# Isolated building



## George Farmer (25 Jun 2008)

I drive past this every day on the way to and from work (50+ mile drive, each way!)  It's in the middle of Norfolk, near Fincham.  

There's flat fields everywhere, boring and featureless scenery, so this really catches the eye.   The dramatic sky adds to the composition.

It's a good distance from any roads so I parked up in a lay-by and trekked the few hundred metres with my 10D, tripod, 17-35mm Sigma wide angle, ND grad and polarizer filters packed into my Lowepro rucksack.

I've discovered a real passion for landscape photography recently.  The similarity between it and aquascaping is interesting.

1/30 sec, f/16, ISO 100, 17mm.


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## Joecoral (25 Jun 2008)

thats a really good shot george! i love the contrast between the dark sky and the brightness of the grass


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## George Farmer (25 Jun 2008)

Joecoral said:
			
		

> thats a really good shot george! i love the contrast between the dark sky and the brightness of the grass


Thanks, Joe.  That's where the ND grad and polarizer filters help.  You can acheive the same effect post-production in Photoshop too, but it's more work.


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## Matt Holbrook-Bull (25 Jun 2008)

you should make an HDR shot out of that, colours would be amazing. 

you have a good eye mate


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## aaronnorth (25 Jun 2008)

Brilliant, whats HDR?


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## Egmel (25 Jun 2008)

aaronnorth said:
			
		

> Brilliant, whats HDR?


High Dynamic Range - Basically you take the same photo at several exposures and use the bits from each to create a final shot.

Edit - in fact the last I heard Sony were creating a camera which did it automatically, they'd taken a CCD and instead of giving you all the Mpixels they'd quartered it so that you could take several exposures of the same shot at the same time (useful for when it's a moving subject).   Basically if you imagine a square of 4 pixels, each one would have a different exposure time and this set of four would be repeated across the CCD... clever stuff, don't know if they've made it commercial yet though.


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## Dave Spencer (25 Jun 2008)

You just know I`m gonna love that sky, George. Now give us the pic in B+W!

Dave.


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## George Farmer (25 Jun 2008)

Thanks, guys.

For Dave...


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## Dan Crawford (25 Jun 2008)

George Farmer said:
			
		

> trekked the few hundred metres with my 10D, tripod, 17-35mm Sigma wide angle, ND grad and polarizer filters packed into my Lowepro rucksack


all the gear and no...... lol

Great shot mate, i bet you've been thinking for weeks "i'll get out one of these days and shoot that"? what are you have to look forward to now on those painful journeys to work?


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## TDI-line (25 Jun 2008)

George, will you please stop taking pictures of my home.


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## George Farmer (25 Jun 2008)

Dan Crawford said:
			
		

> George Farmer said:
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lol.  All the kit, s***.

That's exactly it mate.  I'm chuffed I picked a good day to do it today with the skies like they were.  The shot would be really boring otherwise.

This is another shot I took, about 1/4 mile away in the next field.  The sky is already clearing.  

It's more an experimental photo, an attempt to capture a sense of movement with the wind blowing the corn.  Note the blur, caused by 1/8 sec. shutter speed.

1/8 sec, f/22, ISO 100, 21mm


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## TDI-line (25 Jun 2008)

Excellent pictures George.

Would you be able to take any kind of similiar pictures when your 'on tour' soon, or is that not allowed?


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## LondonDragon (25 Jun 2008)

Great shots George, like the last one best


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## Mark Evans (25 Jun 2008)

yes, good george. i just get the urge to adjust exposure slightly, but all in all great shot and composition. aquascaping and photograophy go hand in hand imo. just look at amano.


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## George Farmer (25 Jun 2008)

saintly said:
			
		

> yes, good george. i just get the urge to adjust exposure slightly, but all in all great shot and composition. aquascaping and photograophy go hand in hand imo. just look at amano.



Ah, you think they're underexposed?  It's a fair point and I appreciate any critiques, especially from those more experienced than myself.  I've had my 10D, my first DSLR, less than 12 months.


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## Mark Evans (25 Jun 2008)

not so much ender exposed just needs a little curves in photoshop. sorry i took the liberty...

i cropped it too, bottom right hand corner.

[

][/img]


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## George Farmer (25 Jun 2008)

Oh wow!  You the man.

I don't have curves with Elements 2.0.  I'm getting a high-spec iMac with CS3 in November though.


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## Mark Evans (25 Jun 2008)

you'll love curves.  imo, the single most effective tool there is. if you get the markIII  YOU WILL be blown away. i know what it was like coming from a 10d to a 5d.


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## George Farmer (25 Jun 2008)

saintly said:
			
		

> you'll love curves.  imo, the single most effective tool there is. if you get the markIII  YOU WILL be blown away. i know what it was like coming from a 10d to a 5d.


Sounds sexy!  Thanks mate.


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## bugs (25 Jun 2008)

George Farmer said:
			
		

> Oh wow!  You the man.
> 
> I don't have curves with Elements 2.0.  I'm getting a high-spec iMac with CS3 in November though.



