More Fall Color in the Upper Peninsula

[Bonish Photo]

Victoria MI

Shot with a Canon 1D, Sigma 24-70


Pat
www.everymilesamemory.com

[Graham Owen]

What a beautiful capture. I can feel the crisp breeze on my cheeks, the view is stunning and the foreground leaves blowing towards the viewer really gives this image a lot of emotion.

Graham

[gldiana]

Hi Pat,
I love this shoot too, good composition. Have you thought about selectively dodging the clouds a little to give them a bit more tridimensionality?

[Bonish Photo]

Hey Luca, I'll try that and let you know what I think. We usually have such little time to sit in fron to fhte cpu, that I just download them, I might clean them up if needed and then try and spend an hour posting a few things on different forums and updating our site before our time is up.

It's hard when we're on the road non-stop to just sit and work on the cpu. That is unless we have a good day of crappy weather, those are the days when we play catch up, and spend a few hours (Half the day) just sitting and editing stuff and playing like that.

I'll see what I can do and try and repost it.

Thanks
Pat
www.everymilesamemory.com

[gldiana]

I totally understand, Pat. Another thing you could try (it's always good to experiment) is to use a Cokin split ND filter. I have one with a very dark side and it allows me to move it up and down as I need since the Cokin filters sit in a holder. Actually I have a whole series of Cokin, which unfortunately I don't use anymore as I bought them years ago for my Minolta Maxxum 9xi. I need to get an adapter for my current lenses.

In any case, have fun!

[Bonish Photo]

Yeah, I used a Split ND Filter on that shot to try and darken the clouds.

I used to have the Cokin Set-up, but now I just carry the filters around and hand hold them. I dont think they work with my bigger lenses and the holders are too expensive. The front of my Sigma 24-70 lens is an 82mm. It's hard enough trying to find screw in filters to fit that baby. So the Cokin's just get hand held these days.

Here is the same shot with the clouds burned in a little darker.


What do you think? I think it makes it look a little spookier. If that's even a word

Pat
www.everymilesamemory.com

[gldiana]

Yeah I hear you, I handhold them too for my other lenses.

Right, it's a little too burned, especially the cloud on the left. Try dropping the intensity to 35 on the burn tool slider (Photoshop), or you might consider applying a levels layer for non-destructive changes.

Luca

[gldiana]

Pat,

I took the liberty to do a little retouching... tell me what you think:

[Bonish Photo]

I dont really see a difference between yours and my first one?

I think I only had the level set at 17, 35 is just a bit too dark for me.

Thanks for trying to fix it

Pat
www.everymilesamemory.com

[gldiana]

Clouds are a bit darker and colors are slightly more saturated.
Guess it would be easier to see the difference if they were side to side.

As for the intensity level, if you used 17 you must have used multiple passes otherwise I can't explain why it's so dark (second pic, the one with the very dark clouds). I used one pass only, and in selected areas and I dodges some of the lighter parts to have more edge definition.

Hey, we're only talking about slightly improving an already good photo

Have a good weekend!

[hw771230]

Hey Pat and Luca,

I have been looking into getting a Cokin holder and a grad ND. I see you both use these fiters. Do you have any recomendation for which series to get? The "P" series is what I am checking out. Also, I see that most of the filters for this are resin and not glass. Is it worth the extra $ to get the glass fiters? I will be using it primarily on a Sigma 18-50, 2.8 with 72mm thread.

Thanks,

Caleb

[hw771230]

Pat,

If you are shooting RAW you could try double processing to get the added depth in the clouds. I think it's a great shot as is, but this trick can work wonders.

Just an idea,

Caleb

[Bonish Photo]

Hey Pat and Luca,

I have been looking into getting a Cokin holder and a grad ND. I see you both use these fiters. Do you have any recomendation for which series to get? The "P" series is what I am checking out. Also, I see that most of the filters for this are resin and not glass. Is it worth the extra $ to get the glass fiters? I will be using it primarily on a Sigma 18-50, 2.8 with 72mm thread. Thanks,Caleb

Hey Caleb, I chose the Cokin for one reason that I could swap from lens to lens with just a few adapters. Once I got them, I got lazy and now just hand hold them. This has now become very easy for my wife and I to swap the filters back and forth to each other very fast, and not have to worry about screwing them on or off.

I'd save the money and stick with the resin. Depending on price, you can sometimes buy two for the price of one glass one.

Pat
www.everymilesamemory.com

[hw771230]

Pat,

Thanks. I am most ikey only going to use this for a 2 stop grad ND. Then again, who can tell the future. I will most likey get a one of the resin filters.

Caleb

[rabs]

I believe there is a big difference between them and singh ray filters for instance. The Cokin filters cast a gray tone. You can use saturation to get some of the color back, but I think most pros would say the glass filters are significantly better. Plastic filters scratch very easily as well. That said, the cokin are convenient, less expensive, and a good way to start. And they are certainly better than none at all!

Jeff
www.lifeonthe45th.com