What could you do with this photo?

L-M

I like this photo, and being the very unimaginative person that I am, I'd like to see what people could come up with do with it. If anyone wants the larger file send me a pm with your email.

Danbo!

What format do you have the photo in? Jpeg or Raw or other?

Black and white wouldnt do much for it, but playing around with levels might give it a bit more life. The overcast sky makes it a bit dull alright. From here (uncalibrated monitor) its seems the exposure is ok, no washed out sky.

If you did shoot it in Raw format, maybe a touch of HDR could bring it out. Not the usual 'make it look fake' levels of HDR, just to get something from the sky, because the detail is there alright

L-M

Nah it's in jpeg. I still haven't found out how to take them in Raw, even after Challengemaster explained it to me :P

Danbo!

What camera have you got?

Freeze952

I would like to mess around with it in photoshop, but i have the junior cert, lets not get too distracted.

L-M

Stee wrote: »

What camera have you got?

450d. Although if shooting in raw means I have to process every photo, I'd rather not. But I wouldn't mind giving it a try.

Danbo!

Limerick man wrote: »

450d. Although if shooting in raw means I have to process every photo, I'd rather not. But I wouldn't mind giving it a try.

Nope; When i started getting into photgraphy, I was unsure of this and flicked between Raw and Jpeg, raw for shots I thought I might want to edit later. I assumed I'd have to process each shot too. I went to chicago on holiday, took 600 Jpegs and only 50 raw format. Really regret it.

I now shoot in Raw+basic Jpeg (the jpegs are low res to save space, you can get the high res out of the raw file), use the basic jpeg for quick reviewing on the computer, and photoshop will batch process Raw format into jpeg for you.

I use a Nikon, but from the canon manual, you can shoot in RAW+High quality jpeg... Heres a screen shot of changing the format... You will notice a signifigant drop in the amount of images you can take, as Raw+ high quality jpeg will take up more space, but its worth it!

L-M

Thanks for that! Must give it a go!

Danbo!

No problem, sorry for derailing your thread!

.Longshanks.

I had a very quick go with a photoshop plug-in called photomatrix. It allows you to generate "fake" HDR photos within photoshop.
If you had tajen a RAW shot, then the standalone photomatrix software allows for full on proper HDR images.

High Dynamic Range. Not to everyones taste but it can give pics more punch and creates lovely skys when there are clouds about

Freeze952

Added a sort of foggy-stormy theme to it, hope you like, though its not realistic, its artistic!

charybdis

Longshanks100 wrote: »

I had a very quick go with a photoshop plug-in called photomatrix. It allows you to generate "fake" HDR photos within photoshop.
If you had tajen a RAW shot, then the standalone photomatrix software allows for full on proper HDR images.

High Dynamic Range. Not to everyones taste but it can give pics more punch and creates lovely skys when there are clouds about

What you're referring to is tone mapping, not HDR.

Simplicius

I can't help you with any digital stuff but a suggestion:

your problem is just a matter of time, I suspect you are still getting used to your camera and not seeing the shots yet, but looking through a camera. If you understand the difference. You need to forget the camera for a while, cut a hole in a card in the classic ratio and start looking through that for a while before you take your shot. might sound daft but it works. then pick up the camera and look through that. ( do this is a remote place as sectioning people under the mental health act still occurs! )

I suggest you set yourself a task of everytime you 'see' a shot. stop. then put down the camera and try to see a better shot without moving. lift the camera again to your eye and move the camera around, what is your primary subject ask yourself, focus on it ,then try moving it around the frame and click when your instinct tingles that that is the best place. soon you'll develop muscle memory.

Digital I suspect is bad to learn with as you can machine gun shots with no cost. get an old cheap film SLR and the cheapest film and you'll find the learning will help you grow at an accellerated rate. Not having the power to erase the last soht and hearing the money clink down the drain in analog soon makes you think more about every shot.

finally relax, you'll start shooting what you feel is safe, then get bored and challenge yourself and the cycle goes on and on with new areas and ideas.

hope this helps

L-M

Longshanks100 wrote: »

Is the tree on the right naturally curvedlike that or did you get yourself a super wide angle lens?

No, no, that it's. 18-55mm.

Thanks for all the comments.

leche solara

and here it is Spicified with Topaz Adjust...

padocon

leche solara wrote: »

and here it is Spicified with Topaz Adjust...

Wow this looks great! What did you do to it, what did you edit it in?

Stee wrote: »

Nope; When i started getting into photgraphy, I was unsure of this and flicked between Raw and Jpeg, raw for shots I thought I might want to edit later. I assumed I'd have to process each shot too. I went to chicago on holiday, took 600 Jpegs and only 50 raw format. Really regret it.

I now shoot in Raw+basic Jpeg (the jpegs are low res to save space, you can get the high res out of the raw file), use the basic jpeg for quick reviewing on the computer, and photoshop will batch process Raw format into jpeg for you.

I use a Nikon, but from the canon manual, you can shoot in RAW+High quality jpeg... Heres a screen shot of changing the format... You will notice a signifigant drop in the amount of images you can take, as Raw+ high quality jpeg will take up more space, but its worth it!

