***July 28, 2024 - August 3, 2024 Weekly Show, Tell, and Critique***

Anything goes in this thread (as long as DPReview's general standards are not violated): any camera; any subject; any post-processing; etc. Recent images you have created in the past week or two are much preferred but not required. A little background on where, how and why you made the image(s) you posted would add interest. By posting here, you are inviting constructive criticism and general discussion of your images. Please share your expertise by providing constructive criticism on photos others have posted.

Before posting your own images, view and comment on at least one other image.

PLEASE NOTE: We will be away from July 31 on - staying at a friend's primitive cabin on Pine Creek in north-central PA. There is no internet service in that very remote place, so I won't be able to see posts or make comments from the 31st on - very sorry!!

Our goal is to bike a 50+ mile rail-trail that runs right along the Pine Creek and through the Grand Canyon Of PA. Hopefully, some good photo opps will be had on this trip.

To start us off, here are some pics from that place last July. Smoke from the Canadian wildfires made for some spectacular sunsets.

Buck, doe and blue heron in Pine Creek as the sun goes down.



Well-maintained sign letting drivers know that this "road" is neither plowed nor cindered in winter (there's a surprise ).



Bliss cooling off in Pine Creek.



A view down part of the "Grand Canyon" after a grueling climb to the top.



Summer wheat in the creek valley.



A little mossy mountain tributary to Pine Creek.



Abandoned miner's church - part of the "ghost town" of Ansonia, which is the nearest town to the cabin.



Driving the "roads" in this area is not for the faint of heart.



Bye!! (Canada geese on Pine Creek)







Greg

--
Check out my photos at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/137747053@N07/

Birddogman said:

Bliss cooling off in Pine Creek.





Greg

Click to expand...

I like this one Greg. It's almost wistful, the composition is great. The second time I looked at the pic I thought trout!

Busbob

--
Every new day is a gift!

Busbob said:

Birddogman said:

Bliss cooling off in Pine Creek.



Greg

Click to expand...

I like this one Greg. It's almost wistful, the composition is great. The second time I looked at the pic I thought trout!

Click to expand...

I was wondering about how natural a rather wide angle looked, but then I looked up the XT-5 and saw it was APS-C, so this is more like 24mm effective focal width (before image processing) than the announced 18mm.

I'm getting obsessed about numbers right now, but of course it is primarily a great shot!

--
Dak

So I missed the Artistic Mammals competition. Dang.

Had I been able this would have been my entry. This is a neighbor's dog, I was working on getting definition with black subjects, as in Red-winged Blackbirds. The neighbor was walking the dog and let my try my skills with various settings on the RX10 IV.



Pretty much caught the dog's personality--bright, friendly, but strong. Note the heavy leash.

Sadly, not long after this pic, the owner took the Covid shot and within days passed away from multiple strokes. Nice man, I miss him.

My signature is Every new day is a gift!. My neighbor's passing is a reminder of this, and earlier this month I dang near joined my neighbor after an outpatient procedure I was undergoing went south unexpectedly. Eight days in the hospital and I won't be "normal" again and cleared to bike and take the camera with me until the middle of August. Yikes. Very close call. Can't wait to venture out again.

Busbob

--
Every new day is a gift!

Thanks, Bob! Yes, Pine Creek is a good trout stream.

Greg

Exactly right, Dak. I have a 10-24mm for that camera. You need that to get really wide. This is the Virgin River Canyon at 10mm.





Greg



--
Check out my photos at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/137747053@N07/

I, too, really struggle trying to show definition on black dogs (and other critters). You did very well on that one! What is your secret?

Sorry to hear of your friend's passing. Do you think the Covid shot had something to do with it?

You are absolutely right that one must enthusiastically take full advantage of every precious healthy day because you never know when something it is going to happen to bring your life to a screaming halt. The event may well have nothing to do with your health (as when my 1st wife became ill and needed 24/7 care for a decade). Nancy and I, having both lost our 1st spouses, have learned to live that mantra each day. I do NOT want to be lying in a hospital bed saying, "Gee, I wish I had gone to Montana to hunt for the fall instead of sitting at home watching TV."

I'm very glad to hear you will be back at it again! I shot in a 28 gauge skeet competition this morning and we are going to hit the Schuylkill River Trail on our bikes this afternoon.

Greg

-
Check out my photos at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/137747053@N07/

Birddogman said:

Exactly right, Dak. I have a 10-24mm for that camera. You need that to get really wide. This is the Virgin River Canyon at 10mm.



Greg

Click to expand...

Yep, that's wide. I'm expecting a 17-35 myself (it's in the post office) that would pretty much give the same results as your setup.

--
Dak

Birddogman said:

I, too, really struggle trying to show definition on black dogs (and other critters). You did very well on that one! What is your secret?

Sorry to hear of your friend's passing. Do you think the Covid shot had something to do with it?

Click to expand...

The timing would certainly suggest it to have been the trigger: after all, it is an infection and bodily response with all its side effects. It just abates timely. The question is rather whether without that shot nothing else might have triggered the stroke in the near future.

An actual Covid infection would probably not have ended much better.

Birddogman said:

I, too, really struggle trying to show definition on black dogs (and other critters). You did very well on that one! What is your secret?

Sorry to hear of your friend's passing. Do you think the Covid shot had something to do with it?

You are absolutely right that one must enthusiastically take full advantage of every precious healthy day because you never know when something it is going to happen to bring your life to a screaming halt. The event may well have nothing to do with your health (as when my 1st wife became ill and needed 24/7 care for a decade). Nancy and I, having both lost our 1st spouses, have learned to live that mantra each day. I do NOT want to be lying in a hospital bed saying, "Gee, I wish I had gone to Montana to hunt for the fall instead of sitting at home watching TV."

I'm very glad to hear you will be back at it again! I shot in a 28 gauge skeet competition this morning and we are going to hit the Schuylkill River Trail on our bikes this afternoon.

Greg

-
Check out my photos at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/137747053@N07/

Click to expand...

For you and Dak.

Looking back at my efforts with the black dog it seems the higher ISO numbers didn't help, I settled on 640 and the results were more consistent. Of course that is about the same time I started with Luminar.

As for the covid shot, my friend had the shot in the afternoon, had a stroke within 12 hours or so, then after a couple of days in the hospital successive strokes ended his life. To me it was a direct result of the shot. Another neighbor met the same fate (we only have 60 houses in our neighborhood). We were all scared.

Never know, do we? My recent experience was either triggered by the procedure or a weak vein just blew out. Fortunately I was on the table and a team of abdominal surgeons were on me in 5 minutes. Lost a lot of blood. Had I not been actually in the hospital it would truly be the screaming halt you speak of.

Can't wait to get back on the bike and have already picked out a new one to up the fun factor!

Busbob

Busbob said:

Birddogman said:

I, too, really struggle trying to show definition on black dogs (and other critters). You did very well on that one! What is your secret?

Sorry to hear of your friend's passing. Do you think the Covid shot had something to do with it?

You are absolutely right that one must enthusiastically take full advantage of every precious healthy day because you never know when something it is going to happen to bring your life to a screaming halt. The event may well have nothing to do with your health (as when my 1st wife became ill and needed 24/7 care for a decade). Nancy and I, having both lost our 1st spouses, have learned to live that mantra each day. I do NOT want to be lying in a hospital bed saying, "Gee, I wish I had gone to Montana to hunt for the fall instead of sitting at home watching TV."

I'm very glad to hear you will be back at it again! I shot in a 28 gauge skeet competition this morning and we are going to hit the Schuylkill River Trail on our bikes this afternoon.

Greg

-
Check out my photos at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/137747053@N07/

Click to expand...

For you and Dak.

Looking back at my efforts with the black dog it seems the higher ISO numbers didn't help, I settled on 640 and the results were more consistent. Of course that is about the same time I started with Luminar.

As for the covid shot, my friend had the shot in the afternoon, had a stroke within 12 hours or so, then after a couple of days in the hospital successive strokes ended his life. To me it was a direct result of the shot. Another neighbor met the same fate (we only have 60 houses in our neighborhood). We were all scared.

Never know, do we? My recent experience was either triggered by the procedure or a weak vein just blew out. Fortunately I was on the table and a team of abdominal surgeons were on me in 5 minutes. Lost a lot of blood. Had I not been actually in the hospital it would truly be the screaming halt you speak of.

Can't wait to get back on the bike and have already picked out a new one to up the fun factor!

Busbob

Click to expand...

We both got very sick with Covid back before there were vaccines. Nancy was in the hospital and nearly died. I've never been so sick in my life; and I had some really nasty stuff when I was in Vietnam long ago. We got the vaccines and boosters and felt pretty awful for a couple days each time. Then, we each got Covid again and were pretty miserable for a week or so, but it was nothing like the first time. I think we are done with the vaccines.

Glad to hear you are looking forward to getting back on your bike. Here's a few shots from this afternoon's ride of about 30 miles:

Some of the trails are pretty nice - a bike bridge over a creek:





Over a busy road:





Nancy and bikes by the 1716 Mons Jones House:





Looking down the river from the trail:





Greg



--
Check out my photos at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/137747053@N07/

Dak on cam said:

Birddogman said:

Exactly right, Dak. I have a 10-24mm for that camera. You need that to get really wide. This is the Virgin River Canyon at 10mm.



