Fall Foliage

[PuckJunkey]

After a prolonged absence, I decided to drop in over the weekend and see what was new. As always this place is one where you can really come to learn and enjoy the art, rather than bickering over specs or any number of other worthless internet past-times.

Anyway, I was also out shooting quite a bit this weekend, knowing that the beautiful leaves that are everywhere are going to being flying off the limbs and branches and be gone in a day or two... I caught several good shots but these three in particular formed a sort of triptych when I was looking at them in Bridge.

Thought I'd post them here. Only thing that was done to them was a minor curves adjustment and a tiny bit of cropping and rotating. Tell me what you think / whether these sort of give you that "cold Fall morning" thing, because it was cold. I tried to capture it but it was so bright and beautiful out it looks like it may as well be 80 degrees.

-PJ

[Yoyo Szeto]

Hi PuckJunkey,
Where have you been? Back to the photos, I like shot 3 the most as the composition is pleasing to me. I wish the leaves are not too close together and there is something in the bottom right to balance the leaves.
yoyo

[PuckJunkey]

Thanks Yoyo. I've been out of commission mostly due to being busier at work (which is a good thing) and moving into a new house earlier this year. I think I like the third as well, although when seen at their normal magnification, the first two have a much different mood to them. Was trying to keep the file sizes small for modem users, but something gets lost when they're shrunk that much.

The red one in particular loses some mood. Do you notice the fence on the first one? I tried using just a bit of it to balance / pull your eye to the back.

[gahspidy]

PJ, glad you linked me to this as i do not get to see as many threads as i would like due to my slooowww dial -up connection. (waiting for DSL. . .Verizon says their coming to my neighborhood soon . . . .)
I like the 2nd and 3rd shots. The first seems too busy for me, and although I see and understand why you have included the fence, i think it may have been stronger without it.
The 2nd shot is great. I really like the unusual pano type crop for this tree and can see this larger and framed. Would look great.
The 3rd is also very nice, and your focal point and dof are not typical. i usually do not care for out of focus fg elements, but it works well here. What lens are you using and i would think you were shooting at almost wide open for such dof and focal drop off.
Good stuff, PJ

[Yoyo Szeto]

Hi PJ,
Glad to know that you are doing well. Thanks for the explanation about Photo 1.
yoyo

[Seb]

After a prolonged absence, I decided to drop in over the weekend and see what was new. As always this place is one where you can really come to learn and enjoy the art, rather than bickering over specs or any number of other worthless internet past-times.

Anyway, I was also out shooting quite a bit this weekend, knowing that the beautiful leaves that are everywhere are going to being flying off the limbs and branches and be gone in a day or two... I caught several good shots but these three in particular formed a sort of triptych when I was looking at them in Bridge.

Thought I'd post them here. Only thing that was done to them was a minor curves adjustment and a tiny bit of cropping and rotating. Tell me what you think / whether these sort of give you that "cold Fall morning" thing, because it was cold. I tried to capture it but it was so bright and beautiful out it looks like it may as well be 80 degrees.

-PJ

Hey PJ!!

Glad to see you back arround. I too prefer the second and third picture over the first one.

The first picture kinda works compositionally wise but I think that the dof would need to be even shallower to make that scene shine.

Say, have you pre ordered a D200 or what??? (I am salivating over this one as well...)

[ChowChi-Ching]

So many different opinions. I personally like the 1st and the 3rd. I think that the 2nd picture is just a little to basic. I think I would like it more if you had just posted that one but next to the 1st and 3rd, I don't think it compares. I really like the DOF. Good Job!

[PuckJunkey]

Gary: see what you mean about the fence and the busy feel of it all put together. You are correct about the second one looking much different at a large magnification. You really get this transparent glow through the leaves and this warm mood. As for the lens, all were shot with the old Nikkor 80-200 ED 2.8 (not the AF-S model, though I'd like to get one).

The aperture on the three shots are: F4 F2.8 and F4 again, respectively.

Seb: How's it going? Good to see you're still around as well! As for the D200, haven't pre-ordered because I figure the difference between getting in line behind 200 people at any given retailer, and just waiting until February or March, will be about the same effect. But I am definitely getting one, barring unforseen bad reviews... maybe two.

Chow: thanks for the comments. I think you are right. In general the three sort of distract from one another because I didn't space them out (is there a way to do that on this BBS without adding spacer graphics / borders)? Each on its own at larger magnifications do take on a different effect. Maybe I'll make the next batch closer to 500px instead of 400. Seems there is some kind of download protection to where you only get a PHP file? Pretty cool... way to go Photo John.