Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => Landscape Showcase => Topic started by: Dave (Isle of Skye) on November 19, 2017, 09:39:57 pm

Title: The Last Few Leaves of Autumn (updated)
Post by: Dave (Isle of Skye) on November 19, 2017, 09:39:57 pm
I was out on a windy day trying to shoot what remained of the autumn colours and so the only way I could to stop the leaves moving all over the place, was to open up the lens a lot more than I would normally prefer to do, but the softness it gave to the background of this small tree with just a few autumn leaves still hanging on to it, seemed to work out quite well in the end I think.

All comments welcome  :)

Dave
Title: Re: The Last Few Leaves of Autumn
Post by: francois on November 20, 2017, 04:18:29 am
Lovely evocation of the last signs of summer! I love the soft colors and the pointillist look.
Title: Re: The Last Few Leaves of Autumn
Post by: farbschlurf on November 20, 2017, 04:35:54 am
Very good. Sometimes circumstances force something on you for a good reason, like here. Stopped down and with more DOF it wouldn't be as interesting.
Title: Re: The Last Few Leaves of Autumn
Post by: RobMacKillop on November 20, 2017, 04:38:27 am
Beautiful. Perfect, in fact.
Title: Re: The Last Few Leaves of Autumn
Post by: Paulo Bizarro on November 20, 2017, 05:55:52 am
Well done. The in and out of focus juxtapositions are really good.
Title: Re: The Last Few Leaves of Autumn
Post by: Peter McLennan on November 20, 2017, 09:40:49 am
Gorgeous! Subtlety wins. An arresting image. Almost a candidate for the abstract thread.
Title: Re: The Last Few Leaves of Autumn
Post by: Alskoj on November 20, 2017, 07:41:09 pm
Works for me!  Telephoto?
Title: Re: The Last Few Leaves of Autumn
Post by: Slobodan Blagojevic on November 20, 2017, 08:21:42 pm
Lovely evocation of the last signs of summer! I love the soft colors and the pointillist look.

Ditto.
Title: Re: The Last Few Leaves of Autumn
Post by: John R on November 20, 2017, 11:08:27 pm
It's very good. What is the f stop, if you don't mind. DOF looks very shallow; even the trunks look soft, but it works.

JR
Title: Re: The Last Few Leaves of Autumn
Post by: Dave (Isle of Skye) on November 21, 2017, 10:01:23 am
Thanks everyone, it is always good to get all your feedback, as I wasn't sure that even though I liked the image a lot (but then I would wouldn't I?), whether my esteemed fellow photographers on here would agree with me, so thanks for all your confirmation, it is always very much appreciated  :)

It's very good. What is the f stop, if you don't mind. DOF looks very shallow; even the trunks look soft, but it works.

JR

I very rarely shoot handheld or with autofocus, as I like to take my time and work through things more deliberately if I can, but for this image the wind was blowing so much, that I knew that if I wanted to freeze the movement of the leaves and branches, I had shoot it with as fast a shutter speed as I could get away with and which also meant that using the tripod and manual focus was pointless.

The shot was taken handheld using autofocus, with my old, beloved and now long retired Canon 5D Mk II, combined with an even older Mk I 70-200 f/2.8 L, maxed out at 200mm, f/2,8 and ISO 200 at 1/500th of a second.

Very good. Sometimes circumstances force something on you for a good reason, like here. Stopped down and with more DOF it wouldn't be as interesting.

I totally agree, as we often get so deeply into our methods and mostly wanting to create shots with the deepest of Dof and the sharpest of detail throughout, that it takes circumstances such as unhelpful weather (or perhaps that should be helpful) to change how we capture a particular scene, as farbschlurf correctly points out above.

I also took several more images at the time of course, but as the light was changing so rapidly as the clouds scudded by overhead and the colours kept lifting and falling in intensity, none of them seemed to be quite as successful as the first image. So in a complete break from tradition, I am now going to happily show you another one of my shots from the same shoot, but that didn't quite make the cut as it were  ;)

Thanks again guys  :)

Dave
Title: Re: The Last Few Leaves of Autumn (updated)
Post by: RobMacKillop on November 23, 2017, 05:34:52 am
f2.8 was a perfect choice for the first image. I don't know why so many of us get obsessed with sharpness, to the detriment of many a shot. There's a good lesson here, I think. I love that first image.
Title: Re: The Last Few Leaves of Autumn (updated)
Post by: Dave (Isle of Skye) on November 24, 2017, 09:33:06 am
f2.8 was a perfect choice for the first image. I don't know why so many of us get obsessed with sharpness, to the detriment of many a shot. There's a good lesson here, I think. I love that first image.

Thanks Rob  ;)

Dave
Title: Re: The Last Few Leaves of Autumn (updated)
Post by: praja343 on November 26, 2017, 08:52:17 am
Both images are evocative; the second image works better for me - the blue cast in the first is more evocative of winter than autumn.
Title: Re: The Last Few Leaves of Autumn (updated)
Post by: Dave (Isle of Skye) on November 26, 2017, 02:38:37 pm
Both images are evocative; the second image works better for me - the blue cast in the first is more evocative of winter than autumn.

Thanks praja343, it is always good to know that you have enjoyed looking at these images and even more so that you also like the second shot  ;)

So thanks again..

Dave
Title: Re: The Last Few Leaves of Autumn (updated)
Post by: Rajan Parrikar on November 26, 2017, 10:59:53 pm
I somehow missed this thread. The first image is lovely.
Title: Re: The Last Few Leaves of Autumn (updated)
Post by: Dave (Isle of Skye) on November 27, 2017, 12:46:27 pm
I somehow missed this thread. The first image is lovely.

Thank you so much Rajan  ;)

Dave