Crazy Woman Creek

[Wheeler McDougal Jr.]

This is the second image from my trip to Wyoming. I woulkd like to pose the question: Is there too much detail along the creek. I attempted to blur the water in the stream with the camera, but it was fairly bright day and I did not have a tripod or a neutral density filter. It was hand held and you can see, below, the speed I used. I used a little motion blur in PS, but that was all. I am really interested in your opinions.

2008:09:27 12:58:07
28-70mm @ 70mm
70mm (in 35mm film)
1/640 sec, f/2.8
Mode: Av
Metering: Multi-segment
ISO: 200
AF mode: AF-C
White balance: AUTO
Flash: Off
File size: 16.4MB
Image size: 3036 x 2010
Saturation: Normal
Sharpness: Normal
Contrast: Normal

[Bruce Murden]

Hi Wheeler,

You picked an interesting subject, getting a nice curve in the creek, well-lined by colorful vegetation.

For improvment of the image, I agree with your self-assessment regarding the water and lack of blur, that a longer exposure would help. It would make the water look like it's flowing, rather than static. Your metadata says you shot at f/2.8, which is very wide -- possibly fully wide open on your lens. Stopping down toward the smaller apertures (higher number), like f/22, would give you a slower shutter speed as well as more depth of field (1/640 @ f/2.8 = 1/0 @ f/22). I'd also suggest using a polarizer to cut some glare on the water -- the amount of reduction is up to you. Lastly I think you should rotate the image counterclockwise a bit. It has the feeling of being on a slant.

Keep on shooting & posting!

[Wheeler McDougal Jr.]

Bruce- My apologies about this posting. Above you will find the image I intended to post and the shooting data that goes with it. Please judge this image instead of the first.

Mac

2008:09:27 12:56:51
28-70mm @ 70mm
70mm (in 35mm film)
1/10 sec, f/22
Mode: Av
Metering: Multi-segment
ISO: 200
White balance: Auto
Flash: Off
File size: 76.3MB
Image size: 4256 x 2832
Color space: sRGB
Saturation: Normal
Sharpness: Normal
Contrast: Normal
Color profile: sRGB

[Chris Starbuck]

Mac,
Definitely better (and I think really good) all around. I like the framing better -- including that interesting little rill at the lower right while excluding some of the less interesting trees at the top is a definite improvement. The detail & sharpness look great -- you must be a human tripod to have achieved that handheld at 1/10 sec! That SS is slow enough to show some nice flow in the water, though you could have gone 1 stop slower by switching to ISO 100 (if your camera supports it). I agree with Bruce that a polarizer might have improved the image a bit by removing some of the glare from foliage and water. I generally don't want to remove all the water reflections -- that can make the water surface disappear -- so I tend to adjust for max polarization and then back off until the water is nicely defined (whatever I think that means at the time).

Chris

[Bruce Murden]

Mac (sorry, didn't see you use the nickname with my first response!),

I really like this second image. I'm glad you took this one and had it to post. The DOF and SS are much better here, and the bit of whitish water at the bottom adds more interest. You know about the polarizer possibility already. The only other thing I'd suggest here is to try to even the lighting between the bushes on the left, which are darker, and those on the right (lighter).

Nice find!

[Wheeler McDougal Jr.]

Chris and Bruce- Thank you so very much for your thoughts concerning this posting. I am especially glad that I had the second exposure and that it was, in my opinion and also your s, the much better of the two. Chris, I maybe should not have said that the camera was hand held as I was standing on a bridge and I used the railing as a support. I wish I was still out there so I could try a reshoot with the polarizer. Is there a way one could simulate the efect in PS? Thanks again for your opinions, it is helping to make me a competent photographer.

Mac

[Chris Starbuck]

Mac,
I've heard or read people referring to trying to simulate a polarizing filter in PS, but hadn't ever seen a description of how to do it.

However, I just Googled "simulate polarizing filter in photoshop", and the first hit is at
http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/photo-effects/polarizing-filter.html

There are bunches of other hits too, and some of them might be even better, but this is the only one I've looked at so far.

I haven't tried this, but the instructions look pretty detailed (if rather complicated), and the process looks to me like it's probably amenable to turning into a PS action. The examples given look pretty good. Unfortunately one of the situations in which he recommends not using this approach is when the image has a lot of red in it, which yours does. Try it and see. I need to try this out too, on some of my images taken when I left the polarizer in the car; it really looks interesting. I need to follow some of the other hits too.

Chris

[Wheeler McDougal Jr.]

Chris-
Here is an example of how "your simulate polorizing filter in Photoshp" suggestion turned out with my Crazy Woman Creek image. I think it was quite good, what do you think? It certainly wasn't hard to do. Thanks again for your help.

Mac

[Chris Starbuck]

Mac,
I agree, that looks pretty good! The colors are clearly more saturated, and the water actually looks like it has less sky reflection.
Chris

[Julie Kenward]

What a great progression of images, Mac! I think that's why I love this forum so much...you get all these great people to help you take your images one step further and that's just such a great thing! You did an excellent job of taking a good photo and making it much better by following some very helpful advice. I'd frame it! :D

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Wheeler,
I do like the 2nd version better. I don't want to give a speech on how important a tripod is for landscapes......but you get the idea. Nice re-work on the image also.

[Rob Miner]

Just a beginner, but I would have like to have shot this with my 12X24mm on Portrait - 100 ISO - 81a circular polorizer. Maybe stitching two or three shots. Love to see the sky if possible. I like your rendition at the top, but with the circular polorizer used.

Rob Miner

[Robert Amoruso]

Not much more for me to add here on the PS techniques. I do like the comp Mac.

[Wheeler McDougal Jr.]

Robert, Roman, Rob, Jules, Chris, and Bruce- Thank you all for your input on this project. It ended up a much better image than when we started. This is really what makes this such a great web site. Again, thank you all.

Mac