Joey's Gallery: Backroads of Michigan

[Joey D]

That train station shot is so smooth and flawless, it's jawdropping to look at! It looks like a very very professional image 👍

Thanks, what I'm still in awe at about the whole thing is why can't I get my SLR to take pictures like that but I can get my little point-and-shoot to. I really do need to take some sort of a class on the photography since I really want to produce similar images with the camera I spent $700 on.

 

[Azuremen]

Thanks, what I'm still in awe at about the whole thing is why can't I get my SLR to take pictures like that but I can get my little point-and-shoot to. I really do need to take some sort of a class on the photography since I really want to produce similar images with the camera I spent $700 on.

Mostly in how the white balance and ISO settings work out, I'd say.

 

[homeforsummer]

2.) My buddy reach for himself off the Bean. I wish I would have got a better angel on this.

I like this shot. The bean (or Cloud Gate to use it's proper title) is a godsend for photographers. Mirrors are great anyway, curved mirrors rock, and mirrors with concave and convex surfaces in the middle of a park surrounded by skyscrapers and people gives you so many options. It certainly makes for some amazing city skylines. My regret is that I never went at sunset or at night.

 

[Joey D]

Mostly in how the white balance and ISO settings work out, I'd say.

Ya that's what I suspect, it's like I said though, my inexperience is really hurting me here. Oh well, a buddy of mine just got back from school and is a pretty good photographer so he said he'd show me proper setup and what not with the camera.

I like this shot. The bean (or Cloud Gate to use it's proper title) is a godsend for photographers. Mirrors are great anyway, curved mirrors rock, and mirrors with concave and convex surfaces in the middle of a park surrounded by skyscrapers and people gives you so many options. It certainly makes for some amazing city skylines. My regret is that I never went at sunset or at night.

Thanks. Like I said I wish I would have had a better angle on it so it would have been all mirror.

The bean was so crowded that day it was hard to get many pictures, maybe next time when I go back.

 

[Scaff]

I love the shot of the train station at night, the only slight thing that I notice is that the buildings on the left are not quite upright. Slightly rotating the image, in my mind, helps quite a bit.

The rest of the shot however; composition, etc are all excellent.


Regards

Scaff

 

[Joey D]

I love the shot of the train station at night, the only slight thing that I notice is that the buildings on the left are not quite upright. Slightly rotating the image, in my mind, helps quite a bit.

The rest of the shot however; composition, etc are all excellent.


Regards

Scaff

Thanks!

Ya I noticed that it was tilted too now that you mention it and I think it's because I was trying to use a support column to steady the camera as not to blur the shot. I really wish I would have had my tripod.

 

[Scaff]

Thanks!

Ya I noticed that it was tilted too now that you mention it and I think it's because I was trying to use a support column to steady the camera as not to blur the shot. I really wish I would have had my tripod.

If you have Photoshop it is something that can be sorted....

...I took the liberty of doing just that for you (and had a quick play with the levels as well).


Regards

Scaff

 

[Joey D]

Over the weekend I took some 450 odd picture while in Grand Rapids and I'm in the process of going through them. I thought I would throw some up right now to get feed back on them. The problem I am having though is I adjust everything in Photoshop CS3 to be properly exposed and when I do a "Save For Web" it makes the photos much darker than they were when I had adjusted them. Any thoughts?

Here are two from in front of the Gerald R. Ford Museum:

Mother Ship Zeta.

It's actually the Steelcase Inc. HQ. Also any idea on reducing noise in photos? That picture came out far noisier than I thought it did.

 

[bergauk]

Over the weekend I took some 450 odd picture while in Grand Rapids and I'm in the process of going through them. I thought I would throw some up right now to get feed back on them. The problem I am having though is I adjust everything in Photoshop CS3 to be properly exposed and when I do a "Save For Web" it makes the photos much darker than they were when I had adjusted them. Any thoughts?

Here are two from in front of the Gerald R. Ford Museum:

Mother Ship Zeta.

It's actually the Steelcase Inc. HQ. Also any idea on reducing noise in photos? That picture came out far noisier than I thought it did.

Lower the ISO and bump up the exposure time if you can.

Both of those were taken inside with just the tv and computer on. ISO set at 80 and an exposure of 15 seconds create that. Its all worth it if you can sit still or mount your camera on a tripod.

*edit* Sorry to post some of my shots in your gallery. Just a simple example. But you see what I mean right?

 

[Joey D]

It's perfectly fine to post your own shots, you were illustrating a point. Like they say a picture is worth a thousand words.

I had the exposer time on the photo for 30seconds and I used a 2 second timer to keep it from moving when I hit the shutter button. I think you are right though, the problem lies with the ISO. I really should have messed with it more.

 

[bergauk]

Alright then, just making sure I wasn't stepping on any toes. Just a suggestion to you Joey would be when it gets to be dark outside. Take the camera outside. Get your white balance adjusted [something I've made a habit of doing with my Mom's camera] for being out in the dark and just start messing around with your camera until you get a feel for how shooting in low light works. It just comes down to practice. As they say. Practice makes perfect.

 

[Nicknamealguem]

The problem I am having though is I adjust everything in Photoshop CS3 to be properly exposed and when I do a "Save For Web" it makes the photos much darker than they were when I had adjusted them. Any thoughts?

Do not “Save for Web”, they will lose quality and important color information.
Save in a normal .jpg or .png file, though, the latest has no loss in quality, the file size is a bit big.

As for the photos, I like the second one the best

 

[Joey D]

Do not “Save for Web”, they will lose quality and important color information.
Save in a normal .jpg or .png file, though, the latest has no loss in quality, the file size is a bit big.

As for the photos, I like the second one the best

I tried these with just a "Save As" it's hard for me to tell but I think they look better, thanks for the advice and comment.

1.) American Flag at the Gerald R. Ford Museum

2.) Some building in downtown Grand Rapids

3.) I attempted a B&W shot of an Evo in a parking structure, I don't know how well it turned out though.

 

[Beerz]

You can use "save as", choose .jpeg and put 11 in quality value, with basically no image quality loss and end up with a substantially smaller file. You can then go to the file's properties and choose to delete all unnecessary info it carries along, thus making it even smaller. 👍

On these last pics, they're overall good and pleasant to the eye, I'd just edit the 2nd one a bit to make the building lighter and give it some midtone contrast to make it pop more, as it stands fully in shade. If you had panned a bit to the right, the building to the right has some awesome lighting going on and would've no doubt provided a great shot aswell.

The Evo was a tricky one to get right in B&W, because of the angle you shot it from. Not a problem if the car was white or silver, but since it's a darker colour, it's extremely hard to make it stand out with most of the side shaded.
Probably would've worked better in colour (though hard to tell without seeing the original.
A good way to edit that pic (imo, of course) would be to use the shadows/highlights in Photoshop to make the car a bit lighter and then using the "midtone contrast" gently. Finally, some more normal contrast. But a tighter crop on the car would be the easiest way to make it more "visible" to the viewer.

Also, the fact that it has its nose near the edge of the frame and pointing outwards makes it a bit "uncomfortable" for the viewer, since your eyes will naturally want to look where the car is turned to, and end up having nothing to follow as the edge is right there. Kinda hard to explain, but that's how basically our brain works 90% of the times.

As a basic example of this, here's a more "politically correct" approach to that shot, what do you think?

The outlined rectangle representing of course the "alternative" shot from where you were at the time.
The pillars on the left would lead the eye exactly to the car's best lit part: the front and make it the focal point of the whole shot.

 

[Joey D]

Thanks for the critiques Hugo, they are always appreciated.

The Evo picture didn't really turn out all that great in colour, it was very grainy. It was sort of shot from the hip while exiting the parking structure and I was mildly happy with the way it looked in terms of angle. I do see what you mean about having the car on the wrong side of the frame, after looking at it again it does dawn on me that it's a bit "incomplete".

Thanks again!

 

[Scaff]

In regard to reducing grain, you may want to give 'Noise Ninja' a go. I picked it up earlier this week after reading about in Giles' kit list.

Its either a stand alone or PS plug-in and can work wonders at getting rid of grain without stripping out detail.


Regards

Scaff

 

[Bram Turismo]

Do not “Save for Web”, they will lose quality and important color information.
Save in a normal .jpg or .png file, though, the latest has no loss in quality, the file size is a bit big.

Actually, save for web gives you the option to save the image at a higher quality, yet taking up less space. This is why I always use the save for web option when making an avatar; I can opt for the highest quality, yet I never go over 10k of the allowed 25k. When going into the menu save for web, you can select many saving options; GIF, PNG, PNG-8, PNG-24, JPEG. For larger images, I tend to stick away from PNG files since they can be awfully slow to load for some internet users like me. Besides, a PNG saved file hasn't got any noticeable better quality than a JPEG saved file with a high quality setting. The GIF and JPEG options themselves have different quality settings, ranging from 1-12 or something.

Joey, some great shots in here chap. Just stick away form PNG files so that I don't have to wait 5 minutes before al the images are fully loaded :tup:

 

[Moglet]

In regard to reducing grain, you may want to give 'Noise Ninja' a go. I picked it up earlier this week after reading about in Giles' kit list.

Its either a stand alone or PS plug-in and can work wonders at getting rid of grain without stripping out detail.


