the quality of this image is nagging at me... i was using the cheapo telephoto lens, which may be part of it (i do notice it tends to be soft on focus) but the main thing is that i'm not sure what's actually *in* focus... it's definitely not the water, and i don't think it's the boat... and if it's the clouds, i would figure that at that distance the boat would be in focus too...
It's OK, we won't tell anyone. Soft light, a hazy sun... I'm convinced. The sharpness fad will surely pass ....although it does serves the lens manufacturers well! Good song... even if it does take me places I don't want to re-visit!
@gardencat tx Joanne... it was on autofocus... and i was aiming for the boat... @yrhenwr may be right and the sun might have something to do with it... but it's still a bit baffling!
@frankhymus no - more high key, i think... imagine a line drawn from bottom left to top right... i tend to think of high contrast as the whites and blacks being about equal, with very little in the way of mid-tones... one day we should do a theme or a challenge based on the histogram :)
@northy Well yes, that is your "big U" idea. Another way to address "high contrast" is to have equal measures of dark, light and gray. Most of my shots are more this way, having a base of mid-gray, not removing it, with light and dark branching out from that.
@northy Yes, for sure, but still plenty of oomph at the ends, so still lots of contrast. And especially if run through "blending options" and "overlay," the ends are appreciably pulled up, the further out the more so. so it still "troughs" in the middle.
I love reading all the technical comments from people such as Frank and Richard ... and am actually starting to understand the jargon. Not there yet with being able to produce it - but starting to learn the language is a step in the right direction.
Great shot - and I know what you mean by focus. Think you have confused the camera and it just did not know what to focus on.
@frankhymus I'll have to try your photoshop approach to contrast in bw... I generally convert to bw in silverfx and then do all my tweaking in LR... never really used PS for the bw component...
@northy Well yes again. It's claimed that most experts even use Silver Efex. I have never really gotten around to it. There is, indeed, more to the workflow than just the final "blending options" trick, so by itself you might be disappointed.
@frankhymus well - there's never a one-size-fits-all, right? i just figure it's good to know what options are out there and then i can decide what to use in what circumstances...
Great shot - and I know what you mean by focus. Think you have confused the camera and it just did not know what to focus on.