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Author Topic: Forest in the morning  (Read 1816 times)

Petrus

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Forest in the morning
« on: June 20, 2012, 11:28:05 am »

Went out to our local National Park this morning. 3 frame stitch with Autopano Pro 2.6. Fuji X-Pro1 with 18mm Fujinon.

« Last Edit: June 20, 2012, 11:29:51 am by Petrus »
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Justan

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Re: Forest in the morning
« Reply #1 on: June 20, 2012, 11:36:16 am »

The color one is excellent!

francois

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Re: Forest in the morning
« Reply #2 on: June 20, 2012, 11:40:53 am »

I agree the color version is very fine. I would try to lighten up the ferns in the B/W version to see how it comes out…
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Francois

popnfresh

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Re: Forest in the morning
« Reply #3 on: June 20, 2012, 01:32:30 pm »

I much prefer the B&W. The green in the color version is a little too garish for my taste. The ferns could be just a tad lighter, tho.
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fike

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Re: Forest in the morning
« Reply #4 on: June 20, 2012, 01:59:46 pm »

It is nice, but I am grappling for a clear subject.  There is too much darkness and the ferns, which are the only logical subject to pick, are a bit fuzzy and indistinct.  Were they moving?  Wind? I do lots of these 'inside the forest' scenes, and more of them misses than hits.  You are picking a difficult subject because the dynamic range you need to handle is enormous while the amount of distracting detail is overwhelming.  These challenges make it hard to create a singular image where your viewer can anchor themselves to the image.  Here are two that I did that are very much of a similar ilk: http://www.trailpixie.net/general/forest_of_ferns.htm .  I think the amount of fill light helps a bit to draw the viewer in the shot.  Do you have enough latitude to brighten your shadows? I think there is probably some interesting patterns to be seen in all the vertical trees in the background, but they are fading into an indistinct black area. 

As I ramble on about your image with lots of potential, I keep coming back the fact that you have focused the viewer's attention firmly onto those pretty ferns that are, unfortunately, smallish, fuzzy and indistinct.  It leaves my eye wandering.

As for that black and white image...play a bit more with the color sliders (if you are using an adobe product). I think you could get a bit more interesting contrast separation than you got.  Boost the yellow until you saturate the ferns into an almost white color.  See how that looks.
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Dave (Isle of Skye)

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Re: Forest in the morning
« Reply #5 on: June 20, 2012, 09:00:09 pm »

Hi Petrus - I really like the colour version, the greens while garish, are also probably about right. I know this because where I now live, the summer starts a little later than the rest of the country and so the vegetation when it does get going, seems to be on steroids or something and produce those vivid tones. So yes they do look a bit over the top, but I also think that in reality they are probably quite near to the same colour as seen in your image.

Compositionally, I like the sweep of the image from left to right and also the weight of the shadow in the foreground. You have managed to get good tones and light balance through out the image, as I can see detail in both dark and light areas, which is not an easy thing to do in those lighting conditions.

But alas I also have to agree with fike, that the fuzziness in the ferns is very distracting and I actually find them quite difficult to look at, which is a real shame as due to their brightness and location within the image, makes them one of the main focal points.

My tip for next time you go into the woods, is either wait for a similar day but with very little wind, or alternatively keep the same DoF, but increase your ISO and shutter speed (1/250 should just about do it if you can) and overlap the shots by at least a third or possibly a half, that way when you do get movement between frames, the large overlap should hopefully give you enough wiggle room to eliminate any obvious movement when you stitch them together.

Dave
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Bruce Cox

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Re: Forest in the morning
« Reply #6 on: June 20, 2012, 09:44:21 pm »

The color version makes me a little nervous.  The B&W is much more peaceful.  Its darker foreground is an organic frame for the rest of the picture instead something else to worry about under foot as in the color version.

Bruce
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Petrus

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Re: Forest in the morning
« Reply #7 on: June 21, 2012, 12:45:27 am »

Thanks, guys. Those horsetails* are really quite exactly that color, very saturated light green. I have not done any color adjustments or tweaks, just a straight conversion in LR4 (of course some exposure adjustments and slight vignetting added). It was windy in there inside the forest, I think the exposure was around 1/15 at f:11. Slight blurriness might also be caused by the LR4 conversion, I have to redo it with Silkypix ( ??? ) and check. LR4 does indeed produce strange looking pointillistic detail in trees at least, when looking at the pictures at 100%.

BW was done with a different computer screen where it looked better, and it is a bit grey, true. Calibration time...

So, back to the Mac...

*) Are they also called ferns? Sorry for my lack of botanical vocabulary. I thought ferns had large leaves, but they are the same ancient family with the Equisetum.
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sdwilsonsct

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Re: Forest in the morning
« Reply #8 on: June 21, 2012, 02:15:57 am »


*) Are they also called ferns? Sorry for my lack of botanical vocabulary. I thought ferns had large leaves, but they are the same ancient family with the Equisetum.

Nope: horsetails are Equisetum. They *are* fuzzy and bright green, as has been noted.
Good shot.
Scott

RSL

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Re: Forest in the morning
« Reply #9 on: June 21, 2012, 10:59:58 am »

The color version is very pleasant, but, as Fike points out, it's missing a focal point other than the somewhat fuzzy ferns that happen to fall within the sweep of sunlight. But the picture doesn't lend itself at all to B&W treatment. The graphical dynamism simply isn't there. To see what I mean, spend a minute with Ansel's aspens. That one's a classic example of how to make something out of nothing in the woods using grayscale. But keep at it, Petrus. As Timo Löfgren has made clear, Finland is full of beauty, and I certainly can see what grabbed you about this scene.
« Last Edit: June 22, 2012, 10:50:43 am by RSL »
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jule

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Re: Forest in the morning
« Reply #10 on: June 24, 2012, 05:35:24 am »

Thanks Petrus for posting your images. I prefer the colour one, because the balck and white version lacks dynamism and mojo for me.

Looking at the ferns i do start to feel a little anxious and they sort of feel like they are vibrating sideways. Not a bad thing nor a good thing..just an observation.

I also find a few vertical stalks of a plant right in the middle actually gets in the way of trying to find something in the midst of the ferns which you have a spotlight on.

Perhaps if you could revisit and move view point slightly so that you could eliminate this obstruction and perhaps find something which could be a stunning and interesting focal point.

Julie
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amolitor

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Re: Forest in the morning
« Reply #11 on: June 26, 2012, 01:56:27 pm »

I like them both, but I would personally deploy a little light burning and dodging in the central lit area (the border areas are very fine).

I would lighten up the obvious tree on the left side of the frame, which is striving to be a focal point but I think needs a little more visual pop to stand out (especially in the B&W version) and I would tone down the boulder more or less centered in the frame which is contending with the tree. I can feel the image working with a nice right to left flow across the lighted area, as that broadens out and opens up, leading the eye nicely to the tree. The boulder is a little glitch en route, and the tree doesn't have enough power to fully hold my eye.
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