Dramatic Clouds over Snowdon

Paul Saunders said:

There's a pic on my blog from the 2004 urw anniversary expedition if
anyone's interested.
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/pic-of-the-day/dramatic-clouds-over-snowdon/

Paul

Why don't my photos turn out like that? Cheap camera. Bad workman
always blames his tools.

Following up to 'Paul Saunders said:

http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/pic-of-the-day/dramatic-clouds-over-snowdon/

thats all a bit flash, isnt it.
--
Mike Reid
Cutty Sark appeal"http://www.cuttysark.org.uk"
City of Adelaide petition
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/cuttysarksister/
to email remove clothing.

Following up to Broadback said:

Cheap camera. Bad workman
always blames his tools.

you want manual control and a good degree of wide angle, then you
should be in with a chance.
--
Mike Reid
Cutty Sark appeal"http://www.cuttysark.org.uk"
City of Adelaide petition
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/cuttysarksister/
to email remove clothing.

Bitstring <[email hidden]>, from the wonderful
person Paul Saunders <[email hidden]> said

Quoted message said:

There's a pic on my blog from the 2004 urw anniversary expedition if
anyone's interested.
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/pic-of-the-day/dramatic-clouds-
over-snowdon/

Very nice (if 3 years delayed!). I think I can see Hobbiton in the
middle ground. 8>.

--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
8,963 Km walked. 1,746Km PROWs surveyed. 31.7% complete.

The Reid said:

Quoted message said:

http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/pic-of-the-day/dramatic-clouds-over-snowdon/

thats all a bit flash, isnt it.

Aside from darkening the clouds slightly, and I do mean slightly, that's
pretty much exactly what it looked like. I've just checked the original
again to make sure, all I did was boost the contrast slightly and darken the
clouds slightly. There's hardly any difference.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/
Latest Blog Post: Swansea Valley Clouds
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/pic-of-the-day/swansea-valley-clouds/

Broadback said:

Quoted message said:

http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/pic-of-the-day/dramatic-clouds-over-snowdon/

Quoted message said:

Why don't my photos turn out like that?

Well in this particular case, because I was very lucky with the light for
that photo. It's quite rare that you get sunshine combined with ominous
clouds like that. If the foreground weren't lit with sunshine it would have
looked very different. In fact, most of the photos I took later on that day
had very dull, dark foregrounds. And of course, I was lucky to have such
interesting clouds. Often when it's overcast, the sky is just a blanket of
plain grey. These clouds had shape and texture in them.

Quoted message said:

Cheap camera. Bad workman always blames his tools.

This is true. I'm sure that a skilled photographer with a cheap camera could
take better photos than a novice with a good camera, although it depends
exactly how cheap the camera is. As Mike said, you need manual control at
the very least, and some cheap cameras don't even have that. So if your
camera is auto-only, you're pretty much stuffed.

Lens quality and resolution are factors too of course, but it's possible to
take decent photos with most cheap digicams these days if you know what
you're doing.

The key thing is not to overexpose the sky, that's the main thing that ruins
most snaps. Shooting on auto usually exposes for the land and overexposes
the sky. Don't worry about dark land, you can always lighten that later, but
you can't get detail back in the sky once it's gone.

I'll be writing a post on my blog about this soon.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/
Latest Blog Post: Swansea Valley Clouds
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/pic-of-the-day/swansea-valley-clouds/

GSV Three Minds in a Can said:

Very nice (if 3 years delayed!).

Maybe I should explain my "Pic of the Day" philosophy on my blog. Ideally
I'll use current photos when possible, but since I don't take photos every
day (and haven't taken many at all lately due to all the [censored] weather), I'm
choosing other photos from my collection instead. However, rather than
choosing pics at random, I'm choosing photos taken during the same month, so
as to be seasonally consistent. Hence all the July Pics of the Day were
taken during July, of some year or another. Actually it can be interesting
to compare the weather conditions of different years during the same month.

