SeaCave Sunset (Best Viewed Large)

Vincent - I'm using a NEC monitor. It's not red per se, just reddish-brown that I'm seeing. But I've never calibrated the monitor either.

Thks for the good discussion on the photo and the digital/film choices. I only visit photo.net occasionally but it seems that 90% of the time the posters never reply to the folks who comment on their shot. That doesn't seem to promote learning. Yours reply was definitely worth reading. I'm also still in the film era, but was looking at the D80... However I found it (apparently) requires "CPU lenses" so to provide the 3-D matrix meter its required info, and if you use your older Nikon lenses, the meters will not work at all (yikes... Gee, thanks Nikon, for the big lump of coal). We'll see. -GB

This is one of many great shots by Vincent taken with Velvia. Vincent's shots are a part of a large body of evidence that Velvia is still better than any digital IMHO. I find no digital image that gives you quite these amazing magenta and green hues you can get with Velvia and Vincent's photos are proof of that to me.

I try to study quite a few landscape photos, both here on PN and in books of landscape photography. Recently I looked through a book of the "best landscape photographers" at the bookstore (sorry, I forgot the actual title, but it was something like that) and noticed that by far the greatest proportion of photos featured there were taken with some sort of Velvia (many not Velvia 50 as this would really be overkill with large format). As for my use of Velvia, I certainly don't come anywhere close to Vince in ratings, but the highest rating I have here on PN is on a photo I took using Velvia 50 at sunset in Laguna Beach, CA on New Years Day, 2005 after a lot of nice rain.

As for the consideration that the rock shadows could be brought out using digital HDR, multiple exposures, Photoshop tricks, etc...here again I have to agree with Vincent. I tried this. I also find it is very difficult to blend images in photoshop, and this is basically impossible when you have wind, waves, longer exposures etc. It is better to just plain tweak the shadows if that is what you want to do.

But in the case of this cave, again I agree with Vincent...it looks better left in shadows.

Great job!!!

Thanks Greg. Yes discussions are the only way anybody can learn anything. I always learn something new every time I post an image and get involved in some discussion. I agree with you on the lens headaches too. Nikon's newer lenses should all work on any newer camera with the Nikon name. Nikon has some real catching up to do in the digital world in my opinion.

Hello Chip. I must agree with your observations word for word... at this time. No digital capture looks as good as a transparency captured on Velvia. 100 ASA is good, but 50 is still the show-stopper! I have compared many times in many places. I do know.

That said, a world class Digital SLR AND Photoshop can do a very good job getting close to what Velvia delivers. Too close actually. In time, it will most likely come so close that it would be foolish not to switch to digital and enjoy all the perks that come with that format. Imagine never needing to scan again. That's big for me. No more film/developing costs. Huge memory cards that can hold hundreds if not thousands of shots. But for now, nothing beats what I see on the Lightbox with Velvia. Awesome film.

I also agree with one-single-shot winners. But have also seen amazing results a couple of times from some that shot the multiple exposures and blended. At this time it's just more work than I want to get into. Nor do I see the need to. I do use a tripod most of the time so it's definitely workable if needed. But have yet to see the image that was lost due to this problem. It also feels more natural than combining. Either way, technology has made some terrific strides that make the capturing of the beauty of nature that surrounds us all, regardless of lighting and conditions, more and more possible. THAT is only a good thing!

Thanks again for all the comments. Aloha.