Puerto Vallarta

[opus]

An afternoon in Puerto Vallarta. Rain over the mountains, sun above the bay.

Comments, please?

[opus]

...and here I've "framed" it...

[Peter_AUS]

Need to crop a little more water out of the picture from below. It also seems a little dull and not sharp as well. What are the details of the shot, shutter speed and f/stop iso etc.

[Chunk]

An afternoon in Puerto Vallarta. Rain over the mountains, sun above the bay.

Comments, please?

Nice shot that captures the difference in light well.
If you do Peter's crop, I'd consider taking out the tower near the right as well.

[mtbbrian]

I can't disagree with Peter on the color and vibrancy of the water, but I think it is important to have the amount you have.
Cropping it would cut into the boat's space, which I feel you don't want to do.
I think you did a great job with this image. The placement of all the elements is excellent.
The boat, the water and the background.
I'd say this is one of the best photos you have posted here.
When were you there anyway? I was there on my honeymoon it was one of the ports on our cruise.
Brian

[opus]

When were you there anyway?
Brian

This picture was taken on July 3rd of this year, our anniversary.

I was fighting haze on this whole boat trip. And at 4:45 pm, the sun was still high in the sky but behind me, which really flattened everything out, not to mention the thick moisture-filled clouds above.

I adjusted levels and added a fairly strong unsharp mask. But here's the original, I invite you to do what you can with it to make it better.

And please tell me what you might have done differently to get this shot better. (I'm on a lurching, moving boat, remember.) I was disappointed with all my shots from that boat.

Camera Model Name
Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL
Shooting Date/Time
07/03/04 14:44:44
Tv(Shutter Speed)
1/1250
Av(Aperture Value)
9.0
Metering Mode
Evaluative
Exposure Compensation
0
ISO Speed
400
Lens
28.0 - 90.0mm
Focal Length
90.0mm

[opus]

Ooohh, lemme guess, from what I've learned so far... I should have brought the ISO down to 100 and had a slower shutter speed....

am I on the right track?

[mtbbrian]

Ooohh, lemme guess, from what I've learned so far... I should have brought the ISO down to 100 and had a slower shutter speed....

am I on the right track?

I am no digital expert, but...( Istill shoot the 20th Century way!)
From what digital I have shot, for daylight to cloudy scenes I think ASA 200 is ideal.
Keep up the excitement for learning new things photographic!
Brian

[bobbythebandit]

An afternoon in Puerto Vallarta. Rain over the mountains, sun above the bay.

Comments, please?

Excellent shot and well done for waiting and working out best option for this.Only thing i did not like was the mast on the right side so removed it via paint. Hope you dont mind.
Bobby

[gahspidy]

Ooohh, lemme guess, from what I've learned so far... I should have brought the ISO down to 100 and had a slower shutter speed....

am I on the right track?

Hey Kelly,
I agree with leaving in the water but also agree that the levels are off. I adjusted the levels, added a overlay blend layer at 35%, slight curves adjustment and slight increase in saturation. Slight amount of unsharp mask. I think you should have taken this with a lower iso setting first of all. You had a shutter speed of 1/1250, way faster than needed for a scene of this type An iso of 100 and apperture of f11 for a little added sharpeness and dof. Also, that lens not helping you any. Would like to see this type of scene with your new EF75-300 IS hsm lens you just got. would make a difference , I'm sure.

[opus]

Hey Kelly,
I agree with leaving in the water but also agree that the levels are off. I adjusted the levels, added a overlay blend layer at 35%, slight curves adjustment and slight increase in saturation. Slight amount of unsharp mask. I think you should have taken this with a lower iso setting first of all. You had a shutter speed of 1/1250, way faster than needed for a scene of this type An iso of 100 and apperture of f11 for a little added sharpeness and dof. Also, that lens not helping you any. Would like to see this type of scene with your new EF75-300 IS hsm lens you just got. would make a difference , I'm sure.

Gary, I just *happen* to have a shot like that. This is from that same day with a 75-300 lens. A guy on the boat saw me snapping away and offered his lens for me to use to zoom in on this ship. I think it was an L-series, though (I'm trying to remember, I'm pretty sure it was white). This shot was taken at ISO 100, shutter speed 1/250. Of course, time of day is different: 8:30 am.

I've posted the original so you can compare. I've done nothing in ps but crop.


Camera Model Name
Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL
Shooting Date/Time
07/03/04 08:29:14
Tv(Shutter Speed)
1/250
Av(Aperture Value)
5.6
ISO Speed
100
Lens
75.0 - 300.0mm
Focal Length
280.0mm

[Peter_AUS]

Didn't I put the cats amongst the pidgeons with this one. But it did stimulate some thought didn't it which is the purpose of the forums in general.

I agree the water does need to stay in there for the boats perspecitve, but maybe just a little could have gone about 1-2 cm maybe.

Getting rid of the tower was a good idea, but then anyone that knows the place from this angle, might just wonder where the tower had gone.

Doing one lot of Unsharpen mask, doesn't mean you can't do another one, Scott Kelby sometimes does 3-4 USM on an image, especially industrial metal images (just read that in one of his books).

