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

[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.


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

[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?




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

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

[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

[haggis]

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

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