone to reflecting the flash off their feathers which makes them look a little bit hot.

I like the pano and the first of the three sisters, the flowing water is well composed in my opinion but the water is blown. Try a few differrent shuuter speeds to see is you can get the effect but with less blown highlights. A cpl used with this shot may allow the rocks under the water to show through as well.

[dervish16]

Hi
Some nice shots. The parrot looks like a friendly little fellow, I you get another chance to shoot one try dialling the flash back a little, say one stop, to see if he can be balanced with the background a little better. Lorrikets (not that I am saying he is a lorriket) are prone to reflecting the flash off their feathers which makes them look a little bit hot.

I like the pano and the first of the three sisters, the flowing water is well composed in my opinion but the water is blown. Try a few differrent shuuter speeds to see is you can get the effect but with less blown highlights. A cpl used with this shot may allow the rocks under the water to show through as well.

Thanks Craig, I appreciate that. It was actually a king parrot so it was pretty big but really cute and there were so many of them in Blue Mountains. Such a beautiful bird with such a lovely colour. I used a CPL filter for the flowing water but maybe should have turned the ring and adjusted it till the reflection was even more reduced. Next time I will try reducing the amount of shutter speed to not get an as blown out image. It was in the middle of the day too so the lighting wasn't helping.

[mattyshea]

Pano is excellent mate. Maybe a HDR on the moonlight shot of the 3 sister would have brought out some detail but still a great shot! keep it up mate.
matt

[dervish16]

Pano is excellent mate. Maybe a HDR on the moonlight shot of the 3 sister would have brought out some detail but still a great shot! keep it up mate.
matt

Thanks Matt. Yeah a HDR would be good but didn't take multiple exposures.

[Mr Darcy]

Yeah a HDR would be good but didn't take multiple exposures

If you took RAW, you can often get pseudo HDR out of a single image. Because JPG is only 8 bits and RAW is 14 or so bits, it is possible to squeeze extra information out in different areas of the scene.
Another reason to take RAW always.

[dervish16]

If you took RAW, you can often get pseudo HDR out of a single image. Because JPG is only 8 bits and RAW is 14 or so bits, it is possible to squeeze extra information out in different areas of the scene.
Another reason to take RAW always.

Yeah I did shoot in RAW but what is "pseudo HDR"? Is that just making multiple copies and varying each exposure and then making a HDR?
Thanks

[Mr Darcy]

It is not something I do but basically Yes.

[dervish16]

It is not something I do but basically Yes.

I tried it and the the image was improved a bit but not a significant difference. Although a good edit to remember. Thanks

[biggerry]

I quite liek teh first image, i love those blue and pink pastel colours - if you did take it in RAW i am sure you could selectively wrangle some detail from the shadows, that coupled with a little extra contrast (only a bit extra) and I think it would be very tidy.

I think this scene would have worked better with a portrait orientation to encapsulate just the 3 sisters, a bit of foreground and lots of that lovely sky. The moon, imo does not add alot to teh image, mainly due to its size and brightness!

[dervish16]

I quite liek teh first image, i love those blue and pink pastel colours - if you did take it in RAW i am sure you could selectively wrangle some detail from the shadows, that coupled with a little extra contrast (only a bit extra) and I think it would be very tidy.

I think this scene would have worked better with a portrait orientation to encapsulate just the 3 sisters, a bit of foreground and lots of that lovely sky. The moon, imo does not add alot to teh image, mainly due to its size and brightness!

I might play around with it a bit more on CS5 again. Yeah I agree with you, the moon although its a nice additive to draw the eye it's not essential and doesn't give too much to the image. While a more focused shot on the three sisters and the sky would maybe give a more appealing result.

Thanks

[surenj]

Can't see these pictures at work or home!

[dervish16]

Can't see these pictures at work or home!

Hmmm not sure why. They are Jpeg images. I can see them and it seems others can too. Not sure why you can't. Umm can you try on another computer at home? I'm new to all of this so don't know why...Sorry