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Dragged myself out of bed at 5:30am to a brisk 6 degrees and mostly clear skies to catch today's sunrise at some old rail sheds that are now used for hay storage...

Wow. That's a strong set of images Adam. #2 is the weakest for me and I'm a little put off by the composition in the last. I suspect that was forced on you by trying to get clouds and shed in the frame (which I'd be aiming for as well), but I'd like an image taken standing a little further to the left giving more shed and moving the clouds a little over.

For the one of the rows of bales - did you take any looking along the rows (no shed)?

Wow - thats a LOT of hay bales!

The first is the strongest for me.

stubbsy wrote:Wow. That's a strong set of images Adam. #2 is the weakest for me and I'm a little put off by the composition in the last. I suspect that was forced on you by trying to get clouds and shed in the frame (which I'd be aiming for as well), but I'd like an image taken standing a little further to the left giving more shed and moving the clouds a little over.

Thanks Peter. I was very rushed with the clouds shot. It was just a small patch of clouds that passed over me quite quickly and I struggled to get set up with my Big Stopper in time to catch them properly. That's the best I could do on this occasion.

For the one of the rows of bales - did you take any looking along the rows (no shed)?

I did from the other end and I disregarded the images since I was facing towards the light. After that I completely forgot to shoot them from the other end.

The light! Pure gold! I think #3 is the most interesting composition but I also think you might have slightly over sharpened these, They look a little unnatural in that regard. Also, I think you might have framed the sheds a little too tightly. If you back off and give them some room to breath, (that fresh country air), they will stand out in the landscape and the viewer will get a bigger sense of 'country'. Nice bunch of images nevertheless.

Thanks Matt.
Most of these have been cropped a little. I usually shoot with a bit of room to allow for any cropping if I use any angle correction, so there should be a bit of room to pull them back out.
I usually sharpen quite high and then make it away considerably so it's only working on the edges. Maybe I've done it a little too much? What about them makes them look over sharpened?

Funny, I like the second best followed by the 3rd one.
I quite like the tall dried grass in the foreground of
the second, just as the roll of hay drive your eyes towards
the buildings in the 3rd. By the way, lovely colours in
all of the pictures.

Adam
They are knife-edge sharp slightly beyond a point of sharpness that can be attained with film. Perhaps it's just my long film experiance...but I see this kind of sharpness frequently in magazines and it looks artificial to my eyes. May be just my personal taste working here, but I found in my early days of going digital I also tended to oversharpen and have gradually pulled it back a tad over time. By the way, this is a very minor point of critiscism with your images and others may...probably will....disagree. They are still glorious iconic Australian outback images.

Thanks for the explanation Matt.
I didn't see any halos appearing, so figured I could get away with it. I'll try a little less sharpening next time, but I must admit I do like a sharp image.

Looks like you found a pot of gold.

I quite like #3 and #4 but you need to pano em to make them stronger.