Curl Curl Beach

[Milan Vjestica]

I tool this yesterday trying out the new to me D300 with Nikkor 18-70 zoom, hand held at f16. I did some retouching to remove marks from dirt on the lens (shame on me). Then I thought I would give it a more serious editing session to see what happens. I would appreciate your comments and guidance as I aspire to set the camera up for minimal editing if possible.

I do not think the colour of the sky is right in either picture 1 or 3. I added two later as I played with a few settings to get it looking less processed and with a better sky.

 

[Laurie Parker]

no 1 looks very natural to me , nice shot by the way love the wave and the rocks in the foreground, no 2 looks way to processed in my opinion the sky just does not look natural at all too saturated. I like the composition too with the land water and sky.

 

[Milan Vjestica]

Hi laurie,

I agree on the processing . The sky, from memory, was a deeper blue when the shot was taken. Somewhere I failed to capture the sky as I would have liked. I had a polarising filter on for that purpose.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

I like #2 - it has more pop without being completely over the top

 

[Laurie Parker]

Don't know what happened here but version 2 wasn't showing yesterday so that's why I said nothing on that one but agree now that I can see version 2 I like the sky in that one but prefer the sea and waves in the first image, maybe you could also try just editing the sky selectively away from the lower two thirds of the image


oh and just read your editing note thats why I couldnt see it yesterday then lol. you shoot them in RAW?

 

[Milan Vjestica]

Sorry Laurie,

I shoould have made the notes clearer. I shot these and edited tham as jpegs. I have the RAW images but have not used them. My editing skills may get streched by doing just the sky.

 

[Hamish Gill]

Marks on the lens... Sound like dirt on the sensor... Take some more shots at a small apeture pointing at the sky and post them in a thread, if they are sensor dusty il sort you out with a sensor cleaner ... I did clean it not more than a couple of weeks ago in the knowledge it was to be sold, but if it did get dirty in the mean while I can't have you starting out with a new camera in the condition!

 

[Hamish Gill]

In fact I can see sensor dirt I think.. Shame on me!

 

[Hamish Gill]

This is what you need, http://www.visibledust.com/products3.php?pid=611
You should be able to get it for £25 buy it local to you and il get the cash to you via paypal

 

[Hamish Gill]

Or if you don't have paypal we can work something else out...

 

[Hamish Gill]

I'm really ****** off I didn't double check before you left, they don't need cleaning that often especially not after only a week or so

 

[Laurie Parker]

have a go at editing the RAW files you should definately bring the dark blue back into the sky that you want, try the saturation and vibrance sliders if they are available on your software, you can then play about knowing that the original RAW file will be intact

 

[Milan Vjestica]

Hamish,

Don't get too upset. Sensor cleaning kits are available here, but somewhat expensiveas are many camera accessories. I'll drop you a message seperately mate.

 

[Brenton W. Cooper]

I use "Sensor Scope" by Delkin Devices. I bought it through Amazon for about $50. don't know what that would be in pounds. Guess I should have stayed in school and learnt them translations! But I guess the images in question have been takin down by the janitor?

In sandy conditions, I have been known to clean my sensor in the field every couple of hours( of course in the auto with the windows up)!

 

[Pete Askew]

If it's like anything else, that'll be £50!