natureslight

Hi Jeff -

This is stunningly beautiful. I love the colors, the amazing fire red mixed with the last purple-blue of the day's clouds is simply fantastic. The foreground  tufa is a nice anchor for the image. All-in-all, a perfect image, well composed and well seen. Thank you for sharing it with us.

Irene

Thank you for the feedback. Mike - yes, I used a tripod. I have some joint issues so I tend to rely upon my tripods for much of my work and certainly for anything this small and close. The lens was the Canon EF-100mm, 2.8.  I noticed the noise, but am still trying to learn PS and how to deal with noise. I know that noise can be an issue when dealing with variations in light within a macro image and also that noise can occur when using a high ISO. How to deal with noise in post capture processing is something I'm still learning. Thanks, again, for viewing.

Irene

Hi Arup -

This is absolutely stunningly beautiful! I love the soft and peaceful feel to the image. The silkened effect of the water and the crisp and extremely sharp flowers compliment each other very well. I also really like the colors, the strong white of the flowers, the gold and blue of the water, with the small white of the wave and the curve of the branch are perfect. In way of an extremely tiny nit-pick, I might clone out the wider black part of the branch toward the top of the image, but this is really very minor and doesn't distract from the beauty of the image. Very well done, thank you for sharing.

Irene

Hi Richard -

Congratulations for seeing the potential beauty in this common day scene. I lovehow you composed the scene with the old barns, the trees and foreground grass and snow and then the moon far on the distant horizon. The stratus clouds just add interest to the composition. Sometimes seeing the scene is the hardest part of creating a good image. I like this image very much and thank-you for sharing it with us.

Irene

Hi Leo -

I kept coming back to this image, attracted by the beautiful colors of the flowers and the soft, gentle feel. The purple and yellow of the lower petels is remarkable. I can well understand why you would love this orchid and look forward to its yearly bloom.

I am no expert with Photoshop and continue struggling with varoius aspects of the software, so please take this with a grain of salt. However, I wonder if there is a way to eliminate the halo effect where you applied the blur. I like the idea of the soft off focus edges to the flower, but the halo is somewhat distracting. Otherwise, this is a truly beautiful image. Thank you for sharing it with us.

Irene

Hi Rick -

I love the soft colors in this image. I also like how you captured the sharper flowers through the foreground of softly blurred flowers. I do wonder how the image would look had you gone somewhat lower so that the in-focus flowers were shown in their entirity, including the top of the flowers and, perhaps, just a tiny bit of space on top.

Thanks for sharing this image.

Irene

All feedback and constructive criticism is very welcome. Thanks for

viewing.

Just to be clear: The colors in this image were not enhanced or manipulated in post-capture processing and I did not use a filter. Sometimes in summer, when all the elements fall into place at the same time, we can get these amazing sky colors for just a few minutes. This day I just happened to be in the right place, at the right time, with the right camera and lens.

Hi Eriks - this truly is a beautiful image! I like the soft peacefulness of the fog, the shades of green that help define the hills and valleys leading up to the tree.I also like how you captured the gentle curves of the hill and the softly blurred background. My single very nit-pick suggestion would be to clone out the marker stakes as they add nothing to the image and prove a small distraction. Of-course, this is only a small nit-pick and the image remains very well done. Thanks!

Irene

Hi Chantelle - I like everything about this image from the broken stones, the texture of the stones and the cracks to the bright green of the plant growing up from the rubble. The compostion, with the plant just off center and leading to the right, works very well also. I even like the title you chose! Personally, I love shots that show the photographer is paying attention to the small details that produce beauty in unexpected places.

Irene

Hi Maria - I think I know what you trying to capture here, the beauty of fall leaves, the red and contrasting yellow of fall. However, the image lacks critical sharpness and the patch on the left top is particularly distracting due to the blur. You didn't include any information on camera or settings, but I suspect you probably tried using a low F-stop (large aperture) to shoot the leaves. In this case, I might have chosen a much higher F-stop (smaller aperture) to ensure maximum sharpness throughout the image. Although this can be challenging if you are attempting to isolate a subject from its surroundings, in this case, I don't think you would encounter that issue. Finally, I generally use a tripod when shooting such scenes in order to ensure the sharpness.

