* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #855 / Revived #075 on 2024 09 04 *

What about now?

I would have left the top part of the falls alone as shown in the version I posted.

As always, thanks.

I like the cormorant pose - is it ballet, aloofness or disdain that we dare invade their space?
I am intrigued by their eye colour. Sometimes an eerie pale blue, sometimes turquoise and sometimes a soft green.
That's an interesting story about how you acquired your Katrina birds. And I like the simple association of a name to an event.

Maybe I could have noted that she is laying her eggs

Yes, a bit scary when I am sitting down with the camera. But she seems to know not to come too close - unlike another dog I am looking after that seems a bit slow on the uptake...

Ahhh good catch - I didn't even notice it. It took about 7 degrees to get them vertical and I was thinking surely I don't rotate the camera that much. However, the cormorants are quite fast in the air and the lagoon is relatively narrow so I have to pan quickly, often tying my legs in knots - so a distinct possibility. But it made me look back through all similar shots and there are quite a few leaning, some even more. So I am guessing it is rolling shutter? Also because the trees are at the same angle as their reflections and they should have been leaning back the other way...

I agree with all comments by Minnie and appreciate also your responses.

The only thing I want to comment on with a bit more elaboration, is that flying cormorant shot and the peculiar effect on the reflection while panning.

Though apparently unintentional (if you hadn't caught it yourself) I actually really love that effect.
It creates a so much bigger sense of dynamic movement, adding to the Cormorant's perceived speed.

That impression was also subconscious / subliminal for me upon first seeing the series of images without the comments.
Minnie's comment and your reaction made me realize what it was that created that (very positive) dynamic tension that I had felt but could not identify.

Yes, the sloping scrub and its reflection, especially on the left side, is also distracting and a bit of an annoyong eye-magnet for me as well

Maybe something along these lines -

I also relocated the cormorant to help it stand out a bit more against the water.

I don't have a problem with anyone taking a stab at it. Hopefully they will explain the alterations so I can understand them.
I typically use lightroom classic or mobile.

Edit: Sorry, the link permissions didn't update like I expected. It should work now.

drive.google.com/drive/folders/1K1S_WY_arxcq1kyw_JrP5LpL3a3tKrYv?usp=sharing

Since I'm away from home I'm working on my iPad with Lightroom mobile and didn't get too ambitious, just tried to mitigate the purple sky from the posted version. It's pretty easy to modify the colors in the color mix section. Click the round button for the color you want to alter and work the sliders. I moved the purple and blue hue sliders more to the blue end, the lowered saturation a little and raised luminance a little. Fiddle till it looks like you want.

Juliet Kost's free tutorials on the Adobe website are good sources to learn more. And my goodness, Lightroom has become much more robust this year!

When I click your link it says I need to request access.

I'm not a Lr user anyway so it's not a big deal. I use Photoshop Elements with its ACR and the Elements+ plugin.

That's very close to the version I posted earlier from the op's jpeg.

He said he is after some sort of "faded" look but I have no idea what type of "faded" look he is after - sepia look, old photo look, low saturation etc etc

I am glad to have this conversation as I think you are right on the money. On another forum a while ago I remember some people commenting in a negative way about rolling shutter - and fair enough. But they used an example of a racing car with rolling shutter evident in the background and I actually liked the effect - it really added to the sense of speed. So then perhaps it's just a matter of how much is too much.

Including Dan's edit here to continue the conversation in one place. While I don't mind the edit, the weird thing is that having the original in mind, the edit now seems to be wrong somehow. A good example of the nature of subjective comprehension.

And a question about the straightening. Is that a skew transformation about a horizontal line along the water's edge, as opposed to a global rotate?

Chris mentioned a portal and I really think the effect is one of viewer separation from the scene. Outside looking in instead of the usual inside looking out.

A pleasant image with some structure provided by the mesh, but the detail is in the 1:1 view where we see the tiny dew drops on the plant filaments, web and more of the quite pretty flower. I wonder if a crop would bring that detail to the initial view, guaranteeing the viewer would expand for a close up.

Guys (you know who I am addressing),

Take a breath and cool down.

No need to get personal with implied, veiled insults of stupidity or megalomania.
Focus on the images please and keep it constructive and friendly.

We were doing really well.
Don't spoil it (for those who have trouble looking past spats, but mostly for yourselves).

Cheers and happy Saturday,
Roel

No, the edit is not wrong because imo it represents the scene more accurately by removing the effect of rolling shutter.

If you intended to introduce the effect of rolling shutter in your image then that is a different situation with artistic intentions.

In addition to my previous post, if your intention was to introduce rolling shutter to give a sense of motion, imo a better option is to use a motion blur smart filter in post where you can set the amount of motion blur to taste.

Here I added motion blur to my edited version in my previous post.

Bryan did mention earlier he was panning very quickly and tying up his legs in doing so 😊