First image post - Alpine Lanscapes

[rahudman]

Taken on a trip to the Remarkable Resort (Queenstown, NZ) is August last year. The shots where taken on my first digital, a Canon (gasp!) 3.2 mega pixel model. Have dx7590 kodak now, and getting my d70 with July tax return

Anywho, see what you think, be kind, and note that I have NOT edited these photos at all. I have only just begun using editing software, and to date, am not very good at it. Hope I resized them alright (not too small, not too big)

Here they are....


Off the side of the remarkables peak...


Same spot...



My favorite one I had to sprint my arse off to make it down there before the self-timer went off Me and my best friend soaking up the view.....


Remarkable(s) carpark view....

[W00DY]

Not bad Rahudman,

When you get your D70 make sure you get a polariser filter to darken up those skies. One thing I found when use a Polariser in the moutains was it really made the sky a dark deep blue (That was in summer time so I guess the theory would apply in winter also?).

Do you have any action pics?

W00DY

[rahudman]

Thanks woody. Was sitting here VERY nervouse wondering what someone would say. I have NO training, NO real tangible experience, and NO history in photography. I'm on the way to changing that soon. I just love taking photo's

I might make them bigger next time though. Gives a better idea of the scope and size of mountains.

Oh yeah, no action shots yet. Off to NZ in august for heli ski and riding, get some then.

Cheers

[rahudman]

Anybody got some feedback for me

[darb]

hi rahudman, thanks for the PM and request for critique ... nice snaps (great mountain ive skied there before.) ... but nothing special photographically.

im no expert! but my thoughts ;

What the others said about a polarising filter is very true, particularly on those bright blue days you can really tame the dynamic range and get brilliant rich colours etc (Cloudy days are another problem altogether.)

with regard to your composition you did say youre very fresh to it all (arent we all!) ... I'd suggest have a bit of a read about "rule of thirds" ... then try to remember it when you start doing more shoots. Also keep an eye on keeping your horizon level (this is hard i know ... the D70 grid will help lots.). On the one of your mate and you, I presume you didnt have any more zoom available? I always find with a "person" shot against a breathtaking backgronyud, tis still better to zoom in and have the person fill at least 50% of the frame, aswell as a section of the background as its really effective at showing the situation ... and it is a person shot afterall.

as for Circular Polarisers ... absolute MUST have. (theyre cheap.)

Also, find out the sweet spot of the lens youre using for sharpness, usually around the F8 mark ... use your camera in aperture priority mode. Remembering that slows teh shutter speed, and if youre using a circular polariser, it slows it a further 50% so you have to have very steady hands ... or tripod use. (naturally if youre shooting action sports you wouldnt have teh CPL on unless you have LOADS of light, you'd be shooting in shutter priority mode with the widest aperture available, to maximise the shutter speed ... so all depends what youre shooting basically.) That said, on a bright sunny day, if i KNOW that i have loads of speed even at F8, ill leave it on A priority so as to have maximum sharpness and be comformtable that camera will choose a fast shutter speed. ... but if its cloudy etc, then i'll stick on teh safe bet and keep the aperture set to widest possible, and most likely bump up to ISO400 if i really need to.)

Some snow examples, note the blue sky, allowing the foreground to be properly exposed, reduces glare adn allows much more rich colours, and massively widens dynamic range of an image.





(me skiing, mate took photos, he knows his SLR's)






my mate dave (he photographed me) .. me taking the shots now ;







action shots : try and get some refrence in the photos, and illustrate angles too .. easier said than done of course

[AlistairF]

Hi and welcome... You must be champing at the bit to get your D70!

One of the many D70 features you'll love for photographing snow is the histogram function. This will help you make sure that you don't over expose the snow. I also recommend using a Circular Polariser for such bright and glarey conditions as it will give you much richer skies and more detail with snow and other reflective subjects.

I really hope your tax-return comes in fast this year.

And since others have posted their snow shots... here a shot from my recent NZ trip in Feb.



