[cypeapplejuice]

August 4, 2011 at 6:33 pm

Cheers John, you’ve got quite an impressive portfolio yourself, as for the pic, I’ve been reckoning as much too, I’ve tried a few crops at this stage.

[cypeapplejuice]

August 4, 2011 at 5:54 pm

Hi Finbarr,

I find my eye keeps being drawn to the big rock on the right, I wonder if framing it differently, or omitting it would benefit the composition as a whole. I would be inclined graduate and darken the sky more as its a small bit on the flat side, but there’s plenty of potential there. My last point would be one of shutter, I wonder if a slightly longer exposure would make the action of the waves and the splashes more dramatic, were there limiting factors (lack of tripod or ND filter?) that forced the shorter exposure time?

[cypeapplejuice]

August 3, 2011 at 10:15 pm

miki g wrote:

I’m all for girls of ” natural beauty ” even if they do weigh a little bit more than a stick insect should & even have freckles. :D

+1 to that!

[cypeapplejuice]

August 3, 2011 at 10:00 pm

BillyC wrote:

Hi all,

I know it’s been done to death and I’ve gone through the various threads but one final check :D

At the minute I’m using a 40D and a Tokina 12-24mm and decent tripod for landscape shots, and it’s ok. Nothing spectacular perhaps (I’m finding it very very noisey on low light shots) but does the job.

A friend has recommended getting rid of both as I usually stay away from sports and people etc and looking for a good second hand 5D MK1 as its FF so suits landscape better (Mk II is out of budget and anyway would prefer get better quality lens).

Any particular thoughts or advise? Have an offer of 800 for the 40D, Tokina lens above and a Sigma 18-50 f2.8
Tempted take it and put it towards the 5D (even if it is an older body)

Thanks!

Go all the way, you won’t regret it, the 40D may have a slight edge in dynamic range, but this is overwritten in my opinion by its APS-C type sensor, you’ll notice the difference that the big huge full frame, and bright viewfinder will give you: More DOF / Wide angle lenses work again without having to go to 10 or 8mm / Full frame lenses will cast on the sensor with a better transfer of resolution (instead of taking the crop from the middle of the lens like the aps-c sensors do) / bigger photodetectors on the CMOS Sensor means better noise handling all round.

Seriously though you should try to lay your hands on a 5D Mark II, I own one and I got it from ebay (going to duck from the flames now) for €2849 Brand new, (this included a brand new 24-70mm f2.8 L USM too!!) – To build the same kit in Ireland I would have breached €4000, so I put the saving I made into a 70-200 f2.8 L IS USM.

But even if your budget can’t stretch that far, the 5D will be a nice hop up from the 40D. Just make sure that you invest in good glass for it too, the 5D will be critical of poor glass.

[cypeapplejuice]

August 3, 2011 at 9:27 pm

You’re most welcome :)

I can completely empathise with you, I suppose it’s the action of ‘sneaking up’ on wildlife (hunched back, walking on tip-toe!) they’re probably expecting to be killed rather than photographed by us!! :P

(edit) Just an afterthought there, perhaps next time be ready to snap him as he bolts from you, they’re bloody dramatic creatures when they take off! :)

[cypeapplejuice]

August 3, 2011 at 6:45 pm

Beautiful subject, but I would highly recommend against causing halos like the one in your sky as they look overworked, or over sharpened, instead use gradients with light opacity and either using a blending mode that suits your image, composition is nice, but I wonder if you could have gotten the camera higher, with a wider lens to frame the reflections better, as I’m missing the tops of the buildings and that chimney.

[cypeapplejuice]

August 3, 2011 at 3:30 pm

If they had a bit more panache I might have :P

[cypeapplejuice]

August 3, 2011 at 11:31 am

It’s quite a nice caputre of a Heron, but I feel that the composition is fundamentally lacking, I would question the placement of the grass and rocks, even to the point where I’d say would it be better to get in closer to the heron with a shallow DOF.

[cypeapplejuice]

August 3, 2011 at 11:22 am

I’m really missing something to lead my eye into the image, and wonder about the plane that the two boats are on, I find my eye hangs between both of them, but I don’t find anywhere to go in the pic. The one other thing is the lack of detail in the blacks, it’s quite strong contrast, maybe bracketing or an ND to give yourself a bit of breathing space on the exposure latitude would help. :)

[cypeapplejuice]

August 3, 2011 at 10:56 am

A beautiful exposure with good composition, I just wonder with those strong verticals, and that big intersecting black branch across the top, I’d love to see a really wide portrait composition of the same scene too, my one other caveat is the margins I often feel that they take a little from an image, but this is highly subjective and preferential on my part, and this is a fine image nonetheless, especially considering the technical considerations of shooting IR.

[cypeapplejuice]

August 3, 2011 at 10:47 am

Cheers Tex, I felt the same way too, I just wish I had more room on the long edges, but to my right were two young german tourists passionately kissing, and to my left were a family of bicyclists gawping at my wife and I taking photos! :P I suppose more tilt would have been appropriate, rather than cropping, as if I crop now, and try to keep proportion I’m losing it and running the boat too close to the trim, its a pity I didn’t think of tilting the tripod more on the day. Much appreciate the crit!