Weirdish's 52 2011 - week 24, Bright added

weirdfish

weirdfish

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Darren
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Hi all. Though it was about time I joined in as I already have photos taken from week 5 onwards, due to a friend on here running a 52 for a small group using these themes.

I have recently purchased my first DSLR (Canon 550D) in February of this year, having used compacts for years but I did own a 35mm SLR many years ago so had the basics. I am aiming to progress from the snaps to photographs.

Well here goes.....

Week 5 Hard

"There's nothing harder than the Times crossword"

Hard by Darren Matthews, on Flickr
 
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"Too many cars into one corner=too much clutter!"

 
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I have two images for this week as I couldn't decide which one I liked best lol. I'll leave it up to you guys to decide.

"Delicate Rose on delicate skin"




"Delicate ankle chain"

 
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This is a first for me, not having done one of these before, so I took this opportunity to give it a try, and they are fun and addictive lol.

"Physiogram chaos - where no two images ever turn out the same"

 
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Taken outside Mercedes Benz world at Brooklands during the Smart car festival, two years ago. Although this was taken with my Lumix compact I have done some PP in Photoshop to remove a couple of people from the image and also added a background blurr to seperate the focal point a little more. I have sharpened the image too.

"One Smart finish!"

 
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Another first for me (there's going to be a number of them I guess, being new to it all). I thought I'd visit the small lake on the edge of our village around sunset and try some shots and use one to create a Triptych.

"Trio"

 
I had many ideas for this one, most of which involved taking two or more photos and combining them in photoshop. I'd rather try to get the shot where possible so I took a detour on route to work with a book and camera in hand to get this one of the cooling towers at Didcot power station.

"Knowledge is power"







For Reshoot although I liked my original pic, it was taken with a compact, so I took this at a recent stock car meet.

Reshoot of week 9 finish "Finish of a night's racing, and this car is properly finished!"

 
Hi Darren & welcome to the 52's thread :thumbs:

Not to taken with the Hard shot though I like your thinking behind it. Maybe repositiong the pen to show the full word below it may have worked better ?

Absolutely love both shots for Delicate , greta focus & DOF & wonderful color on the rose :thumbs:

Choas, Finish & Trio....nothing to say except.....:clap::clap:really great captures & pp work

Your images really seem to "pop" ,can I be nosey & ask what pp you use to make the main part ie the book in knowledge stand out so well from the background?

Look forward seeing more of your shots in the coming weeks :thumbs:
 
Hi Michael & Lynn, many thanks for your comments, much appreciated, and it's good to know I'm going in the right direction with my pics:)

Lynn, I use Lightroom 3 for 90% of PP, only using photoshop for multi layers like the physiogram and frame in the trio pic. I have only just started using LR3, I simply work my way down the R/H menu, starting with WB,exposure, clarity, vibrance, only tweaking them a small amount to bring out the colours, before looking at hi-lights & shadows to make sure they're not clipping. Sharpening works very well in LR3, I find I can tweak it quite a bit before noise appears. Generally I don't add a great amount of sharpening, but the luminance slider can be used to remove unwanted noise if necessary.
To be honest Lynn with the knowledge pic, I didn't do a lot. I took the shot holding the camera in one hand and the book held in the other at arms length. Focussed on the book, recomposed & shot. PP was a little warming up with WB and I selectively sharpened the towers a little.
With PP I'm still learning, but importantly I'm finding less is more.
 
This is one of the first pics taken with my DSLR.

"I don't do ice cream in moderation"

 
I like your knowledge one. I had the same idea, but with power lines. I've been ill though, so had to use a lame work around :D

Empty is good too. The DOF works well for this :) What have you done with the trees?
 
With the trees I used surface blur in photoshop (it kind of gives that painted look I think) & then changed to black & white. I used layer mask to keep the road and part of the grass in colour to try to keep the focus on the road & draw the eye into the distance. With the original, there was a lot of detail in the trees, taking away from the whole focus of the "Empty" road.
 
Hi, Darren, so great ones there.

I like empty, then again I've always liked this type of photograph. Did you by any chance take on with the line down the centre?

Like your trio, really warm colours but not sure about the border??

Finished, like the composition, dof and framing (bit tight on the right, though..)

Cheers.
 
I use Lightroom 3 for 90% of PP, only using photoshop for multi layers like the physiogram and frame in the trio pic. I have only just started using LR3, I simply work my way down the R/H menu, starting with WB,exposure, clarity, vibrance, only tweaking them a small amount to bring out the colours, before looking at hi-lights & shadows to make sure they're not clipping. Sharpening works very well in LR3, I find I can tweak it quite a bit before noise appears. Generally I don't add a great amount of sharpening, but the luminance slider can be used to remove unwanted noise if necessary.
To be honest Lynn with the knowledge pic, I didn't do a lot. I took the shot holding the camera in one hand and the book held in the other at arms length. Focussed on the book, recomposed & shot.
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Thanks very much for the useful tips. Really great catch up there on your 52:clap:. All great shots but my fave is definately "Empty". My "Hard" shot was the same idea as yours. Great minds eh.
 
as said allready empty shot really works well and the way its pp love it :thumbs:
 
