Dawn at the Pin from Crusoe

[kingtin]

Just found this amongst some low res pics on file, that aren't good enough for publishing. Makes nice wallpaper though. Enjoy.

kev


http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/bidkev/Portfolio/sunrisea.jpg

[Shagga]

Nice shot Kev.

[Little grey men]

glorious....that's all I can say.

[Peanut!!]

i cant view it :( damn restrictions public computers

[Twisted_Pair]

Thanks kev for my new wallpaper. I've seen a few sunrises from Crusoe while camping now I can enjoy this image of it. T_P

[Poodroo]

Kev you sure know how to capture the moment with that camera of yours. Just lovely mate. Remember that sunrise I took out at Wello? Have a close look at it and see if there is anything that you could do with it to improve it. If you want me to email the full version to you just let me know and I will send it. I would be interested in how your artistic talents could further improve it because I want to enlarge it and frame it maybe but fear imperfections may show when made bigger due to the camera not being as good as yours.
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t315/Poodroo/P7290016.jpg

Poodroo

P.S. I didn't post this pic up to steal any thunder from you because I think you have a classier photo. I just want to see if you think you can improve it any before I print it out for framing.

[kingtin]

No worries mate. I've just straightened the horizon a tad, and the beacon. I've also lightened the shadows so that there's a bit more detail in the waves, but left the highlights alone. What size is the original file?

kev

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/bidkev/Portfolio/boat%20rally/poodroo.jpg

[poppers81]

kev, mate thanks for a putting a smile on my face...brings back so many wicked memories... just heading full of excitment sun breaking and thinking the weather is the best and wouldn't change it for quids or middle of june chasing the breambos on bait all night and thinking to myself 'thank god i made it thru the crazy f%&$ing cold night hopefully it starts to warm up now' thanks again....

[Poodroo]

No worries mate. I've just straightened the horizon a tad, and the beacon. I've also lightened the shadows so that there's a bit more detail in the waves, but left the highlights alone. What size is the original file?

kev



G'day Kev. That's great how you can do that. I am not as used to using programs as you are to tidy the shot up. The original file size is 3.15mb. One thing that I find difficult is getting the horizon straight when taking the shot out of the boat. I try hard to make sure it is straight and then get home and load it onto the computer and notice it is crooked. ::)

Cheers,

Poodroo

[Xahn1960]

Great photos, both of them... You make me wish I was back on the coast........

Bill.

[Poodroo]

Kev here are some other shots I was mentioning. I am not sure what the trick is to getting the horizon straight when in a moving vessel but these shots I think would have been great other than the lopsided horizon. Any tips?
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t315/Poodroo/P2220011.jpg
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t315/Poodroo/P2220012.jpg
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t315/Poodroo/P2220013.jpg

For some reason they don't look too bad when on the camera but it is a whole different thing when they end up on the computer. These shots are straight off the camera with no editing whatsoever.

Poodroo

[kingtin]

Kev here are some other shots I was mentioning. I am not sure what the trick is to getting the horizon straight when in a moving vessel but these shots I think would have been great other than the lopsided horizon. Any tips?


For some reason they don't look too bad when on the camera but it is a whole different thing when they end up on the computer. These shots are straight off the camera with no editing whatsoever.

Poodroo

This is intended to help others improve their photography :D

Andrew, It's practically impossible to get a straight horizon from a rocking boat. In the old days, they would straighten it in the darkroom so there's nothing "unethical" about photoshop, it's just an improved darkroom.

The one thing to remember is, that straightening the horizon often results in a crop of the shot, so it won't be it's full original size. If you have a camera over 6 megs, then you can upsize your image to it's original, without less fear of pixelation/degredation.

The other thing to remember is that sometimes we get stuck (as consumers) with what is foisted on us (6x4, 10x8, 16x12) If you're thinking of mounting/framing a pic "outside the square" then the below idea sometimes works better.

eg. I have cropped the sky at the top that had little feature which draws your attention to the colour of the remainder. This results (nearly) in an image that is panoramic..........long and thin, which sometimes works better with landscapes and seascapes. I've also stuck to the trusty "rule of thirds" that dictates that you split your image, vertically and horizontally into thirds and try and compose with the main features at an intersection of thirds. In your case the sky is the most import and feature so I've given it 2/3rds of the image and placed the horizon at a 3rd. In the first pic I adjusted, you will notice that the beacon is also at an intersection of a 3rd. I've also lightened the shadows slightly, in all of them, and added contrast to counteract the "flattening" that this can cause.

The end result (achieved quickly and not perfect, due to time factor) is more pleasing to my eye, although never forget, beauty/art is in the eye of the beholder and what may seem ok to some, may not be to everybody's taste.

Also, it is not easy to get detail into all the picture when shooting towards a bright light. You have to decide if you are exposing for the shadows (sea) or the highlghts (sun rising). With an upper end camera with a spot meter, you could take a couple of exposures exposing for both, or, if you have auto bracketing, shoot 3 shots, one as is, and one underexposed, and one overexposed, and pick which is best (for you). There is a newish process called HDR which I am starting to experiment with, whereby you would merge all three shots and play around till you get what suits: http://www.hdrsoft.com/examples.html

Also, if you're going to link a picture from a host site, try and drop it in at no wider than 900, that way folk won't have to scroll. You can't see the image in it's entirety if you have to scroll.

