Margaret River area, WA with an M9

Please do give me some feedback if you can.

Generally the pictures are untouched except for some highlight recovery and removal of a surprising amount sensor dust, which I noticed against the sky in particular, after I imported two days of photographs into Lightroom!

http://www.pbase.com/vikasmg/margaret_river_wa



Thanks.
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• Vikas

Vikas M Gore said:

Please do give me some feedback if you can.

Generally the pictures are untouched except for some highlight recovery and removal of a surprising amount sensor dust, which I noticed against the sky in particular, after I imported two days of photographs into Lightroom!

Click to expand...

There's the objective intent, and the myriad of interpretive ones that could be considered.

I know I'd try to bring some depth, and play with the tones so the white cloud didn't draw the eye up and away. And then who knows what - in the end, maybe even ending up in monochrome. But that would be speaking to my interpretive bent, of a place I've never been.

So it might be better to begin asking how you felt about the outcome.

--
...Bob, NYC

'Well, sometimes the magic works. . . Sometimes, it doesn't.' - Little Big Man

http://www.bobtullis.com

Thank you for your response, which I found very interesting. On that particular image I have to say that I was somewhat disappointed by it looking muh more flat than I remember the scene. It was a cloudy day with flat lighting but that isn't the only problem.

When I get some time I'll get back to it and see what I can do with it. I think the dgn original has enough detail to exploit.

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• Vikas

I don't think it is the white cloud, per se, but the fact that it comes to an abrupt end and gives way to blue sky approximately a third of the way in from the right.

Of course, there is little you can do about that. But it could be that Bob's suggestion of B&W might lessen the impact of that "boundary".

I hope you will post the results of your further work on this image so that we can compare the before and after, so to speak.

Calvin Palmer said:

I hope you will post the results of your further work on this image so that we can compare the before and after, so to speak.

Click to expand...

I will. I'll try and do it tomorrow morning (my time) before work because if I miss that I'm on a business trip from the afternoon till the 15th and I don't know when I'll get around to it!

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• Vikas

In my quite humble opinion, these photographs would be more pleasing to my eye if you selectively boost the contrast. Recovering highlights, while a great feature, can produce images that are a more flat and lifeless.

I suggest "selectively" boosting the contrast because you don't want to re-blowout the clouds, of course.

Images 'straight out of the camera' is a confusing concept. If you shoot DNG, what that generally means when people say it is that they are presenting them images with Lightroom's default contrast, saturation, and brightness adjustments applied.

I find that Photoshop's ACR defaults often produce lifeless images... even when I don't recover highlights and I apply several layers of adjustments in photoshop to bring the images to life -- plus I happen to like "the film look," so I make adjustments to give the images a more film-like appearance.

It's important to keep in mind that Adobe (to the best of my knowledge) has not released profiles for the M9, so the default settings are their generic DNG settings (so I imagine), so one shouldn't expect them to the be the holy grail of default settings.

This is all a matter of personal taste, of course.

I will try to show you what I mean by my personal taste by making adjustments to one of your photos later if that's okay.

Scott

Vikas M Gore said:

Thank you for your response, which I found very interesting. On that particular image I have to say that I was somewhat disappointed by it looking muh more flat than I remember the scene. It was a cloudy day with flat lighting but that isn't the only problem.

Click to expand...

I find that a proper exposure for the sensor can often produce that result, and more times than not need to turn to developing to regain the moment - regardless of whether the expression seeks truth or the more emotive form.

Vikas M Gore said:

When I get some time I'll get back to it and see what I can do with it. I think the dgn original has enough detail to exploit.

Click to expand...

Agreed.

--
...Bob, NYC

'Well, sometimes the magic works. . . Sometimes, it doesn't.' - Little Big Man

http://www.bobtullis.com

Scott, thinking this might be interesting to share different personality touches. . .

The first I put through Aperture's converter, hitting Definition, Levels (curves), Sharpen, and a bit of boost to the yellow and reds in the HSL color brick. The 2nd was all that being sent to Viveza for additional tonal/contrast, adding a 16:9 crop.

Of course, doing this on a reduced JPG, and the order of operations being sloppy. . . say no more?





--
...Bob, NYC

'Well, sometimes the magic works. . . Sometimes, it doesn't.' - Little Big Man

http://www.bobtullis.com

Two additional versions of the picture in the first message.

