Path Head Water Mill, Blaydon On Tyne.

[John King]

This building housing the water mill gears and drive shafts has been in existence since at at least 1720 and there is evidence of a building on the site since 1680 (ish) Behind the mill is an old wagonway where lead and coal was brought from up on the moors down to the River Tyne for refined smelting. The mill existed to grind feed for the horses and ponies and neve ground wheat for flour. The mill's fortunes changed over the years into a farmhouse then became derelict. In the 1990's the Vale mill trust was formed and restoration started. The old machinery was long since gone but replacement machinery was acquired from a carpenter's workshop and installed to make a working mill once again. In B&W does not do the views true justice because the autumn colours this year were outstanding

 

[Joanna Carter]

I'm sorry to be a bit of a damp squib but these images are so over-sharpened that it is almost painful to look at them. Unless, that is, it was intentionally "artistic"

 

[Allister]

Like these very much but do agree with Joanna on the sharpening.

 

[John King]

Joanna there is absolutely no sharpening at all (by me anyway) that is just how they turned out, A bit of dodging and burning, and on the one with the sky the actual sky was stoned down a bit. Oh yes a bit of contrast and the original colours tweaked, changed to monochrome before being E Mailed too.
You are not the 1st to comment like this but I put it down to the optics. The lens I used was my 24/120 Nikon zoom which is just incredibly sharp especially when it is in the camera and on a tripod. When you think that this is from a image approx 24mm x 36mm which will easily enlarge to A3 it doesn't surprise me that the image you see here which is sized at 10" long, about the 1/4 the size of an A3+ print

 

[Joanna Carter]

Joanna there is absolutely no sharpening at all (by me anyway) that is just how they turned out, A bit of dodging and burning, and on the one with the sky the actual sky was stoned down a bit. Oh yes a bit of contrast and the original colours tweaked, changed to monochrome before being E Mailed too.
You are not the 1st to comment like this but I put it down to the optics. The lens I used was my 24/120 Nikon zoom which is just incredibly sharp especially when it is in the camera and on a tripod. When you think that this is from a image approx 24mm x 36mm which will easily enlarge to A3 it doesn't surprise me that the image you see here which is sized at 10" long, about the 1/4 the size of an A3+ print

John. If you would like to send me a copy of the RAW file (by private message or mail) I would be happy to show you how good this can look on this forum, which can tend to somewhat mangle images.

What software are you using?

 

[John King]

A raw file would be too large by far to send by e mail or by other except snail mail. They are all at least 40GB and I cannot send larger then 2.5g or perhaps 3gb, I cannot remember. Even if I could it would take an age because, although I have so called fast broadband it is still quite slow compare to some. Not helped because the fibre 'fast' broadband finishes at my house when the line converts to copper.

You may be interpreting the look incorrectly because the sparkle in the leaves and rushes at the side of the mill-pond is actually frost that has melted and with no wind it has remained in situ as droplets. The location is in an enclosed 'dell' with little breeze, but is a suntrap year round.

 

[John2]

For what it's worth, I was always being accused of over sharpening when I couldn't remember having sharpened an Image. I then noticed that in re sizing the image in PS before posting I had the "Bicubic Sharpener (Reduction)" option selected. I haven't changed it but I occasionally add two to three points of Gaussian Blur to an image after down sizing it and that seems to do the trick.

 

[Toby Webster]

Nice subject and compositions, but that first one in particular is a frightful mess. If you didn't do anything, then what did you do?!

I notice that you posted these two back in October, but the renditions were fine then?

 

[John King]

I thought that they had been up on here before but had forgotten. Actually they were the same image just taken off a memory stick, nothing else had been done. Just leave it, it is not worth arguing the toss over.
Was it the surface of the water? If so I see what you mean because it looks as if the surface was breaking up. Well that was the bi-annual weed growth protruding through the surface and since then, two weeks ago in fact, the pond was dredged and the weeds removed. That pond is about 8 feet deep in the centre and they don't like to disturb it too often, because we have a resident healthy growth of native crayfish and insect larvae (Dragonflies etc). If it is something else I am sorry. If the image was in colour you would see it looks perfectly natural