The thing to watch out for when adjusting are the sales getting blown out a bit.

What you might have had to consider here, was DOF Hyperfocal Distance setting on the camera.

ISO 100/200 probably right, aperture more likely to be f/16 - f/22 but then you have slower shutter speed don't you on a boat that isn't co-operating at all, and I know that feeling, been there done that (one of my daughters was acutally sick on the boat) when the New Endeavour Sailed back into Sydney Harbour from it's World Tour a couple of years ago now.

Gary's attempt is pretty good, but the boat is now blown out a little, especially the hull on the right foreward area and the sails as well, lost some details in the rigging, you can see them I looked at the image.

I had an attempt too, just to see the differences everyone gets.

[Peter_AUS]

Gary, I just *happen* to have a shot like that. This is from that same day with a 75-300 lens. A guy on the boat saw me snapping away and offered his lens for me to use to zoom in on this ship. I think it was an L-series, though (I'm trying to remember, I'm pretty sure it was white). This shot was taken at ISO 100, shutter speed 1/250. Of course, time of day is different: 8:30 am.

I've posted the original so you can compare. I've done nothing in ps but crop.


Camera Model Name
Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL
Shooting Date/Time
07/03/04 08:29:14
Tv(Shutter Speed)
1/250
Av(Aperture Value)
5.6
ISO Speed
100
Lens
75.0 - 300.0mm
Focal Length
280.0mm

Here is a quick rework of the Pirate Ship.

[opus]

Peter, I *love* what you've done with the first one. Can you tell me what steps you took to correct it? I just might want to put this one on my wall.

I like the color of the second. As you could tell, it wasn't a great image to begin with so there's not much you can do to fix up the ship without almost posterizing it. But it's nice and bright!

[Peter_AUS]

I basically duplicated the layer and made it a multiply layer then adjusted the opacity of it down 70% which was an instant fix.

I then removed the tower from both layers, probably should have done that first off using the patch tool of Photoshop.

I then adjust the brightness and contrast a bit, adjust the hue a little and then did an unsharpen mask, at 200%, radius .3 and threshold of 2.

Then I did another unsharpen mask same setting except 100%.

Then I used the lasso tool for the water and adjusted the saturation up on that. Great little tool the lasso tool allows you to select a point, move to another point (usually in a straight line) etc etc around the waters edge and you get to adjust just that section of the image.

I didn't save the image with layers otherwise I probably could have sent that over to you as an attachment. But it is better to learn a little of photoshop 1 step at a time, then you start to get better at it.

The Pirate Boat, lots of people on there isn't there, I used the shadows and hightlights on it first, after again doing a layer multiply on it first off.

Then did the USM on it, I could have made the water a little bluer but I was trying to catch you online at the same time.

Hope that little info helps.

Remember I am working in very low images than you are, so you have a lot more data to work with than we do.

I did cheat a little with the first image, I upsized it several times, using the resize by percentage 10% at a time, I think about 4 times, to try and get a little more detail to work with.

As you can see from the boat, the detail is still there after adjusting, you can see the side of the boat, and the ribs in the sails, yes there are ribs in the mainsail, about 8 of them I think from memory and you can see the rigging lines from about top 1/4 of mast down the sides (stays they are called).

Looks like a great place to have a relaxing holiday.

I forgot to mention, open the files in photoshop and look at the levels histogram they are under exposed mostly.

[opus]

Thanks, Peter! I know how to do all that in Photoshop, except I didn't know that about the lasso tool. I thought it was only the pen tool that allowed that. I'm still using PS 7.0 though, so maybe it's an upgrade? Or else I just never tried anything new with the lasso tool since I first learned Photoshop 3.0 back in 1994. I have not used multiply layers much, though. Most of my professional work in ps has been cutting clipping paths and cloning, or else creating original artwork and collages. I need to learn a lot more about color correction.

Thanks for your help! I need to get to bed now.

[Elysian]

Great looking place this Puerto Vallarta, nice photographs too and an intereresting thread for those who consider digital corrections. ;)

[gahspidy]

Kelly,
Nice shot of the pirate ship, but it is not sharp at all. It seems this time you needed to use at least a iso 200 intead of 100 to get you a faster shutter speed. Your using a focal length of 280mm is way to much zoom for you to be handholding at a shutter of 1/250. National Geographic Photography field book ( which is a great little photo guide book) states a sort of rule of thumb about focal lengths and shutter speeds when handholding.
Shuuter speed number should always be , at the very minumum, more than the focal length. For example if shooting with a 70 mm you would want a shutter speed of 1/90 or faster. if shooting with a 100mm you would want 1/125 or faster .In your case, shooting with a 280mm you should have had at least over 1/350 ( unless of course you are using your new IS lens which eliminates the need for all of this)

[mtbbrian]

Great looking place this Puerto Vallarta, nice photographs too and an intereresting thread for those who consider digital corrections. ;)

Yes it is an interesting little thread..
It's funny how threads start out as a CRITIQUE and end up taking a completely different direction..