mountains

wfeller

These are from when I was just shooting jpg. I needed something to practice on.

Matt Tilghman

Practice or not, those are some great views. I especially love #2. Looks like a great place to hike.

kdog

I agree, really nice views, Walter. Not sure what you were practicing, but the processing looks great.

fool4thecity

Like the #2 the best. Like the leading line, color, light, and use of DOF. Too much going on (clutter) in image 1 for my taste. Test for JPEG?

wfeller

Thanks Matt, Joel, Mike. The first is an experiment of sorts in a line composition. Both are trying to get as much depth as I do from RAW out of a jpg.

Marc Muench

Hey Walter, couldn't help commenting on this, as it sounds like shooting with film:D

Dont forget you have all the settings for color, sharpness, white balance and of course picture styles to work with.

I would also recommend using the monochrome or black and white picture style for this exercise, as seeing composition is always easier in BW, unless your working on composing with color?

wfeller

Marc Muench wrote: »

Hey Walter, couldn't help commenting on this, as it sounds like shooting with film:D

Dont forget you have all the settings for color, sharpness, white balance and of course picture styles to work with.

I would also recommend using the monochrome or black and white picture style for this exercise, as seeing composition is always easier in BW, unless your working on composing with color?

The physical composition is not so much a problem, but bringing out what I see so others do, can be difficult as in the first photo--I like the way the branches looked scribbled in and across the image.

I may dial in the sharpness and try that for awhile. My eyesight is diminishing and I have a problem wearing glasses in the field (although that will have to change). I usually keep my settings in the camera cloudy, low, slow and small. It's easier for me to start with a "dull" image and bring it out on screen. It has made for some interesting 'evolutions' in the same pieces of work. There's a few I'm looking forward to reprocessing in 5 years.

I have been concentrating on working with color compositions and trying to get out of the hypersaturation phase. Bringing out light sort of adds another dimension to play with. I shot this one last night after studying your work in the University thread.



I'm losing my train of thought, but thank you for commenting, and I very much appreciate what you do in the M.U. thread.

wfeller

Marc Muench

Walter you have brought up several different issues or topics here.
First, I too, am now facing the "glasses in the field" issue, and know that beyond a shadow of a doubt, I will be unconsciously leaving pairs of glasses all over this beautiful earth:cry And I have taken the wilderness "Leave No Trace" course several times

Second, the only reason IMO to shoot jpeg files in landscape photography, is to practice composition. If that is the case, I would rec NO POST PROCESSING! There are many rewarding reasons for taking images with the dedication to not post process!

Third, getting others to see what we see is the greatest challenge in photography and one could argue ART! I am and will be attempting to solve this issue for many millions of years

I really enjoy your cold desert image

wfeller

Thanks Marc. It was bitter and brittle cold out there too.

I need to digress. You've given me a lot to think about, and I tend to dwell, and can't seem to express what I truly mean in words. I've probably already wrote a 1,000 word response offline and most likely missed your point entirely. I do that often--with many things.

For what it is worth, I shot this last week.

Marc Muench

I thought you were onto something that we should all continue to work on, composition! And one of the most rewarding aspects is when you shut down your "internal-ometer" to stop measuring your technical abilities and focus on the "RAW-ness", pun intended, of photography.

It was that simple

Wonderful arch image. The light on the inside makes it extra good!

wfeller

Thanks Marc- I get it, and I'll give it a try.

I've been out to the location with the arch several times before but never saw it. A friend pointed it out. I walked back but the sun was slipping behind the hill. There's plenty of other strange shapes there. It will be a good place to try your suggestion.

-

wfeller

And the more I think about it, the better it gets. I've pretty much always held fast to the idea that with digital cameras anymore it is all about composition. If there are decent and interesting elements making the picture, the cameras take care of the rest. I try to reply on that 'bone' and reserve post processing for my 'touch' to make the shot whole. But throwing out preconceptions on what I think I can do to the basic image once it is in photoshop may help to eliminate some beautiful, yet pointless images. Just shooting for composition would certainly help consistency as I'm finding images from the same shoot can very widely in effect looking as if they were from different photographers.

Another arch from January, 2011: