MadMikeOne Loc: So. NJ Shore - a bit west of Atlantic City

This is not only my very 1st post to FYC, but also my 1st attempt at landscapes. I've been trying to push myself out of my long-time comfort zone of BIF, BOW, and wildlife. There was pretty much no choice left when we were at the Grand Canyon for all of about 2 hours in March of this year. The only wildlife present was of the human variety - the nutcase tourists who were climbing out and onto all manner of dangerous, even by my standards, of very dangerous places.

This was taken with my D7200 and my 18-105. I tried to frame the image in camera and did very minor cropping to the image. The only PP I ever do is whatever minimal stuff I am able to do once the image is on my iPad. As I recall, all I did to this image other than the cropping was to click on the "enhance" button. It brought up a bit more of the color.

I am both anxious and afraid to hear your comments, but I am open to suggestions for improvements.

OK, here goes! I am jumping out of the plane now!

(Download)

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Welcome, MMO! Sounds like if you'd hung around long enough, you could have caught some one-of-a-kind action shots of those "nutcase tourists"

The first thing that attracts me to your image is the time of day you shot: the shadows beautifully emphasize the structure of the rocks. I also love the placement of the horizon line far towards the top of the frame to give us a sense of the distance.

I think your framing helps us understand scale a bit better also (I've never been there!). Perhaps consider cropping a bit from the left so that the thicker mass curving into the scene is placed at the edge? I've pm'd you my idea.

If you decide to go adventurous with your pp, a bit more contrast would add drama. But I think your image is quite lovely as-is.

Hope to see many more - and you know that birds are always welcome here too

Frank2013 Loc: San Antonio, TX. & Milwaukee, WI.

Many are happy with what is referred to as sooc and if you aren’t interested in spending time post processing your images I say good for you. A different look could be achieved here with pp but I am not saying it would be any better. Glad to see you posting here and feel free to post whatever suits your fancy. I’ll leave further comment to the more proficient landscapers here.

MadMikeOne Loc: So. NJ Shore - a bit west of Atlantic City

Thanks, Frank. About the PP - I keep telling myself that I should really try it sometime. I have had PSE 13 on my 'puter for over 2 years now, and haven't worked up the motivation to look at it. It's a combination of sheer laziness, inability to sit in front of the computer for more than a few minutes at a stretch, and the drive to just get out there and experiment with all the things I can do to/with an image using just my camera and knowledge from the good old days of film. I just love being outside and always have. Someday, I'll decide to "just do it" and jump into PP.

MadMikeOne Loc: So. NJ Shore - a bit west of Atlantic City

Linda, thanks so much for your input. I really tried to get the composition right in camera. Glad to hear that you think I did pretty well. You are absolutely correct about cropping more off the left. I did not notice the bit of disconnect I have there. Since I had no control over the time of day we were there, I can't take any credit for that. However, I was quite happy when I saw the way the light was touching the landscape. If only we had gotten there an hour earlier and had been able to stay an hour longer, I would have been in heaven. Often, I consider landscapes to be "boring" and static. The Grand Canyon vistas are anything but that. The heat will be worth tolerating if I can get more time to try my hand at GC landscapes. Zion and Bryce were also on the itinerary, but we had to cut the trip short by a few days and only made it to the GC fot that very short timeframe.

Your comment about my being able to get some one of a kind action shots of the nutcase tourists made me laugh and caused a bit of sadness also - seems that someone fell to their death just the day before. Of course, they were doing something stupid and against the advice of those who know better.

Your encouragement and kind words give me hope.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

With non-moving subjects, I usually try to compose carefully in camera as well (film background also), but do get lazy sometimes - and then in pp, I might decide to tell a whole different story than what I planned when shot

Regarding editing, I learned a great deal for two years, but have been treading water (except for dabbling with textures!) the past year. So I identified with your statement to Frank about how much you love being outside. It seems to be more and more that way for me, as well.

Billyspad Loc: The Philippines

Its really a case of if your satisfied with the result then all is well. Many are in the camp of believing that Mr Nikon never designed his digital cameras to produce good results without the aid of PP. That surely is why they have the ability to record images in the RAW format? How one spends ones cash is a personal choice but for straight out of camera shots a good point and shoot is more versatile and most of the time produces a superior result.
PP can be time consuming and does require patience but you may find when its raining and the outside world is not quite so attractive time spent learning a few rudimentary skills will move your work onto the next level.
Returning to your snap of the Grand Canyon I repeat if your happy with it then that is fine all I wpould say is to become a decent photograph it needs some work. Its a little flat so therefore does not covey the majestic surroundings. PP can add the depth that the sensor did not capture and a little more contrast would help.

MadMikeOne Loc: So. NJ Shore - a bit west of Atlantic City

OK, everybody I added a bit more contrast and cropped as much as I could from the left without losing too much from the sky or the bottom. Also, I tried to pop the color some. To my eye, this is now closer to the image I saw with my eye as oposed to what the camera gave me.

Is this one better, worse, the same, or something else?

Billy, funny you should mention rain. Guess what it will be doing here most of the week? Yup - rain. Maybe I'll try to velcro or super glue my fat butt to the chair in front of the 'puter and see what develops. I am not sure if I shot the images during this trip in RAW plus JPEG or just JPEG. Lately, I've been shooting RAW on 1 card and JPEG on the other on my D7200.

(Download)

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

My vote is halfway between the original and this

One huge benefit to learning layers and layer masks (I have PS Elements 13 also) is they allow you to make selective changes easily, so for this image you could make contrast changes in some areas, while leaving others unchanged. Or do more subtle in some areas, more pronounced in others.

Question #1 - "cropped as much as could without losing sky..." are you wanting to keep a specific aspect ratio or dimensions for framing? I pm'd you one possible crop, but you haven't opened the message

Question #2 - will you let me know how the super glue works? Sounds extreme, but I might need to resort to that also.

Billyspad Loc: The Philippines

My man the rainy season appears to have started early here so I sympathize with you. Here the sky opens and its like the Gods pouring buckets of water on you. I suggest velcro for ya butt its easier to remove than super glue. Just do a bit at a time on your computer stop when it gets frustrating or your bored. Once you start seeing what can be achieved you may begin to enjoy the quiet hours enhancing your pictures. Google Nik filters and download them. They are free and will install within your Adobe software. They really can be a quick solution to enhance your work. Its a suite of plug ins but for the moment concentrate on the one called Color Efex Pro. I tried a few on your original shot and got some decent results.

MadMikeOne Loc: So. NJ Shore - a bit west of Atlantic City

Linda,
i didn't get your PM. Been checking since you 1st told me. Still not here. Don't know what's going on. Have gotten a couple of PMs Ok the last couple of days. Try sending again.

To answer question 1 - I was only playing with the image on the iPad. I really wasn't concerned about the aspect ratio. Feel free to post your changes to my image.

Re: question 2 - I'll let you know!

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

I think my crop is just about the same as yours. I've posted below (no other edits; my laptop is turned off; I'm just on a Chromebook).

Re delayed pm: I've had that happen on occasion, and also had other glitches, like someone can't see the yellow highlight over "private messages" at top of this page, but can click on the email notification to get it. I probably wore out the system earlier alerting folks to a change in my image/your look (no more stickied at top of page; I think I forgot to tell you, lol)

MadMikeOne Loc: So. NJ Shore - a bit west of Atlantic City

Billy, I'm not completely satisfied with it and am coming closer and closer to trying at least a little PP to encourage the image to look more like what my eye saw. To be perfectly honest, I cannot envision myself spending a significant amount of time with PP. However, I DO want to at least learn how to make the images I shoot "pop" a bit more.

I do appreciate your input. Keep nudging me toward PP.

MadMikeOne Loc: So. NJ Shore - a bit west of Atlantic City

Feel free to post what you did to my image. That just may give me the nudge i need.

MadMikeOne Loc: So. NJ Shore - a bit west of Atlantic City

Your cropis close to mine, but you achieved what I did not. You managed to crop more from the left than i could manage. Probably I am limited by working on my iPad rather than a computer.

Still no PM, yellow stripe, email notification, or PM in my inbox. Don't worry about it. I'm going yto send you a test PM right now to see what happens dfrom my end.