In addition to the sharpness problem, if your intent is to capture the reds, golds and oranges of fall leaves, you might want to try different white balances to help bring out the colors stronger. In addition, although reflections are not an issue with this type subject, I might still use a polarizer to help pump up the colors a bit more. Another choice might be to use a warming filter. Good luck and keep working on these type images.

Irene

Hi Somnath - as you probably know, this is one of the most photographed sites in Yellowstone and, although it appears to be an easy capture, I've found it difficult to capture the magnificance of the falls along with the colors of the surrounding landscape. In this instance, I believe you got the compostion fairly well executed, but the colors appear a bit off on my monitor. I'm wondering if your white balance was a bit off since the green and blue in the image appear somewhat unnatural. This is a problem I've experienced when attempting to photograph these falls in anything but very early morning or late afternoon light. The issue, at least for me, is the dark green of the surrounding trees combined with the red-gold of the canyon walls and the blueish-green of the water. When shooting in bright mid-day light the reflections can be quite awful (not a problem here) while capturing accurate colors of all elements is troublesome. I've had some success by creating two separate images, one metering off the water and a second metering on the canyon walls. I then combine both images in PS and correct any off colors. However, if I photograph the falls in early morning light, many of these issues resolve without having to do any extensive post-capture editing.

One final suggestion: I might choose to crop the image to eliminate the colorless/featureless sky above the falls. This elminates what is essentially a non-complimentary element from the image.

Hi Patrick - I like the idea behind the composition of this image, the curving pathway heading into the trees. Unfortunately, at least on my monitor, the image is very over-exposed making everything appear washed out. I wonder if you shot this during the mid-day and thus had to work with the brighter skies and perhaps sun. Personally, I try very hard not to shoot these type scenes during mid-day and if I have to, I then use a polarizer to help deepen the colors. There are certainly things you can do in Photoshop or other image editing programs to increase the color saturation and contrast, but working with overexposure is always frought with challenge. Nonetheless, I do like the concept you were attempting to achieve.

Irene

Hi Dave - this is simply beautiful. I like how you used the slow shutter speed in order to capture the sense of quiet peace of the post-sunset light and the coming of evening. The colors are wonderful. I also like how you led the eye into the image from the foreground rocks through the top where you placed the boulders at the edge of the ocean. You also managed to capture those precious and beautiful last streaks of red, pink and purple of the sky as the sun fades. Overall, a very nice image.

Irene

I love the colors in this image and, for the most part, the composition works well. My single nit-pick suggestion would be to eliminate some of the bright blue in the upper frame. Perhaps crop the image about half way up the blue sky portion. Otherwise, it's  beautiful.

Hi Janice - yep, I've been there! You wait for the right moment to capture a subject, set up your camera just right, select your exposure values, white balance, etc. You wait...and then the right moment arrives, you push the shutter and feel "I got it! Yippee" and then you look again and...*@#@!@ stupid (whatever) is the frame, why didn't notice that before I hit the shutter? The worst is when you think you've captured that once in a blue moon shot and everything looks great until you notice some unintended object in the frame. Ah, the joys and challenges of photography! Try again - it's a nice subject.

Irene

This image is very over-exposed. I went through your gallery and would like to offer a suggestion a pro once gave me when I was new to serious photography: Attempting to capture decent images during the strong sun hours of the day -generally mid-day - is very difficult. When photographing flowers, I find the best time to capture a decent image is either early in the morning, when the sun is fairly low on the horizon or late in the afternoon when, once again, the sun is lower on the horizon. Direct sun will often wash out colors completely, thus giving the results you see here. The other issue with strong sun, are the bright white spots you see in this image. These are generally due to lens flare - when the sun (or other light) reflects off the lens surface or creates phantom patches of light in the scene. If you have no choice but to shoot during mid-day in strong sun, there are things you can try. A diffuser - basically a circle or rectangle of light filtering material - can help reduce the strength of the sun and create a softer light. You can purchase photographic diffusers in most camera shops or you can try making your own using light filtering material and some sort of frame. I've created diffusers using embrodery hoops and thin cloth. Another option sometimes available is to photograph flowers (or other subjects) are are partially or wholly in shade. I hope this has helped.