Your Empty photo is wonderful. The PP you've done works exactly as you described and draws attention to the main subject. Composition looks great too and the white line, that's like the definition of a lead line! I may have cropped a tiny bit off the bottom to make it more panoramic. Great work, looking forward to seeing more :)
 
blondie606 said:
Hi Darren

great shot for Empty :thumbs: Love the angle you've taken it from & the processing but personnaly I'd like to have seen all the grass color left in...I think , maybe :lol:
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Thank you. I did try that first with the grass but didn't like it so I removed most of it to what you can now see. I guess a lot of it is down to personal preference.
 
darren, welcome to the 52s, i myself have gotten behind so just going through for inspiration and seeing what the field is like...and your shots are good, a welcomeaddition to the fold..omg.. shows i just woke up to the saturday afternoon horse racing on ch4...anyhow..love the stock car racing...that was cluttered..and the knowledge...well i mistook that for trio, so well done...the smart car... awesome finish on that car..!! :thumbs:
 
Hiya Darren,

First of all welcome to the 52 and well done for getting so far at such a late start.

Your photos are fantastic and bang on theme, so well done there :thumbs:

My fav has to be the trio, love the colours and the way you have framed it to look like one is looking out of a window.

Keep up the good work.

Cheers

Dawn :)
 
The Destruction Derby - The "Object" is to be the last car running on track, and number 197, the "Object" pictured here, that started life as a car, managed to do this, believe it or not!

Taken yesterday along with a great many other photos, this was the first outing with my new Canon 70-200 f4L lens :)

Object.jpg by Darren Matthews, on Flickr
 
Hiya Darren,

That is one crumpled car. I bet you have great fun taking photos at these events.

Great photo to capture the event.

Cheers

Dawn :)
 
OOOOOoooooo, I would love to have a go at that!!

Good catch - especially with them both looking at the damage.

Not sure if a shallow dof would add impact/focus or not??

Cheers.
 
Hi Darren, just had a look through all your shots. What a speed you are going at! Favourite shot so far is "Empty" I really like it. All your other shots are great too.
Nice double use of the theme for this week and yes it's hard to believe the car was still going.
 
Thank you to all of you for the comments, it's very encouraging knowing that somebody likes what I'm doing. I'm taking on board any advice & also doing the practical photography bootcamp so can only improve (I hope LOL).
 
drodd said:
Hiya Darren,

That is one crumpled car. I bet you have great fun taking photos at these events.

Great photo to capture the event.

Cheers

Dawn :)
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Hi Dawn

Thank you and yes I absolutely love my stock car racing. My dad took me from an early age; basically from when I could walk lol. I have cousins that race so of course that adds to the thrill.
 
posiview said:
OOOOOoooooo, I would love to have a go at that!!

Good catch - especially with them both looking at the damage.

Not sure if a shallow dof would add impact/focus or not??

Cheers.
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Hi Andy

Thank you. Yes I agree with you on the DOF. This was the 1st outing with my brand new 70-200 f4L lens so I pretty much left the camera in shutter priority to catch the action & set it to 1/320, as that's the max focal length taking the crop into account. Being a mix of cloud & sun for the day I found I was getting anything from f7 to f11, so I had loads of f stops still to play with but didn't take advantage of this. I found this lens let's in more light than I had thought, excellent. My next outing I will definitely play around a lot more as first impressions of this lens are that I'm very impressed with it.
 
Barrysprout said:
Hi Darren, just had a look through all your shots. What a speed you are going at! Favourite shot so far is "Empty" I really like it. All your other shots are great too.
Nice double use of the theme for this week and yes it's hard to believe the car was still going.
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Thanks Colin. The double theme came about because I said to my fiancé that I was going to write what the object of the race was & she said how about "That object used to be a car". I liked that too so had to have both lol

At one point he had gone into the wall followed by four other cars and somehow with a bit of shunting back and forwards he got out again with the rear dragging on the floor, funny to see and quite impressive LOL.
 
Hi Darren, that's quite a good photo there, what a crumpled car. The new lens is looking good.


weirdfish said:
The Destruction Derby - The "Object" is to be the last car running on track, and number 197, the "Object" pictured here, that started life as a car, managed to do this, believe it or not!

Taken yesterday along with a great many other photos, this was the first outing with my new Canon 70-200 f4L lens :)

Object.jpg by Darren Matthews, on Flickr
Click to expand...
 
Darren, love the object image.. i think the mood of the moment is well reflected in the driver on the left.. can almost hear them discuss the car might need "a new bumper...maybe a headlamp, radiator grill..radiator block.... suspension..chassis... give me a hammer i think i can get that ding out of the bonnet thought..."
 
I was fortunate enough to attend a lovely wedding last weekend, as a guest, so took the opportunity to get some pics, and had a little more practice with the 70-200 f4L outside to get some candid captures.

This one needs no explanation, so here it is....

"Wrong"

 
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darren..are you saying it was wrong that they dressed in B&W??? ... :D

..hang on... are those flowers from a petrol station??? ... om word!! i'll say no more :thumbs:
 
SamuelSlade007 said:
darren..are you saying it was wrong that they dressed in B&W??? ... :D
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Too right, who dresses in B&W on a hot, sunny day!!!! Lol
 
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