+1
Great Advice!
Also don't forget you have to be in Manual (M).

leche solara

padocon wrote: »

Wow this looks great! What did you do to it, what did you edit it in?

Its Topaz Adjust which is a plugin for Photoshop. You can get a 30 day trial from topazlabs.com. It will appear at the bottom of the Filters list and there are about 10 or 12 presets which you can choose with a single click, or you can make more sophisticated adjustments. This is a single click option called Spicify. Well worth trying.

SaturnV

Simplicius wrote: »

I can't help you with any digital stuff but a suggestion:

your problem is just a matter of time, I suspect you are still getting used to your camera and not seeing the shots yet, but looking through a camera. If you understand the difference. You need to forget the camera for a while, cut a hole in a card in the classic ratio and start looking through that for a while before you take your shot. might sound daft but it works. then pick up the camera and look through that. ( do this is a remote place as sectioning people under the mental health act still occurs! )

I suggest you set yourself a task of everytime you 'see' a shot. stop. then put down the camera and try to see a better shot without moving. lift the camera again to your eye and move the camera around, what is your primary subject ask yourself, focus on it ,then try moving it around the frame and click when your instinct tingles that that is the best place. soon you'll develop muscle memory.

Digital I suspect is bad to learn with as you can machine gun shots with no cost. get an old cheap film SLR and the cheapest film and you'll find the learning will help you grow at an accellerated rate. Not having the power to erase the last soht and hearing the money clink down the drain in analog soon makes you think more about every shot.

finally relax, you'll start shooting what you feel is safe, then get bored and challenge yourself and the cycle goes on and on with new areas and ideas.

hope this helps

That's some of the best advice I've read here! As someone who learned with film and switched to digital, I see where you are coming from when you talk about the machine gun shots. However, I don't think you necessarily need to go to film, you just need the discipline. Especially when making landscape photos, challenging yourself to a self imposed limit of 2 or 3 frames of a scene really makes you slow down and think about what you're doing. Another trick I found useful is to use a tripod. The clumsiness of using one slows you down just enough to make you consider the composition and exposure a little more.

As for what you can do with the image as it already is, I don't think there's too much can be done without it looking very heavily post processed. Not my cup of tea, so I'm no help on that front I'm afraid...

Simplicius

SaturnV wrote: »

. However, I don't think you necessarily need to go to film, you just need the discipline. Especially when making landscape photos, challenging yourself to a self imposed limit of 2 or 3 frames of a scene really makes you slow down and think about what you're doing. Another trick I found useful is to use a tripod. The clumsiness of using one slows you down just enough to make you consider the composition and exposure a little more.

These points are equally valid advice to counter act the machine gun tendency. The tripod is as stated an excellent tool as well for reducing the adrenaline rush of "seeing a shot"

ajsp.

It looks a little cluttered to me.
I just cropped it down and applied auto levels

stick-dan

Looks more like a paiting but sure....

Nisio

Simplicius wrote: »

Digital I suspect is bad to learn with as you can machine gun shots with no cost. get an old cheap film SLR and the cheapest film and you'll find the learning will help you grow at an accellerated rate. Not having the power to erase the last soht and hearing the money clink down the drain in analog soon makes you think more about every shot.

I'd disagree with that bit, I got into photography with digital then film; it's far easier to learn about iso,apperture,shutter speed, depth of field and how they all interact on digital than it is on film given the ease that you can view the shot and the settings are recorded there and then.

I agree with not machinegunning and trying to slow the show down, that's a mindset and not a "gear" related thing though


(I.......Type.........So........Slow.....ly) didn't see the similar comments above

Deliverance XXV

For me the weakest factor in the picture was the sky.



Just a bit of cropping, added contrast, saturation, played with the clouds to bring them out.

Dragan

I took a slightly different route. Other than the straight down the line nature of the gap and the mountain, which is what ends up drawing the eye, the photo doesn't really draw the eye anywhere else. I decided to just accentuate this rather than force more detail into area's which were basically secondary to what i assume was the photos intent.

I started out with a Preset in Lightroom designed to give a more filmy feel to the shot, then i decided to warm it up a bit by upping the temp and dropping the exposure. Temp basically warms up the photo, pushing the yellows without actually amping up the channel, to keep the tone and detail you can drop the Exposure to compensate and not get area's blown out.

After this, i applied a vignette and dropped the Shadows and Darks, i also amped the Recovery up to Max. This added more detail to the sky but didn't make it look unreal and brought in the black fade from the left and right to the center, accentuating that "tunnel" feel.

By now the greens were a bit too much so i dropped the Lumiosity of the greens and also the Saturation on Aqua a little bit, as the mountain ended up being in this colour channel and looked slightly unreal from the pushed Temp.

Then i pulled back the highlights just a little bit.

sheesh

I went with creating 2 selections one for the sky and mountains inthe background and one for the foreground

I liked the mountains and clouds so I upped the contrast

with the second selection I upped the green and the contrast

then using select colour range I selected the flowers in the foreground. I wanted to give them more punch so I ended up using curves to mess around with the colours.