GIMP...


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## George Farmer (25 Jun 2008)

bugs said:
			
		

> George Farmer said:
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Not tried that.  Does it need a high-spec PC?  User-friendly?


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## Mark Evans (25 Jun 2008)

no not really, but then i've allways had hi spec pc's. it tends to be filters etc that sap your processor power.when you apply the effect(i dont use them that often) it takes an eternity to process, but with modern processors it shouldnt be a problem. i run a intel quad core q6600 @2.3ghz overclocked to 3.1ghz with an added heat sink.  it'll process ANYTHING including my electricity bill   mac are better than pc too.

its pretty easy to use too, rather than explain it check this out  http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutori ... curves.htm


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## George Farmer (25 Jun 2008)

saintly said:
			
		

> no not really, but then i've allways had hi spec pc's. it tends to be filters etc that sap your processor power.when you apply the effect(i dont use them that often) it takes an eternity to process, but with modern processors it shouldnt be a problem. i run a intel quad core q6600 @2.3ghz overclocked to 3.1ghz with an added heat sink.  it'll process ANYTHING including my electricity bill   mac are better than pc too.
> 
> its pretty easy to use too, rather than explain it check this out  http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutori ... curves.htm


lol.  I didn't mean Curves.  I meant Bugs's reference to the Gimp software.

Thanks for the link though, Mark.  Curves is the way forward it seems.


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## Mark Evans (25 Jun 2008)

sorry.


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## Dave Spencer (25 Jun 2008)

George Farmer said:
			
		

> saintly said:
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> > Thanks for the link though, Mark.  Curves is the way forward it seems.



Works great for B+W too.


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## Mark Evans (25 Jun 2008)

yep, also if you want to manipulate a black and white image use the dodge and burn tool...now thats awsome.


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## Dan Crawford (25 Jun 2008)

I was just messing with Gs original photo since it reminded me of somthing on a Jonny Cash video so i converted it to quad tone and had a play with the curves, not bad, would like to have added some noise to age it some more but due to the resolution it looked pretty pants. Anyway, just for the giggle heres a rather mood shot of a deserted building in Texas maybe, just my imagination....


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## George Farmer (25 Jun 2008)

Great work mate.  Love the dark atmosphere.


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## bugs (25 Jun 2008)

George Farmer said:
			
		

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It's free - always a bonus. 

I use to run it on a 1.4ghz, 512mb RAM PC without any problems (currently running on some monster of a laptop (or rather "desktop replacement"), the specs for which I cannot remember). User friendly... I think so. Like any software, depends what you want to do and getting used to the features you use the most.


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## George Farmer (25 Jun 2008)

bugs said:
			
		

> It's free - always a bonus.
> 
> I use to run it on a 1.4ghz, 512mb RAM PC without any problems (currently running on some monster of a laptop (or rather "desktop replacement"), the specs for which I cannot remember). User friendly... I think so. Like any software, depends what you want to do and getting used to the features you use the most.


Downloaded it already.  Only 17Mb.  Looks pretty powerful.  Curves work well...  Thanks mate.


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## Graeme Edwards (26 Jun 2008)

Nice photo's. 
Is it my eyes or is there some kind of free hand selection been done around the building in the image George? Theres a slight, wavy light line around the building, more obviouse on the left wall.
Theres a tool in photo shop, cant for the life remember the name, but you will know what i mean, you can free hand select, magnetic select and point to point select....the magnetic select might of been better than the free hand option.
Sorry to find fault. The sky looks awesome.

Cheers.


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## George Farmer (26 Jun 2008)

Good spot, Graeme.

I actually used the Magnetic Lasso, but not well enough it appears...

Thanks.


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## Dan Crawford (26 Jun 2008)

The pen tool is the future fellas although your missin out on that George, bring on Novemeber - Mac time BABY!


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## George Farmer (26 Jun 2008)

Dan Crawford said:
			
		

> The pen tool is the future fellas although your missin out on that George, bring on Novemeber - Mac time BABY!



I've already got a tool, it's called a pen**.... lol


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## Dave Spencer (26 Jun 2008)

After using the magnetic lasoo, try using the feather option to blend in the two different areas. It usually works for me, provided the dynamic range isn`t too great. You can select the number of pixels you want for the size of the blended edge. Probably a less than perfect fix.

Dave.


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## George Farmer (26 Jun 2008)

Thanks, Dave.


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## bugs (26 Jun 2008)

Wacom tablet is a nice addition for image editing...


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## Egmel (2 Jul 2008)

bugs said:
			
		

> Wacom tablet is a nice addition for image editing...


I have a tablet PC and they are the business for photo editing, you don't realise how clunky a mouse is until you can draw on your screen   combine it with CS3 and I should be able to do anything, now I've just got to find the time to practice... oh and get a camera that works (currently mine has no batteries, the charger died, I'm waiting on a new one but at the end of the day it's still a basic point and shoot)

I like the field shot but feel the edited version looks a little too yellow brick roady, almost unbelievable, the cropping works well but the colours are just too vivid for my tastes.


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