regis

Beautiful, minimalistic composition. I can almost feel some .... ethereal feel to this shot. Perfectly executed (exposure-wise) etc. too. Have you considered cropping it to a panoramic format ? I guess it would work really well. Cheers, Piotr

Ben Aan, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, Scotland

View from the top of Ben Aan (455m) You can see Loch Katrine and Ben

Venue (737m) on the left.

It's been a while since I posted anything here but I wanted to share

some of my recent work with a larger PN audience. This is another

attempt to photograph this location - which I must admit offers

excellent views for its relatively tiny altitude. Hope you'll like it.

Please have a look at the larger version. Your comments/critiques much

appreciated.

Piotr

No offense Tony - but the main photo looks ... quite horrible to me !!

All I can say is that you've gone a step too far playing with saturation sliders and basically "butchered" quite a nice scene.

It certainly has a "WOW" factor, but ... it's that kind of a wow you ... don't really need.

Composition-wise I think there is too much emphasis on the grass foreground. I would personally prefer a bit more water with that gorgeous reflections on it.

Just a thought really !

Cheers

Piotr

Hi Lester.

Very relaxing view.

Nice and effective composition, but the color saturation (blues especially) is way over the top for me. Look what happened to that mountain in the background.

I would simply suggest to be a bit more "realistic" when playing with the sliders.

Regards

Piotr

Ryan

I'm sure you are aware of number of different ways you could do this.

One of the simplest (and quickest) way would be to apply the (Hue/Saturation) adjustment layer, select Blues only (alt+7) and move the saturation slider to suit your taste.

Also - you might want to select "Color" blending mode - just to leave the overall contrast untouched.

I've attached a screenshot to demonstrate what I'm talking about.

Hope that helps

Piotr

Very painting-like.

Simple, but very effective composition.

Lovely light and colors.

You could probably apply a bit more sharpening here, but that's just a nit ;)

Cheers

Piotr

Wow !

I know this spectacle is amazing and there are plenty of similar shots here on PN, but this is nothing but excellent.

Beautiful capture and very good exposure handling.

Everything just works here.

Piotr

PS. Hope you had some spare gloves :)

Wow

That's a true killer !

Pretty amazing spectacle and nothing but a flawless composition.

I wouldn't change a thing here

Very well done !!!

Piotr

Simple. but very effective composition.

Gorgeous light and lovely 3-D "feel" due to that waving landscape.

Not quite sure about that blue cast on the snow (you could try and desaturate it a bit), but ... it's nothing really major.

Cheers

Piotr

Kevin

Lovely scene and some amazing light you've captured here (beautiful glow around the waterfall).

Composition-wise it's a very good idea you've decided for a square crop. Everything here balances itself in your frame.

I would only move the main subject (the waterfall of course) closer to the lower-left corner and leave a bit more sky in the upper-right one. In that way it would be even more "striking" and you would place your waterfall in a stronger focal point.

Finally - my other criticism is to do with the exposure handling. You've done a very good job with almost entire frame, but sadly the sky is pretty much burnt-out (which is a bit of a shame).

Not sure whether it was a single exposure or whether you've used any filters here, but I'll try to see if you could do something about it.

All in all - it's a lovely view and definitely worth a flawless execution.

Hope that helps

Cheers

Piotr

John

Stitching a panorama can often be a very tricky one. Manual exposure (locked for all individual shots is a must, but that's just a part of the story (a beginning)).

Most important thing is to keep your camera leveled and make sure you've left enough overlap between individual shots.

It also matters what focal length you're shooting at - as coming close to wide angle introduces some nasty distortions (which you can partly eliminate by leaving larger overlaps).

Compact cameras like your G11 shouldn't, however, suffer from this problem as it is mostly an issue with SLR/DSLR's and using some really wide angle lenses.

Needless to say you could always try and shoot in portrait mode rather than in typical "landscape". What you get in return is less distortion (i.e. in the middle of your frame, where your water line etc. lies) and more pixels to work with (bigger prints etc.).

Finally - your stitching software is another key-thing. I, myself, am a PTGui fan as this is a really amazing piece of a software. It lets you control almost every single step in your stitching job. Most of the time it can work everything out with just a single click, but if you happen to find some issues with curvy horizon or similar you can always define so-called "control points" so your final stitch is simply flawless.

More to read on -> http://www.ptgui.com/

Coming back to your shot I think it's a very lovely scene.

Composition wise I think you've left too much of a left side (I would personally crop about 1/5 from the left). Also - I'm not quite sure about the sky color. It's just too red-yellow'y to my taste :]

Apart from that - very good job John

Cheers

Piotr

Really nice shot. Great atmosphere and execution.

Cow-characters bring a lot to this shot and the positioning of all main elements is perfect.

I only wish you uploaded a larger size version :)

Cheers

Piotr

Very good shot. I could almost feel that silence and solitude in this shot.

Nicely composed with good pastel colors.

Really well done

Cheers

Piotr

Lovely scene and colors. Composition-wise it is also very good, although I would personally prefer a little bit more of a foreground (just a bit).

