Doelan Photo | TrekEarth

Photographer’s Note

There are quite a lot of photographs posted on TE of this very pretty port in the south of Brittany.

I thought I might try to get a somewhat different picture by including the jib of this powerful mobile crane which is used for lifting boats in and out of the water.

There are two lighthouses here - the green painted one nearest to the sea, and the other red one further up the port, which is just visible under the jib of the crane.

Taken as JPEG: PP in FastStone and PhotoShop 7.

In the WS - the same scene taken by my other camera.

tyro has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

tyro (2666) 2009-09-16 16:35

Hello, Peter.

Now, I'm not very good at visualising triangles and suchlike in compositions, but even I can appreciate that this picture is well divided into thirds produced by two strong vertical lines - the major lighthouse on the right and the tackle on the crane on the left. The big house in the right third nicely balances the boat in the left one and our eyes then travel to the smaller lighthouse with its splash of red above the boat. Oh, yes, there is a big triangle at the bottom too, of the jetty. And a strong diagonal of the water's edge disappearing into the distance. Am I getting better?

The sky has benefitted from the use of a polariser here, even although this looks like a rather dullish sort of day. But, comparing this picture taken with your Fuji camera with the Workshop picture taken at the same time with your little decrepit Canon compact, I think that the sky is the only feature in the first which excels anything in the Canon picture.

The Canon picture has a bit more warmth (which might or might not be a good thing) but I believe that there is more detail in the lightest bits and in the shadows too. For the light bit - look at that "seam" running horizontally along the middle of the face of the jib of the crane - I can see all of it quite clearly in the Canon picture but not nearly so well in the Fuji one. The detail in the cliff below the green lighthouse is more visible in the Canon one than the Fuji one and so is the detail in those dark trees behind that lighthouse and beyond.

So, I'm afraid to say, I still think that the workshop picture taken with the Canon is superior in exposure balance, probably because it isn't quite so contrasty. I also think I prefer the colours of the Canon picture although some might argue that they are a little unnaturally warm (Cf. Kodachrome v Agfa CT18 as before).

Whatever the preference, there's no doubt that this is a fine photograph, whatever the camera!

Kind Regards,

John.

saxo042 (15680) 2009-09-16 23:33

Hi Peter,

A beautiful scenery of this very attractive place. But definitely the most interesting thing here is to compare the two photos you have posted.

I have read John´s critique, and I must agree with him. The WS picture has a much warmer colour tone, especially visible on the concrete surface. I uploaded both pictures to my viewer (FastStone) and played around with the colour settings. By changing red and green slightly you can achieve about the same result, i.e. for the original i increased those two sliders and for the WS I decreased.

I have thought about buying a polarizer to my G10, it is only about £75, but I have hesitated (it builds about 6 centimeters, so the case cannot be closed). I can see that there is a clear diiference here, to the better, with such a device. I will still think about it. I don´t like the greenish hue I sometimes get on skies.

But this is still a very fine picture, with many interesting details!

Kind regards
Gunnar

Glint (3042) 2009-09-18 11:57

Hello Peter,
I see immediatley that you have been having fun with your fractions! Reading John's critique comparing the merits of your two camera shots I tend to agree with him. Certainly the seam on the jib is more visible to me too.Well exposed with either camera so you you makes your choice...
Bev