Loire Valley - France (6 pics)

Hello All,

Here are a few pictures I took last weekend in the Loire Valley. I have not had time to do any serious PP on them, just a quick 2 minute job on each during lunch but wanted to share them with you.

Any advice / feedback for next time would be appreciated along with any advice on how I should PP them would also be great.

1)



2)



3)



4)



5)



6)



Take care,

Fid.

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(¯'·.,¸¸. · ¤ Fid ¤ ·.,¸¸. ·´¯)

francce is beatiful, have not been there since 2000.
were this shots done handheld or with a tripod?

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Beautiful shots, thanks for sharing
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Great shots! first and last images are my favourites. Thanks for sharing!

All except the last were on a tripod.

I am trying something I read a little while ago about forcing yourself to use a tripod for EVERY exposure for 6 months, this will help you think more about what you are doing.

The reason I didn't use it for the last one though was that with one hand I was hanging onto a tree, and with the other I was leaning over the water with the camera just a few inches off surface. Took several exposures to get it close, but turned out well in the end.

Number 3 was an especially clever use of the tripod, I extended it to full length put the camera on one end and sat on the other, then with the IR remote trip the shutter. This was quite a dodgy place for the camera as it was hanging quite a way over the edge of the wall, but I think the shot works out quite well with the wall leading the eye into the picture.

Thanks for looking,

Fid.

AudiBoy said:

francce is beatiful, have not been there since 2000.
were this shots done handheld or with a tripod?

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Click to expand...

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(¯'·.,¸¸. · ¤ Fid ¤ ·.,¸¸. ·´¯)

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(¯'·.,¸¸. · ¤ Fid ¤ ·.,¸¸. ·´¯)

Hi MDigiX,

I think the last one is also one my favourite. The first one was great, I love night photography and was there for ages trying to get the exposure with all the traffic moving or out of the shot, unfortunately this was the best with only one bus just stopping for a short period after I tripped the shutter.

Thanks for looking,

Fid.

MDigiX said:

Great shots! first and last images are my favourites. Thanks for
sharing!

Click to expand...

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(¯'·.,¸¸. · ¤ Fid ¤ ·.,¸¸. ·´¯)

it's worth it!!lol

Very nice, Fid. I especially like the tree-lined walk with the leaves all over it and the last one with the chateau roofline framed by tree branches.

My wife and I were in the Loire Valley two years ago and had a great time. I was shooting a CP5700 at the time. Here are a couple of mine...







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David in Arkansas
Proud FCAS Member, PBASE supporter
http://www.pbase.com/arkie5700

I know art. I just don't know what I like.

number 1 and 5 are my fav. even though it's hard to chose. They're all great. I would not do too much PP if I were you. They already have a nice and natural look, unless you see the need to do more.

Roman

I really like #4 and #5. I think they really convey the evironment of the area better than the others, which are also pretty good. In #4, there is a distracting piece of grass that is out of focus on the left side of the image. If you could clone that out, I think that image would be really great. Have you tried using the LAB method for increasing saturation on #5? It might be too much, but it could add some punch to it too. Great work, thanks for sharing.

-Jeff

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Jeff Tomasini
http://tomasini.smugmug.com/

Hi Mark!

Very great work, all very good. Bravo and Bold! I've read about "adventurous shot" #6 ".... hanging onto a tree... to be prudence next time.

I like particularly #1, because recall my mind to Troyes Hotel de Ville pending a very adventurous (but far, very far) caravan French trip. If my "brain image archive" is'nt totally fried, was a Sunday National French Solennity (July 14?) and I've a few of shot to "Nancy Army Band" ... is possible about 35 Years ago.
After my excuses for above personal digression, I pose a few little question:

1)- I've read from Exif data all shot with 18-70 Kit Lens. Please confirm that. Thanks.

2)- I'm permise to dowload and crop first (my preferred) shot and please "read" the red arrow to indicate strange effect. Do You have any hypothesis? Is possible SW mistake? Do You use Nikon Capture ?.



Thanks again for sharing excellent pictures: I've read deep sense of Life ... also without any "living beings" presence ... but only Your Heartbeat (65-> 70-> 80-> 90-> 100 ... stop danger!).
Best regards
Luigi

--
Eggs can't teach nothing to Hens

Hey Fid,

Great pictures.

I've loved the green river one

It's quite funny, cause we could think it's an effect, or a filter used, but as I've been there already, I know that river looks exactly THAAAAT green

Great shots.

Congrats

Rod

Hi David,

They are some lovely shots. It is really nice when you see other peoples photos of places you have been yourself. You get to see how other people saw the scene and how they recorded it. Thank you very much.

