Saturday, January 16, 2010

~Looking Down~


Taken today on top of Clement Hill. Looking down over Hillsboro, NH.
It took a long time for me to decide to post this shot. It didn't come out the way I had expected it to. I don't know about everyone else, but I seem to have become very picky about what I want to post. If I think it's not a good shot, I don't want to post it. Maybe because I took it mid-day and the sun was high. I seem to do better in the morning and late afternoon. I used the auto setting again on my Nikon D80. I am trying to learn the settings so that I can set them manually. Maybe these shots will come out better.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think this turned out beautiful Penny, I especially love the shadows in the snow and the bright blue skies (I haven't seen those in a while)! Looks like a beautiful day!

BobbieCoughlin said...

Morning and evening are called "the golden hours" because of the warm glow the low sun imparts to photos. Of course, we aren't always able to get out to do our shooting at those times. This photo displays an impressive vista: perhaps increasing the contrast and applying a warming filter would give it that "golden hour" aura that is you might be looking for?

Clara said...

It is a beautiful image, Penny. I love the different layers from the snow to the woods to the mountains to the sky. The golden hours do enhance the colors in an image, but shadows can also add lots of interest to your photo, also.

terricreates said...

I understand wanting good shots here. But I find all the time I am harshly critical of my own work. I like your shot, and maybe you can do some things to change it, but sometimes its the memory that is important. If you are there again you might have all sorts of ideas for how to get the same thing differently. It amazing what squatting or standing up high can do.

Lorri said...

I like it. On a bright snowy day like that it can be difficult to get any color at all; everything just blows out. Morning and late afternoon hours are usually considered ideal lighting times, but you've done a good job with your mid-day light here.

Pennyz Image Inn said...

I was wondering if a the ISO is to high, will that wash out color? My ISo is set at 500

Anonymous said...

Pretty shot with nice color--it's hard to find color this time of year.

Esther said...

Penny, if your 'auto' setting chose 500, that was what your camera read. When you choose creative settings, you can change this to suit yourself. Personally, I like the composition of this image; strong foreground (flag), leading to the middle and far layers.

Don't be too hard on yourself!

Anonymous said...

I use the D80 also. When you shoot a landscape like this try Aperture prority- set the dial to A. Turn the front dial to set the aperture to about F16. Set your ISO to 100. The camera will choose the shutter speed. You can use auto focus, just focus about 1/3 of the way into the scene...The tops of the trees should work. OR try the landscape scene setting it also works very good. That D80 is a GREAT camera, it will do good things for you, just don't be afraid to get off Auto. I don't care for Program mode either, try Aperture priority or a scene mode next.

Anonymous said...

I like this also. The interest in the foreground kind of fading into that beautiful vista in the background. I find mid-day light is really harsh for picture taking.

Anonymous said...

Penny, I noticed your question above about the ISO. 500 is definitely not the ideal for a bright sunny day - you'd want to be around 100 or 200 in those conditions. Actually, a good rule of thumb is keep the ISO as low as possible, only raising it if the conditions are not light enough to allow you to use your chosen aperture/shutter speed. The downside of too high an ISO is that it may introduce noise, especially in the shadows. I don't detect any noise in your shot though.

By the way, I agree completely with strong light being too harsh on colors and saturation. Early morning and late afternoon are my preferred shooting times too (or an overcast day).

This is a beautiful scene and I can see why you chose to shoot it. I played around a bit with your photo and was able to do a lot by increasing the contrast and saturation. I don't want to intrude by posting it, but if you want to see, go to my blog and click the contact me page at the top. That will send me an email and I can email you my adjusted version and explain roughly what I did.

Anonymous said...

Oh, but what I meant to say above is that high ISO won't wash out your colors.