Just some local pics

**stratocast** · 13 June 2007, 09:28 AM

Oooh! A photography forum, I didn't notice this. I really need to get out of the Xtreme forum a bit more.

Here are a couple of pics from around my home in Cyprus, taken with a Nikon D70 and 18-70mm zoom lens.

**pauland** · 13 June 2007, 11:05 AM

Great pictures (prefer the colour one myself).

We are not jealous of where you live, no siree..

Paul

**Soquili** · 13 June 2007, 12:37 PM

Thanks for sharing the pictures.

The top photo reminds me of some of the terrain not far from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey.

The bottom photo makes me miss all the wonderful seafood that I enjoyed all around the Mediterranean.

**raynerj1** · 13 June 2007, 01:57 PM

Nice shots! Thanks for sharing!

The bottom one brought back all the smells of a seaport... particurily the ones arfter a storm... I think I will stay in South Dakota.

**stratocast** · 13 June 2007, 11:22 PM

Thanks for your kind comments.

Originally Posted by Soquili

Thanks for sharing the pictures.
The top photo reminds me of some of the terrain not far from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey.

The bottom photo makes me miss all the wonderful seafood that I enjoyed all around the Mediterranean.

Well, Turkey's not too far away from me and the terrain in Cyprus around the coast is very rocky. I don't know the story behind this particular church, but there is a history in Cyprus of individuals paying for a small church to be constructed, which would then be dedicated to a favourite saint. The one in the photo is probably one of these. With regard to seafood, see below.

Originally Posted by raynerj1

Nice shots! Thanks for sharing!
The bottom one brought back all the smells of a seaport... particurily the ones arfter a storm... I think I will stay in South Dakota.

I take your point, but I love the sea (I spent many years sailing on it). The photo below is just along the quay and I imagine that the restaurant has the freshest fish on the planet, considering that the fishing boats moor just metres away.

**DAL** · 14 June 2007, 01:03 AM

Very nice. Thanks for sharing those.

**raynerj1** · 15 June 2007, 12:10 AM

I like to fish, but not to eat. Spent too many years catching em and letting em rot in the sun before I dragged them home, to every want to eat them.

Nice Pictures BTW. Nice bright colors... Maybe a touch overexposed on the boats. Did you use autoexposure and spot mettering?

**stratocast** · 15 June 2007, 08:42 AM

Originally Posted by raynerj1

I like to fish, but not to eat. Spent too many years catching em and letting em rot in the sun before I dragged them home, to every want to eat them.

Nice Pictures BTW. Nice bright colors... Maybe a touch overexposed on the boats. Did you use autoexposure and spot mettering?

Thanks. I've never caught anything worth taking home.

Yes, the highlights could use some attention. The image is basically straight from the camera, and while the juxtaposition of the boats and the restaurant is interesting, it's all a bit too "busy" for my liking.

I used aperture priority coupled with Nikon's so-called "3D Matrix metering", which samples many points in the image area to give an even exposure, but sometimes it gets fooled (the sunlight is very bright, here in Cyprus). A little tweaking in PS should sort it out.

**raynerj1** · 15 June 2007, 02:26 PM

hi Bob,

I have found that when the highlights turn white it is beyond even PS's levels to bring em back down. I have found that bright sunlight is not as bad as people tend to think. Yes, the shadows are much more intense but it makes for some wonderous flower pictures...

**Soquili** · 15 June 2007, 04:04 PM

Hi Bob,

Nice pictures.

I grew up with the Ansel Adams zone system of photography. He liked contrast, but with details maintained in the highlights and the shadows. Not always easy to achieve.

It sounds like your camera samples multiple areas and settles for a medium exposer that allows detail in all areas. This may or may not be a good thing depending on how you expected to see the final image.

In any case, I played around with you Freshfish.jpg and with Xtreme Pro using XPE's Levels.
I sampled the area I wanted to be the BLACK, then I sampled the area I wanted as the mid GRAY (fortunately you image actually has a gray that works well), then I sampled the area I wanted to be WHITE. I moved the center Input Level slightly to the left to saturate the colours. I'm viewing this on a CRT monitor that has not been calibrated so it may appear very different on your monitor.