[jon.partsch]

Sunset on Castlebar river with DFA 24-70mm. Nothing really special about this lens, but I love it. From landscapes and portraits to concert and street shots, it's just a reliable workhorse that gets the job done.

Love this photo (my second favorite in the contest this month), but doesn't the info on Flickr indicate it was shot at 29mm?

[ecuador04]

Sunset on Castlebar river with DFA 24-70mm. Nothing really special about this lens, but I love it. From landscapes and portraits to concert and street shots, it's just a reliable workhorse that gets the job done.

Wow - those colors are amazing. I've never been able to get my pics to look like this - what settings are you using, and/or what type of post-processing?

[MossyRocks]

Wow - those colors are amazing. I've never been able to get my pics to look like this - what settings are you using, and/or what type of post-processing?

I have wondered the same. I think some of it is getting your but out of bed earlier enough but on the few occasions when I have managed that I haven't managed colors like that, so I would also like to know.

[Hattifnatt]

Love this photo (my second favorite in the contest this month), but doesn't the info on Flickr indicate it was shot at 29mm?

Oooops, that is correct. To be honest, I didn't try to cheat, I just assumed the DFA 24-70 is eligible for the contest and I didn't bother to check the focal length for this particular picture. If the organizers (MSL ?) think this picture should be disqualified I have no problem with this, and maybe it would be fair.

Wow - those colors are amazing. I've never been able to get my pics to look like this - what settings are you using, and/or what type of post-processing?

I have wondered the same. I think some of it is getting your but out of bed earlier enough but on the few occasions when I have managed that I haven't managed colors like that, so I would also like to know.

What I do is paying close attention to weather and sky when trying to hunt for a nice sunset, rather than post-processing. I have noticed that after it rains, the chance of a nice sunset greatly increases. This is because the atmosphere is saturated with water droplets and you have all kind of optical phenomena (reflection, refraction, diffraction etc) resulting in very nice light. As it often happens in Ireland, light can be quite amazing between two showers of rain and I tried to capture it as best as I could. Sometimes it can be quite frustrating, if I go out hunting and the light is bad then I just don't shoot any pictures and just enjoy the fresh air. But I always keep an eye on the sky trying to predict how the sunset will look like.

My post-processing workflow is quite simple and it usually takes me less than 5 minutes, if it takes more and I'm not happy with the result I just let it go and drop the shot entirely. I shoot RAW, all camera filters disabled and open the file with Lightroom. First I do some cropping if required, then I apply the lens profile corrections and adjust the white balance to my taste. Then I boost the shadows and decrease the highlights, trying not to overdo it because it will look unnatural. I do not modify the colors in any way. Then, I use Nik plugins for Lightroom. First Dfine for some noise reduction (not very often since I'm mostly shooting at ISO 100), second the raw pre-sharpener. Then I go to Color Efex filters where I use some combination of neutral density and detail extractor. And that's it, I export as JPG from Lightroom without more sharpening.

I would say in this case the colors were the result of me getting lucky with good light rather than post-processing. I still remember that sunset to this day, the light was surreal. More pictures from that series here.

[MSL]

If the organizers (MSL ?) think this picture should be disqualified I have no problem with this, and maybe it would be fair.

As the poll is in place, I will leave things as is for simplicity, but I think I will need to disqualify the image for this round. If it ends up in the top 4 of voting, I will adjust the winners list accordingly. While I could pull it now, it doesn't help anyone who has already voted for it, vote for another. If anyone has a better suggestion for how to handle this, I'm all ears.


I would love to see you enter this image in the next round. I can see that this was an accidental oversight, and this isn't the first time an image was submitted outside the range of the particular month.

[jon.partsch]

Oooops, that is correct. To be honest, I didn't try to cheat, I just assumed the DFA 24-70 is eligible for the contest and I didn't bother to check the focal length for this particular picture. If the organizers (MSL ?) think this picture should be disqualified I have no problem with this, and maybe it would be fair.

As the poll is in place, I will leave things as is for simplicity, but I think I will need to disqualify the image for this round. If it ends up in the top 4 of voting, I will adjust the winners list accordingly. While I could pull it now, it doesn't help anyone who has already voted for it, vote for another. If anyone has a better suggestion for how to handle this, I'm all ears.


I would love to see you enter this image in the next round. I can see that this was an accidental oversight, and this isn't the first time an image was submitted outside the range of the particular month.

