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Thread: Early morning peace and quiet

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    Default Early morning peace and quiet

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    I arrived early yesterday morning at a bird reserve close by with the idea of settling in somewhere in my mobile bird hide before sunrise. When seeing the effect of the typical South African highveld winter 'smog' however, I decided to steal a few minutes to test my brand new Rokinon 14mm lens (actually bought for astrophotography). I took a series of shots with this one being the most favorite with the guys 'out there' (not my first choice from the set however).

    I started off with the 'Riverrrun' selection from the 'dPS preselections' in LR and then switched to PS for luminosity masks to extract more detail (levels & curves). Slight crop to level the horizon.

    Nikon D600
    Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 IF ED UMC
    f/11 | 1/10s | 100 ISO | Manual focus | Handheld

    All C & C's welcome.

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    Hi Tobie - congrats on the new toy! Heard good things about it.
    I like the composition and light/sunrise with the road leading us in.
    I think you overdid the processing a bit - particularly there's a halo along the horizon and the mid portion along the horizon is very dark/silhouetted - easy enough to correct when playing a bit more with gradient filters etc?
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    Quote Originally Posted by Morkel Erasmus View Post
    Hi Tobie - congrats on the new toy! Heard good things about it.
    I like the composition and light/sunrise with the road leading us in.
    I think you overdid the processing a bit - particularly there's a halo along the horizon and the mid portion along the horizon is very dark/silhouetted - easy enough to correct when playing a bit more with gradient filters etc?
    Thanks Morkel - and thanks for looking & commenting! The 'problem' you're highlighting is exactly the 'effect of the winter smog' (caused by the multitude of fires from the 'settlement areas' closeby) that I'm referring to. I don't think a GND filter is going to provide a losultion but maybe I can darken the light patch just above the horizon a little using the LR adjustment brush. I'll repost...

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    Highlights burnt on the horizon.


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    I love the composition here, and the moody colors! Wish the tree on the left had a little more room -- I'll sometimes shoot a very overlapped pano and see if I can composite well. Tricky with wide angle but sometimes works. The raw file pano stitching in LR CC 2015 is amazing, and you still have a raw file to work with.

    I'm anxious for a report on the lens -- how is it in the corners? (And is that a full-frame body?) I'm wondering if I can improve on my 17mm TS-E but doubt it. It's as good wide open (f/4) as stopped down.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Diane Miller View Post
    I love the composition here, and the moody colors! Wish the tree on the left had a little more room -- I'll sometimes shoot a very overlapped pano and see if I can composite well. Tricky with wide angle but sometimes works. The raw file pano stitching in LR CC 2015 is amazing, and you still have a raw file to work with.

    I'm anxious for a report on the lens -- how is it in the corners? (And is that a full-frame body?) I'm wondering if I can improve on my 17mm TS-E but doubt it. It's as good wide open (f/4) as stopped down.
    Thanks for looking & commenting Diane! I was also wishing for a bit more space but this was all that was possible other than going for a composite, which would have thrown out the composition. I could not move further back because of high shrubs on my right. So as much as I wished for more space, this was my only option.

    I'm actually very happy with the lens so far. It's surprisingly easy to operate. I was a bit cautious about the MF requirement, but the built-in chip on the Nikon version of the lens uses the in-camera dot to show when it's in focus (not available for Canon) and allows in-camera exposure adjustments. It does appear to be a touch soft in the corners (yes, it's a FF body) but not to a bad degree (according to most reviews, it does better here than the Canikon equivalents). If you're really interested, check out the shot in full-screen mode on flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/tobie_...blic/lightbox/) and click the '+' mouse icon to zoom in on it even more. Then browse to the next 3 shots which I've taken within minutes of this one and repeat the actions. Then if you don't mind, post your thoughts on the lens based on these shots?

    I'm not sure that I would have gone for a 14mm if I already had a quality 17mm in my arsenal, but for another 18% extra width who knows...
    Last edited by Tobie Schalkwyk; 09-01-2015 at 12:31 AM.

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    Tobie - send me a RAW file via dropbox...
    Use morksnork(at)gmail(dot)com
    Morkel Erasmus

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    That's a nice way to see them on Flickr. They look quite good to me, but always hard to evaluate a lens on a few shots, and stars show up issues that we'd probably never see in regular daytime photography (although I wonder if some problems don't have an effect as sensors get better). But from what I've heard, the lens is a lot better than the regular Canon wide angles, for an amazingly lower price.

    I wonder if Canon will start upgrading lenses with the same CA correction as their new 35? But for stars, things like coma and other aberrations are also important, and rarely corrected in normal lenses.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Diane Miller View Post
    That's a nice way to see them on Flickr. They look quite good to me, but always hard to evaluate a lens on a few shots, and stars show up issues that we'd probably never see in regular daytime photography (although I wonder if some problems don't have an effect as sensors get better).
    True. I've seen a few beautiful milky way shots already, taken with this lens. Who knows - maybe I can soon add my own (I hope!)?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Morkel Erasmus View Post
    Tobie - send me a RAW file via dropbox...
    Use morksnork(at)gmail(dot)com
    Thanks for the offer Morkel but if you don't mind - rather tell me what you have in mind and let me see if I can achieve that (it will help me enhance my PP skills)?

    I've actually missed your mentioning of the dark parts and raised the shadows a bit. I'd prefer not to tamper with the dark horizon itself so as to complement the silhouetted tree.

    Last edited by Tobie Schalkwyk; 09-02-2015 at 10:43 AM. Reason: added image

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    Lovely composition with the road leading into the sunrise, and nice golden light!

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    BPN Member Don Lacy's Avatar
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    Hi tobie, I really like the leading lines of the image and feel the repost with the lifted shadows is the stronger of the two posted. I do feel that the first tree is a little cramped in the composition with it being so close to the edge of the frame
    Don Lacy
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    There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs - Ansel Adams
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    Congrats on the new lens...I like the scene as presented but do agree that the bending tree could use a bit more room...please let us know how the lens works for astro-photography...I have heard that it is actually one of the best lenses for starry skies.

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    It's hard for me to put my finger on what exactly you did wrong, Tobie.
    I just feel there shouldn't be a dark silhouetted band in the middle of the image given how light both your foreground and sky are?
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    Quote Originally Posted by Morkel Erasmus View Post
    It's hard for me to put my finger on what exactly you did wrong, Tobie.
    I just feel there shouldn't be a dark silhouetted band in the middle of the image given how light both your foreground and sky are?
    Thanks Morkel - let me go and rework this one right from the start...

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