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Evening Coastline of Pembrokeshire

John_Nevill

New member
I want to share this image of the coastline of pembrokeshire on the grounds of trying to photograph coastal waters in a different way. I like the symmetry, contours, colour compliment and the scattered detail, which adds interest.
Comments and critique welcome!

PCL.jpg

Taken in the early evening with an EF24-70 at 70mm on a 1DN, image is full frame, no sharpening and a tad of saturation.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
John,

This is an impactful picture. It is intriguing and captures attention. The colors are impressive and unusual.

I am wondering whether you have other shots in the series and if this was a RAW file to start with as the histogram shows that at both ends, the file is challenged. So we appear to have lost detail at both ends.

This picture has a lot of potential as it is so unusual and engaging. Only as a secondary understanding do we learn of the people, as the patterns and colors are so powerful.

It can be processed as a landscape or as a modern art abstract.

One strange thing is the blue/purple line separating the folds of the waves. It could be a JPG artifact, if you don't see it on your original. OTOH, it reminds me of birefringence between over bright and dark areas seen in the 50 1.4. I don't have the 24-70mm lens, so I couldn't say.

A great post.

Asher
 
Last edited:

Ray West

New member
Hi Asher,

One strange thing is the blue/purple line separating the folds of the waves.

If you mean to the lhs of the white bits, its shadow, imho. It looks like that.

Best wishes,

Ray
 

John_Nevill

New member
Asher / Ray,

I have found the EF 24-70 to be very contrasty and punchy, perhaps excessively so.

Hence with a scene with such WDR coupled with a shallow beach and probably a little too much post saturation, this effect becomes more pronounced.

I really like the lens, but one has to be very careful when using it, I suspect Canon designed it more for portrait work rather than landscape. I wonder if other EF24-70 users have notice such characteristcs?
 

Ray West

New member
I have the 24-70, with a 20D. It is on there nearly all the time. I find it does not degrade too much with Kenko convertors. It was a tremendous improvement from the 'muddy' colours I was getting from the 'kit lens'.

About the time you were taking the Pembroke shot, I was looking out of the window at a corn field which had just been cut. An amazing colour in the evening light. There was no way I was going to attempt to photograph it, since I would never believe the colour afterwards when it was printed. I do not see it as a lens defect ;-). I am grateful to the guy who sold it to me, and then accepted that I wouldn't sell it back to him a few days later. I believe the quality of the lens varies - I got a good'un.

Best wishes,

Ray
 

Brian Ripley

New member
John_Nevill said:
Asher / Ray,

I have found the EF 24-70 to be very contrasty and punchy, perhaps excessively so.

Hence with a scene with such WDR coupled with a shallow beach and probably a little too much post saturation, this effect becomes more pronounced.

I really like the lens, but one has to be very careful when using it, I suspect Canon designed it more for portrait work rather than landscape. I wonder if other EF24-70 users have notice such characteristcs?

I don't find so. I use mine for landscapes (on full fame) a lot, and I really don't see how you claim
a lens can add contrast. Lesser lenses can lose it. So if anything, this must be
a characteristic of your sensor/post processing.
 

John_Nevill

New member
Brian, I didn't claim that it adds contrast, I said I found it "to be very contrasty".

I thinks its a great lens. I probably need to adjust to the improved quality as I've previously only used the Sigma 12-24 EX DG and Canon EF-S 17-85 IS. So by comparison the contrast and punch stands out quite a bit. Likewise does the sharpness and edge definition. I'm definitley dialing in less PP sharpening on the 1DN.
 

Don Lashier

New member
I always appreciate an image that works on an abstract color/pattern level as well as the explicit level. Typically such images are closeups but less common are ones that use a grand landscape such as this. I like it but in a constructive sense would probably like it even more with a tad less saturation and contrast.

- DL
 

Gary Ayala

New member
John-

I am not an atta-boy type of guy. Firsty, I think it's a nice photo, the colors are rich and I appreciate all the vertical lines. But, the shot doesn't blow-me-out-of-the-water. I haven't put my finger on why this shot doesn't go beyond nice ... maybe a lack of central and interesting focal point ... dunno ... to my eye your shot is all about blues and yellows ... that's all I see ... and maybe I need more than blue and yellow for a photo to be more than nice. If this was my photo ... I may print it hang it on a wall with other photos .. but not as a stand-alone.

