The Flow

Posted by Darren (Tokyo, Japan) on 30 January 2007 in Landscape & Rural and Portfolio.

This was taken on a day trip I took with Colourblind to the mountains west of Tokyo.
Have played with this image in PS which is quite obvious. This is what I ended up with, I hope you like.
Looking forward to your comments and any tips.
Cheer Daz
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Comments (22)

Bronnie from Christchurch, New Zealand

How do you guys do it?! I love the blur in this kind of shot - but never seem to get it to happen in my ones!!! I like the caption, it's very evocative, and the sepia adds to the sense of atmosphere for me.

30 Jan 2007 1:21am

@Bronnie: Hi Bronnie.
It looks like something really difficult to do but with a tripod to keep your camera steady and a longer exposure that's all it takes. Some other tips to reduce the chance of blurring of the surroundings is to use the timer or a remote.
Most shots like this I try to make the exposure time for 1 sec or more.
In bright conditions a ND filter is very useful allowinf you to keep the shutter open a tad longer. Hope this helps, if you still need a hand just drop me an email.
Daz

Angry Buddha from United States

I can go with the flow on this one. Great shot!!

30 Jan 2007 7:59am

@Angry Buddha: Thanks mate. Funny, we must have been writing our comments on each others blog at the same time.

Colour blind from Tokyo, Japan

I was going to post this shot right after my bird series but I guess you beat me to it. My one would have been colour though as I'm not even using PS yet. I like what you've done with this picture though. The border is great as is the title. You've managed to make a soft picture even softer.

30 Jan 2007 8:34am

@Colour blind: No sugar mate. Sorry, I've been sitting on this one for a long time now and thought I'd get in before you as you beat me to it with the bamboo shot. I might even post mine next week sometime as mine is from a different perspective.

Still from Valence, France

I like how you capture the flow!

30 Jan 2007 8:34am

@Still: Thanks Still.

Makoto from Sapporo, Japan

Beautiful nature photo. Nice work, Darren-san.

30 Jan 2007 8:56am

@Makoto: Thanks Makoto. I love taking images of the beautiful Japanese nature.

Jerry from Tampa, United States

Love it Daz! The tones you ended with are excellent!

30 Jan 2007 9:45am

@Jerry: Thanks Jerry.
I had a couple of this image to choose from and this is the one I liked the most.

Stu from Kyoto, Japan

This is a beauty. I love shots with water and long exposures. I've been searching madly for fountains and the like around Kyoto but there don't seem to be any! I never noticed before.
Think the b&w was the right choice. What was the exp time etc if you don't mind me asking?

30 Jan 2007 10:28am

@Stu: Keep looking for those water ways mate because I know when I head to Kyoto someday I'm going to ask you where they are.
The exposure for this one was 0.4 seconds at f22 ISO100. Now that I have a ND filter I would choose to take a longer exposure.

Wayne from Melbourne, Australia

absolutely beautiful Darren...great job!

30 Jan 2007 11:04am

@Wayne: Thanks Wayne.

Shuva from Hyderabad, India

Cool one...why is the EXIF data missing?

30 Jan 2007 11:24am

@Shuva: Thanks Shuva.
The EXIF data is missing because when I drag the image on to the frame I use in PS the Exif data is lost because it's not the main background.

badala from Leiria, Portugal

Very nice capture of the movement and beauty of water. Good job.

30 Jan 2007 1:09pm

@badala: Thanks mate.
It was a very relaxing moment when I was taking this image and the feeling comes back everytime I look at it.

Myst from Bologna, Italy

Beautiful! Great work!

30 Jan 2007 1:45pm

@Myst: Thanks mate.

Michael Zhang from New York City, United States

The toning is spectacular as well. Very professional.

30 Jan 2007 3:26pm

@Michael Zhang: Thanks Michael.
I'm glad you like it.

Ali-G from Ottawa, Canada

You've inspired me to give it a try - well done!

30 Jan 2007 4:44pm

@Ali-G: Thanks mate.
Glad I inspired you to give it ago. I hope you get some good ones to show us all.

Chris Sullivan from Melbourne, Australia

Great tones Daz, again the slight delay (shutter speed or exposure) make for spectacular effects. The processing is also great and really adds to the atmosphere to the shot. Excellent work mate!

30 Jan 2007 4:59pm

@Chris Sullivan: Thanks Chris. Playing with the shutter speed is always fun and to see the final shot is exciting, sometimes good sometimes bad. Your use of tones recently has also been very top notch mate.

Ahraht from Loures, Portugal

This is really a great work. I was wondering if you could post a photograph of Aikikai Hombu Dojo, the address is 17-18 Wakamatsu Cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-0056 Japan.
Thank you.

30 Jan 2007 7:17pm

@Ahraht: Thanks Ahraht.
If I get some time to get there I will try and grab a shot for you. I used to learn Aikido there many years ago but with work, sailing and of course taking shots it's quite difficult to start again.

Pero from Kyoto, Japan

Oh, such a great work. Love the tone of the pic.

30 Jan 2007 7:21pm

@Pero: Thanks mate.

jc from Ireland

well done, Darren, lovely framing and your ps skills are top-notch!

30 Jan 2007 7:59pm

@jc: Thanks JC.
Still working on the PS skills mate, but as they say the more you practice the better you get.

Kelvin Chan from New York City, United States

i'll be the first to criticize then.
this is the major flaw a lot of people have with processing, especially monotone processing. everyone is pushing the levels too close together. the darks are wayyy too dark and the bright spots are blinding. the middle of the stream: too too overexposed. all around the picture and esp. on the rock on the left: the shadows are wayyyyyy underexposed. these hot spots blotch out all the details in the picture and throws it all out of balance. the top portion is fine, but that white spot dead in the middle of the picture is killing me, and so are the dark spots. make sure to leave some details in those areas.
the tone is perfect, and if the framing shows more of the stream it'd be fine. keep working on it. you got a fine thing coming.

30 Jan 2007 8:55pm

@Kelvin Chan: Thanks mate. All the your criticism can only help me get better. I'm also very thankful you are honest. I do have another one of this that hasn't been pushed as far as this one and does have more details but I thought it lacked punch and didn't look as good but then again I am still new to this game and my untrained eye needs training. I will use you comment to help with my images in the future. Thanks mate.

Martine Lapointe from Québec, Canada

A very beautiful shot. Nicely done!

30 Jan 2007 10:37pm

@Martine Lapointe: Thanks Martine.

Daniel from United States

Did you use a polarizer? You have a couple of hot spots in the center of the image. NIce toning.

30 Jan 2007 10:44pm

@Daniel: No mate. The hot spots were caused when I went a little too far with the shadows and highlights.

Alfredo J. Martiz J. from Tokyo, Japan

Very beautiful photo, great post processing!

31 Jan 2007 7:58am

@Alfredo J. Martiz J.: Thanks mate. I'm really trying to improve my processing skills

Duncan Galbraith from kyoto, Japan

beautiful slow exposure shot Darren. and a big thanks for the advice btw on sepia toning you gave me a few posts back. Its something Ive yet to get the knack of.

4 Feb 2007 1:13am

@Duncan Galbraith: Thanks mate.
I hope the advice was helpful. I'm still experimenting on different ways to adjust the photo's colouring. I really like the colour you get in some of your train shot mate that yellow purple looking effect, I'm still trying to get it but not there yet.

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