Sunday, February 07, 2010

Some different looks.

Our room was on the second floor and on the end. I figured it might be a bit noisy, especially since there was a tavern across the street, but the sidewalks rolled back early. The night was quite peaceful. Thankfully, the locals are more subdued than the Spring Breakers that will show up later.

I bent around the small privacy wall and took this photo. The sign was on the street side of us.

At a different time of day I took this photo looking in the other direction.

Here's downtown Seaside at 7:30 AM.

Part of the street across the bridge from me was pretty festive the night before. Keeping with the coastal location theme, of course.



Lights reflected on water are always nice.




Reflections on breakfast.

I didn't think about looking to see if the mirror was straight in the frame at the time. One of these days I'll get all the parts of the puzzle in place at once. I could have done something about it in Photoshop but I would have lost part of the picture. Just call it "artistic"!


I pressed the Nikon lense against the dining room window to get this shot.

I liked the way the light made the oblong patterns under the bridge. One of these days, when I grow up in my post-editing skills, I will learn how to take the orange light glow out of the left of the photo.

I think it's time to wrap up the family vacation photos and go back to motorcycles. I read somewhere that the key to making people think you're a really good photographer is to only show off your great shots. Don't let them see your mediocre ones. One of these days I'll get the great shots. For now, well, you go with what you got!

Miles and smiles,

Dan


5 comments:

Chuck Pefley said...

Dan, photo editing skills will only save you from seeing the orange light at the edge of that frame ... if you choose a slightly different frame. What you are seeing is called flare, and happens because there is an extremely bright light source just outside the edge of the frame that allows some of it's light to fall on your lens. One solution, and probably the easiest, is to shield the camera lens with your other hand ... of course then you need to be careful to keep your hand out of the frame. -:) All about trade-offs. Perhaps you can simply re-position yourself slightly to mitigate this, choose a bit longer focal length, or if using an SLR then make sure you have the correct lens hood in place.

Trying to remove flare in Photoshop is truly a thankless job, and in this case a total waste of time. However, if it bothers you enough you could simply use a gradient to darken that portion of the picture thereby making "this truly horrible flare" less noticeable.

That said, there will be times you simply can't avoid it, as well as time where the careful placement actually contributes to and enhances your photo.

My 2¢ worth to carry along on your miles and smiles -:)

Lucky said...

Keep shooting and looking at your photos with a critical eye (as you're doing) will result in fast improvement. Your photos are already better than when you started out!

Of course, this is coming from the guy who can't be bothered to get the camera out 95% of the time...

Conchscooter said...

I study each picture after I take it. If I don't like It I redo it and erase the failures. Or I shoot as many as I need anc get rid of the wasted ones. Then back home I download the pictures to the computer and load them into the post in reverse and write picture to picture usually using 20 pictures per post. I never photoshop but i do rarely crop pictures in the microfsoft picture editing program that came with the lap top.
And now I have probably said too much as i rarely discuss how i took my pictures with my pocket squeeze box...

Sojourner's Moto Tales said...

Nice photos. So much of photography is subjective. And, great is over rated. I learn most from what doesn't work. Post 'em all!

irondad said...

Chuck,

Other than the fact that my head now hurts, I appreciate the feedback. In this case I got greedy because I didn't want to lose the edge of the one oval. Since I was inside a room I couldn't move much. Of course, I could have tried it from outside but I would have been lower. Might not have been the same view.

Actually, the hood might have worked. Wish I had thought of that. Thanks again for taking an interest. I really do appreciate all the advice you give!

Lucky,

Thanks for the encouragement. I hope I get better quickly so you all can quit being tortured!

Conchscooter,

That loading in reverse and writing between pictures is a valuable tip. I always do it the hard way. Thanks!

Sojourner,

Your kind words are appreciated. However, one should never encourage a maniac. One might end up regretting it!

If we learn from our mistakes, then I have to say I am learning a lot.

Take care,

Dan