[Steve]

We took an early morning bike ride from Tutzing to Starnberg See. The light was poor but we wanted some fresh air before the forecast rain arrived. This is a definite route that I need to revisit in the snow later this year and better light of the early summer next year. As usual I took along my camera and shot a few things on the way.

This has been converted to black and white, then a slight tint added and finally some noise to age the picture slightly.




The following are photos that I shot with the fortnightly theme in mind. I had up until yesterday not photographed any autumn images this year but the chance of it being the winner gave me the motivation. I like these a great deal, especially the last two but I have another shot held back just in case autumn wins the poll

Early morning looking across the lake.


The old bench besides the church.


Clearing autumn’s leaves.


More to follow as I process the mass from yesterday.

Comments welcomed as always.

[Bachs]

Superb shots mate.

I think my camera has the edge over yours though..I can get better noise than your first one straight off the camera.

Seriously, your PP on that shot has worked really well.
Can't make my mind up about #2 but #3 and #4 are superb!

[Warspite]

I likw 4 - the fact that everything is covered in leaves makes her job of clearing them look negligible

Also impressed with picture 2 - I like the way you have captured the varying depths, with the buildings rising from amongst the trees.

[noah]

i really like no.4, her almost defeated expression says it all really.

[Matty]

all good but #4 is the winner for me. Timing is everything!

[Sonsey]

No.4 is excellent, but I really like no.3 aswell... maybe even a bit more. If "autumn" is the next comp subject, I would've been overjoyed with no.3 as my entry, it just says autumn to me without even trying. You've now got me wondering what you held back

[dod]

What's the first one like without the grain Steve? Just my opinion but the boat looks to have such nice clean lines that I "think" it might be better as a straight B&W.

[CT]

All good, but No4 has it all, great colour, interesting textures, and a super candid shot to boot.

I like No1 in sepia - I think it suits the shot. You might try increasing the saturation Steve, to deepen the sepia effect? I developed a love for those old really deep brown sepia shots, mainly through restoring so many of them.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by dod

What's the first one like without the grain Steve? Just my opinion but the boat looks to have such nice clean lines that I "think" it might be better as a straight B&W.

Here is the picture in colour



and converted to B+W without the noise…slight blue tint.

Originally Posted by CT

All good, but No4 has it all, great colour, interesting textures, and a super candid shot to boot.

Thank you sir

Originally Posted by CT

I like No1 in sepia - I think it suits the shot. You might try increasing the saturation Steve, to deepen the sepia effect? I developed a love for those old really deep brown sepia shots, mainly through restoring so many of them.

I can see were you are going but I didn’t do the shot with grain as anything other than a save for web picky so don’t have the original to work with just to increase the saturation. Being lazy I can’t really be bothered to mark off a section and do it that way either

[dod]

I do prefer that without the grain, just my opinion though

[Steve]

Two more from the same day.

[Agro]

All good shots mate but the last two really do it for me. The simplicity of the composure, add to that the colour and texture, I really like them. Was there much processing done? I would be very happy to put my name to those shots.

As an aside, I know you shouldn't judge/critique photos because of the framing but for some reason your framing really adds to them. I've seen many styles of framing but not seen that before, might not be new to alot of you on here but I really haven't noticed it before. I like your style, very effective, doesn't detract from the picture but adds a nice touch.

Good job! :icon_cool

[Dave]

Original shot #1 with the grain for me

[JamPal]

Blimey they are stunning shots.. Going to be a high standard in the fortnightly assignment.

I think we should ban him

[Steve]

Originally Posted by Agro

All good shots mate but the last two really do it for me. The simplicity of the composure, add to that the colour and texture, I really like them. Was there much processing done? I would be very happy to put my name to those shots.

Thank you for the kind comments. For the last two shots there has been very little work done to them, on the leaves I just increased the saturation slightly after the usual levels adjustment during raw convertion and for the lock I again increased the saturation slightly and applied a very small amount of blur on the left hand side of the picture (only on the wood) to balance up the very short depth of field I used. I deliberately shot the photo that way but felt the addition of more blur balanced the picture better. The sharpening for both pics was done after they had been reduced to web size using "smart sharpen" in Photoshop CS.

Originally Posted by Agro

As an aside, I know you shouldn't judge/critique photos because of the framing but for some reason your framing really adds to them. I've seen many styles of framing but not seen that before, might not be new to alot of you on here but I really haven't noticed it before. I like your style, very effective, doesn't detract from the picture but adds a nice touch.

Good job! :icon_cool

I have to admit that I have played around with many different frames but have settled on this design now for just about all my shots. I sometimes reverse them so that they are all black with lighter keylines if the pictures suits it better but always use the same style. The design was picked up from something I was already doing and my partner suggesting the added second close keyline. Like you I think it is simple but effective at finishing off the pictures and neither dominating nor making them too fancy.

Hope that answers your questions