Which one is better?

[arith]

In the first only DPP 'Digital Photo Professional' is used apart from PSE to resize, and in the second ACR with Topaz DeNoise4 and Topaz Detail2 with the blue sky setting but with increased micro detail and reduced large detail.

I think the second is a bit 'Disney' but still like it, even though the horizon got blown, a tiny bit blown on my 50D is more than a tiny bit is on my 10D

[Crovean]

for me the 2nd picture looks better, as you can see the clouds behind the trees and the color render is better.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Steve,

Hmmm, tricky, I definitely prefer the sky, left bank and the trees there, in second one, but the right hand side still doesn't look quite correct to me, not that #1 is any better there.

Yes #2 definitely

[arith]

Cheers Chris; I'm trying to get used to my new camera and software; it appears harder to get a shot properly exposed but I don't carry two camera's and it could be hard here in the early morning anyway. It is not too far from the crazy people fighting in Andresey Passage which is common in the early morning.
If I keep in exposure I don't get enough detail in the shadows, but I'm assured that the ev span of the 50D is greater than the 10D.

Two more:

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Steve,

Hmmm, tricky, I definitely prefer the sky, left bank and the trees there, in second one, but the right hand side still doesn't look quite correct to me, not that #1 is any better there.

Yes #2 definitely

[arith]

Hi Steve,

Hmmm, tricky, I definitely prefer the sky, left bank and the trees there, in second one, but the right hand side still doesn't look quite correct to me, not that #1 is any better there.

Yes #2 definitely

Cheers Dave, I think the ev span is too much for the camera; it is 5:30am in these and I don't function at all until midday, so don't know what the ev span was.

[ScoutR]

In the first only DPP 'Digital Photo Professional' is used apart from PSE to resize, and in the second ACR with Topaz DeNoise4 and Topaz Detail2 with the blue sky setting but with increased micro detail and reduced large detail.

I think the second is a bit 'Disney' but still like it, even though the horizon got blown, a tiny bit blown on my 50D is more than a tiny bit is on my 10D

Hi Arith: I think the second one is more eye catching but the first one looks more natural. For that reason I would go with #1.

I like to follow your posts because you are so fussy about technical things that I don't even know the name of, but know that I have problems with. For instance you said, "If I keep in exposure I don't get enough detail in the shadows" I can certainly relate to that.

Hope you don't mind, but I've tried a bit of a rework on #1. Nothing fancy, just used the Shadows and Highlights sliders in Elements to try and lighten up the left bank. I upped the yellow saturation a bit too, and cloned out the brush on the near bank on the right side of the river. Couldn't do much with the sky without posterization (I think) but although I like the blue sky in #2, the burned highlights spoil it for me.

I'm sure I have probably introduced other artifacts while doing this. Please point them out to me, because I really have trouble identifying and seeing problems that I introduce. I'm always concentrating on what I'm trying to fix and don't notice the faults (sometimes)

Anyway, here is my attempt to lighten the shadows a bit but still keep the glow and nice light that you have



hmmm, when I look at it here it looks lighter than in the Elements editor. Don't have time for a redo, but if I did I would go back to Elements and cut down the percentage of the shadows and highlights slider (just a bit)

Wendy

[arith]

Cheers Wendy; I like the misty look of 5:30am and the Topaz thing looks like it could have been done anytime. I think things that are dark are best left dark unless you do HDR which is difficult but possible. I'm practicing hand held HDR at the moment, but would be better if I just planned the photo done with a tripod.

However you have shown the picture has potential using only the file here where the jpeg full size is 12MB and tiff 90MB. Thankyou very much.