PDA

View Full Version : Parambikulam



Sabyasachi Patra
10-08-2008, 08:57 AM
I shot this couple of days back during my trip to Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary. ISO 400, 90mm, f11, 1/125 sec, EOS 40D, EF 28-135. C&C welcome.

Chris Starbuck
10-08-2008, 02:13 PM
Sabyasachi,
This is a beautiful scene, and I love the placement of the mountain and foreground trees. Great golds in the trees, and some nice pastels in the sky. I'm bothered by the intruding tree branches, though. There's not really enough to make a good framing element, and the very small bits at top center and on the right edge are especially distracting; I'd remove them. I think darkening the sky & mountains would bring out more color & detail. Here's a quick attempt at doing those 2 things. Your thoughts?

Chris

Robert Amoruso
10-08-2008, 07:39 PM
Sabyasachi,

This is really a great image with magnificent light but as Chris mentioned, the branch does not work. I would definitely work to clone it out if you don't have a similar image w/o the branch. I started to work on this repost early today but could not get back to it until now. So here goes.

I darked the sky and upper tree line using a Curves adjustment and masking the layer with a gradient mask. In the reply below is a screen shot of the mask, my layer palette and the tool bar. I highlighted in yellow the gradient tool in the tool bar and the mask in the layer palette.

When using the gradient tool, if you draw the mask in the wrong direction, just draw it again in the reverse direction. The direction is influenced by whether white or black is the foreground color. PSCS help has a good description of how to do it.

The curves adjustment I placed a point in the center of the curve and pulled down and right to darken the image. Then select the mask, select the gradient tool and draw a vertical line.

Hold down ALT key and click on the mask and it will show up as I show below. Hope this helps.

Robert Amoruso
10-08-2008, 07:40 PM
Layer gradient mask for my repost above.

Roman Kurywczak
10-09-2008, 08:28 AM
Hi Sabyasachi,
I too wish you had moved to get rid of the branches if possible. This would have helped get rid of the only distractions you have in an otherwise very nice composition. If you had it..........a split ND filter or doing 2 exposures and combining them........would have yielded a more pleasing exposure.

Sabyasachi Patra
10-09-2008, 12:15 PM
Roman,
Soon I will become a ND convert. Before that need suggestions on a good wide angle. I am looking to replace the 28-135 with a good wide angle. 17-40 or 28-70 or 24mm.

Robert,
I appreciate the effort you put. Your version looks much better. Thanks for sharing the tips.

Sabyasachi

Roman Kurywczak
10-09-2008, 03:38 PM
Roman,
Soon I will become a ND convert. Before that need suggestions on a good wide angle. I am looking to replace the 28-135 with a good wide angle. 17-40 or 28-70 or 24mm.

Sabyasachi
Hi Sabyasachi,
I own the 17-40mm and love it..........but some have had issues with it. I know David Kennedy owns the 16-35mm lens.........and loves it..........he is the Pano moderater and you can PM him on it. I also have a friend who owns the 10-22mm for the 40D.........so for magnification purposes.......same as the 16-35mm........and also loves it. Depends on which body you use but either lens is excellent from all accounts.
Hope this helps,
Roman

Sabyasachi Patra
10-10-2008, 10:55 PM
Thanks Roman! Appreciate your feedback.

Sabyasachi