Trip home

[hershy314]

Finally made it home for the holidays. Just wish it would of lasted longer than 24 hours. Hell I wish I would stayed. I was only able to get a couple of shots. Nothing spectacular lol. Took these while walking down the street. Did get a few weird looks carrying a tripod. Did need it, so oh well.


The first one is a Chili's and a Best Western (no that is not where I stayed). The second was taken from a bridge over looking the downtown area of Kirkwood. The building to the right is an old Amtrak station, one of the oldest in the area. It's registered as a historical landmark so it can never be torn down. I wanted to take more pics from the bridge but it started to rain so I packed up and headed for cover. If it wasn't for the rain I probably would of had more photos like this.

 

[Paul]

I like the atmosphere within the first image, if not for some of the blurring.

 

[12day]

I like the sharpness of the first photo. Would like to see more

 

[chrisdesign]

I like the first one very much.
The second one seems to be a bit out of focus.

 

[hershy314]

I'm already planning another trip back home. Probably around the middle of March, maybe sooner. Maybe this time I'll stay for more than one night lol. Anyway here are a couple pics of the room I stayed in.

You can almost live in one of these rooms.

 

[hershy314]

Took another trip home this past weekend. Didn't get to do much, but was able to get a couple of pics before deciding it was too cold out. Here is one of them.

 

[Tom Mann]

Finally made it home for the holidays. Just wish it would of lasted longer than 24 hours. Hell I wish I would stayed. I was only able to get a couple of shots. Nothing spectacular lol. Took these while walking down the street. Did get a few weird looks carrying a tripod. Did need it, so oh well. ...The first one is a Chili's and a Best Western (no that is not where I stayed). The second was taken from a bridge over looking the downtown area of Kirkwood. The building to the right is an old Amtrak station, one of the oldest in the area. It's registered as a historical landmark so it can never be torn down. I wanted to take more pics from the bridge but it started to rain so I packed up and headed for cover. If it wasn't for the rain I probably would of had more photos like this.

I could be wrong, but the major contribution to the blurring that I think Paul is referring about in the 1st image of this pair is not so much conventional blurring (eg, focusing error, subject motion, camera motion, low quality lens - although these efx are also present), but actually is caused by "blown highlights" (ie, wildly overexposed highlights). You can tell it's this because only the highlights are "blurred", but midtones and shadow areas are much sharper.

I also notice that you are applying some sort of tonemapping software to the image. Well .... since you are already doing that, you are only a few shutter clicks away from completely eliminating the problem of blown highlights, and making the image appear much sharper, say, like this one: http://hdwyn.com/wallpaper_mirror/city_night_river_building_skyscraper_hdr_hd-wallpaper-27774.jpg

Tone-mapping algorithms are mostly found in software used for the production of HDR images. This is when you take, say, 5 images without moving the camera, starting from, say, 3 stops underexposed, and going all the way up to 3 stops overexposed, in 1 stop increments. These are merged into a 32 bit per channel image (by the software), and then the tone-mapping algorithm applied. If you had done that for this scene (and held the camera on the tripod just as steady as you likely did for the shot you posted), you would have wound up with an image that would have either completely, or nearly removed all traces of blown highlights. There is lots written on HDR photography, so Google the topic and about exactly how to do it to get the technique down.
===========

The blur in the second image of this pair is different. In this case, there appears to be either a gross focusing error, or else the lens, when used (as you did for this photo) at its maximum extension (ie, 45mm) and wide open (f/5.6), is soft. If it's a focusing error, that certainly is easy to fix, and will probably get even easier as you get more experience shooting with an SLR. If it's a lens problem, and not focus, that's also easy to fix: For maximum sharpness, never use any lens at either the wide or the telephoto end of its range without stopping down by at least one, and hopefully, two stops.


HTH,

Tom M

 

[Tom Mann]

I'm already planning another trip back home. Probably around the middle of March, maybe sooner. Maybe this time I'll stay for more than one night lol. Anyway here are a couple pics of the room I. You can almost live in one of these rooms.

Only one technical suggestion here.

Once again, you obviously used some tone-mapping algorithm on the 1st image of this pair. If the look of this image is indeed what you wanted to achieve, that's fine. However, I would bring to your attention that most experienced HDR / tone-mapping users would consider the white halo on the wall around the TV to be due to some very bad settings within the tone-mapping algorithm, and consequently would not like this image & say that it's too gimmicky.

The solution is easy: Reduce the magnitude of the tone-mapping effect, and try both much smaller, and much larger tone-mapping radii.

Just my $0.02,

Tom M

 

[hershy314]

I could be wrong, but the major contribution to the blurring that I think Paul is referring about in the 1st image of this pair is not so much conventional blurring (eg, focusing error, subject motion, camera motion, low quality lens - although these efx are also present), but actually is caused by "blown highlights" (ie, wildly overexposed highlights). You can tell it's this because only the highlights are "blurred", but midtones and shadow areas are much sharper.

I also notice that you are applying some sort of tonemapping software to the image. Well .... since you are already doing that, you are only a few shutter clicks away from completely eliminating the problem of blown highlights, and making the image appear much sharper, say, like this one: http://hdwyn.com/wallpaper_mirror/city_night_river_building_skyscraper_hdr_hd-wallpaper-27774.jpg

Tone-mapping algorithms are mostly found in software used for the production of HDR images. This is when you take, say, 5 images without moving the camera, starting from, say, 3 stops underexposed, and going all the way up to 3 stops overexposed, in 1 stop increments. These are merged into a 32 bit per channel image (by the software), and then the tone-mapping algorithm applied. If you had done that for this scene (and held the camera on the tripod just as steady as you likely did for the shot you posted), you would have wound up with an image that would have either completely, or nearly removed all traces of blown highlights. There is lots written on HDR photography, so Google the topic and about exactly how to do it to get the technique down.
===========

The blur in the second image of this pair is different. In this case, there appears to be either a gross focusing error, or else the lens, when used (as you did for this photo) at its maximum extension (ie, 45mm) and wide open (f/5.6), is soft. If it's a focusing error, that certainly is easy to fix, and will probably get even easier as you get more experience shooting with an SLR. If it's a lens problem, and not focus, that's also easy to fix: For maximum sharpness, never use any lens at either the wide or the telephoto end of its range without stopping down by at least one, and hopefully, two stops.


HTH,

Tom M

The first image you are referring to I did have on a tripod, but even with a tripod if I click the button on the camera there is still movement. True I could set the timer long enough to eliminate that, or if I had remembered my remote. My equipment is old, think my camera is from around 2004 or 5. I have thought of upgrading but what I have works so yeah. I have been having trouble with focus with both lenses. Sometimes the auto focus doesn't want to work right. I have found out how to fix it temporarily but it keeps coming back. I agree that with these I do have some more to learn. As far as the editing goes I use a combination of Photomatix and Photoshop, on some pics. Most the time it's just the camera raw filter in Photoshop.