First Year, First Trip With DSLR - More Added

[Pea-n-Me]

Thanks Kat and spinetnglr!

I kind of liked that same Illuminations one, too, I think because it's "different" and kind of cool.

The France photo seems to be a hit. I had several like it but I liked the composition on that one the best.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I think I have it figured out if it doesn't work I'll let you know. Did you do your pictures individually or batch process?

Batch process?

You give me far too much credit for knowing what I'm doing!

I did each one painstakingly individually, it seemed like with luck. So at first I was just happy to get one on there, but with the second batch I was able to figure out more how it works, and could play around with the color and such. I don't think it's ideal, but until I decide how I want to move forward, it works for now.

 

[Amy]

Linda, those are some awesome shots! You're doing great with your dSLR. One these days I'll take the plunge......

Keep posting - I want to see more of your trip photos!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

One these days I'll take the plunge......

Keep posting - I want to see more of your trip photos!

Thanks, Amy! It's funny you posted, I was just thinking of you today. I know you'll be taking the plunge one of these days, too. How did reading this make you feel?

I will try to get some more pictures up tonight.

I have a few of the trip home ready, but didn't want to post out of order.

I still have to look up all the EXIF data, too.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I relooked at some of my pictures here today.

I had a question on this picture for all of you in the know.

Is there something I could have done in either shooting or post processing to get the mountain in the background to show up better? (If anyone wants to fool around with it, be my guest.)

Thanks for your thoughts! I like this picture, but don't like how the mountain gets lost in the background, you almost might miss it unless you know it's there.

 

[pdmedic]

I'm not sure on how you would get the rear mountain to show better in that picture my first guess would be possibly to do a HDR merge but it appears it was taken on the roller coaster and I'm not sure if that would have been possible. I'll look forward to seeing other answers.

I'm really enjoying your pictures and am looking forward to taking my camera with me on my families upcoming trip.

Travis

 

[Groucho]

I like the star filter, I only used mine a couple times this past trip (like on my Dumbo shot that's in the "rides" competition) but it is fun occasionally. I don't think I ever got around to putting it on at night!

It's funny, I have one of those "pictorial souvenirs" from the late '70s from one of my early trips and there's a ton of photos taken with a star filters. Ahh, the '70s.

 

[manning]

I relooked at some of my pictures here today.

I had a question on this picture for all of you in the know.

Is there something I could have done in either shooting or post processing to get the mountain in the background to show up better? (If anyone wants to fool around with it, be my guest.)

Thanks for your thoughts! I like this picture, but don't like how the mountain gets lost in the background, you almost might miss it unless you know it's there.

here is one way. You will need a tripod and two pictures with different exposures

Picture one will be exposed on the roller coaster. Picture two will be exposed on the mountain. The tripod is so both pictures are taken exactly the same.

Using the background eraser tool erase the mountain and sky on picture one. That includes the sky just above the track.

Now you are going to use layering. You lay picture one over picture two.

That's the beauty of digital.

The same thing can be done with focusing if you have to take a picture with the f stop wide open and a shallow depth of field. Just take two pictures with one focused on the foreground and one on the background.

 

[manning]

I'm not sure on how you would get the rear mountain to show better in that picture my first guess would be possibly to do a HDR merge but it appears it was taken on the roller coaster and I'm not sure if that would have been possible. I'll look forward to seeing other answers.

I'm really enjoying your pictures and am looking forward to taking my camera with me on my families upcoming trip.

Travis

I missed that. It does look like it was taken on the coaster. Would shooting in RAW help??

 

[manning]

How's this? You see white along the top of the mountain because I didn't take the time to fine tune.

Using elements 6 first I used the magnetic lasso and traced around the snow capped mountain on left side and enhanced it by using auto smart fix. Then I did the same on right side.

Again using magnetic lasso I traced the sky. Then I selected a color for the sky and painted it in. Make the brush size as big as you can.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Thanks, manning. That's nice. It's good to know how to do it, too.

I did shoot in RAW, but yeh, that one was taken from the back of the train while we were moving.

Didn't get to my pictures last night, and going into two long shifts now again. Will finish up toward the weekend.

Really appreciate all the commentary and feedback.

 

[manning]

fine tuned to add on whole picture in inhance adjust lighting brightness -16, contrast -2

also fine tuned the sky.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

fine tuned to add on whole picture in inhance adjust lighting brightness -16, contrast -2

also fine tuned the sky.

Ooh, that's neat, and looks really nice. Thanks so much!

(Note to self: must brush up on Photoshop skills)

 

[Todd_H]

Thanks for the essay and posting your shots, Linda. Please keep 'em coming!

Great job !

 

[Code]

Really great work Linda, it looks like you did a great job on your first DSLR trip, thanks for sharing your thoughts.. hope to see more!!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Thanks, Todd and Code.

Sorry, it's been a busy week. I did peek at the last group of pictures and I was disappointed, but not surprised, that they didn't come out so hot. Many of them were from Kilamanjaro Safaris and of the movement of EE that I mentioned earlier. Lots of blur, rear ends, people's heads in the way, overexposure, etc. I think it highlighted the fact that my next purchase may be of a faster zoom lens, which in reality, I've been leaning towards anyway for shooting my son's baseball practices (which are now indoor ) and games this spring and summer. Of course it's entirely possible things could have been better if I did a better job of picking my settings, but I had the feeling going into it it was going to be a huge challenge, and it was. Oh well, that's ok. Something to work toward, even if I can't afford that lens anytime soon. I'll see what I can do with them and try to get a few of them up soon.

Thanks for following along.

 

[jann1033]

for the coaster photo which i meant to quote....don't remember if you have light room or not but you can get ( on the light room help site i think i found it) " presets" and there are a few for sky darkening. some make it a weird blue cast but one set looks pretty natural..also wondering if the nd filter tools from him might help as well.

http://www.lightroomkillertips.com/archives/presets/page/3/ at the bottom of the page is a link to go to previous entries and the sky ones are farther back ( i think)

 

[VVFF]

Somewhat believable:

If you took some more time with it you could make this picture look a bit more real.

 

[wenrob]

Batch process? [/I]

You give me far too much credit for knowing what I'm doing!

I did each one painstakingly individually, it seemed like with luck. So at first I was just happy to get one on there, but with the second batch I was able to figure out more how it works, and could play around with the color and such. I don't think it's ideal, but until I decide how I want to move forward, it works for now.

Linda, part of the beauty of LR is batch processing, you gotta try it! Most people apply basic settings to all their pics as they're loaded into LR. What I do personally is adjust one picture, copy the settings, select all the pictures taken in those specific conditions and apply the settings of the first pic to all of those. Then I go through them and tweak here and there. It takes a little more time then "real" batch processing but it's 100 times more quicker then doing each picture one at a time.

You've done a fabulous job and gotten some awesome pics! I enjoyed your essay too.

 

[annnewjerz]

Thank you!

I am taking a break from it tonight.

I still have another AK day, some shots from the ride home, and I'm not sure what else.

I hate to put the pressure on, Linda, but I am bumping this thread back up because I am really looking forward to seeing the rest of your pics.