Interesting that you said that you did not know what you liked about it. When I was selecting the flowers in the foreground an awful lot of the clouds were selected too so there is obviously a pink ting in the clouds too so I am begining to think there might be a bit of symmetry going on there that drew you attention to the pic.

anyway back to work.

AnimalRights

Freeze952 wrote: »

Added a sort of foggy-stormy theme to it, hope you like, though its not realistic, its artistic!

wow!
and Brian's Topaz is fantastic too, I wish LR had Topaz.

L-M

Some fantastic photo's there lads, thanks a million.

It's good to see everyone's interpretation on things, the joys of photography.

Keep them coming.

Dragan

AnimalRights wrote: »

wow!
and Brian's Topaz is fantastic too, I wish LR had Topaz.

LR has plenty of presets that give a kind of HDR feel, look up RJ Cinematic presets and the four basic ones can really be abused to give different affects.

Trojan911

Used Lightroom and a bit of CS3.

Pal

thats the thing I dislike most about photgraphy.
Too much of it is fake.

L-M

Pal wrote: »

thats the thing I dislike most about photgraphy.
Too much of it is fake.

Another way of going about it. Although I'm sure that could open up a whole different discussion.

Dragan

Pal wrote: »

thats the thing I dislike most about photgraphy.
Too much of it is fake.

lol

padocon

Pal wrote: »

thats the thing I dislike most about photgraphy.
Too much of it is fake.

I used to think the same. I would dream of taking professional photos, that I once thought were amazing. Then I was introduced to photoshop, I then was out in the real world and learned that one could not take those dreamy pictures but edit a normal picture into a dreamy one. I would say 99% of people who win competitions that allow photoshop have used it. It's almost a necessity to compete.

Simplicius

Pal wrote: »

thats the thing I dislike most about photgraphy.
Too much of it is fake.

Go back to film -- it is far more honest :P

Come join the Evil Axis of Analog there are a few members here although we never speak to each other but operate in covert cells, but we are awaiting the great day of global powercuts when battery chargers don't work and then we will laugh ... oh how we will laugh......... as we go off snap happy into the day to caputure whatever takes our fancy.

(damn-- that 'wild' mushroom soup might be just a little trip and not the Olympus kind!):cool:

gwhiz

leche solara wrote: »

and here it is Spicified with Topaz Adjust...

I know absolutely nothing about photography, cameras etc etc...
but what I do know is this photo is absolutely breathtaking !!

I've just saved it as my background pic on my desktop...

Thanks

Danbo!

Pal wrote: »

thats the thing I dislike most about photgraphy.
Too much of it is fake.

aah but the skill is making it look real which is not always a simple task!

Now back to my current project of 300 photos of an incomplete building, photoshopping it to completion for marketing reasons.... so very very tough

padocon

gwhiz wrote: »

I know absolutely nothing about photography, cameras etc etc...
but what I do know is this photo is absolutely breathtaking !!

I've just saved it as my background pic on my desktop...

Thanks

Thats a nice compliment!

Stee wrote: »

aah but the skill is making it look real which is not always a simple task!

Now back to my current project of 300 photos of an incomplete building, photoshopping it to completion for marketing reasons.... so very very tough

I agree.
Setting up your own stock company for builders?
A new goal?

Mizu_Ger

This is what I'd do with it

Danbo!

padocon wrote: »

Thats a nice compliment!



I agree.
Setting up your own stock company for builders?
A new goal?

Nope, building has gone over schedule, but need photos for marketing it...

Pal

quick Q.

is photoshop difficult to learn ?

delly

ajsp.

Pal wrote: »

quick Q.

is photoshop difficult to learn ?

The basics aren't really that hard, there's some good sites that will show you what to do like http://www.planetphotoshop.com/category/tutorials

Ghost Train

edited.jpg

The sky looks a bit over worked maybe

padocon

A more advanced version of the above site vid mentioned is photoshopusertv

Pigwidgeon

first i used a landscape auto enhance preset, then sharpened a little.
then i used a preset for dramatic skies (level 1) then a vividity preset.
i felt it was a bit too green so reduced changed to tint +7 and reduced saturation slightly.

leche solara

but we can't see your picture..

Pigwidgeon

leche solara wrote: »

but we can't see your picture..

mine? d'oh... should be fixed now i think

malpas05

Bit of a crop.....

kgpixels

Levels curves and sharpening for a start

Slidinginfinity

Here's my 5 minute go at it

smash

It looks pretty dreamy and surreal...

image > adjust > Shadow/Highlight:


duplicate layer

new layer:
filter > other > highpass > radius 1
Layer effect > Overlay

duplicate original layer again, gausian blur of 2, 300px feathered erasure brush - remove parts as you please.

new top layer with fill reduced to 0, blue/green gradient layer effect at 50% opacity and style set to soft light.

new top layer filled with grey (#7c7c7c) and style set to overlay then 200px brush with opacity set to 20% and white used to highlight areas, black used to shadow others.