As for the expedition, I'm absolutely sure that I've posted some pics from
this one. I remember processing them, posting them and getting comments on
them. Yet I've checked my website and I can't find them anywhere! I've also
checked my two alternative websites (since I couldn't access my main site
for a long time) and they're not on those either! So where on earth are
they? Did I just dream this? Did I prepare the pages but never post them?
But that can't be, I'm sure I remember people commenting on them! I can't
figure this out!

Granted I didn't post many from that trip, and I should probably have posted
more. In fact, when I eventually get my website sorted I'll have to redo the
entire expedition section and post a lot more photos from them, because I've
got loads that I've never posted.

Quoted message said:

I think I can see Hobbiton in the middle ground. 8>.

:-)

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/
Latest Blog Post: Swansea Valley Clouds
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/pic-of-the-day/swansea-valley-clouds/

Following up to 'Paul Saunders said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/pic-of-the-day/dramatic-clouds-over-snowdon/

thats all a bit flash, isnt it.

Aside from darkening the clouds slightly, and I do mean slightly, that's
pretty much exactly what it looked like.

sorry, I was commenting on the way the photo opened :-)
--
Mike Reid
Cutty Sark appeal"http://www.cuttysark.org.uk"
City of Adelaide petition
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/cuttysarksister/
to email remove clothing.

The Reid said:

Quoted message said:

Cheap camera. Bad workman
always blames his tools.

you want manual control and a good degree of wide angle, then you
should be in with a chance.

Well you don't actually need a wide angle, although most people seem to
prefer it for landscapes. Some actually prefer telephoto, and there are lots
of landscape possibilities there too.

But yes, manual control is key, and if you want to take the best possible
images, even with a cheap digicam, you need to shoot in RAW mode if the
camera has it. Of course, the really cheap ones won't, and even Canon have
abandoned RAW on their digicams (probably to force people to buy their DSLRs
instead).

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/
Latest Blog Post: Swansea Valley Clouds
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/pic-of-the-day/swansea-valley-clouds/

The Reid said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

thats all a bit flash, isnt it.

Aside from darkening the clouds slightly, and I do mean slightly,
that's pretty much exactly what it looked like.

sorry, I was commenting on the way the photo opened :-)

Oh right! Haven't I mentioned that before? It's a Wordpress plugin. You can
get the code to do it on a normal website too. It's called iMP Auto-Slimbox.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/
Latest Blog Post: Swansea Valley Clouds
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/pic-of-the-day/swansea-valley-clouds/

Following up to 'Paul Saunders said:

Oh right! Haven't I mentioned that before? It's a Wordpress plugin. You can
get the code to do it on a normal website too. It's called iMP Auto-Slimbox.

interesting.
--
Mike Reid
Cutty Sark appeal"http://www.cuttysark.org.uk"
City of Adelaide petition
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/cuttysarksister/
to email remove clothing.

Paul Saunders said:

The Reid said:

Quoted message said:

Cheap camera. Bad workman
always blames his tools.

you want manual control and a good degree of wide angle, then you
should be in with a chance.

Well you don't actually need a wide angle, although most people seem to
prefer it for landscapes. Some actually prefer telephoto, and there are lots
of landscape possibilities there too.

But yes, manual control is key...

AHEM! You haven't mentioned the degree in Photoshop. The image on the
LCD screen of the camera is just a negative to be developed later with
possibly hours of tweaking in curves, layers, masks and adjustments.
Of course once you've done a few you get quicker and can take the
picture with the teaks in mind.
--
Phil Cook, last hill: Angletarn Pikes via Beda Fell.
http://www.p-t-cook.freeserve.co.uk/May07/martin9.htm

In message <[email hidden]>, Paul Saunders
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Well in this particular case, because I was very lucky with the light for
that photo. It's quite rare that you get sunshine combined with ominous
clouds like that. If the foreground weren't lit with sunshine it would have
looked very different. In fact,

Polygon Lasso > Feather about 30 pixels>Curves>.Saturation up a bit >
Contrast up a bit.

