Marcela Stegemueller  


Untitled by Marcela Stegemueller

November 2020 - Untitled

November 2020 - Marcela Stegemueller

Original

About the Image(s)

While traveling in Minnesota, I took this picture at the North Shore of Lake Superior. I took it on a tripod at 1/6 sec @f/14, ISO 100 at 24mm. It was a perfectly sharp picture, but my camera had a dirty sensor. Today I tried using Topaz Simplify to see if it would remove the dirt spots of the sensor. There were too many to remove manually. It did remove most of the small spots, but now the picture looks more like a painting. I figured this was better than a picture with spots. When I took the picture, I was trying to make the shore line a leading line to the sharp cliff. I am not sure the line is long enough. I also prayed the night before for a cloudy wonderful sky, but it did not happen. I would appreciate any suggestions. Maybe I should be happy to hold this memory in my mind.


This round’s discussion is now closed!
8 comments posted




Norm Solomon   Norm Solomon
Hi Marcela,
A beautifully composed image with a lovely sky.
A couple of minor thoughts,
-had you considered using the spot healing tool in PS to remove the dust spots?--its easy & I find it pretty accurate.
-had you considered using PS or LR to open up the shadows on the shore?--there may be a lot more there for the image to tell us.
Norm   Posted: 11/11/2020 13:20:43
 
Thank you, Norm. I did try LR and PS to remove the spots but there were too many and they still showed up especially in the sky. Topaz simplify seemed to eliminate the spots but it also eliminated much of the detail in the shadows. I guess it did what the title claimed to do -- it simplified. Maybe I will try to eliminate the spots some more.   Posted: 11/17/2020 13:25:28



John Hackett   John Hackett
I like the right hand side of the picture, but I feel we have too much space to the left. The spot situation seems quite bad and I agree with Norm about the way to clean it up, having said that with so many spots you would have to be careful were the tool was taking its sample as you could replace one spot with another.   Posted: 11/15/2020 06:14:11
 
Thank you, John. I agree with you.   Posted: 11/17/2020 13:27:11



Stan Bormann   Stan Bormann
Hard to get that many spots on a sensor. I hope you managed to clean it. Modern cameras seem to do pretty well cleaning themselves. Perhaps you changed lenses in a dusty environment. We were taking pictures at Horseshoe bend in AZ once and when we left after shooting, the tripod legs were red with dust. In the Serengeti, you generally can't safely change lenses. Best to have two bodies. Hard to recover once you shoot the image, but sometimes you can purposely use a filter to create a paining like masterpiece. I did this with an image that ended up in the PSA annual calendar. You might try playing with it. If you do, I would agree with cropping the left some.   Posted: 11/18/2020 10:25:03



Henry Roberts   Henry Roberts
(Group 40)
Marcela, as a virtually life long resident of Duluth, Minnesota on the shore of Lake Superior, I think you did a magnificent job. I humbly suggest you might lighten the rock face so the lichen and bedding show more.   Posted: 11/20/2020 14:06:20
 
I think Minnesota is a beautiful state and so diverse. My visit was for only two weeks but I enjoyed every minute.   Posted: 11/20/2020 16:44:16



Harriet Ciccone
The composition is lovely and I would agree with Norm about opening up the shadows along the shore.   Posted: 11/22/2020 11:03:19