Thursday, December 10, 2009

Evening Light

Evening Light (wide views), set from today. A couple of my faves below, and a full gallery here.

The top one is an example of why I think I'll use bracketing more often. This one was the minus-2/3 exposure, and it dramatizes the picture and really pulls out that beautiful sky. (And it's noticable how a bit of underexposure really deepens colors.)

(All are from Panasonic G1 with 7-14mm zoom lens. Mild photoshopping.)

Funny enough several of them were taken after I'd decided to stop being creative and just go home. I've no control over it. :-)

Update: I've printed the pillar picture (top) on A3 (12x16 inches) on Hahnemühle paper, and it looks great.
I'm learning some things:
  1. With modern cameras, pictures usually look good right out of the camera. But many pictures you can rise up with only little work. The pillar picture for example needed over 20% of plus-saturation, but when it got that, it really popped.
  2. To really fine-tune a photo is a lot more work, especially for print, especially wall prints. There are so many ways a photo can be adjusted and fine-tuned.
  3. Small changes look like more on the screen than in the print.
  4. Just like with paintings, one compromises between clear color and lightness. Clear, deep colors are quite dark. Unless you are doing stained glass, the only way to make a color/area lighter is to put more white in or behind it, which tends to water it out.

16 comments:

Paul Sunstone said...

Nice! I think you really captured the time of day here.

Claudia said...

Eolake, I love set focused on the tree in particular.
I don't know how you did it, since I know nothing about the technical
aspects of photography, but the buildings seem to bend towards the focal point of the
image, which is the tree. It's a very nice effect.

Best wishes,
Claudia

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Claudia,
That effect is the perspective you get from a super-wide-angle lens when the camera is turned up or down.
We see it a bit different because the "film" in our eyes is on a sphere, because our brains modifies to our knowledge, and because we normally don't take in that much at once with the eyes and attention.

Paul said...

Eolake, I love the winter sky and the bare branches.
It might be a thought to show some of this sort of photography on your pay sites.
I would consider it a bonus.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Thank you kindly.

I do like to include interesting photography on Domai (and GN), but not many do it. And honestly, it's damn hard to combine it with glamour or Simple Nudes, without badly handicapping one or the other.

Unknown said...

Nice work Eolake. I always really enjoy your postings. I noticed that with this new 7-14 MM lens, that you chose to use the G1. Did you find its EVF more favorable in viewing with using a super wide lens? I've been using that camera again lately and am seriously considering that lens for it.

Chris S. said...

I've commented on this before but you keep doing it and every time I wince. I must point out again that "funny enough" is grammatically dissonant. It should be the adverb form of funny which is "funnily" for this to sound correct in English.

Norman said...

Nice, Eolake. I always enjoy seeing your photos. That's a helluva wide angle lens!

I also just enjoy seeing photos of Europe, because when you live in one place like I do, photos depicting other countries are especially appealing.

Nice job!

Elizabeth said...

Always enjoy seeing your work. Thanks, Eolake.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Chris, I'm not sure, to me "funnily" is almost never used in real life. It could be just a habit, admittedly.

Gary, Thanks.
"that you chose to use the G1. Did you find its EVF more favorable in viewing with using a super wide lens?"

I am not sure how the Electronic Viewfinder would be particularly favorable for a superwide? Anyway, I used the tiltable LCD for these, it is useful in getting a dramatic high or low viewpoint. So it's generally more of an advantage with wideangle lenses.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

BTW, Gary, have you noticed the price of it? That's a very expensive lens. (I wonder if they're trying to set up more respectability of the M4/3 system by the prices of some of these lenses.)
But it's superpbly sharp, and it's just half the size/weight of a comparable lens for a normal DSLR.

Unknown said...

Great Camera! I have the same. Your comment about backeting is true. Try this, it works with better cameras like the Panasonic, put the camera on P (program mode)and spot metering turned on (small spot) and in the viewfinder or on the LCD (I use the LCD) frame and compose your shot while you move the spot meter point around through light and dark areas until you see a picture you like. Take a few pictures as you create different moods with the shot. I call this "hot bracketing" it requires a little skill and getting used to but the results are fantastic. When you open the picture for editing you can tweak it even more with croping and light balance...or not. This method is useless on cheaper cameras.

Gemma said...

Love this visual twist, haunted and beautiful.

Anonymous said...

How about "funnily enough" (which many tend to use)?

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

They seem about equally popular (per google hits).
I don't think it's important. I will also use "I'm gonna" or "I've gotta", and neither is grammatical.

David said...

My other home language, Afrikaans, generally doesn't distinguish between adjectives and adverbs in the form of the word.
English appears to be going down the same path.
Language changes, to suit the needs of speakers. What Eolake said (typed) is perfect clear, stop being pedantic.