On the 24-70 ... great lens ... I believe that resolving power (sharpness) relates to contrast. The sharper the lens the great the contrast.

Gary
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Asher Kelman said:
John,

This is an impactful picture. It is intriguing and captures attention. The colors are impressive and unusual.

I am wondering whether you have other shots in the series and if this was a RAW file to start with as the histogram shows that at both ends, the file is challenged. So we appear to have lost detail at both ends.

This picture has a lot of potential as it is so unusual and engaging. Only as a secondary understanding do we learn of the people, as the patterns and colors are so powerful.

It can be processed as a landscape or as a modern art abstract.
..........
Asher

I want to repost my origninal comments. I find the vertical swaths of color and texture interesting and eye catching. The wave imaging I find, at least to my reactions, incomplete.

Looking at the image the dynamic range challenges the sensor.

That's why I asked about other images, maybe some other exposures might allow some further exploration of this subject in an additional version.

I still think that this image might the the basis of derived abstract expression.

Anyway, I like the route this image pulls us toward ito viewing the beach in zones.

Asher
 

Ray West

New member
As it is at the moment, my eye is drawn in the first instance to the two folk, more likely their shadows, towards the bottom left hand corner. A shadow line in the beach leads me to them too. I then see the mess to the right. What is that mess? It is just the view through the sea to the sea bed, a dark, gungy colour, seaweed and rock, contrasting with the strong orange/yellow/blues of the more distant view of the land sea interface. It is not often, that you see both viewpoints of the sea shore in the same picture. It can be confusing. The shadows from the waves, look almost the same as oversharpening artifacts, but you have to have really looked at the real thing to know that this image is the real thing. A simple seaside snap, that is full of interest. That is the image here and now.

On my monitor, the image is six inches high. If I crop away the bottom two and three quarter inches (2.75) it then becomes something entirely different. Another group of people, a family, become the centre of attention, and the image reminds me, somehow, of summer holiday railway trips to the seaside. Maybe its the railway poster sort of thing of the 1950's or perhaps it really is me and my folk from forty odd years ago.

Best wishes,

Ray
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
For certain, this is not a work that one would either not notice of just pass by. However, I guess I would need to see the actual print.

This may be one of those images we have to see in a large print that draws one into the various areas.

Asher
 

John_Nevill

New member
Its interesting how the impact of the image has evolved,. As its full frame, it offers lots of detail, but I'm starting to feel that the image doesn't really draw the eye or hold one's attention. Perhaps the oversaturation dominates. Oh well, we live and learn. I still like the brush-like contours and textures, maybe in an abstract sense.

I'm finding landscape photography quite challenging and want to experiment some more. Although I don't want to get into the super wide angle habit.

Thanks very much for your comments, especially Ray, I to see a 1950's style poster emerging!

BTW, it was a one off shot, I didn't take a series as I was walking in the hills with my family at the time.
 

Don Lashier

New member
John_Nevill said:
I'm finding landscape photography quite challenging and want to experiment some more. Although I don't want to get into the super wide angle habit.

Superwide is almost unavoidable for (a least a range of) landscape, not so much to take in a wide span of the distance, but rather to take in a greater foreground, adding depth and perhaps a focal point. Certainly it isn't a requirement (I shot landscape with 50mm for many years) but it certainly expands the possibilities.

- DL
 

Dierk Haasis

pro member
John_Nevill said:
Its interesting how the impact of the image has evolved,. As its full frame, it offers lots of detail, but I'm starting to feel that the image doesn't really draw the eye or hold one's attention. Perhaps the oversaturation dominates.

Try to print it with the current aspect ratio on at least an A3, possibly even larger, sheet of paper (I'd use my 2100's roll paper facility). That way you get a brilliant piece of art for your wall.

The problem with photography nowadays is that we tend to watch and judge it on the Internet - to small, wrong colourspace, to unsharp, lost detail. That may be good for vacation meory shots you had printed 9x13 cm in the past but it's well beyond anything most of us produce for peer review.

I like the photo.
 
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