Hope this helps.

kev

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/bidkev/Portfolio/boat%20rally/poodrooa.jpg


http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/bidkev/Portfolio/boat%20rally/poodroob.jpg


http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/bidkev/Portfolio/boat%20rally/poodrooc.jpg

[Poodroo]

It helps heaps Kev and thanks for the hints. I am taking it all on board. ;)

Poodroo

[kingtin]

Andrew, just a thought, as what I said above could be misleading. Although I've put some light into the shadows (sea) in your pic, sometimes it pays to kill all detail to emphasise your main subject.

eg. The pic below was meant to emphasise the sunset and the stillness of the sea off Portree Isle of Skye. By placing the foreground and background at thirds and killing all detail in them, the sun and sea are emphasised. Just mess around, think of thirds, and you'll get there.

kev

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/bidkev/Portfolio/boat%20rally/sunset_skye.jpg

[haggis]

Kev your photos are fantastic .
poodroo your photos are pretty dam good to .

cheers for pictures . Haggis ..........

[Poodroo]

I know that I can still make the files smaller but I am still learning. Here is an attempt at rotating and cropping on two of the photos. I will get the idea. Not perfect but better.
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t315/Poodroo/MudSunrise.jpg
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t315/Poodroo/MudIslandSunrise.jpg

Poodroo

[needmoretime]

Guys,

Those photos are fantastic.

Cheers
NMT

[kingtin]

Andrew, the quickest way to check if your horizon is off and by how much is as follows: Use your cropping tool to draw a rectangle from the top of the pic down to the horizon. The bottom of the crop line , resting on the horizon, will show if it is out and you can also gauge how many degrees to then tilt it.

kev

[Poodroo]

Andrew, the quickest way to check if your horizon is off and by how much is as follows: Use your cropping tool to draw a rectangle from the top of the pic down to the horizon. The bottom of the crop line , resting on the horizon, will show if it is out and you can also gauge how many degrees to then tilt it.

kev

Thanks Kev. When I did that I realized just how out it was. The only problem I found is that when I rotate the picture is doesn't seem to have a fine enough adjustment which means that it either goes not far enough or too far. This is when using the mouse to click and hold the image to do the rotation. I am assuming that you must be able to use the keyboard keys to do the same thing but I haven't worked out which keys work. Will get there one day.

Poodroo

[kingtin]

Andrew, do you have Irfanview?

kev

[Poodroo]

Andrew, do you have Irfanview?

kev

Kev I don't have it but have heard of it. Obviously you have it and think it is good. It is another photo editing program is it not? Where can I get it?
Noticed a lot of threads getting moved of late too but that is normally cool but Footy Tips being made a sticky thread? What is with that? :-X Nothing to do with fishing in any way is it?:-X Lol

Poodroo

[Poodroo]

Here is a different type of photo taken yesterday.. I like it.

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t315/Poodroo/P2230023.jpg

Poodroo

[kingtin]

Here is a different type of photo taken yesterday.. I like it.

Poodroo

You're getting into that photography stuff mate:D

Just google irfanview and download it for free, along with the plug ins.

It's nothing great, being basically a viewer, but it does resize and rotates. When you get it, bring up one of your pics with a crooked horizon point the cursor at the top left of the pic, left click then drag and you will get a cropping rectangle. Put the bottom part of the rectangle on the horizon and you will get a rough idea which way the horizon is tilted. Then click on Image in the menu and come down to "custom/fine rotation and click on that. A dialogue box will appear with an "angle" dialogue, normally defaulted to -2. This is giving you the option to tilt your image + is clockwise and - is anti-clockwise. Set it to the amount you think that you need to tilt it, then check it as I explained in the beginning with the cursor (crop rectangle). When you get it straight, then do a crop to get the white bits off the edges.

Sounds long winded but 2 minutes in front of the screen with me, and you would have it off pat..........if you can't suss it, I'll show you next time you call round.

kev

[Poodroo]

You're getting into that photography stuff mate:D

Just google irfanview and download it for free, along with the plug ins.

It's nothing great, being basically a viewer, but it does resize and rotates. When you get it, bring up one of your pics with a crooked horizon point the cursor at the top left of the pic, left click then drag and you will get a cropping rectangle. Put the bottom part of the rectangle on the horizon and you will get a rough idea which way the horizon is tilted. Then click on Image in the menu and come down to "custom/fine rotation and click on that. A dialogue box will appear with an "angle" dialogue, normally defaulted to -2. This is giving you the option to tilt your image + is clockwise and - is anti-clockwise. Set it to the amount you think that you need to tilt it, then check it as I explained in the beginning with the cursor (crop rectangle). When you get it straight, then do a crop to get the white bits off the edges.

Sounds long winded but 2 minutes in front of the screen with me, and you would have it off pat..........if you can't suss it, I'll show you next time you call round.

kev

I might call around real soon and thanks for the tips and info Kev. I am starting to enjoy the photography more and more. (Well as much as one can with an average camera). ::)

Poodroo

[Poodroo]

I downloaded Irfanview and it is much better at doing the fine adjustment required for rotating thanks. Funny thing is that I have a Cannon Scanner here that I didn't ever set up on the computer for whatever reason and just today I was required to email over some documentation to someone which had to be scanned so I set the scanner up and scanned the documents and discovered that the driver disc also has a program called PhotoStudio which is yet another photo editing program. I also discovered the program's layout is similar to Paintshop Pro but it actually does a better job. Will play around with it some more.

Cheers,

Poodroo

[baitwaster]

Just so you blokes know, if you decide to blow these pics up, don't aim for any bigger than 80 dpi at 100% size. This will give you very little pixelation and will look very sharp on a 1400 x 1400 dpi large format printer. 100 dpi is better, but don't go lower that 80