Good exposure handling and thankfully it doesn't look too artificial (like many modern HDR's)

My only criticism is to do with the saturation of the green grass in the foreground. It's a bit over the top to my taste - but that's just a minor thing :)

Cheers

Piotr

Definitely a lovely place to be and a very nice object itself to be photographed. Not quite sure about the proportions (sky:foreground) as it is close to 50:50, which in my opinion is a bit too static.

I wish you left a bit more foreground - as the crushing waves introduce some "drama" and "freshness" into this shot.

Another element worth slight tweaking are the clouds. With just a subtle dodge/burn or some other local contrast adjustment you can achieve more 3D-type effect.

Hope that helps

Cheers

Piotr

Famous Glen Coe (aka "Glen of the Weeping") in Winter. Please view

large ! Your comments/critiques much appreciated.

Wow - what a nice spectacle !!!

Great light and very nice water movement.

Cheers

Piotr

Very peaceful and nice looking composition.

Definitely looks like a painting

Composition-wise I must say I like it

There is some simplicity in this shot that is pretty enchanting.

On the technical side, however, it's not so great.

First of all - one can feel artificial HDR look from this shot.

Reflection on the water is too bright, too blue (ish) and too distracting.

I would slightly reduce saturation in this area so the whole scene gets a more natural look.

Also - your shot needs a bit more sharpening to my taste.

Otherwise - good work

Cheers - Piotr

Very nice, atmospheric shot.

Interesting patterns in the foreground.

I would also consider cropping it to the square format (leaving just the left side)

Regards - Piotr

This year UK experienced the coldest winter in 40 years. Finally, I

must say !!! - as I have been waiting patiently for about 5 years to

experience such beautiful scenery.

There have always been some other factors and problems coming my way

(bad timing, poor winter etc.) This time I was finally well rewarded.

Temperature that morning was around -20 degC. Well, personally

speaking such a temperature doesn’t impress me at all, as I am used to

cope with much colder conditions. Needless to say it was a very good

test for all my camera system. It was so cold that the grease in my

geared head had frozen, my cable release (loosely wrapped around the

camera) stayed in that position for most of the morning, freshly

charged batteries were losing capacity like crazy and even my simple

spirit level had some obvious delay in its normal action

The whole place (which is normally a huge swamp) was was dead frozen

and perfectly walkable/accessible without the need of inflatable boat

and a pair of good wellies :)

Please have a look at the larger version !

As many of you have most likely seen the news - this year UK experienced

probably the coldest winter in 40 years.

Well, finally, I must say!!!

On a very snowy Thursday I completely ignored all the communication chaos

and government suggestions (advising on traveling to Scotland only if it

was a matter of life and death) and jumped on the first train to Glasgow.

I must admit I have been waiting patiently for about 5 years to experience

such beautiful winter scenery. There have always been some other factors

and problems coming my way (bad timing, poor winter etc.)

This time I was finally well rewarded.

Temperature that morning was around -20 degC. Well, personally speaking

such a temperature doesn’t impress me at all, as I am used to cope with

much colder conditions. Needless to say it was a very good test for all my

camera system. It was so cold that the grease in my geared head had

frozen,

my cable release (loosely wrapped around the camera) stayed in that

position for most of the morning, freshly charged batteries were losing

capacity like crazy and even my simple spirit level had some obvious delay

in its normal action

Composition-wise I was finally able to come up with a fresh perspective as

the whole place was dead frozen.

What is normally a huge swamp was perfectly walkable/accessible without

the need of inflatable boat and a pair of good wellies :)

Please have a look at the larger version !

Well - I like this one even more.

Very nice composition - and this little shoreline in the lower right corner nicely drags my eye into the scene.

Again - I would suggest some minor improvements like fixing the blueish cast and maybe darkening the lower part a little bit.

Anyway - very nice place and a good shot.

Regards, Piotr

The place itself is really amazing, but the photo needs a few finishing touches.

First of all - the filtering is too obvious and visible - especially if you compare sky with its reflection. Few simple adjustments (i.e. curves, levels) and you can easily fix this.

Next thing is the sky itself. Too much of post-processing (i.e saturation boost - that's my guess) resulted in some unnatural look and some nasty blueish cast.

Try to fix all the above and you'll have a really nice shot

Regards, Piotr

Hi Daniel

First of all - thank you for your time to leave your comment. I'm glad you like the photo.

I cannot agree with you on the tilted horizon issue. Believe or not, but I am extremely fussy about that matter and virtually every photo in my portfolio was taken with a spirit level (one or even more) properly checked and adjusted. It just costs you a little bit of time in the field, but saves much more later with post-processing.

I also know that this little devise can sometimes be a bit tricky - so I carefully check every photo for that matter anyway.

In this case you can see the reflected mountain being literally perpendicular to itself (which proves to me that no serious tilt has occurred). What can be quite misleading is the shoreline, which is quite non-linear and causes optical illusion to the viewer.

Hope it clarifies that thing a little bit

Piotr

Very well executed

Nice, pastel colors and well balanced composition

Good exposure handling, too :)

Regards, Piotr