A nice image to cool off the hot summer day we're having in Calgary. What sort of post-processing do you do normally for you images? (my significant other wants to know...). Thanks.

Thinh: there was virtually no post-processing done on this shot other than a very slight increase in contrast (achieved with the Curves tool) and an equally slight boost to the saturation.

It's obviously not as punchy as the last couple of shots, but i like the calm, blue feel to it! I assume it taken at the same place as the last shot, yet it looks so different.

Neil: this one was taken about 1/2 mile north of yesterday's shot.

i really like this one. composition is perfect, and all those shades of blue....very nice. i think it's great that you post all the technical information about every photo, i find that very helpful. thanks!

I agree with sanjin - you help satisfy our curiousity.. now, if I just knew why you elect to use different RAW conversion programs for different shots ;)

Beautiful colours. I love the depth. Great photo.

Brian: lol, that's not a secret. My RAW converter of choice is C1 Pro because:

1) I really like the workflow.
2) it's produces very clean images (in the sense of an absence of noise).
3) it preserves shadow detail.
4) I like its automatic colour balance and the various ways in which it can be adjusted if I want or need to change it.

I occasionally use Photoshop's RAW conversion on very long exposures as it automagically removes hot-pixels, and I use DxO Optics Pro to correct lens distortions. This is particularly useful with the 17-40 if the horizon is anywhere other than central to the image. In this instance it straightened out the structure which was unnaturally bent at this focal length; i.e. it curved in towards the centre of the image.

Another great picture! I've been inspired enough to think about giving Photo Friday a go...!

Thanks for the note on techniques: look forward to a tutorial or two sometime in the future!

For some reasons (maybe beacuse of the colour or the feeling of lonelyness) the shot has a cold feeling which I really like!

A beautiful serene shot. I particularly like the clean simple grad of the sky with touches of detail in the clouds on the horizon. Out of interest - is that some kind of signal box?

Thanks for sharing your comments on the converters :) - I've been using Photoshop, but perhaps I'll give C1 a try to see if I prefer the workflow and/or notice any difference in certain images.

you know what i really marvel at?

the utter complete lack of noise!

my 350D gives terribly ugly noise at iso 400 and above. you should see iso 1600.

at what iso does your 20D start giving terrible noise?

This is quite nice. There's a certain minimalism to the composition and the almost monotone blue color that really works well.

I wonder how long are the beaches over at blackpool. Sorry, from a small island. Anyway, i think this shot does wonders to me, the quiet and calm kinda effect...

cool cool colours, what causes all the ripples?

i like the blue and slight red tinge in the image. nice shot. and with just one figure protuding in the image, this sure looks nice.

Very tranquil photo Dave. I'm not sure about the attractiveness of the subject, but the colours are very pleasant ;)

Hmm, im sure i have seen this structure before in a couple of photos. I think i prefer the colour in Johns version "Communicate" the best.

Nice tones, I like tht one.
Looks a bit sc-fi to me :)

Yes SteveO, Fleetwood seems to be very popular recently :) I like the blues tho.

Nice pic David and what is amazing is that there has been no post processing on this. We seem to notice beauty in photographs only, we don't seem to appreciate it when we are there in person. Have a look at some similar images in one of image gallery

The blue tones here are very nice. It's amazing how far the water can go during the low tide. Like the reflection of the beacon on the patches of water.

Something not related to the photo: Congratulation to London on being honoured to host Olympic 2012!

The colors areawesome in this Photo.. the blue and violets.. hmmm.. cool..

Yeh i agree the colors are great.

Oh and another thing i wanted to ask was... i noticed you tend to stick to aperture priority is there any particular reason for this? and even your longer exposure shots tend to be aperture based rather than shutter priority which i think would be more appropriate control over your images. Surely letting the camera decide on the shutter speed gives you a reasonably unknown and possibly unexpected outcome. well it does for me, but maybe thats due to being less experienced as you.

whatever your reasons however, it seems to work very well for you.

Heh sort of reminds me of the artillery in Battlefield 2.... Or thats just because I've been playing that game a lot lately. Good shot, nonetheless.

Thanks everyone.

joy: in good lighting the 20D does well up to ISO 800. ISO 1600 is mostly fixable with Noise Ninja and ISO 3200 gives passable results, sometimes.

SteveO: yes, I like John's version too.

yungyaw: thanks, but I have to confess that I'm not much of a sports fan.

mat: for scenes such as this it's the DOF that I'm interested in rather than the shutter speed.

hm, all these colors and structures remind me of a shot from alaska were everything is frozen and empty. i'd love to go there one day.
greetings,
martin

...and if I had read your description properly it would have informed me what the structure is. What a frickin' idiot.

Mystery Me: my apologies, I missed your first comment.