Greg

Click to expand...

Yep, that's wide. I'm expecting a 17-35 myself (it's in the post office) that would pretty much give the same results as your setup.

Click to expand...

Huh. I'll need to look for outside targets. Indoors, 17mm turns out entirely unspectacular:



By the way, the EXIF will tell a story of short exposure, low ISO, and flash: this is the flash I showed as a "broken toy" (fixed in the mean time) two weeks ago. I took off the slave flash and placed it in the kitchen (bouncing off a white wall) and bounced the main flash off the ceiling.

I am still struggling to make the camera believe in flash: unless I put all of aperture, speed, ISO firmly under manual control, it will use its leeway for overexposing. At least it fires the flash. But without trusting it. Kind of surprising that with all that bouncery the slave still sees enough to trigger.

--
Dak

Birddogman said:

Exactly right, Dak. I have a 10-24mm for that camera. You need that to get really wide. This is the Virgin River Canyon at 10mm.



Greg

--
Check out my photos at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/137747053@N07/

Click to expand...

Very nice! Brings back memories from my trip there so long ago. Widest wide angle lens I had with the 35mm film camera was a 24. Couldn't afford anything wider. I bought a 12 mm Rokinon for my Sony a6300 which is I guess equivalent to an 18 mm?? In full frame.

KB

Dak on cam said:

Dak on cam said:

Birddogman said:

Exactly right, Dak. I have a 10-24mm for that camera. You need that to get really wide. This is the Virgin River Canyon at 10mm.



Greg

Click to expand...

Yep, that's wide. I'm expecting a 17-35 myself (it's in the post office) that would pretty much give the same results as your setup.

Click to expand...

Huh. I'll need to look for outside targets. Indoors, 17mm turns out entirely unspectacular:



By the way, the EXIF will tell a story of short exposure, low ISO, and flash: this is the flash I showed as a "broken toy" (fixed in the mean time) two weeks ago. I took off the slave flash and placed it in the kitchen (bouncing off a white wall) and bounced the main flash off the ceiling.

I am still struggling to make the camera believe in flash: unless I put all of aperture, speed, ISO firmly under manual control, it will use its leeway for overexposing. At least it fires the flash. But without trusting it. Kind of surprising that with all that bouncery the slave still sees enough to trigger.

Click to expand...

Well, somehow I still miss out on the theatralics of wide angle (here: 17mm on full-frame). I probably could make use of 14mm without anything looking particularly wide.

Was a bit around today. Here are a few hoverflies (they actually keep other crawlies in check, so they are not all bad) as macro shot (90mm) and as wide angle (21mm admittedly, for better framing):









But even the full 17mm is limiting: I waste half the frame on perspective (why are shift-tilt lenses so expensive?):





Here is one where I did perspective correction during raw processing, and there is some resulting loss of sharpness at detail level:







The JPEG out of camera was slightly different:





Yes, I should have used a polarizer, but 77mm filter threads make for expensive filters.

--
Dak

Great idea for a mask.

Birddogman said:

Greg

Click to expand...

David

abiquiuense said:

David

Click to expand...

Well, you caught a good moment. It is just hard to tell of what.

--
Dak

abiquiuense said:

Birddogman said:

Click to expand...

Great idea for a mask.

Click to expand...

I get lockjaw just thinking about it.

--
Dak

Your "thread starters" are really hitting it out of the park.

With my current playing setup (mostly a set of primes from before the era of autofocus or even auto-aperture on a comparatively modern 24MP full-frame sensor), I find myself changing my processing habits.

While the camera body (Nikon D610) is quite better producing out-of-camera JPEGs than my DSC-R1 (10MP on APS-C), the newer setup is not as much "every pixel on its own": there is an antialiasing filter and the transitions are spread over more pixels. That means that sharpening and contrast enhancing operations can be applied to a stronger degree before producing visible artifacts. Also the dynamic range of the sensor does its part in making the image friendly to manipulations.

Example from a recent shot in a room lit by a red-draped lamp:





It wasn't the first shot I'll admit and you can see a lack of enthusiams for the clack-clack noise. But at least I get more mileage than with my previous setup necessitating a flash. Of course I bounced it, but nevertheless I usually got a walkaway after the first shot.

I digress. Some processing later:





Yes, it is still apparent that the lighting did not leave a large color gamut to work with. But overall, the colors are very much what would have been there in white light. And for the dim light that was there, I am impressed by the results. The 1:1.4 50mm helps.

--
Dak