tylerwind

Dan--First of all, as a personal batting instructor I must say that the form this guy (whoever he is) has is pretty doggone near perfect! So, that makes a great picture in my mind. I have many baseball pics and get the ball coming off the bat a lot--it's a neat catch but to me doesn't really add much to the picture. One thing I might suggest since this is not a major league ballpark is to open up your lens as wide as it can go. The shot you have of the hitter is degraded because of the relatively sharp and fairly unphotogenic bleachers and crowd. I really find in my baseball shots at high school and college fields that the more you can blur the background the better. Great work!

Any thoughts or comments are greatly appreciated!

Thanks for the comments--I appreciate them all!

 

Dennis--Is the sharpness something I can correct in PS? I admit I'm ignorant on any type of post processing. All I did was took this image in RAW, converted it to a JPEG with no changes, resized, and posted it. So, there is no sharpening anywhere in that process. I need to learn to spot the "needs" of my pictures (things like lack of sharpness) and correct them in PS. My eye is still not sharp enough to look at a picture and say "Oh, that needs to be sharpened" or "That is over-sharpened." So, I appreciate an outside, objective opinion. Thanks for your comment.

Any thoughts or comments are greatly appreciated!

Dr. Guo--From everyone here at photo.net, WELCOME! Knowing you personally, I know that you are a extremely intelligent person who will do well in photography. Furthermore, I know that once you return home to China, you'll contribute much to the photo.net community by posting pictures which show all of us on the other side of the Earth a different culture and way of life. I encourage you to use this website to ask questions, get feedback on pictures, and learn. Trust me, your photography will improve rapidly if you use this website a lot. This shot is very interesting to me--a lot going on and a much different look than I'm used to on the docks here in Charleston! Keep up the good work and if you need anything at all, please don't hesitate to ask me!

Rachel--I guess you are right that having f/1.2 does make the lens faster (even when it's shut down to f/22 or f/32) so your exposure is not so long. However, I haven't even seen an f/1.2 macro lens! I have the Canon 100mm f/2.8, which to my knowledge is pretty much the best one Canon makes. I think Jason has the Sigma (right J?), which I think is also f/2.8 or something very close to that. My macro is pretty fast (to me at least) but I think the biggest problem is my attempts at macro work have been in very slight shade. I guess I need to look for things in bright, direct sunlight. I'll look more closely at what lenses others are using from now on--thanks for the advice!

Maury--Thanks for your comments...they are much appreciated!

 

Zack--I can't say I'm crazy about your crop because I think it leaves too little foreground. BUT, I think you are on to something and have a good point. I cropped it myself just enough to remove the incoming mini-wave so it accomplishes your goal of eliminating the distraction but still leaves some foreground and I think it looks pretty good. I'd like to leave the amount of foreground I have so the horizon is at about the lower 1/3 mark but I do see your point about it not fitting well. Despite my best attempts to prolong my exposure as long as possible, I could not perfectly smooth the water this morning like I can many others. However, I do have a ton of frames with this composition so I will review them to see if I can find some without a wave breaking up the foreground water. Thanks a lot for your thoughtful comments--you have a good point and I appreciate your assistance!

 

Chris--Great to hear from you my friend! Thanks for the compliments on my recent work. I will definitely be by to your portfolio to see what you captured on your trip East! Take care and be in touch!

Trish--Thanks for your comments. Yes, focus is off on this shot. I shot about 200 frames of this little guy and didn't get any better than this. I really had trouble getting good DOF. He wouldn't stop moving and my shutter speeds were too slow to capture this guy if he wasn't holding still. Furthermore, I was using a little table top tripod that will not hold my camera but will function as a sort of "monopod" to try to take the shots so I know camera shake was a problem in most of the pictures. Thanks for the comments...I'll be trying again soon!

You really nailed a tough exposure here, Glenn. Great choice going with the ND grad that I see in your details you used. I can imagine exposure here is a potential nightmare but you really hit the nail on the head. Excellent composition and colors as well--I always learn so much by looking at your work...thanks for posting it!

Any thoughts or comments are greatly appreciated!

Amazing shot with super detail in the foreground and distance. I love your colors. I'm interested to know what your technique was for the high dynamic range you had here--multiple exposures? HDR? ND Grad filters? I'm just wondering for my own education. Regardless, wonderful shot!

Zack--Thanks for your comment on my sunrise shot. This is among the more unique pictures I've seen on this site. Very, very creative and amusing!

Very basic, but perhaps the best shot I've seen all day. You really have some talent to take this relatively ordinary scene and create this image. Bravo! Spectacular work! Next time I get home to VA I'm heading out in the fields to try a few shots similar to this one--we have many of these "old oak trees" in fields where I'm from. I look forward to visiting your portfolio in the future to learn from you shots and enjoy your captures and hope you'll take a minute to visit mine as well. Again, wonderful composition and a stunning picture!

Terrific colors with an excellent composition. I'm interested in knowing (for my own education) what your technique was for getting such a high dynamic range? Did you use multiple exposures? ND Grads? HDR? Regardless, the result is very pleasing.

You worked that ND grad filter PERFECTLY for this shot...wonderful work! You really took a boring scene and made a GREAT photograph...I believe that is the sign of a truly great photographer. I look forward to visiting your portfolio to learn from you work and enjoy your captures in the future--I hope you'll stop by mine if you have a minute as well.

