Photoclubalpha

An autumn landscape from last week: Gorge cut by the Río Dulce [Sweet River] near Pelegrina (Spain). Any comments (especially on contrast, colour and sharpening) are welcome.

A700, CZ 16-80mm (60mm)


100 per cent clip (shows of the level of detail present in the photo)


Alfonso

A really lovely picture Alfonso. I like the way that the "river of trees" snakes into the picture. The colours look great, and to my eyes the detail is crisp. (I'm not sure what to say about the 100% crop as I wouldn't know if this was good or not.) I did wonder about how it would look with the top cropped, but this just made me look at the detail more and the light cascading down the slope at the top, so its probably better left in You have strengthened the A700+CZ16-80 at top of my wish list.

Birma: Thanks for the detailed comments. The light at the top is filtered by a cloud. That’s probably why the shadowy slope (which otherwise would be sunlit) looks somewhat strange.
Alfonso

This is very nice! A strong case for the CZ lens indeed! I can't wait for the fall colors to drift down here to my neck of the woods!

I like this shot and how the eye follows the foliage thru the scene.

yes me to

very nice picture , indeed , river of trees

nice colors ,

gustav

Kevin, Stephen and Gustav: I am very glad you like it!
Birma and Kevin, FWIW: I have used CZ16-80mm and Tamron 17-50mm for some time. Both are wonderful lenses. I used the latter mainly indoors and the former outdoors. But at the end of the day I didn’t like the inconvenience of having two (somewhat similar) standard lenses, and kept the CZ. (I shoot usually outdoors, so it was an easy choice for me. No regrets at all. The CZ is amazing.)
Alfonso

alfake wrote:Kevin, Stephen and Gustav: I am very glad you like it!
Alfonso

Hey Alfonso, don't let me outside please. It's a very beautiful image. I understand it's A700 + 16-80 CZ, but it's the beauty of the place and the excellent lighting. It is wonderful. Bravo!

I picked up the Tammy 17-50 as a budget wedding-shooter and, sure enough, that big aperture saved my butt at the first wedding I shot, which had terrible lighting. I may still get the CZ later, so it is really great to hear from somebody who has owned both. Thank you so much for that info!

Dr. Harout wrote:I understand it's A700 + 16-80 CZ, but it's the beauty of the place and the excellent lighting.

You’re so right, Dr. Harout…! One should always remember that the subject in the photo is always much more important than anything else, the photo itself included (and I am the first to forget that truth more often than not… Mea culpa!) The fact is that today’s photographic tools make it relatively easy to shoot technically correct images. But it’s very hard to obtain a beautiful photo, and even harder a moving photo… Perhaps the golden rule to deserve a great photo is: You must love your subject above all else… (be it a Castilian landscape, your Armenian ancient ruins, Gustav’s kingfishers, or whatever). Anyway, let’s leave it here, it seems I am beginning to digress a lot… Thanks as always, Dr. Harout!
Alfonso

Composition and light are gorgeous in this picture, your postprocessing successfully emphasized the fine colors. Contrast seems to be fine for web purpose, but I guess the shadows will need some treatment for successfull printing. I don't want to comment on sharpness - I would say it's fine enough, but without comparison it's hard to tell apart lens and athmospheric influence.
Overall a really fine picture

Springm: Thanks a lot for your judgments and comments. I truly appreciate them (specially coming from a person whose gallery is full of pictures that are not only beautiful and technically impeccable, but also show a lot of love and respect for their subject). I don’t print landscapes. They call for big prints, and that’s too expensive. But if I were to print this image big, I think I would have to make some previous print proofs carefully adjusting (as your comments suggest) contrast and sharpness to the print medium. Thanks again for your comments (and pictures).
Alfonso