Vic's Random Photography

[Withers]

A few from a park near where I grew up called Natural Chimneys:

 

1

 

2

 

3

 

4

 

5

 

6

[Lalani]

4 and 6 are my favs.. great angles.

[jeremai]

So, I like all of those photos, particularly #4. But for me there's something missing from them... can't say what. They seem to lack a sort of dimension that I see in rock formations out here. I may just be overly cynical though.

[Lalani]

Interesting, I had that same feeling Jer; something does seem to be missing.

[jeremai]

At first I thought it was just light diffusion from the clouds (it's always sunny here), but I don't think that's it. Something in post, maybe?

[lakshwadeep]

I like them; they look like some type of ruins. Jer/lani: could it be the angle of the camera that's off?

[Withers]

They were shot at 2pm, maybe that has something to do with it? It was really difficult to frame the shot since there was so much manmade junk around the chimneys.

 

Now that I look at it, I can tell I was a little heavy on the "fill light" in a couple of them, I'll have to fix that tomorrow.

[Lalani]

lak - The angles are great, imo.

The shots just seem so 'heavy' if that makes any sense.

[jeremai]

Jer/lani: could it be the angle of the camera that's off?

Not for me, it's one of my favorite angles to shoot:

 

 

Hmm, that was a bad example, kinda the same issue as Jason's, lol.

 

They were shot at 2pm, maybe that has something to do with it? It was really difficult to frame the shot since there was so much manmade junk around the chimneys.

 

Now that I look at it, I can tell I was a little heavy on the "fill light" in a couple of them, I'll have to fix that tomorrow.

Yeah, could be. They were great compositionally though.

[Lalani]

Oh geez, Jer.. that shot makes me dizzy, lol.

[lakshwadeep]

Not for me, it's one of my favorite angles to shoot:

 

 

Hmm, that was a bad example, kinda the same issue as Jason's, lol.

 

lak - The angles are great, imo.

The shots just seem so 'heavy' if that makes any sense.

 

OIC. They do look like a rainstorm is coming. It could be something about a camera that doesn't reflect what we would see with our eyes, like possibly the contrast of having shadows and a bright sky.

[latazyo]

what is the recovery set to?

[Withers]

Hell if I know, but it's pretty high on all of them. The sky was pretty blown out on all the shots. Do you think that's the issue?

 

I guess I could just lower the exposure overall to bring the sky back and then use a bit of fill light instead of leaving the exposure and using recovery to get the sky back. I'll try that tonight.

[Withers]

The more I look at it the more I think it was the lighting. It's just too busy with all the nooks and crannies sticking out just past the shadows, and then with the trees in between it's just too much. Maybe I'll try to go back sometime at dusk one day (too bad it's an hour away though).

 

Edit: Maybe if I soften them up a little bit it will help. It could be that I oversharpened them.

[Lalani]

They would make great night shots, imo. Maybe use a flashlight to paint light onto the rocks/trees.. or do star trails. I dunno. Just throwing out ideas, because I really do like the formations.

[Withers]

Oooh I like where your head is at

[dshnarw]

+1 to lightpainting/startrails.

 

i like the subject, but like everyone else...

 

i think it's the shadows that are getting me

[latazyo]

the only reason I asked about recovery is because they look like a lot of my pics (flat because I turn the recovery up too high)

[Withers]

Re-edits. This time I brought down the exposure and backed off the recovery.

 

1.

before:

after:

 

2.

before:

after:

 

3.

before:

after:

 

It might try them as subtle HDRs too. I'm determined to have these turn out decent

[jeremai]

better, imo. interested to see how the hdrs turn out.

[lakshwadeep]

It seems like some of the pics have a slight oval darkening around the edges (most obvious in the sky). Is that normal?

[Withers]

It's a slight vignette. I probably shouldn't, but I add them to nearly every photo. I'm still not happy with these at all, hopefully HDR treatment can help them out a bit.

[lakshwadeep]

Oh, at first I was thinking all these ideas about shadows coming from the lens edges or something about the sky. It's probably more obvious than usual when the photo is small.

 

Maybe there is a way you can adjust just the rocks/trees or the sky separately. I'm not familiar enough with things like gimp or photoshop to know what else is possible. I'm looking forward to the HDRs.

[Camshaft]

I like the #1 shot of the Chimney Rocks or whatever, BUT IMO i think the little top of the tree on the bottom right corner takes away from the Height one could imagine.

 

if that tree was cropped out i think the tower would look even taller.

 

either way, i love scenery pics and these are great work regardless of all the touchups and software laddi daa...

[Withers]

Maybe there is a way you can adjust just the rocks/trees or the sky separately. I'm not familiar enough with things like gimp or photoshop to know what else is possible. I'm looking forward to the HDRs.

 

I can do that, I just try not to if I can help it.

 

And thanks Camshaft If Lightroom's clone tool was worth a damn I'd remove it from the pic to see how it looks. I could always crop it though, I may try that tonight too.