Hitting it (photography) hard

[Pickers]

I went for a walk around the Fal estuary today and under strict tuition, was told to use only the MANUAL mode - no aperture or shutter priority was allowed!
Also went a bit crazy with photoshop.

I didnt hold back and just went for it... here is one of the results before and after processing...


http://a.imageshack.us/img843/5741/treesi.jpg

http://a.imageshack.us/img831/5968/treesx.jpg

I think I've made the colours and shadows a little too dramatic, but I've learnt a few new techniques which Im happy to play with!

[Kitten]

I like it...almost expect a dinosaur to pop it's head through the trees on the right!

So, tell us what you did?

[Pickers]

and another... sometimes making Cornwall look mediteranean is too easy!!

http://a.imageshack.us/img411/6431/shack.jpg

http://a.imageshack.us/img834/7648/shackx.jpg

[Blighter]

Amazing! Wish I could use a camera properly :(

The first one sort of reminds me of the scene in Mary Poppins where they are jumping in and out of that painting - no idea why :p

[Mark]

Very nice! See what you mean about the Med look. :)

I can use manual mode if I have to, but find the camera is usually much quicker than I am, so tend to stick to P, with A/S used when circumstances require (e.g. shooting prop planes).

[Joe 90]

That's the best way to learn how your camera works without getting geeky with a book! It's also how I learned to do it :)

I'd advise going out again and just playing with the aperture control, that way you'll be able to see what each element can do if you've played with them individually :)

[Pickers]

I like it...almost expect a dinosaur to pop it's head through the trees on the right!

So, tell us what you did?

Sorry, dunno why this post didnt show up!
In both cases I used selective colour and then adjusted the levels separatly for each part of the image.

For the tree one I just separated sky from land, sharpened up the image then added a soft omnilighting render on a duplicated layer which I made 30% opaque. I should have tweaked the colours a little bit as the processed shot is a little on the red side.

For the shack one, I separated the water, sky, grass and log and this time promoted each selection to its own layer, where I adjusted the levels. The blue shutter I think I adjusted brightness and contrast with it. The whole image was sharpened with unsharp mask. I forgot about the light rendering here, but it has the effect of toning down most of the changes to make it less dramatic, but more realistic. My personal opinion is I overdid the sky :p.

Important thing is I had a good time! Shooting in manual wasnt as tricky as I expected and felt pretty good (albeit it did take me a minute or two to compose the shot). In terms of PS, I need to play with colour overlay, curves (which I NEVER properly understand) and colour balance.

[Mondo]

To be honest, I don't think you NEED to use manual to learn how it works. Using Av will teach you the same thing. The aim, is have that needle land in the middle*. Using Av will actually be a very useful exercise as you move the aperture, and the camera moves shutter speed, playing the balance game for you. Provided of course you don't have Auto ISO turned on.

Also, Pickers, have you tried Lightroom? It is much more streamlined towards Photographers and it is REALLY powerful. Makes working on a file sooo much easier! Give it a try !

* there is more to that, depending on exposure mode (spot, centre weighted, evaluative etc), and depends on what you are shooting at (into the sun), back light source etc. It is often easily and quicker to shoot in Av (use it to control DOF more than anything) and let the camera handle exposure, and then check LCD/Histogram for exposure accuracy. I often shoot with it with 1/3 over exposed on my 5Dii, some reason the photos comes out better exposed that way. I have it dialed it at 1/3 to the right at AV most of the time.

[Pickers]

I agree mondo, I've always used av before, but it was kinda fun to do all the settings, iso, shutter speed, aperture and white balance. I may well give lightroom a bash. I'd forgotten it had been mentioned before; thanks for reminding me!!