Frosted Grass

[Hindey]

Hi all,

After being away from here for a while, it seems that I've started posting again. Anyway, hello

This morning I went out over the fields once more, to see if I could capture the sun and some wintry images. What do you guys think of this one?



Cheers,
Chris

[jar_e]

Very interesting persepctive! Almost has a sci-fi feel to it. Neat shot, though I'm not sure if I like the "noisy" background, love the foreground though.

Nice shot,

Jared

[Hindey]

Hi Jared,

Could you elaborate more on what you mean by "noisy background"? Thanks for the comment

Chris

[SmartWombat]

Welcome back Hindey!

With the trees out of focus, it is rather a distracting background
We're perhaps used to seeing the sunset as the subject
With a tripod and f22, could you have got enough hyperfocal distance to cover both?

I just look from the sunset, to the grass, and back.
That sunlight is so bright and colourful it draws my eye up from the grass
...then I'm unsatisfied because it's out of focus
so I look at the grass ...
lather, rinse, repeat

[payn817]

The Fuji S5000 only goes to f/8. But, as it is a compact and with the difference in sensor size, would f/8 still be the same as f/8 on an slr, or would it have an equivalent? Hope that doesn't come across as stupid.

As for the photo, the grass looks great, but I agree about the BG, if it were sharp all the way through, it may have been a great b&w. Great perspective as well, if you get the chance, it may be worth the reshoot.

[dbutler]

I agree with Paul and Jared but that is just a beautiful shot. I would prefer the sun not so bright because my eyes do want to "squint" against it, and it does seem to interfere with the grass. Will you be trying again? I would love to see it as Paul suggested.

[jar_e]

Hi Jared,

Could you elaborate more on what you mean by "noisy background"? Thanks for the comment

Chris

Chris,

It may not be actual noise now that a relook it, but a combination of sunlight, out of focussedness, and brightness. The main place I see it is the left hand side in the BG. I'd show you on the picture, but my internet is being deathly slow.

Hopefully you understand!

Jared

[Seb]

Hi all,

After being away from here for a while, it seems that I've started posting again. Anyway, hello

This morning I went out over the fields once more, to see if I could capture the sun and some wintry images. What do you guys think of this one?

Cheers,
Chris

The foreground is quite something. It makes the shot. Unfortunatelly the background isn't up to the task for the reasons already expressed here. Overall, it remain a nice picture but it does need more dof.

regards

Seb

edit: Coming back at it, I am thinking that if you crop the upper part of the frame just above the trees at the right (while letting a little space above these trees so they don't touch the border of the picture) the background loose a lot of importance and the picture take a great balance. At that point, I don't think that the fact that the background isn't in sharp focus matters anymore. It seems to me that this one is meant to be a pano!

[LeeIs]

Very nice Hindey.

I like the DOF as is but I agree that the sun is too bright and takes the focus away from the wonderful icy grass pattern. I wish there was more cloud cover to diffuse the light or if you woulda waited for the sun to go under but then again I don't think you would've gotten the grass as great as you have. Mixed feelings, but great shot nevertheless.

[Hindey]

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies. I really liked this photo when I took it and did the usual post processing in Photoshop. I was really drawn to the frost on the grass, but your comments have made me realise that I seem to have developed a bit of an obsession with shallow DOF; as a result I like to set my camera to the largest possible aperture (f2.8), focus on the subject and let the camera's macro mode do the rest. I need to learn when to use this technique (?) and when to not. It must be novelty value!

Here, on objective examination as a result of the critique here, the photo would be orders of magnitudes better if the viewer could focus on the whole picture. As it is, I am now beginning to feel like the background forces my eyes down to the grass, even though I want to look at the whole scene. I understand how you all find this awkward and unsettling.

Bearing in mind this, a reshoot is definitely possible. However, my camera's smallest aperture is f.8, nowhere near the f.22 or f.16 I've seen recommended for such shots. How is this going to affect the reshoot? Will any filters be of benefit?

All's I need to do now is wait for another frost; which may be sometime according to the forecasts

Thanks again for all your comments

Chris

[payn817]

Hindey, in my attempts at landscape, f/8 seems to do pretty good on compacts. It is the same question i was trying to ask, but have been trying to figure it out for about 4 months.

At 28mm (digital compact), f/8 and 15 inches your near focus limit would be 0 and far focus would be infinity, dof is non existant (i guess that means sharp to infinity)

The same on (35mm) would change the near focus to 13.5 and far focus to 16.8 with 3.3 inches dof. Hope that answers the question.

As for filters, I would probably use a grad ND to deepen the sky (that's my experience anyway).

[readingr]

Welcome back Hindey,

Lovely photo, I'm going against the grain here and state that I like it as is, purely because you focused on the grass. I also like the crop SEB did but in that one I would have wanted the background sharp.

I think this really depicts our frosty winter mornings and the sun being this bright and low reminds me of the pain of driving around at this time of year.

To answer your F8 question, the smaller the chip the smaller the F number you need and smaller the focal length, e.g. for a 2/3 chip (that is 2/3 of 35mm) to get a 200mm lens you only need 50mm, and for a F32 you only need F8. This link is a good article explaining it all, and it includes a calculator which does the maths for you.

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tut...ensor-size.htm

Roger