Hi all! i have submitted a few travelling photos in Gallery X and they are ready for browsing and genuine PF shake-down critique... For those that are interested in the ins and outs of the seesion here are some comments on the pics of my current Gallery-X submission. These pics were actually taken in span of 6 hours and in three batches while being there (with lunch and coffee in between). Other than the very close zooms, like pic 1, they were taken with a polarizing filter on the medium zoom lens. It worked like a charm?Camera was a Pentax MZ50 wiht the kit 28-80 lens and a Sigma EX 70-200 long zoom I had a good luck with the slide used?An outdated Elitechrome that made colors warm and definitely more reddish. The selected frames were and scanned by a pro-shop in one occasion and me on the other. Pic by Pic ? Monemvasia 1 Reaching the Monemvasia village, one has a splendid northwest view of the rock itself. Further to the left is the modern part o the village and right at the other side of the rock is the old part and the up-winding way to the acropolis, which is barely visible at this shot. Tech stuff This photo was an easy one?it was canned ?as is? and only a bit of a red was added by Selective Color to duplicate the original slide. Monemvasia 2 I was lucky to find a guy that opened the way to his terrace for me so this one is from the top overlooking the square and the cramped buildings around. Right behind the pot is part of a church, one of the several visible from this point and of the many that exist. Tech stuff This one had depth of field problems. With a zoom right at 200mm there could not be enough separation?enter Photoshop and selectively copying and sharpening the foreground in a different layer (sharpening was with the HighPass filter & HardLigtht Blending method). Underneath these layers is the master one and one copy of it that it was generously Gaussian Blurred and opacity modified. Monemvasia 3 >From my vantage point I was able to catch this view of another church bell tower. And from this pic, one can see that buildings literally crawl up to the rock. Tech stuff This was a killer to scan well?I opted to use a very large size scan by a pro shop I had. That saved me a lot of trouble?This image required only a bit sharpening and level and selective color adjustment. Actually a lot of adjustment because even in the original slide roll this one was DRAB! Monemvasia 4 ? Harmony One more church at the background! But this one encapsulates all the architectural variations through the eons at the region. Venetian fortifications, Byzantine churches, memories of ancient Greece, and folk architecture (the semi-cylindrical roof tiles and the similar roof rim), all in one! Tech stuff And this Photoshop file has 12 layers! 6 adjustment one with masks, 2 sharpening ones, and 4 parts of the image in equal layers?Needless to say this had the flattest colors of them all, and the end result is a combination of a scan optimized for the sky and one for the building themselves. Monemvasia 5 Ah this one! After a scroll in the main part I moved towards the end of the rock/city over the rock. And I got photos like these. Now I do not know where this red colour sprouted from, but believe me it is a bit wilder on the slide! Tech stuff This one had selective color & color balance adjusted and levels were fixed separately for land and sea?Oh! I forget to add that I had to move the sea upwards at the right side ?cos it was dripping all over the place. Monemvasia 6 That one troubled me composition-wise. I had the idea of putting part of a foreground wall in (left column), but I overdid it. So this one is really cropped from the left and bottom, killing those shadows on the roofs too. Tech stuff Thankfully other than a different adjustment for that wall, minor color and level tinkering was required to bring the photo close to the original. Monemvasia 7 ? Aegean My favorite!!! This one was brought only to slide looks and was not even cropped. Good picks cry out themselves _____________________________________________________________________________________ http://www.mailbox.gr ÁðïêôÞóôå äùñåÜí ôï ìïíáäéêü óáò e-mail. http://www.thesuperweb.gr Website ìå ÁóöáëÝò Controlpanel áðü 6 Euro êáé äþñï ôï domain óáò!