Alistair

[dooda]

These are very nice pics. Reminds me of here except there aren't any trees.

The top two are very similar in every way. Of course, they are overexposed, which is unusual given all of the snow, generally the camera underexposes with snow which is better as less information is lost. These blown areas I think have no information and won't react to any lightening or darkening techniques in PP. They are composed well though. You know what I'd love to see? Those two shots properly exposed in BW with a slightly darkened sky. Some don't really like this, but I personally love it as it creates drama and art.
The picture with yourself and your friend is a very nice picture indeed. Over exposed but nice. It's a little too bad that you guys aren't a little more prominent. There's a little ledge off to the right, that would have been the perfect place to stand as you both would be large and you wouldn't be sitting right in the middle of the shot (which sort of dominates the landscape. This pic really feels like you're in the middle of nowhere on some kind of extreme adventure. Good job.

The bottom shot is nice, I wish the cars and machines on the left weren't there though. Exposure looks allright, albeit slightly blown on the left hand side.

These really make me want to pack up and go to NZ. Looks like spectacular stuff over there.

For some reason Rahudman you remind me of me when I first joined this forum. My talent was pretty raw and unrefined, but I was in love with pics, talking photography, and the comraderie felt through this forum. Though I still feel like a newbie and am humbled by the other's posts, I've come extremely far in knowledge. The tutorials on levels and curves introduced to me here escorted me into the world of PP which was difficult for me to get started in (and still really frustrating at times). I had never even uploaded a pic to somewhere before this. My first try I dragged a pic from Iphoto onto the message and asked if it worked . When I finally got the hang of it I was super charged up about others seeing my pictures and critiquing them. I still get a rise out of it for some reason. I love seeing that somebody commented on it, even if it was a simple two words.
I hope that I don't seem condescending here, but it's fun to see someone get on here really passionate about this forum and photography and a relative newbie like I was/am.

I guess this place is a really nice place to get your feet wet in the more serious aspects of photography. I personally am indebted to all that are regulars here.

Edit: Man there were two enormous posts since I last came. There is a lot of talk about CPL's. Be careful of them and don't get too carried away, they can make your sky blotchy, or just a little too dark (which is good if you want drama, but for action I wouldn't recommend going too dark). IMO some of the pics taken above are too dark.

[Matt. K]

Thanks for posting. I'll see if I can be a little helpful. Firstly...maybe a little too much sky in some of the pics. Unless there is something dramatic happening there then we don't really need to include it that much. Secondly...a P/filter can help....but you could darken the sky in an editing program once you come to grips with the tools available, so not a hugely big deal. Thirdly....each picture needs a hook. The hook is what gets the viewer interested. An overall beautiful mountainscape makes a great background for.....whatever you can find to put into it. People are good. As Darb pointed out, an interesting person a little closer up, or a flower, or duck or...anything. Get creative and see what transpires. By the way...the pics are very good. We want to help you make them brilliant.

[darb]

beautiful shot mate !!

personally id crop a bit of the foreground snow out, and lob a bit off the right hand side of the image ... but meh, thats just being anal

[Matt. K]

AlistairF
There are no rules in composition...but here's something I avoid if possible......empty foregrounds. Always try and capture something in the foreground of a landscape and it will be a better picture. I'm sure someone will post an example of an image that works beautifully with an empty foreground....but they are the very rare exception. Hope this is useful.

[darb]

rules are for breaking, provided theres good reason

rudhman : a couple of VERY quick photoshop cheats with your images .. probably a little overkill actually, but oh well, bit of fun.

To be honest, with your pics, the whole image is almost overexposed, i think ... the sky wasnt really the problem, you probably needed to set your exposure bias down a stop or two ... your foreground was way too bright. (sky maintained somewhat blue though.)

[AlistairF]

AlistairF
There are no rules in composition...but here's something I avoid if possible......empty foregrounds. Always try and capture something in the foreground of a landscape and it will be a better picture. I'm sure someone will post an example of an image that works beautifully with an empty foreground....but they are the very rare exception. Hope this is useful.