I assumed it was an oversight, and I wasn't even sure that eyeball icon on Flickr meant "focal length". To me, it looks like an eyeball inside and acute angle symbol, but I thought "29 deg angle of view doesn't make sense". I don't mean to call you out! And, yes, I think it would place well in this (next) month's contest as I consider that group of focal lengths more challenging personally (you may have less competition!)

What I do is paying close attention to weather and sky when trying to hunt for a nice sunset, rather than post-processing.

.....

My post-processing workflow is quite simple and it usually takes me less than 5 minutes, if it takes more and I'm not happy with the result I just let it go and drop the shot entirely. I shoot RAW, all camera filters disabled and open the file with Lightroom. First I do some cropping if required, then I apply the lens profile corrections and adjust the white balance to my taste. Then I boost the shadows and decrease the highlights, trying not to overdo it because it will look unnatural. I do not modify the colors in any way. Then, I use Nik plugins for Lightroom. First Dfine for some noise reduction (not very often since I'm mostly shooting at ISO 100), second the raw pre-sharpener. Then I go to Color Efex filters where I use some combination of neutral density and detail extractor. And that's it, I export as JPG from Lightroom without more sharpening.

I would say in this case the colors were the result of me getting lucky with good light rather than post-processing.

So you are saying this is not an HDR merge? I was curious about that. To me, it looks like a tasteful and well-executed HDR composite. It sounds like you are doing a bit of what has been referred to as "single-shot HDR" with you post-processing workflow. It's really a testament to the dynamic range that can be captured with the K1. It is a very impressive machine - almost as impressive as that light in Ireland between the rains. I was there in March of 2015 (with my K5) and it rained almost constantly, but damn, was it beautiful (especially when the sun decided to peak out. I had the good fortune to drive the through many parts (from the coast inland) of County Sligo during one of the brief sunny periods, and It was just magical.

This brings me to another thought about these focal length contests. Since there are no restrictions on sensor size or cropping, really any angle of view can be represented by any focal length. It makes the lens focal length requirement seem a bit arbitrary. That's just a thought as an angle of view challenge would not be nearly as inspiring and there would be no way to verify the angle of view due to cropping anyway.

~ Jon

[JensE]

My post-processing workflow is quite simple ...

Thanks for describing it - your landscapes have a distinct and easily recognizable style, which few other pictures here share. Even if the above was clearly looking like one of yours, I wondered why you didn't submit one of your better ones in that focal length range

[Hattifnatt]

So you are saying this is not an HDR merge? I was curious about that. To me, it looks like a tasteful and well-executed HDR composite. It sounds like you are doing a bit of what has been referred to as "single-shot HDR" with you post-processing workflow. It's really a testament to the dynamic range that can be captured with the K1. It is a very impressive machine

Thank you No, it's not a merge, it was developed from a single RAW file. The dynamic range of the K-1 is indeed impressive. I actually tried doing HDR from multiple exposures when I was using the K-5, but I never liked the end result, it looked unnatural. The K-1 is a big improvement in this regard, especially that I don't like to spend time in post messing up with multiple exposures. And I hate using physical GND filters. With the K-1 I can single shot pictures like this without using a GND filter.

almost as impressive as that light in Ireland between the rains. I was there in March of 2015 (with my K5) and it rained almost constantly, but damn, was it beautiful (especially when the sun decided to peak out. I had the good fortune to drive the through many parts (from the coast inland) of County Sligo during one of the brief sunny periods, and It was just magical.

Yeah, the light in Ireland is special. I can't wait to visit again once this pandemic madness is over.

Thanks for describing it - your landscapes have a distinct and easily recognizable style, which few other pictures here share. Even if the above was clearly looking like one of yours, I wondered why you didn't submit one of your better ones in that focal length range

Thank you for your kind words When it comes to submitting photos, I tend to submit the pictures I like most. Sometimes those are quite different from the ones that other folks like. It's quite funny, I do have some pictures that get appreciation but I think they're just meh, meanwhile some pictures that I'm really happy with get no love at all ((

Also, I kinda feel guilty for submitting a photo over and over again to multiple contests and challenges. Ideally I should submit new stuff, but unfortunately I'm going through a slump with my photography it seems. I cannot even remember when was the last time I took a photo that I was happy with. Hopefully I'll get back on the horse soon

[ddbarchitect]

Glass & Steel building with DA21 which is also a glass and steel / metal lens!

21 on APSC is a perfect walk-around lens in the city for me. Tried F28, and FA35mm, wonderful lenses but the focal lengths are just not for me. 21 fits perfectly. No wonder a lot of FF users like the FA31.

very nice