Regards

Scaff

I can 2nd this, I bought a copy recently and it's an amazing piece of software. I took some photos of my friend's band at ISO800 and the noise appeared to ruin them, until, I tried Noise Ninja and it removed the noise almost 100% 👍 I'll post them in my gallery soon.

 

[Joey D]

So I went for a hike today at Stony Creek Metropark in Shelby Township, about 15 miles from my house. It's one of my favourite locations to do just about anything, they have a few nice beaches, some pretty good fishing holes, an awesome golf course, some great hiking trails and some pretty nice photo locations.

I'm still having a hard time with nature photography, so please I'm accepting all criticisms and ways to improve.

 

[homeforsummer]

The nature photography looks okay to me Can't go too far wrong with those colours, though the first photo is my favourite as the path breaks up the sea of autumnal tones quite nicely. Many of the trees there seem to be turning yellow, it's a pity there aren't a few red leaves in there to add a splash more colour to the mix.

 

[Boffin]

I like this set. The first and second are my favourites, with the second having the complexity of the trunks mirrored in the pond makes it quite dramatic.

I couldn't help feel though that it was all in the 70's with the colours looking (although natural) a bit faded. As this is Autumn, you could try playing with the curves or the brightness/contrast to give one of those shots a huge impact factor......like wwwhhBAAAMM - woah colour! I'm not sure if you can understand that through my emotive language .

Good job, though 👍.

 

[Joey D]

The nature photography looks okay to me Can't go too far wrong with those colours, though the first photo is my favourite as the path breaks up the sea of autumnal tones quite nicely. Many of the trees there seem to be turning yellow, it's a pity there aren't a few red leaves in there to add a splash more colour to the mix.

Thanks!

The gold/yellow leaves are a problem with photographing the autumn colours in this part of Michigan since all the trees are for the most part, the same species. Barring the weather tomorrow I'm going to go exploring for some different colours.

I like this set. The first and second are my favourites, with the second having the complexity of the trunks mirrored in the pond makes it quite dramatic.

I couldn't help feel though that it was all in the 70's with the colours looking (although natural) a bit faded. As this is Autumn, you could try playing with the curves or the brightness/contrast to give one of those shots a huge impact factor......like wwwhhBAAAMM - woah colour! I'm not sure if you can understand that through my emotive language .

Good job, though 👍.

Thanks!

I played with the levels a bit but it didn't really end up popping, more of just looking way over exposed. I think my next thing is to learn Photoshop better and what everything does. I do understand what you mean though, I wish there was a bit more popage with the photos.

 

[boiltheocean]

I'm going to sound quite harsh here but stick with me. I'm apologising in advance .

I don't like this set much at all. I'm struggling to find something to focus on. My eye is wandering all over the image but I'm not being drawn into it. If your going to shoot water, make it main subject in the photo, try not to cover the foreground with trees. The composition doesn't help much, it's quite erratic which I suppose does show true nature but masks the beauty. I've also noticed you have quite a large depth of field which also confuses the eye.

I do however like the last photograph. The lines of the path and trees help guide my eye into the centre of the photo, making me feel more relaxed in doing so, this also complements the calmness of nature itself. My only gripe with the last photo would be the large depth of field again, I personally would prefer a shallower DoF with the image taken closer to the ground focusing on the fallen leaves, which of course everyone associates with autumn.

Overall the colours and lighting are very good, I would like to see slight improvement in composition but I realise that shooting in the forest is extremely difficult. Anyone that can pull it off well has definitely passed though this stage so I wouldn't worry too much. Just keep getting out as often as possible and don't be afraid to spend more time setting up the image.

You should post your photos from your Mini thread in here. The composition, colours and tonal ranges on those photographs are excellent. I envy you car photography skills.

Once again, sorry I sound quite harsh but I wanted to give out some hopefully motivating advice.

 

[Joey D]

I'm going to sound quite harsh here but stick with me. I'm apologising in advance .

I don't like this set much at all. I'm struggling to find something to focus on. My eye is wandering all over the image but I'm not being drawn into it. If your going to shoot water, make it main subject in the photo, try not to cover the foreground with trees. The composition doesn't help much, it's quite erratic which I suppose does show true nature but masks the beauty. I've also noticed you have quite a large depth of field which also confuses the eye.

I do however like the last photograph. The lines of the path and trees help guide my eye into the centre of the photo, making me feel more relaxed in doing so, this also complements the calmness of nature itself. My only gripe with the last photo would be the large depth of field again, I personally would prefer a shallower DoF with the image taken closer to the ground focusing on the fallen leaves, which of course everyone associates with autumn.

Overall the colours and lighting are very good, I would like to see slight improvement in composition but I realise that shooting in the forest is extremely difficult. Anyone that can pull it off well has definitely passed though this stage so I wouldn't worry too much. Just keep getting out as often as possible and don't be afraid to spend more time setting up the image.

