[Showcase] Bulgaria 2015

[dgenchev]

Another one from the archives.

[bouk]

Re: Bulgaria 2015

Heel jammer van de hier gekozen sluitertijd..?
grt,bouk.

[dgenchev]

Re: Bulgaria 2015

Heel jammer van de hier gekozen sluitertijd..?
grt,bouk.

What do you mean by that? it is 1.6 seconds. I am more sorry about the F stop i used but there you go.

[Sieg]

Re: Bulgaria 2015

Hele mooie waterval en wat mij betreft een goede sluitertijd
Doch vin ik het geheel wat krap in beeld zitten, had graag meer ruimte gezien rondom

grts
Sieg

[CMM]

Re: Bulgaria 2015

ik kan met beide voorgangers instemmen. Ofwel nog minder omgeving (enkel de grootste waterval in beeld) ofwel meer. Maar misschien was het oorspronkelijk ook maar de bedoeling om de aandacht te trekken op de honderden kleine stroompjes water ?
De stilstaande delen zijn wel scherp afgebeeld. Maar voor mijn smaak mocht de sluitertijd wat korter geweest zijn zodat het geheel van de waterstromen minder als een mist zou overkomen.

[bopatje]

Re: Bulgaria 2015

ik zie graag lange sluitertijden maar hier zou ik hem wat korter genomen hebben vooral om toch nog wat beweging en minder melkuitzicht te krijgen vb 1/2 sec.zou hem ook iets weidser nemen vooral meer naar rechts

[dgenchev]

Re: Bulgaria 2015

Hi Everyone,

First, let me thank every single one of you that took the time to look at my pictures. This is all that i can ever dreamed to achieve really, but especially i would like to thank the people that took of their time to comment. I will now take the time to answer properly and hopefully in the process help people that would like to shoot waterfalls .

1. Gear: Canon 450D with EF 28-135. For the audience that have no idea what this is: Cheapest DSLR from 2009 with the worst kit lens ever made for full frame.
2. The picture was taken at a time that i think i knew what i was doing, but unfortunately that could not have been further from the truth, so let me explain my mistakes and why things look as they look.
a. Light: It was insanely flat. Overcast with not a single thing beam braking the gray light. This is not necessarily a bad thing but this is a canyon so light gets really flat.
b. Shutter speed. I had this idea back then, that the longer the shutter speed the better. Which of course cannot be further from the truth, but there you go. I would like to have one at half a sec and one at 1 sec so i can bland the places with a lot of water particularly center left, but i really love how the rest turned out.
Keep in mind that i did not have (and still don't have) an ND filter and although the light was very flat, in order to get to 1.6 sec i had to go to F29. Guess who have not heard of diffraction. Keep in mind that my lens is soft at the best of times and on a crop body you should not exceed F11 ideally you should be at F8. Yes now i know... Please if you are a photographer that does not know what this is, do a fast research on the subject and check when diffraction kicks in, on your particular lens. Final tip if you are using full frame lens and a cropped body, diffraction kicks in one full stop before it does on full frame.
c. Composition: Composition is what it is here, because more or less is the only one possible. On the left there is a meadow that is really nothing special. On the right there are rocks and bushes and if you look carefully to the far right and center, you will see where i deleted (not very skillfully i have to say, got lazy) a branch that was really annoying me. On the bottom, all the way to my tripod is the now still water, part of which you can see on the pic (i cropped some) and on the top the pic is cropped right where a metal ladder starts. At leased they had the decency to paint it green but .....
d. after addressing all of this, let me add some more behind the scenes. This image i have not touched for 6 years, because original looks terrible: extremely soft and very flat. In the last few months i have invested some money and a lot of time to get some software and advanced my editing skills so i started approaching some of my old pics as challenge to myself. Software used: Camera raw (always start there) Topaz labs Sharpen AI; Nik software Color Efex Pro; Luminar AI; Photoshop itself and to finish it of WebSharp by Greg Benz, which is just a convenience tool, but i cannot recommend Lumenzia enough. This tool make me want to edit pictures instead of frowning on that. I did not need to use it in this case though.