Irene

Hi Danny - I'm a sucker for anything mountain, so I had to view this image and I am not disappointed. I really like the composition, the stream in the foreground, the boulders leading up toward the mountains and the surrounding trees all work well. I would love to see this in better light, but then sometimes the time of day and the light simply don't follow our schedules. I've found many a similar scene that has the harsher light of mid-day and bemoaned the fact that returning at a better time is simply not possible. At any rate, this is a nice image of a beautiful scene.

Hi Anne - you captured incredible light in this image. I love the softness of the light and the depth of the colors. I tend to like my images of birds to be sharp, but in this image the softness of the loons (?) works very well. The sense of peace and quiet associated with evening is well represented. The only jarring note to my eye, is the band of bright white and orange toward the top of the image. I'm not sure of the source for this light, but it seems out of place with the rest of the image. Otherwise, this is a wonderful image.

Irene

This looks a like a beautiful and peaceful place. The problems I find are the strong contrast not in color, but in exposure. The bottom half of the image is exposed close to natural, but the top half is over-exposed. I'm guessing you shot this in bright sunlight with the bottom part of the water being in shade. This is an almost impossible scene to expose correctly. You could try two exposures, but even then you have the issue of bright light on the top half of the water. Personally, I would try shooting the scene at a different time of day when the light -if not even - would at least not be so bright. I would also consider using a polarizer to help eliminate some of the unwanted reflection so the reflection I wanted would stand out better.

The other issue I have with the image is that my eyes kept looking for a place to settle. While busy scenes can be interesting, I think you need some feature upon which the eye can settle, at least for a moment. The bright orange leaves/flowers(?) on the right hand branch might be of interest if you recomposed the scene so that branch became the center of interest. Keep working these type scenes, you have good ideas, you just need to experiment until you find what works for you.

I love that you had the creative motivation to attempt an unusual approach. It's too easy to get stuck in the usual mode of composing and shooting an image and then to stop trying new and creative means for creating images. Unfortunately, this doesn't work for me, but I like the idea. What I might have tried different is to have greatly reduced, if not completely eliminated, the large yellow-green area at the bottom. I would also have composed the image so the flowers were completely in frame rather than running out of the frame at the top. If you are going to use selective focus - which is what you tried here (I think) - then the area of focus needs to be tack sharp. If the yellow center of the flowers is meant to be the selected in focus area, it is too soft. I do hope you continue making these type shots and finding creative ways of capturing what you find interesting or beautiful. We need more creativity in the world!

Hi Dave- this is a very nice image. You managed to capture the egret and his reflection quite well. In terms of "even good can be better" there are several things you might consider: first, the reflection is almost running off the page. You could recompose, but because these type shots are generally "catch it now", a possible post capture solution is to crop the top part of the image thus placing both the egret and his reflection without the top blue. Of-course, this still places the reflection on the edge of the image (less than desirable), but without the large expanse of blue on the top, the effect is lessened somewhat. I hope that makes sense to you!

The second issue (I am picking at nits here) is the egret is a bit overexposed. This is a chronic problem when photographing white birds against a blue sky or blue water. You can try underexposing the egret by 1/3-1/2 stop or, again in post-capture, adjust the contrast and saturation of the egret using the sliders. The idea is to try showing a bit more detail in the feathers of the egret.

Please don't think your image is not good - it's quite good, but there is almost always some room for learning and improving.

Hi Taner - this is a very interesting image. I like the light reflecting toward the middle left of the image and the wave foam at the bottom. The problem to my eye is that large hunk of solid black at the left hand front of the image. I wonder if this would have been more powerful if you were able to step to the right a bit so that you captured that beautiful golden light on the cliffs along with the white foam, but without the black empty space. Of-course, you might also just crop out the black nothingness and this might bring the eye to the gold light without the distraction. I do like the mood of the image.