Jason--One of the more colorful macro shots I've seen! Nice composition, wonderful exposure, and out of this world color! The only critique I have would be a slight bit more DOF would be nice. This has been a major issue for me with macro--in order to get any DOF at all you have to shut the lens way down which then gives a long exposure and necessitates a tripod. Well, by the time I get the tripod close enough and the composition right the critter I'm shooting has been gone for about 5 minutes! (I'm exaggerating, but you get the point) This is a great effort...keep up the great work! I look forward to seeing more macro from you. How about a sunrise or sunset shoot sometime soon? You can check my folder to see what I've been shooting recently. Lastly, is the offer still open to add a couple simple things to my website for me? I know you've kindly offered many times but I wanted to be sure the offer was still good. Thanks for your help and I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Eric--Your creativity in creating this shot is out of this world! Absolutely great! Could you please share with us some of your settings (time of bulb exposure, aperture, ISO, etc.) I've often thought of trying true night shots like this but I have no idea how you get the exposure right. How did you know how to keep from overexposing the tent? Any comments you can offer are appreciated--you obviously have a firm grasp of this technique. Great work!

Marios--Thank you for stopping by to comment.

 

Thanks also to those who have rated this photo highly--I appreciate your support!

 

Lastly, thanks to all those who have taken time out of their life to give me below average ratings. I don't think this is the best photo of the day but if it really is "below average" I can't wait to go to TRP's and see the hundreds of shots that are rated higher! :)

Any thoughts or comments are greatly appreciated. I generally shoot

this lighthouse at sunrise with 200-300mm but I thought this was the

perfect day to break out the super wide angle and try some new

compositions. Thanks for viewing my work!

Very, very nice shot. As food for thought, did you consider moving to the right or left to stagger the boat and sun? I think I may like that a tad bit better but to be honest, this shot is wonderful exactly how it is!

Very nicely done! Love the wide angle effect with the blue sky, foreground rocks, and rushing water. Great work!

JK--Thanks for your comments. I believe you are correct--I think I did use the little boxes through my viewfinder to position the lighthouse 1/3 from the left. I've been shooting most things with the polarizer on to prolong my exposure (I know there is little effect directly into the sun). I was using 2 Cokin ND grads in front of that--a 1 stop and a 2 stop. People keep telling me I can't use more than 2 filters and that I can't shut my lens down too far but I've been getting pretty good results with good feedback so I'm still doing those things. However, I'm also shooting the other ways as well---after I get my composition I run through a complete +/-2 stops with no filters and then hit all the possible combinations with my 4 Cokin filters (2 neutral grads and 2 sunset grads). I then change my aperature, refocus, and do the same thing. Furthermore, with each filter I shoot with is in 4 different positions so I change the position of the gradient. I have this down to an art after much practice so I end up with a ton of exposures but I can put my remote in one hand and fly through them in no time. I generally shoot for 20-30 minutes and end up with about 450 frames. Again, I know what the "book" says but many times I get home and the f/32 looks worlds better than the "sweet spot" f/8...or, stacking some filters (as in this case) really turns out a pleasing result). This seems like the most logical approach for me...at least until I get good enough where I can look a scene and think "Hmmm...I think this needs a 2 stop ND grad and polarizer at f/22." I guess I think that...but I shoot the other ND grads and change my aperture to f/11 and f/32 just in case I'm wrong!

 

Thanks for reminding me about the pelicans--I have some absolutely great shots of them on a dock with a shrimp boat in the background which I knocked out of focus with my 100mm f/2.8. The only problem is the lighting is always bright on the boat and the pelicans are in the shade so it's a tough exposure. I'll stop by and check out your new work soon and go back and try to post some of my shots--I'd love to have your input on them if you don't mind!

 

Thanks again for your comments!

Hey Jenny! I like your idea here and think you made an interesting shot with nice, saturated, colors (at least in the top 2/3). I like how the colors are sort of "layered" into dark, light orange, bright orange, and then gradually fade to a deep blue. Some people will complain that your horizon is centered...I don't think this is a big deal as long as you have proper interest above and below that compliment each other well. I think if I were shooting this scene I would have zoomed in quite a bit and eliminated some of the foreground (which is too dark to see much) and some of the top blue (which is nice, but accounts for 1/3 of the image). Furthermore, zooming would put that nice orange reflecting water in the near foreground and I feel that would be a good point of interest for most viewers. You did a pretty good job with your exposure but you really need neutral density graduated filters (or, multiple exposures for blending in PS) to pull off a great shot in this lighting because the horizon is on fire and the near foreground is nearly pitch black. I hope these comments help you...I like your eye for spotting this scene and your low-light shooting so keep working at it and I'm certain you'll get some good shots.

Absolutely AMAZING, Paulo! I LOVE it! Spectacular composition and your reflections on the water are perfect. Your exposure is dead-on! You hit the nail on the head, my friend! By far the best picture I've seen today!

To whoever ruined my bid to have my second ever >6/6 anonymous rating average by giving me a kind 3/3...Thank You! The Bible teaches me to love my enemies and "bless those who persecute (me)." So, bless you, my friend! :)