You should post your photos from your Mini thread in here. The composition, colours and tonal ranges on those photographs are excellent. I envy you car photography skills.

Once again, sorry I sound quite harsh but I wanted to give out some hopefully motivating advice.

No, no you aren't being harsh at all. I'd rather hear what I am doing wrong so I can improve it. Looking back over the set I fully understand what you are saying with there being too much to look at. Good news is the weather is supposed to hold out tomorrow and being fairly warm and sunny so I think I'm going to do Autumn Colour V1.1 back at Stony Creek since it just down the road from my office.

I think I'm going to find some better paths so it breaks up the photo a bit like you said on the last photo. I'm also going to try to find some other colours that aren't yellow, but like I said it might be difficult because southeast Michigan isn't exactly a shinning example of nature diversity.

Thank for the compliments about my automotive photography! I think part of the reason that I am better at that then shooting other things is because I've looking at automotive photography pretty much my entire life.

===

Cooper Photos, I think I'm going to do some retouching on the first three.

 

[Boffin]

Mmmmmm. Much better - the colour of the car really compliments the backdrop. The last one is excellent and so is the 4th.

Great car too. May I suggest as you are doing little bits and bobs to it, that you may consider getting some of those chequered door mirrors? They (I think) would compliment the stripes and would be more of a contrast from the black roof.

Dope car though, and shots. 👍

 

[Joey D]

Mmmmmm. Much better - the colour of the car really compliments the backdrop. The last one is excellent and so is the 4th.

Great car too. May I suggest as you are doing little bits and bobs to it, that you may consider getting some of those chequered door mirrors? They (I think) would compliment the stripes and would be more of a contrast from the black roof.

Dope car though, and shots. 👍

Thanks!

The problem with chequered stuff is that it's way to "played out" with Coopers and unless you do the entire car in it you'll be committing a "no-no". I like chequered stuff, but there are just some things you don't do when involved with an automotive community. I'm sure every car has it's "no-no's".

===

And trying to retouch those first three pictures just make them look odd so I'm going to leave them. I'll just shoot some others.

 

[Syntax error]

The first three cooper shots don't quite make it. The first two are a little flat, and the 3rd one has the right concept for framing, but just doesn't quite do it for me.

The 4th one down however is the money shot 👍 Very well done, I love it.

The 5th shot is great as well. I'd be inclined to touch it up a tad, like removing the grass that is a tad distracting near the front wheel.

You almost got there with the last shot as well but the trunk of the tree is sticking out of the bonnet.

 

[homeforsummer]

As with your car thread, the fourth shot is my favourite. You've got great colour and definition in there, good DOF and the background perfectly compliments the subject. The MINI photos are definitely a cut above the shots of the forest on its own.

Regarding the third photo, also front-on, I reckon this would have been better if the car had been parked under the archway rather than in front of it, and you'd been set up further back with a narrower angle which would have given you a shorter DOF. Also, I see that your car isn't in line with that line of red bricks on the ground - if it was, it would have made for a more balanced shot I reckon.

 

[Joey D]

The first three cooper shots don't quite make it. The first two are a little flat, and the 3rd one has the right concept for framing, but just doesn't quite do it for me.

The 4th one down however is the money shot 👍 Very well done, I love it.

The 5th shot is great as well. I'd be inclined to touch it up a tad, like removing the grass that is a tad distracting near the front wheel.

You almost got there with the last shot as well but the trunk of the tree is sticking out of the bonnet.

Thanks for the comments!

I agree with the first three, I did take several photos in these locations so I might see if another turned out better. I tried retouching them and they ended up making the car look fake.

With the last one I had trouble with the angle and I was only able to back up so far due to a log you can't see in the grass. I would have liked to been further back so the tree didn't look like it was growing outta the car.

As with your car thread, the fourth shot is my favourite. You've got great colour and definition in there, good DOF and the background perfectly compliments the subject. The MINI photos are definitely a cut above the shots of the forest on its own.

Regarding the third photo, also front-on, I reckon this would have been better if the car had been parked under the archway rather than in front of it, and you'd been set up further back with a narrower angle which would have given you a shorter DOF. Also, I see that your car isn't in line with that line of red bricks on the ground - if it was, it would have made for a more balanced shot I reckon.

Thanks!

The problem with the third photo is I can't go back any further due to a sign posted saying no vehicles in the court yard. I'll take it right to the limit but I didn't want to break the rule and ruin it for all photographers. I probably could have gotten away with it but knowing my luck I wouldn't have.

And now that you point it out, I see what you mean about the bricks, funny how I didn't catch that before. I'm still going to see if I can't find better shots from the ones I took.

 

[Joey D]

I went the other day to try out shooting some more picture and see if I could improve the last batch a little.

Woods:

Water:

More Cooper Shots: