gessman Loc: Colorado

...even if it's involving the perhaps overworked subject of hot air balloons. Here's a few for you to pick apart and tell me what I need to do to get myself straightened up. These were each shot with a Canon EOS 20D, & I'm not sure of the rest of the info except the first daylight shot was with a Canon EOS 400mm f5.6 non IS lens @ 100 iso @ f5.6, 1/500th. I cannot see the exif data. Sorry!

The first to light up...


Followed by the others...


And when it came time to go up, everyone was ready at once...

notnoBuddha

It's some pictures - it's a story book - it's a cartoon that came to life.

Very nice indeed.

gnzlzspd Loc: Wildomar, CA

Great colors...you got to get up pretty early to capture this type of images.

don1w Loc: Abilene, Texas

My guess is these images were taken in the early morning. The first image seems to say a lot for the Canon lens. GREAT. A 400mm lens set at 5.6 and 1/500,,,, WHOW. That seems like a pretty fast shutter for that f-stop at that time of day.
Do have any other “color” adjustments preset in your camera to get these colors to pop out so nice?

tilde531 Loc: Seaford Delaware

The vivid colors are FAB and I, too, LOVE how it tells the story without a single word.

These are really great perspectives... something *new*.
Love it :)

Leah03 Loc: Iowa

Love them all!.. and the story..

gessman Loc: Colorado

Spent the night across the street for three nights in my camper and awoke with the first sound of the balloons being inflated, somewhat groggy, of course.

mounty Loc: the hills of West Virginia

very nice...I'm sure it was something to see

gessman Loc: Colorado

Actually, I was a little loose with my info on the first two, not intentionally, of course. The first two shots were in the early evening just before dusk to get the festival kicked off and, I suppose, to generate crowd enthusiasm and permit the balloonists to check their equipment out before the next morning's flight at dawn. This is one of the rare occasions when I had the good sense to use a tripod. Admitting that the exif data wasn't present in these copies of the images which have been moved around a lot and been edited so much that the exif data has disappeared, I took a wild guess at the exif info in line with what I usually try to shoot that lens with. f5.6 is wide open on that lens and I usually try to shoot it at a notch up from the lens length of 400mm for shake and f5.6 for bokeh. I did say that the settings only applied to the "first daylight shot" which is the third shot down.

I didn't mean to fib and probably should have just said I don't have the data because obviously, looking at the pictures, shot at those settings, would have yielded bokeh on at least one end and there's not much there.

That said, that 400mm f5.6 non IS lens is one of Canon's sharpest ever if you can live with no IS and an f-stop that high. I'll ask to be pardoned for being too hasty to get stuff posted and playing loose with the exif. I'll be more careful in the future folks. Not being dependent on good organization of my images since they don't involve my livelihood by having sloppy organization habits is not an excuse for disseminating shaky information.

I humbly apologize and vow to not do it again even though I have tried to remember to offer an exif disclaimer in each instance when I have submitted an estimate. I have nothing to gain or hide here and I appreciate your alertness, Don. It gave me a chance to revisit those two images and make amends.
:-)

I do have my camera settings punched up as high as they will go and there definitely was some post processing that took place.

On www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews there is a written and pictoral comparison of the 400mm lens against the 70-200 and the 100-400 if you're looking for a sharp lens. It's "L glass," smaller than either of the other two lens and drastically sharper, and costs less. Check it out. Now, if only I could use it up to it's potential.

gessman Loc: Colorado

Thank you tilde, Leah. and Monty. I appreciate your comments.

Look ma, you can see his whiskers...








"Still going..."

TessSC Loc: Cayce,SC

Love the photos...something to look at and make yourself feel good. Explain bokeh if you would.

gessman Loc: Colorado

Hi Tess. I hear it's a Japanese word that we've lately coined the use of and like when everyone had a hula-hoop, it is a faddish term, we use to imply a blurred background in preference to saying narrow or shallow "depth of field." It refers to the process of, usually, intentionally blurring parts of any given scene by controlling the amount of distance in any given scene that is in clear focus. It is achieved by opening your lens as wide open as it will go so as to narrow the depth of field so the background, and even the foreground, are blurred which makes your subject "pop out at you" by de-focusing distracting elements in a picture. I hope I said that right. I don't speak Japanese too well.

condor

Great balloon photos, I see them all the time here in wine country (Napa Valley, Ca.)but nothing that fancy or clever, just plane old balloons.

texasmama

i love the vivid colors of the sky and balloons...great photos....i especially like the early bird lit up amongst the silhouettes of the other balloons..:) & and the smokey the bear one...:)

gessman Loc: Colorado

Thank you, should you make your way back here. I keep unexpectedly finding you at the tail end of threads I've not had open in over two years. I apologize for the delayed response. Having slowed down a lot, I turned "notifications" off and never know when someone visits a thread. I guess I should fix that.