Let me congratulate anyone who managed to read through all of that. I am pretty sure i wouldn't. I will end with few finishing thoughts, that might contradict with a lot of "Famous" photographers thoughts, BUT it is mine experience and my opinion.

1. Gear does not matter. FALSE. While it is true that you can make a stunning picture with mediocre equipment if you know what you are doing, it is a chore to do so and for every good one you've probably missed a 100. Gear does matter, but at the same time just as an amazing driver cannot win a F1 race with a Volvo a bad driver will not be able to win or finish, even with the best car there is.
2. This are the best setting because X who i trust said so: Best settings DOES NOT exist. Otherwise our cameras would have only those programed. Experiment, think, be creative and above all HAVE AN IDEA. Good or bad it is yours.
3. If you take a good picture it is not necessary to edit: I am truly sorry. While this used to be true it is not any more. Every single picture you see and you say WOW is edited. Cameras nower days can indeed make a good picture, but the WOW is always added in editing. If you are shooting in jpg the camera is auto editing for you (please don't do that. Always shoot in raw and learn how to edit.)

And now if you actually red all of this WOW and thank you. Feel free to add your thoughts bellow. Don't argue with how i see things, but do feel free to share your views and i do promise to not argue with them, because you know what: at the end of the day, photography is an art every single one of us that practice it and even people that do not, but enjoy our work, are entitled to their opinions and who am i to tell you otherwise.

[Black Fly]

Re: Bulgaria 2015

Hele mooie waterval en wat mij betreft een goede sluitertijd
Doch vin ik het geheel wat krap in beeld zitten, had graag meer ruimte gezien rondom

grts
Sieg

Ik volg hier.

[dgenchev]

Re: Bulgaria 2015

Ik volg hier.

Thank you for your comment. Composition choices are explained in the extremely long winded comment on top

[Sieg]

Re: Bulgaria 2015

I managed to read it all and Interesting thoughts and ideas
Thanx for explaining your workflow at the time of making the image

1. Gear does not matter. FALSE. While it is true that you can make a stunning picture with mediocre equipment if you know what you are doing, it is a chore to do so and for every good one you've probably missed a 100. Gear does matter, but at the same time just as an amazing driver cannot win a F1 race with a Volvo a bad driver will not be able to win or finish, even with the best car there is.
2. This are the best setting because X who i trust said so: Best settings DOES NOT exist. Otherwise our cameras would have only those programed. Experiment, think, be creative and above all HAVE AN IDEA. Good or bad it is yours.
3. If you take a good picture it is not necessary to edit: I am truly sorry. While this used to be true it is not any more. Every single picture you see and you say WOW is edited. Cameras nower days can indeed make a good picture, but the WOW is always added in editing. If you are shooting in jpg the camera is auto editing for you (please don't do that. Always shoot in raw and learn how to edit.)

You forgot an important thing to mention in your line-up
4. Enjoy this beautiful hobby !

grts
Sieg

[dgenchev]

Re: Bulgaria 2015

I managed to read it all and Interesting thoughts and ideas
Thanx for explaining your workflow at the time of making the image



You forgot an important thing to mention in your line-up
4. Enjoy this beautiful hobby !

grts
Sieg

Oh my god you are so right. The point i was trying to make with that part is, that i had to fight for every image i got tooth and nail. With my new camera it is so easy and enjoyable. The morning in the woods or at the lake, the evening in the city Thank you

[pppictures]

Re: Bulgaria 2015

I recognize the story about equipment, referring to the drone images I make (not the bést camera in the world).
However, also I would like to see some more space around the waterfall. However, from the picture it's not clear if this was possible / worth showing (reading your descripton: apparently not).
In that case: you made a pretty good one out of it...

[dgenchev]

Re: Bulgaria 2015

I recognize the story about equipment, referring to the drone images I make (not the bést camera in the world).
However, also I would like to see some more space around the waterfall. However, from the picture it's not clear if this was possible / worth showing (reading your descripton: apparently not).
In that case: you made a pretty good one out of it...

Thank you