You first image... I did want to take a picture like that one myself but no tripods were allowed and I'm trying to stick to my use a tripod for everything rule also the room was a lot darker that day than you seemed to have had. You do seem to have been very lucky with the number of people around. That is a great shot you have there.

The second image is great, the colours are very vibrant. I am amazed that it was so quiet, or is this a few exposures put together and people cloned out?

This last one just shows the sort of weather you had, unfortunately we had quite miserable weather most of the time I was down there, but never the less had a wonderful visit. I spent about 45 minutes walking around this chateau trying to find an angle to shoot it from and ultimately I think I walked away from this one without a nice shot. You have done a wonderful job here of finding a great spot, was this also a laying on the ground and leaning over the edge photo?

Thanks again for sharing your pictures.

Take care,

Fid.
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(¯'·.,¸¸. · ¤ Fid ¤ ·.,¸¸. ·´¯)

Thanks Roman,

I am going to try and put a little more life into the trees in the 5th shot, and perhaps a little cloning here and there, but mostly I think I'll leave them as is.

Cheers for you comments.

Fid.
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(¯'·.,¸¸. · ¤ Fid ¤ ·.,¸¸. ·´¯)

Good shots, but in first photo the sky is very pixelated on my monitor, as well as the trees in the upper left of the last photo.
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WSSA # 24
5700 ---> 70

Hi Jeff,

Yer, I did spot that bit of grass after the event.. Always the way isn't it .. at first I wasn't sure what it was, but I guess the same as you, that it's a bit of grass. I don't know how easy it will be to clone out, I am not a great PPer, but I'm going to give it a go as it is a bit distracting.

Regarding LAB, I have read a lot about it and will be having a go with this image and a little LAB PPing. I have actually posted a thread in the retouch forum for help on this image as I really think that trees need a little more pop and can not seem to find a way to do it, but have not tried the LAB methods out on it yet, so perhaps this will be the solution.

(Retouch forum thread: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1006&thread=15924261 )

Thanks for looking.

Fid.

jmtanes said:

I really like #4 and #5. I think they really convey the evironment
of the area better than the others, which are also pretty good. In

1. 4, there is a distracting piece of grass that is out of focus on

the left side of the image. If you could clone that out, I think
that image would be really great. Have you tried using the LAB
method for increasing saturation on #5? It might be too much, but
it could add some punch to it too. Great work, thanks for sharing.

-Jeff

--
Jeff Tomasini
http://tomasini.smugmug.com/

Click to expand...

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(¯'·.,¸¸. · ¤ Fid ¤ ·.,¸¸. ·´¯)

I just love this one:

Some really nice well exposed and colourful shots Fid. I too like the first and last pictures the most. I do like the row of trees shot, Some great colour in the leaves on the floor, I wish thee trres themselves had more colour as they look slightly washed out compared, maybe it could be PP'ed a little

Best regards

Hay Luigi,

Thank you for looking, it is a great place and it sounds like you had a great time yourself

It is true, I didn't realize until just now, that they where all taken with the Kit 18-70 Lens. Great little lens that, but do want to get something a bit wider sometime soon... Tok 12-24 watch out!!!

Your second comment, it does look a little odd, I would hazard a guess that it is traffic moving past. The exposure was 1.6 secs and there was a lot of traffic around, but it is odd to be so high up and not have any of the building being blocked out. Never the less I will put my money on it being traffic and not a software glitch. For the conversion actually I just used Nikon View to batch them to JPG. Like I said, I have not really done any true PP on them yet, just a little levels etc.

Thanks again for your comments and your time.

Take it easy,

Fid.

Luigi De Nardis said:

Hi Mark!
Very great work, all very good. Bravo and Bold! I've read about
"adventurous shot" #6 ".... hanging onto a tree... to be prudence
next time.
I like particularly #1, because recall my mind to Troyes Hotel de
Ville pending a very adventurous (but far, very far) caravan French
trip. If my "brain image archive" is'nt totally fried, was a Sunday
National French Solennity (July 14?) and I've a few of shot to
"Nancy Army Band" ... is possible about 35 Years ago.
After my excuses for above personal digression, I pose a few little
question:
1)- I've read from Exif data all shot with 18-70 Kit Lens. Please
confirm that. Thanks.
2)- I'm permise to dowload and crop first (my preferred) shot and
please "read" the red arrow to indicate strange effect. Do You have
any hypothesis? Is possible SW mistake? Do You use Nikon Capture ?.



Thanks again for sharing excellent pictures: I've read deep sense
of Life ... also without any "living beings" presence ... but only
Your Heartbeat (65-> 70-> 80-> 90-> 100 ... stop danger!).
Best regards
Luigi

--
Eggs can't teach nothing to Hens

Click to expand...

--

(¯'·.,¸¸. · ¤ Fid ¤ ·.,¸¸. ·´¯)