Got a chance to re-shoot my East point IR shot. I did the channel swap and a few selective tweaks in PS (lightened front of lighthouse, and adjusted contrast). I then imported to lightroom and did an exposure gradiant to accent to sky a bit. Your thoughts are always appreciated.
PS I shot this in HDR also ( A new direction for me) and that file is in the landscape forum where I received some great help.
Dave, this is really beautiful! Two things I'd like to suggest to you...
First, I'd consider cutting off the front section of grass and moving the bottom of the frame up to just below the dirt line and making this more of a pano crop. I think it would really strengthen the overall image even more.
Second, and this is just something to remember in the future, when you have an element like a flag pole in the image try stepping a few more steps to each side and see if you can get those flags to be out in the open. In this case, if you had moved a bit more to your left, I bet you could have placed that pole right between the low spot in the trees and all three flags would have been highly visible and waving in the air.
I've learned that when I do landscapes to check out my first several frames in great detail while I am at the scene. I find that I focus so much on the main subject (here, your house) that I often overlook a great second point of interest (the flagpole.) If you sit for a second and review those frames you will probably see that you have more than one focal point and can then adjust your position so everything lines up for the strongest composition. Sometimes that isn't possible but quite often I've been able to add strength just by repositioning my camera a few steps in one direction.
Again...beautiful image! The blue tones really knock me over in these IR images and this one is no exception.
Dave, I see you went for a re-shoot! I love the color tones to this and agree w/ cropping out the bottom some. I like the way you got the sky w/ such drama! Very nice.
Thanks Julie and Denise. I appreciate the time and thought in all critiques. I all to often lose that discipline of check and recheck. I'm working on that :). I totally agree with your recommendations, so what were my options. As you said, sometimes you just can't make that move. In this case, one more step left would have me and my equipment drop about 30 feet to the mud below. Not good for the equipment and probably worse for me :D. So the flag pole had to stay there. This brings up another point. Notice in the original shot that when you capture the American flag in infrared it often looks more like a white flag of surrender :eek:. What to do??? Let's try eviction. I hate to lose that second point of interest, but does the image still stand up without it? Would love to hear everyones thoughts.
Lovely, Dave! Even without the flagpole it's still a very strong comp. I love the loss of the bottom - it really pulls the whole thing together.
One thought...and I have no idea how this would look in the finished image...but often in a black and white image I will mask off one item and let the original color show through. Perhaps you could do the same with the flag if it wasn't too much of a distraction. Just a thought...
Dave, Nice eviction although I liked the flags-I would maybe just go with the top flag that is free from everything and color it in like Jules suggested.
Julie, I have seen that done on several occasions, and agree it can be a cool touch.
Denise, That could very easily be another approach, and since I have the file I may revisit it. I may need to swipe a flag from a regular shot as the infrared flag has no detail at all. Cool stuff guys, you should ask for a raise :D :D :D
Thanks Michael. I've always been impressed with the clouds in your shots. We don't seem to get those big poofy guys here much anymore. Here's a B&W conversion.