Cruisin'

Got out on the 'bike today and took a few pix with the Fujifilm HS-10 around Cha Am. This is the next town about thirty kilometres North of Hua Hin.

These are simply in chronological order. All have been edited but mostly simply sharpened.

Enjoy.



Very strong wind today and, unusually, there were waves at Cha Am beach.

I squatted down to get this shot of the rock as a wave receded from it ...

... and immediately after, another wave broke over it and soaked me to the knees.

This is the one that got me. Lot's of fun !

Looking down the beach (my rock is in the middle), the sand normally stretches out a good twenty metres, or more, from the trees.

For this shot I kept my distance. I was about ten metres back from the breakwater but still got showered by the 'after' spray blown in by the wind.

True love for the Beast ?

I ducked into a small shop to get a cold drink. When I came out, I found the Beast 'making eyes' at a bright red Mio parked very close by.

A Thai family enjoying the waves. There is normally sand here which stretches out from the rocks for about twenty, or more, metres.

A large fishing boat coming to the safety of the port. Love the colours of these boats.

Looking South from the Cha Am breakwater. Beautiful beach. Normally a lot more sand than this.

This is Ed. He's with a crew building a stone wall alongside the new road along the breakwater.

I was here only a couple of weeks back. No road then. It's amazing how quickly things change.

The new road stretching along the breakwater. It will be much easier to get right out to the end soon.

This fisherman was tapping all the floats (?) on the net. Not sure why. My only guess is that when tapped it would show up if the float is damaged and about to come apart.

Once proud 'queen of the seas'. Now lying derelict in the port. Has been for a long time now. Strange.

A row of brightly coloured Thai fishing boats. As the wind is very strong, and off the sea, for the next month or so, many boats are in port.

A fisherman heading to his boat in a 'longtail'.

They are called this because of the engine which has a very long shaft with the propellor attached. Very easy to steer, you simply point the engine.

Crew taking a break on one of the large boats tied up in the port.

This guys job is to take the packaged fish, passed up to him from the crew below, and then push them down the slide from the boat ...

... At the other end, these folk 'catch' the containers where they are then packed into the waiting truck.

Always a lot of activity around the fishing boats in the port.

These ribbons caught my eye, and also the camera a couple of times before I could squeeze off a shot.

The ribbons are tied to the prow of the boat to bring good luck. This was taken at 24 mm and I was very close in.

I like rope images. Lot's of texture, shapes and detail.

More rope.

Rust abounds on these boats. I liked the shape of this.

Rope again. The patterns intrigued me.

A couple of youngsters playing in a barely seaworthy small boat. Seconds after this was taken, they were both in the water but having a very enjoyable time.

More rust, more shapes. With this one I had to mask off the sky in post process, and then apply a lot of sharpening to the metal areas.

Located alongside the fishing port is a small market area. Markets, and the people who run them always fascinate me.

The egg seller.

Rice, literally, from the back of the truck. Great way to sell things. Just pull up at the side of the road and offer your wares.

This lady was selling some sort of fruit. I was taken by her old scales ...

... And her toothy grin.

Fishy stuff for sale.

A very small convenience store next to the port.

Not Coke - Gasoline.

Many of the small Thai convenience stores sell gasoline in this way. Don't normally see it in plastic bottles though.

A small foot bridge across the river is also used by motorcycles. It is only just about one metre wide.

I find it a little 'worrying' to cross on the bike, so I keep both feet down when doing so and go slow. Just not used to it.

No problem for the locals though.

Rusty roofing. I liked the colours and textures here.

Saw a very old and rusty bicycle next to the shed with the rusty roof. Looks like it has seen better days.

Lot's of rusty bits.

Got in close with the Super Macro for the next three.

Not the greatest bird image, but it was shot at full zoom and then with 2X digital zoom applied. Giving a grand total of 1,440 mm equivalent.

Not bad for a hand held shot.

Some of the landscape surrounding Cha Am.