Wonderful Photoshop :^)
--
Bill Grey

Following up to Phil Cook said:

Quoted message said:

But yes, manual control is key...

AHEM! You haven't mentioned the degree in Photoshop. The image on the
LCD screen of the camera is just a negative to be developed later with
possibly hours of tweaking in curves, layers, masks and adjustments.

I rarely spend more than 10 minutes, but then I dont understand half
of PS.
--
Mike Reid
Cutty Sark appeal"http://www.cuttysark.org.uk"
City of Adelaide petition
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/cuttysarksister/
to email remove clothing.

The Reid said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

But yes, manual control is key...

AHEM! You haven't mentioned the degree in Photoshop. The image on the
LCD screen of the camera is just a negative to be developed later with
possibly hours of tweaking in curves, layers, masks and adjustments.

I rarely spend more than 10 minutes, but then I dont understand half
of PS.

No, nor me. He does go on a bit.

Oh! You meant PhotoShop!

;-)

J

Following up to Judith said:

Quoted message said:

I rarely spend more than 10 minutes, but then I dont understand half
of PS.

No, nor me. He does go on a bit.

Oh! You meant PhotoShop!

LOL
--
Mike Reid
Cutty Sark appeal"http://www.cuttysark.org.uk"
City of Adelaide petition
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/cuttysarksister/
to email remove clothing.

Phil Cook said:

AHEM! You haven't mentioned the degree in Photoshop.

For the advanced stuff yes, but there are many types of photo you can take
that don't require much tweaking at all. Certain types do require a lot.

Quoted message said:

The image on the
LCD screen of the camera is just a negative to be developed later with
possibly hours of tweaking in curves, layers, masks and adjustments.

Hours? Maybe when you're learning and experimenting, but once you know how
to do things things they can be done quite quickly.

Quoted message said:

Of course once you've done a few you get quicker and can take the
picture with the teaks in mind.

As I said, many don't require much tweaking at all. In fact, none of the
recent pics of put on my blog were done in Photoshop, they were all done in
ACDSee, using very simple controls, mainly the shadow/highlight tool. Most
have taken me no more than a minute or two.

For more complex stuff, like layer masking, contrast masking, HDR and so on,
I'd use Photoshop of course, but I've been choosing photos that didn't need
much tweaking. In fact, I'm very impressed by how good the shadow/highlight
tool in ACDSee is, and how simple it is to use, just two sliders.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/
Latest Blog Post: Swansea Valley Clouds
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/pic-of-the-day/swansea-valley-clouds/

Bill Grey said:

Polygon Lasso > Feather about 30 pixels>Curves>.Saturation up a bit >
Contrast up a bit.

Wonderful Photoshop :^)

Not sure what you've done there. Have you improved my photo even further?

Or are you suggesting that's what I did?

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/
Latest Blog Post: Swansea Valley Clouds
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/pic-of-the-day/swansea-valley-clouds/

Paul Saunders said:

Phil Cook wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

The image on the
LCD screen of the camera is just a negative to be developed later with
possibly hours of tweaking in curves, layers, masks and adjustments.

Quoted message said:

Hours? Maybe when you're learning and experimenting, but once you know how
to do things things they can be done quite quickly.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Of course once you've done a few you get quicker and can take the
picture with the teaks in mind.

Quoted message said:

As I said, many don't require much tweaking at all. In fact, none of the
recent pics of put on my blog were done in Photoshop, they were all done in
ACDSee, using very simple controls, mainly the shadow/highlight tool. Most
have taken me no more than a minute or two.

Quoted message said:

For more complex stuff, like layer masking, contrast masking, HDR and so on,
I'd use Photoshop of course, but I've been choosing photos that didn't need
much tweaking. In fact, I'm very impressed by how good the shadow/highlight
tool in ACDSee is, and how simple it is to use, just two sliders.

I've been impressed by how good the simple tweaking tools in Picasa
are. It's also good at photo file organising. And it's free! :-)

--
Chris Malcolm [email hidden] DoD #205
IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]