One with the saturation in the sky reduced and the rock in front brightened up marginally



The second in B&W with contract slightly increased



Do remember that there are a few other images at
http://www.pbase.com/vikasmg/margaret_river_wa

Thanks.

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• Vikas

Hi Bob, I have two alternative takes at

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1038&message=33599687

Thank you for your interest.

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• Vikas

Bob Tullis said:

Scott, thinking this might be interesting to share different personality touches. . .

Click to expand...

Bob, I find your interpretations wonderful, but I have to admit, something I would not want to do myself because they don't really express my preferences.

I do agree with Scott's comment though that the images could benefit from more contrast than they have. The Leica's relativetively conservative rendering of colours is not always the the best option - specially on a day like last Saturday at Yallingup.

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• Vikas

Hi Scott

sensoree said:

In my quite humble opinion, these photographs would be more pleasing to my eye if you selectively boost the contrast. Recovering highlights, while a great feature, can produce images that are a more flat and lifeless.

I suggest "selectively" boosting the contrast because you don't want to re-blowout the clouds, of course.

Click to expand...

I think you are right. In fact I did a bit of experimenting along those lines in a trial version of Viveza and soon decided it was worth purchasing it!

sensoree said:

Images 'straight out of the camera' is a confusing concept. If you shoot DNG, what that generally means when people say it is that they are presenting them images with Lightroom's default contrast, saturation, and brightness adjustments applied.

Click to expand...

There's an interesting article in this month's LFI magazine comaring results from an M8, M9 and Canon 5D MkII which perfectly illustrates your point. Three very good camera's interpreting reality in slightly diferent ways. The portrait of a woman against a painted wall is a good example.

sensoree said:

This is all a matter of personal taste, of course.

I will try to show you what I mean by my personal taste by making adjustments to one of your photos later if that's okay.

Click to expand...

I would love to see the results. I found Bill's contribution fascinating and educative, though I confess I would not approach it quite like that. In case you miss it, you may be interested in http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1038&message=33599687

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• Vikas

I reluctantly post this knowing that it might look dramatically different on your monitor than mine, but here's my take at a color version.

Vikas, I am a total novice when it comes to PP. But this image intrigued me, it looks like a very pretty spot, and I tried to do some work on it in LR. It looks like it might have some focus issues. And the lighting was probably not the best at the time you took this, in terms of bringing out the contrast and detail. Anyway, here is a try:



Ece

Well; this is becoming very interesting and a good exercise for all of us!

I tried to stay as faithful to the original shot as possible. I just played with contrast and cut a little from the bottom of the frame. But as you can see, more we work on it, more the file becomes bigger!



--
Louis

I have to say, of all the interpretations of this photograph, mine included, this is probably my favorite!

Thanks you for that!

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• Vikas

Vikas M Gore said:

Bob Tullis said:

Scott, thinking this might be interesting to share different personality touches. . .

Click to expand...

Bob, I find your interpretations wonderful, but I have to admit, something I would not want to do myself because they don't really express my preferences.

Click to expand...

Wholly understood. But I'm always curious of the potential of a capture (and that often shows ).

--
...Bob, NYC

'Well, sometimes the magic works. . . Sometimes, it doesn't.' - Little Big Man

http://www.bobtullis.com

For all the efforts of the esteemed posters, and there is no doubt that they have transformed the original image into something with more pop, I will go against the grain, no pun intended, and say that I prefer your B&W rendition, Vikas.

First, it is yours. Second, it doesn't have that "Photoshop" look about it. But each to his own. And as someone else said, this thread has turned out to be an interesting exercise and given everyone a chance to see accomplished exponents of post processing at work.

I'm sorry to say it but they just look like boring snapshots of Margaret River. I know the scenery down there and the light can offer up more (I live in WA and know Margaret River very well).

I feel that if you're going to take a shot and you've spent the money on good equipment then do it justice and take some time and some thought.





Both shots were taken at Gnarabup Beach just outside Margaret River. Apologies for not posting Leica images but I don't shoot much landscape work with my Leica.

I will also be quite honest to say when I viewed the images I did not realize it was a river or even water? It looked kind of strange and I had come to the conclusion that it was some kind of melton lava with the rocks sitting on it with a path leading into the distance. It was not until a later post that mentioned it was a river I was even persuaded that this was so.

Sorry but that is how it was viewed here.