This one was also shot using full optical zoom and digital zoom. This time, I used 1.4X digital zoom, so the focal length is equivalent to 1,008 mm. Again, hand held.

Love this piece of road engineering.

This is along the Klong Road (canal road) which runs back to Hua Hin. The road was upgraded a few years back, but not the bridge.

Extremely dangerous and no warning signs whatever.

Cheers


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PP Tips 11 - 'Pop' Too

This is part of a 'How To' series on post process work.

This is an alternative method for giving an image a little colour lift, and without introducing noise. The first method was described here

The image I have used for this example was taken on a very bright day and at the salt fields. The reflection from the salt alone was glaringly bright.

As I was shooting with a large amount of sky in the background, parts of the image have become somewhat dark.

I was also using Provia film simulation, on my Fujifilm S100fs, and the scene ended up with the colours looking a little 'washed out'.


Image 1
The image as taken and opened in Photoshop.

Image 2
Here, I am converting the image to Lab Color by selecting - Image/Mode/Lab Color.

Image 3
Once converted to Lab Color, the next step is to make a duplicate layer.

Note : A dialogue window will come up after this and you can insert a name for the new layer. I simply used the default which is 'Background Copy'.

Image 4
The next step is to select - Image/Adjustments/Levels.

Image 5
Once Levels is selected, a dialogue window will appear and will have the default of 'Lightness' in the Channel drop down selection box.

My first selection is to 'nudge' the highlight arrow back toward the edge of the histogram. In this case, I have stopped a little short at a value of 200.

I have also set my Output Levels to 10 (shadow) and 245 (highlight). This is to 'lift' the shadow areas slightly, and also to keep the highlights from getting out of control.

Note : The exact same process can be performed using Curves. I prefer to use Levels as it is easier

Image 6
The next step is to select the Channel drop down arrow and change the Channel to 'a'.

Once selected, I have adjusted the shadow (left) and highlight (right) sliders in toward the 'histogram', and by the same amount. It is important to keep the amounts exactly the same, otherwise the colour will 'drift'.

So, here I have added 50 to the left slider and taken 50 off the right slider, so that the values I end up with are 50 and 205.

Note : You will see a significant change in colours during this and the subsequent step. Don't be concerned, we will adjust them later

Image 7
The above procedure is now repeated in the exact same manner for the 'b' Channel.

Image 8
With the above steps complete, the next step is to convert the image back to RGB.

This is done by selecting - Image/Mode/RGB Color.

Image 9
Once RGB Color is selected, a dialogue window will open. Here we select 'Don't Flatten'.

Image 10
The next step is to open the Layers window. This is done by clicking Window/Layers from the top menu.

Once opened, click the drop-down arrow next to Opacity, and a slider will appear so that the level of our process can be adjusted.

Here, I have pulled the slider left to adjust the Opacity to 70%.

Note : The level of adjustment is purely a matter of personal taste. Somewhere between 50% and 75% is sufficient for most images. Have a play with different values though

Image 11
The next step is simply to reopen the Levels window again, and fine tune the adjustments now that the image has been converted back to RGB.

Here, I have opted to pull the highlight slider closer to the histogram and also adjust the mid-tones slightly darker. My values have ended up as 0, 0.95 and 240.

I have also set my shadow and highlight Output Levels at 5 and 250 respectively. This helps to ensure that highlights are not blown out and also shadow areas are not too dark.

That's it.

As we have not yet 'flattened' the layer, the image can now be saved as either a PSD file for later adjustment, or as a Jpeg file, once flattened.

To do this, select - Layer/Flatten Image and then File/Save As and name the file accordingly.

Remember - Never save over the original image.

With this image, I used the original file name DSCF1416 and then added '1a' after. this way I know that the image has been edited and is the first iteration.

Note : I normally also resize my images so I add the dimensions to the name and also the date. A typical edited file would end up as DSCF1416 1a_1216_1010, which tells me it is an edit, is of 12 x 16" dimensions, and was edited in October, 2010


My original image.

My edited image.

Cheers

Other posts in this series - Click here for the index page.


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