I kinda think the red helecopter on the right hand side is in the foreground, and on paper, the glacial patterns and textures in the snow are also foreground subject matter. Because it's a 200 degree pano, the chopper is in foreground on the right, diminishing to peaks on the left. PS. Good rework of the images darb! A big difference.

[darb]

alistair : i take back my comments on your pano .. i didnt see the chopper!

[rahudman]

Thank you SOOOOOOOOO much guys Keep the ideas and opinions coming. I am keen to learn, and feel like I just learnt HEAPS more in about 2 minutes of reading you responses.

Like I said, the camera was VERY basic. The only control I could use was pressing the little moutain scenic button.

The idea of having the two of us really small was to "take it all in" and show how grand the area is. You know, how people are nothing campared to nature etc. But, I will take you thoughts on board.

This stuff was taken last year, and I have improved a bit. Not living near the snow makes it hard as I only get two-three weeks per year to practice. But, I am moving to the snow permanently in a couple of years.

Yeah! Lookign forward to the d70!!!!

Thanks heaps again, and keep it coming

p.s. what do you guys think I should do for beginner photography study/coarse in Brisbane

[rahudman]

Yeah nice work on the pictures! Thanks.

Got to go, drop back in tonight. Keep it coming...

THANKS!!!!!

[darb]

The idea of having the two of us really small was to "take it all in" and show how grand the area is. You know, how people are nothing campared to nature etc. But, I will take you thoughts on board.

yeah i used to think that, but ive found its far more impressive if the people involved do fill a lot of the frame ... they are the subject, and with the rest of teh background still showing the awesome backdrop, the message still gets across

Sometimes less is more, as they say. (then again, if i do a zoomed in shot like that, i still always have a "wide" shot of just the scenery on its own, with noone in it.)

[darb]

try a book(s) by ansel adams, cant remember the names of them .. google around.

[xerubus]

some good shots there... my criticism would be that the highlights are blown ... but hey... get your d70 and see what you can do.

cheers

[dooda]

p.s. what do you guys think I should do for beginner photography study/coarse in Brisbane

Personally I think that you should find some good books and mags that introduce you to some concepts. Go to the library or a bookstore or something and spend some time studying it all if you haven't already. Then taking a course will pay off better value as you'll gleen more from your interaction, you'll soak in the concepts quicker, and advance quicker. Personally I don't think that anyone needs a course to learn the basics. Shoot, you could put together a good course with searches on this site. That's assuming you haven't done this already. I'm just looking into my first course now.

[Matt. K]

AlistairF
Whoa!
I also didn't see the chopper. Needed to scroll the page. Sorry. The chopper pulls it all together nicely. A very nice landscape and well put together. Would make a fabulous print!

[rahudman]

THANK YOU ALL VERY VERY VERY MUCH

You have all been of great help. So nice to log on and see that while you have been busy with other things, people have been adding their view on my pictures. Would like to respond to you each personall, but just don't have the time.

Like I have said before, the camera that look these was my first digital, and has only a basic zoom. That is partly the reason that the "people" shot has so far away. That said, and not knocking what you guys have said, I like having all the texture and different elements (lake, snow, rock etc) in the pictures. Feels like you are really ontop of the world. But I will explore all your thoughts on the issue, as you feedback is appreciated and very strognly noted (ie. people bigger in the picture).

As to moving around in that shot, just not possible. If we were to take one step backward or side ways, we would fall down the cliff/mountain drop that is less than a metre behind us As is is I was scared as hell that I was going to slip off the edge when I ran down to beat the self timer

Thanks again guys. I really do feel part of the forum now, and love all the feedback. Nice to be in communication with a bunch of like minded people.

Also looking forward to my tax return. Birddog, if your listening, keep one aside for me

[rahudman]

I will put up a few other ramdom images today. Like before, no editing, and basic camera. Shots that I just like for the way they make me feel.

Cheer