Dicky Beach - Sunshine Coast

[matt]

Spent a few days on the Sunshine Coast over Xmas with the partner's family.

Took my new 40D with me. Thought I'd check its/my performance on the beach at Caloundra.

Here's a few quick shots taken with the 17-85mm kit lens.

A couple of the wreck of the SS Dicky, and one taken during a walk around the rocks.

Just a little tweaking in CS3.

Any tips/advice most welcome.

[leon]

Matt I would have to say they are nice clean and sharp images, nice work.

Leon

[Kevnool (Kev)]

Great colour and focus there Matt....cheers Kev.

[iceman (Mike)]

A great scenic location with an interesting subject Matt.. just the lack of interesting light doesn't give the image any punch.

If you shot it again at sunrise, or at sunset with the belt of venus, or with some lovely coloured clouds, would be stunning.

[iceman (Mike)]

Funny timing - after I posted this, I was looking at RedBubble and found this image by someone who's work I'd been looking at.

Stunning!

[matt]

Thanks for the comments, guys.

Mike - I agree with your comments about the light. Time of day plays a very big part. I'm also looking at laying my hands on a few filters over the next few weeks. First up, a circular polarising filter.

Would I be right in saying that guy's monochrome image is an HDR?

I'm not familiar with that technique....but I'll have to swat up. It's an excellent effect.

Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it. I'm enthusiastic about improvng my terrestrial images.

[renormalised (Carl)]

What's wrong with the beach??....You said it was dicky

Nice shots, though

[matt]

Originally Posted by renormalised

What's wrong with the beach??....You said it was dicky

Nice shots, though

Yeah...it looked OK to me too, but that's what the sign said.

Cheers

[RB (Andrew)]

You're mastering this camera very quickly Matt, well done.
You have the basics down well - level horizons, rule of thirds, lines drawing the eye in to the subject.
Good work.

As Mike said, use the early morning or late afternoon light to your advantage.

[Octane (Humayun)]

Matt,

Nice work. You're well on your way. Agreed with Mike, need to shoot at sunrise or sunset.

A pro circular polarizing filter is next on my purchase list, too, along with some very specialised filters. I'm going to try and push my photography to another level.

Also, that monochrome image is not HDR. It is a long exposure image. Judging by the water, about 1 second.

Regards,
Humayun

[matt]

Cheers, H

I like that blurred effect and some HDR shots display something similar.

Gonna get some practice in with a few long exposure waterfall shots etc before I get to New Zealand later in the year and really cut loose with some 'creative' stuff in that magnificent geography.

[Octane (Humayun)]

Matt,

Originally Posted by matt

Cheers, H

I like that blurred effect and some HDR shots display something similar.

Gonna get some practice in with a few long exposure waterfall shots etc before I get to New Zealand later in the year and really cut loose with some 'creative' stuff in that magnificent geography.

It's a pain in the butt trying to do HDR stuff with moving objects, such as water, as you end up with "holes" in the image where the software has been unable to successfully render data. Unless you're willing to manually mask in the correctly exposed image to fill the holes, it turns out pretty bad.

I'll be taking my 5D Mark II and a bunch of my L-series lenses to New Zealand (driving around south island over a two week period) in April or May, just in time for autumn, to capture all those orange, reds, and yellows.

Looking forward to seeing what you capture in New Zealand!

Regards,
Humayun