Back in the Lake District

[singingsnapper]

A glorious day in the lake District yesterday, once the mist had cleared. Was a nice evening sky too:

This is a multiple exposure using photomatix

Pentax 645D FA33-55 at 48mm f/16


Brathay view by singingsnapper, on Flickr

Another multiple, further along the Brathay:

Pentax 645D FA 33-55 at 33mm and f/16


wethelam at sunset by singingsnapper, on Flickr

I waited for an hour or so to allow the sky to go dark, thinking that the full moon had set earlier as had not seen it out that day (misread my app) but decided to make use of the moonlight in any case as the mists descended to the valley

Pentax 645D FA 33-55 at 43mm and f/16


A Moonlit Wetherlam by singingsnapper, on Flickr

tighter crop:


moonlit wetherlam - tighter crop by singingsnapper, on Flickr

[Troy]

Really like the last one Paul. The stars could do with being more prominent, but that's me being picky. If i had to choose i'd also say the wider crop was better, as too much of the sky has been lost in the second one.

[Rosie]

These multiple exposures are making a big difference to the quality of your landscapes. They have much more depth than your previous landscape work and are definitely paying off.
Beware of your white balance in some instrances with snow. I love the Brathay View image, but feel like the blue in the foreground could be knocked back a bit. Stunning cloud reflections and silhouettes though.

[singingsnapper]

These multiple exposures are making a big difference to the quality of your landscapes. They have much more depth than your previous landscape work and are definitely paying off.
Beware of your white balance in some instrances with snow. I love the Brathay View image, but feel like the blue in the foreground could be knocked back a bit. Stunning cloud reflections and silhouettes though.

Thanks! They are quite labourious as I used 9 images and took them into CS5 first for sharpening before I took them into photomatix. I'll have a look at the Brathay one again and see if I can select the foreground area and take some of the blue out...

Troy as far as the moonlit images are concerned, I prefer the full shot as opposed to the crop but wondered whether there was too much sky in the shot.

[singingsnapper]

I can't believe these shots were taken on a phone. The first shot is definitely my favourite, and looks excellent in black and white. Did you edit these shots with an app on your phone, or did you transfer them to your computer first?

If the snow does eventually reach us down here in Bournemouth i'm definitely not leaving the big camera at home. Not often we get the chance to capture snowy scenes in this country, so i'll be making the most of it.

When I took them I wondered how they would come out. I'm really happy with how they came out and the wider pano is my favourite of the two. It helps to demonstrate how important processing is. Some will argue that it is only in the digital age that there is so much processing, but there always was in the wholly film age. One thing I find different personally is the colour qualities that come from different film emulsions. I had a debate with my musical director who felt that scanning a film image means that it loses its film quality. I haven't shot film for a few months, but I love the qualities I get from Reala 100 film. I yet have to master Velvia 50 as I tend to underexpose it.

I've had a good week in the lakes and the weather was clear and bright again today, but am headed back home ready for a flight to Germany on Thursday. Any photographers up in the Lakes at the moment will get some great light.

[singingsnapper]

Here's an edit of the Brathay view - reduced the magenta, blue and cyans substantially in the foreground..


Brathay view -adjusted-2 by singingsnapper, on Flickr

[Rosie]

Nice edit! Looks much more balanced

[singingsnapper]

Nice edit! Looks much more balanced

Thanks Rosie. Now back home been spending some time knitting panos. Here is one done with my 400mm lens - I know it seems crazy to do a pano with a long lens but the detail is amazing (original file is 120 megapixels and 3GB in size) I still have a 6 shot 120mm one to do, but here is one based on 4 shots:

Pentac 645D FA 400 f/9.5 1/40 (all 4 shots in manual)


early evening light on Helm Crag by singingsnapper, on Flickr

[singingsnapper]

And here is that other panoramic. Full file being 4GB in total and 200 megapixels. This is Grasmere

Penrax 645D FA 120 f/16 1/20 6 shots merged in CS5


Grasmere panorama-2 by singingsnapper, on Flickr

[simon3116]

You have some very nice shots on here Paul, I think it's a good idea to keep adding to the gallery so that you can go back and see what worked and what didn't.

I like the grassmere shot although it could do with more sky interest.

The detail in helm craig is excellent, you must be eating up spare hard drives.

[singingsnapper]

You have some very nice shots on here Paul, I think it's a good idea to keep adding to the gallery so that you can go back and see what worked and what didn't.

I like the grassmere shot although it could do with more sky interest.

The detail in helm craig is excellent, you must be eating up spare hard drives.

Indeed I am. I have 3 seperate 1tb portable discs and a few 2tb ones that are getting fuller.

[singingsnapper]

Another shot from the sunrise on the shores of Windermere. This is a blend of several shots in photomatix

Pentax 645D FA 33 - 55 at 33mm and f/16


Windermere boathouse at sunrise by singingsnapper, on Flickr

[singingsnapper]

added a little more contrast to these two shots from Wasdale


another-Wasdale-evening-4ap by singingsnapper, on Flickr


Wast-Water--in-morning-2ap by singingsnapper, on Flickr

[singingsnapper]

I've been very impressed with the nik software that I've used, so I got the color efex 4 and viveza2 plus their sgarpener and noise reducer tonight. Here is my first play with some of those. I'm pretty happy.

This is the shot before:


Sunny Grasmere by singingsnapper, on Flickr

and this is after applying ND Grad preset in Color efex and adjusting contrast in Viveza 2


Grasmere-adjusted-nik by singingsnapper, on Flickr

and after a minor adjustment:


grasmere on a sunny day-2 by singingsnapper, on Flickr

[singingsnapper]

Another shot from Windermere

Pentax 645D FA 33-55 at f/16 and 48mm processed in Nik color efex pro 4 and viveza


It's-sunrise-on-Windermere by singingsnapper, on Flickr