*OFFICIAL* Snapshot of the Day (one image per post please) #2

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by PourBoi-Jay

Very new to photography....but here's one of my favorites from my Christmas vacation in St. Vincent & The Grenadines...more to come

Well done. Nice composition Justin.

Next steps, if you're interested. Use something like Lightroom or DxO Optics Pro to take out that barrel distortion caused by that 18mm lens. I'd pull up the shadows a bit also.

The sky looks interesting, so I'd probably have shown a bit more sky and less of the brown walk down below. In other words, get closer to the "rule of thirds." That a rule made to be broken, but when the sky is interesting, you show it off, usually.

99% of the images in this thread have been "tweaked" a bit. Not so much "heavy Photoshopping", although that's welcome, but more like adjusting Shadow and Highlight levels, correcting geometric distortion, raising Contrast a bit and adding Noise Reduction, if needed.

You can process as little or as much as you like. Just letting you know what the general trend is on this Thread, in case your wondering. Everyone is welcome.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by dcstep

Well done. Nice composition Justin.

Next steps, if you're interested. Use something like Lightroom or DxO Optics Pro to take out that barrel distortion caused by that 18mm lens. I'd pull up the shadows a bit also.

The sky looks interesting, so I'd probably have shown a bit more sky and less of the brown walk down below. In other words, get closer to the "rule of thirds." That a rule made to be broken, but when the sky is interesting, you show it off, usually.

99% of the images in this thread have been "tweaked" a bit. Not so much "heavy Photoshopping", although that's welcome, but more like adjusting Shadow and Highlight levels, correcting geometric distortion, raising Contrast a bit and adding Noise Reduction, if needed.

You can process as little or as much as you like. Just letting you know what the general trend is on this Thread, in case your wondering. Everyone is welcome.

What he said. Also, you'll notice your corners are dark. Especially the lower ones. That's vignetting, also from the lens. Photoshop also has the lens corrections for that. I'm not sure what the DxO app costs, but the Photoshop bundle with Lightroom is $9.95/mo and well worth it. Either way you go, correcting for the lens distortions and vignetting is an important post-processing step.

[M_Six]

I was going back through some RAW files from our UK trip back in Sept. There are still a few I missed processing.

Tintern Abbey


Tintern Abbey by Mark Johnson, on Flickr

[M_Six]

One more. This one shows what you can do with a 16mm lens when you shoot in portrait mode and then crop to landscape. Distortion can be virtually eliminated.


Tintern Abbey by Mark Johnson, on Flickr

[dcstep]

Mark, that 16-35mm is a great little lens. At 16mm, does LR get rid of the geometric distortion?

Two great shots of that abbey.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by dcstep

Mark, that 16-35mm is a great little lens. At 16mm, does LR get rid of the geometric distortion?

Two great shots of that abbey.

I don't use LR, but PS does a good job of lining things up straight. You lose a bit of the shot around the edges, but it's worth the trade-off to get straight lines. Keeping the camera level also helps tremendously, although by doing so you tend to get a lot of foreground, which can be a waste. That second shot had a ton of foreground grass in the original portrait mode, so I cropped landscape and still ended up with a decent shot.

[Itsed65]

Great shots Mark.

I really would like to travel to the UK again.

[PourBoi-Jay]

Originally Posted by dcstep

Well done. Nice composition Justin.

Next steps, if you're interested. Use something like Lightroom or DxO Optics Pro to take out that barrel distortion caused by that 18mm lens. I'd pull up the shadows a bit also.

The sky looks interesting, so I'd probably have shown a bit more sky and less of the brown walk down below. In other words, get closer to the "rule of thirds." That a rule made to be broken, but when the sky is interesting, you show it off, usually.

99% of the images in this thread have been "tweaked" a bit. Not so much "heavy Photoshopping", although that's welcome, but more like adjusting Shadow and Highlight levels, correcting geometric distortion, raising Contrast a bit and adding Noise Reduction, if needed.

You can process as little or as much as you like. Just letting you know what the general trend is on this Thread, in case your wondering. Everyone is welcome.

Originally Posted by M_Six

What he said. Also, you'll notice your corners are dark. Especially the lower ones. That's vignetting, also from the lens. Photoshop also has the lens corrections for that. I'm not sure what the DxO app costs, but the Photoshop bundle with Lightroom is $9.95/mo and well worth it. Either way you go, correcting for the lens distortions and vignetting is an important post-processing step.

Wow! Thanks so much, guys! I wasn't expecting this kind of response. I really appreciate any and all forms of feedback, so please keep it coming!

i spent about 30 minutes out in this spot that day, and took pics from several different perspectives. Hers another untouched image of a lifeguard post at the top of that hill. I captured a bit more of the sky here, and the chair was terrific in person. Hopefully this does it some justice..

Untitled by Justin McIntosh, on Flickr

I'll also look in to processing my images a bit. Can you folks recommend any good literature for me to study up on? Sorry for the noob questions...

Thanks again!

[Itsed65]

Intercepted! by lennycarl08, on Flickr

[dcstep]

Christmas Sun-star At Sunset

Christmas Sun-star Sunset by David Stephens, on Flickr

[dcstep]

Ed, great shot of two juveniles rough-housing.

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by PourBoi-Jay

Wow! Thanks so much, guys! I wasn't expecting this kind of response. I really appreciate any and all forms of feedback, so please keep it coming!

i spent about 30 minutes out in this spot that day, and took pics from several different perspectives. Hers another untouched image of a lifeguard post at the top of that hill. I captured a bit more of the sky here, and the chair was terrific in person. Hopefully this does it some justice..


I'll also look in to processing my images a bit. Can you folks recommend any good literature for me to study up on? Sorry for the noob questions...

Thanks again!

Welcome back and keep on coming.

This is a very nice shot, with pretty good composition. A classic error is that your horizon is not level. Almost all noob make this mistake, but once it's pointed out to you, you'll see it every time.

Those clouds look really interesting, so I would have emphasized them more and tried to get the tops of more clouds. I'm assuming that you're using a zoom and could have gone a little wider to catch more clouds.

There are more tutorials for Lightroom than any other software that I know of, BUT I'd recommend just diving in. It's pretty intuitive. After you've rolled around in it a bit, then take some tutorials.

Justin, I just looked over at your Flickr site and see two other, stronger versions of this scene. My favorite is this one, with a level horizon and the complete clouds:

Untitled by Justin McIntosh, on Flickr

[dcstep]

Justin, I hope you don't mind, but I took my favorite of your shots and re-cropped it to get the horizon out of the center and remove some "blah" grass. All rules are meant to be broken, but, generally, don't put the horizon right in the center of your images. I do that when there's a reflection, but avoid it in most other situations:

JustinsShotAtShore by Justin Mcintosh, on Flickr

What do you think? If you want me to take this down, let me know.

BTW, you may want to change your Flickr settings so that just any Tom, Dick or David can steal your stuff.

[Itsed65]

It was definitely "Eagle Day" this past Monday up at the NWR.

Bald Eagle #4 by lennycarl08, on Flickr

[PourBoi-Jay]

Originally Posted by dcstep

Justin, I hope you don't mind, but I took my favorite of your shots and re-cropped it to get the horizon out of the center and remove some "blah" grass. All rules are meant to be broken, but, generally, don't put the horizon right in the center of your images. I do that when there's a reflection, but avoid it in most other situations:

JustinsShotAtShore by Justin Mcintosh, on Flickr

What do you think? If you want me to take this down, let me know.

BTW, you may want to change your Flickr settings so that just any Tom, Dick or David can steal your stuff.

Thanks so much for the tips! I've already been trying to implement them into all of my other shots. I don't have anything worth sharing today, but I'll be heading to an old fort tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have something noteworthy to post.

Love what you've done with that image, haha.

I only made a handful of my images public. The rest are private. I'll keep them all under lock and key from now on

Thanks again!!

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by PourBoi-Jay

Thanks so much for the tips! I've already been trying to implement them into all of my other shots. I don't have anything worth sharing today, but I'll be heading to an old fort tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have something noteworthy to post.

Love what you've done with that image, haha.

I only made a handful of my images public. The rest are private. I'll keep them all under lock and key from now on

Thanks again!!

You're welcome.

You can make images Public in Flickr and still restrict the ability of others to right-click and download.

One last thought about the chair image. It looks slightly OOF (out of focus). Your f/11 f-stop should have provided ample DOF (depth of field), so I'm wondering if there's some camera shake. At 1/80-sec., you need to be very steady. Whenever you can get a lens with Image Stabilization or use a body that has it built in, use it. There's also a chance it's DOF. If so, move your AF point around to make sure it's on the chair. Turning on all the AF points and letting the camera make the choice is a recipe for OOF images.

Have fun,

Dave

[R3dliner]

Squaw valley Lake Tahoe

[M_Six]

Lydiard House and Park in Swindon, UK. The house itself was nothing special, but the park had the most amazing looking trees.


Lydiard House and Park by Mark Johnson, on Flickr

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by M_Six

Lydiard House and Park in Swindon, UK. The house itself was nothing special, but the park had the most amazing looking trees.

A tree-doctor did amazing things with the tree nearest the house.

[M_Six]

Yeah, I'm not sure if those lopped sections were dead or just recently lopped and expected to grow back. It almost looked like they were practicing bonsai on a very large scale.

Here's a shot of a similar one from closer to the house looking back out.


Lydiard House and Park by Mark Johnson, on Flickr

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by PourBoi-Jay

I'll also look in to processing my images a bit. Can you folks recommend any good literature for me to study up on? Sorry for the noob questions...

I still look at this every week:

http://digital-photography-school.com/

I don't agree with everything that they say, but it's mostly good and useful.

[Itsed65]

Where's Waldo? by lennycarl08, on Flickr