# Autumn is here.



## Mark Evans (29 Oct 2010)

A snap on the way home from town. I've eyed this wall up for some time, and it's just coming good.

well, thanks for looking.

I was reluctant to get the skew tool out to straighten lines, taken with sigma 15-30


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## Mark Evans (29 Oct 2010)

And a slightly different angle.


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## a1Matt (29 Oct 2010)

It's a perfect time to get snapping those autumn colours.
I reckon one more week and most of the strongest coloured leaves will be on the floor.


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## Mark Evans (30 Oct 2010)

true matt. 

I'm assuming everyones got their monitors on black and white mode


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## John Starkey (30 Oct 2010)

Lovely colours Mark,autumn is one of my favourite times of the year,
regards,
john.


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## Dolly Sprint 16v (30 Oct 2010)

Mark 

Don't mean to hijack your thread - just around the corner from me - Autumn colours.





Sorry for the poor picy quality - camera phone.

Regards
Paul.


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## Garuf (31 Oct 2010)

We have that plant at home and have never been able to find out what it is, it literally appeared from nowhere and now we have 3 dotted about the place. I love the colours but the spines are a right sod! 
Even of a camera phone the colours are great. 
Yours too, Mark. Great photos all round.


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## Mark Evans (31 Oct 2010)

Garuf said:
			
		

> We have that plant at home and have never been able to find out what it is,



roose, rouse?...spelling. my mum has one, and it pops up in the lawn, like on runners. she trims it in such away, it looks like bonsai.

my mums garden is like a nature garden...maybe the Malaysian blood in her. i love walking down the garden, you ll never know what you might find. very inspirational actually, not like the european themed gardens.


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## Garuf (31 Oct 2010)

I believe it to be an american prairie plant but I'm not sure. I'll see if I can find rouse and see if that's it. The way it comes on suckers is right though, our does the same, the biggest of them is now about 16foot tall. 
My Grandparents and my parents live next door and our garden ajoins to a wood, it's pretty good but a lot of the nature has long since gone with the woodland being over run by japanese knot weed which strangles everything out it comes across, even oak trees have fallen to it.


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## George Farmer (31 Oct 2010)

Love the colours and tones mate.   You've captured the essence of autumn beautifully.

What post-processing have you done?  It has a kind of film-like quality to it.  I like it.


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## Mark Evans (31 Oct 2010)

George Farmer said:
			
		

> What post-processing have you done? It has a kind of film-like quality to it. I like it.



cheers mate. The only thing I've done is boost contrast (DPP) , and add a touch of 'curves' in PS. great tools for boosting colour richness without actually touching the colour. 

It's a typical 'me' thing to really add too much contrast, but it's a look i like. 

The drain pipe, still niggles me.


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## Mark Evans (31 Oct 2010)

Here's the comparison,


on the left, is whats on the net, the middle pic is what came off the camera. You can see how i set up the camera from the DPP 'window'

Hopefully, you can see that what i shoot comes straight from the camera.


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## George Farmer (31 Oct 2010)

Nice one mate.

What in-camera settings do you have re. contrast etc?


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## Mark Evans (31 Oct 2010)

George, I have the contrast slider all the way to 10. (in any preset)

In the DPP edit window in the previous image, is basically what i use, the only thing changed is highlight and shadow. 

for video, I'll use 'neutral' 

One thing i will change at the time of shooting is colour tone, but purely for my own, on the fly viewing. every parameter can be changed at home with RAW files, so if it's 'out' I'm not fussed.

I've got a couple of 'presets' in-camera...Kodachrome and Fuji velvia which i like (downloaded), and let's me choose these presets, without the chew of a 5 minute play with buttons.


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## George Farmer (31 Oct 2010)

Cool.  I think high contrast is your 'signature'.  It works well for most situations, I feel.  

Is there anywhere you wouldn't want high contrast and do you have examples?

With most of your work being viewed via the Internet by folk with non-calibrated monitors, I wonder how this comes into play if you're using 'extreme' in-camera settings i.e. preset contrast to +10...  

Are you ever tempted to use a more middle-of-the-road settings to limit indescrepencies in the wide variation in different monitors?

Or does this compromise your creativity too much?

Finally, why shoot video in neutral, but stills with such high contrast?

Sorry for all the questions, but I know you love them really!


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## Mark Evans (31 Oct 2010)

I always like your questions George.   



			
				George Farmer said:
			
		

> Is there anywhere you wouldn't want high contrast and do you have examples?



quite possibly, but for me, it's rare I'll shoot with little contrast 



			
				George Farmer said:
			
		

> With most of your work being viewed via the Internet by folk with non-calibrated monitors, I wonder how this comes into play if you're using 'extreme' in-camera settings i.e. preset contrast to +10...



good point, and something i do think about a lot. I've often viewed my images on different monitors, to see how they look. My dads is the worse! The colours are way out. It does make me wonder if some people are looking at images, in the wrong way. 

My gauge though, is by viewing the likes of your images George, and tonser. of course we have 2 different styles, but exposure, colours and the likes, let's me know that if your prepared to upload those images, then mine must look decent on other monitors also...if that makes sense?   



			
				George Farmer said:
			
		

> Are you ever tempted to use a more middle-of-the-road settings to limit indescrepencies in the wide variation in different monitors?
> 
> Or does this compromise your creativity too much?



Sadly, no. I'd be editing images on my screen which if i 'compromised' they'd look terrible. editing 'blind' almost, to compensate, for a random online user, who had maybe, their colour temp wrong...But that said, whos to say i'm not way out with settings.



			
				George Farmer said:
			
		

> Finally, why shoot video in neutral, but stills with such high contrast?



something I'm still trying to work out mate. Vids with such radical settings, just are not looking right for me at the moment,  problems mainly with Sharpness, colour tones/saturation and HD....they can look messy.


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## George Farmer (31 Oct 2010)

Super answers mate, thanks.  

I kinda knew what you'd say but it's always good to discuss these things for the benefit others who may also be interested but may not be inclined to post.


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