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Author Topic: A Single Tree with Blaven in the Background  (Read 1989 times)

Dave (Isle of Skye)

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A Single Tree with Blaven in the Background
« on: August 27, 2017, 08:44:40 pm »

As the title says, took around 4 years of trying various things and then finally having (and wanting) to buy a new lens to get this shot, but I'm happy  :)

Dave
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Farmer

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Re: A Single Tree with Blaven in the Background
« Reply #1 on: August 27, 2017, 08:52:28 pm »

Worth the wait. I love it.  The background is just spot on.
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: A Single Tree with Blaven in the Background
« Reply #2 on: August 27, 2017, 11:59:13 pm »

Worth the wait. I love it.  The background is just spot on.
+1.
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Chairman Bill

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Re: A Single Tree with Blaven in the Background
« Reply #3 on: August 28, 2017, 12:35:03 am »

Superb

32BT

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Re: A Single Tree with Blaven in the Background
« Reply #4 on: August 28, 2017, 04:14:31 am »

Best excuse for a new lens purchase. The background indeed is great as backdrop, bbut i don't like the overexposed(?) Or clipped areas. Is that snow? Or just bright rock? Is it possible to regain some texture there?
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francois

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Re: A Single Tree with Blaven in the Background
« Reply #5 on: August 28, 2017, 05:29:28 am »

Fantastic, the background looks like a glacier…
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Francois

graeme

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Re: A Single Tree with Blaven in the Background
« Reply #6 on: August 28, 2017, 08:19:08 am »

Very good, definitely worth the wait.
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John Cothron

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Re: A Single Tree with Blaven in the Background
« Reply #7 on: August 28, 2017, 10:25:37 am »

I love this image, worth the wait for sure.  Fantastic use of depth of field.
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Dave (Isle of Skye)

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Re: A Single Tree with Blaven in the Background
« Reply #8 on: August 28, 2017, 03:54:06 pm »

Thanks everyone  :)

For anyone who is interested, I will now explain the shot - To get the background as I wanted it for this shot, I knew I had to use a really long lens, hence the wait for several years until I finally talked myself into deciding I could afford to buy it. So armed with my brand new Amazon delivered 150-600 Sigma S, I set forth to see what I could do with it using the very tree I had bought it for. So when I got there to test the lens, I wasn't really caring what the the scene looked like, as I really did go to just test the lens. So when I arrived, I wasn't phased by the fact that it was a clear bright cloudless day and Blaven was being lit very brightly by the harsh midday sun, and also had that horrible blue/cyan haze colour to it. So I setup the camera with the lens for the test shot and then tried to find a position where I could frame the tree, yet still have all of the background around the tree filled by the surface of the mountain with the compression I knew I could get using 600mm. So after around 20 minutes of walking and shuffling my tripod around, I found that there was just one and only one position, where at the full stretch of the 600mm and standing around 300 yards away from the tree, with the tripod set so the camera was just above my head, I could frame the shot as you see here. I then set autofocus to on and lens stabilisation to off, half pressed the shutter to lock autofocus and then turned it off. I then metered the scene with evaluative (matrix) metering and dialled in a minus third of a stop. The wind was blowing quite a bit, so I selected f/11 at 125th of a sec at ISO 400 and waited for a slight lull in the wind, I then took what I thought would be the first test shot, but after reviewing the shot, I thought "well I might as well put my gear away, because I am not going to get anything better than that, no matter how hard I try."

Then when I then got home, I converted the file to B/W using the blue filter and there you have it.

Now what else can I say other than the version of the 150-600 Sigma S that I bought is an extremely sharp lens straight out of the box, so I don't know if I got a particularly good one, or whether they are all as equally sharp as mine is, but this being the first shot I got using it, then I am a very happy puppy indeed.

Here is a 100% crop from a larger JPG conversion of the tiff image, and I do not think I have sharpened it or done anything else to it other than convert it to B/W, although I can't honestly remember, so take that with a pinch of salt, but either way, at something like 300 yards away from the tree and ISO 400 on a breezy day and in full harsh sunlight, then I think you will agree that this is one very sharp image.

Oh and the camera I used is the A7R2 with the Canon Metabones convertor, which even though I am still convinced this camera is nothing more than an annoying toy with far too many unnecessary buttons and an interface designed by a committee with a hangover when compared to my old Canon, but it sure has one hell of a sweet sensor inside its annoyingly designed exterior I can tell you.

Nikon users, if you are wondering about buying the D850, which I think uses a slightly expanded version of the same Sony BSI sensor, then don't walk to your camera shop to buy one, run..

I only wish that Canon would do the same  >:(


Best excuse for a new lens purchase. The background indeed is great as backdrop, bbut i don't like the overexposed(?) Or clipped areas. Is that snow? Or just bright rock? Is it possible to regain some texture there?

Hope this answers your question opgr?

Dave
« Last Edit: August 28, 2017, 04:13:22 pm by Dave (Isle of Skye) »
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