Beside the 1st Tee

[Donald]

Following on from Marie's thread of golf images, this is one from my recent weekend away. There's a gorgeous little golf course that's part of the grounds of Ross Priory. It's starts close to the entrance to the walled garden, where the azaleas and the rhododendrons were in full bloom.



Always happy to get comments on my efforts to make colour images.

[LeoLeo]

No wander that Scots have time to age wiskey so many years...meanwhile have time for picture composition.
On my laptop seems a bit overexposed, like 1/3 or 2/3 stops .. and a bit desaturated.. but might be my laptop and my personal taste for strong colours..

Leo

[Nicola]

Hi Donald,
your picture capture the reason why i would start learning playing golf...! it will come that time!
about the picture, the green of the grass and trees looks a bit "washed" on my monitor. i don't know if it increases or decreases the contrast with the colour of flowers
Nicola

[Katy Noelle]

No wander that Scots have time to age wiskey so many years...meanwhile have time for picture composition.
On my laptop seems a bit overexposed, like 1/3 or 2/3 stops .. and a bit desaturated.. but might be my laptop and my personal taste for strong colours..

Leo

That's what I see, too, but it's so wonderfully clear. What a beautiful place, Donald!

[Donald]

Interesting and helpful first couple of comments.

I think you are both right in terms of the light and the 'washed out' look. That was how it felt to me at the time. It was a cold and grey day. The light was very diffuse and muted. There wasn't a richness to the light. It was one of these days when that old Scots language word 'dreich' was most appropriate.

[jiro]

I have not seen this scene personally so I am not sure as to how to comment per se, Donald. However, if this is my shot, this is my personal opinion about it:

1. This should definitely need to be viewed using the lightbox since the image appears too sharp on the much smaller image.

2. The brightness of the whole image seems to lessen the impression of depth (or the distances between each layer of plants and trees. What I would probably do is to lower the contrast a little and then increase the black level, lower the exposure just a tad, and then lower the luminance of the individual color values depending on my subjective preference.

3. I would also probably introduce some selective dodging and burning to further give the impression of depth; darker areas would denote farther objects while lighter areas would denote closer objects to the camera. A little color saturation would probably be also OK (for me, that is).

Just a quick edit, Donald but probably too far from what you have in your mind.

[Donald]

Thanks for those thoughts Willie.

Unfortunately the grass on Scottish golf courses doesn't match up to Augusta National gloriousness in terms the richness of the colour - except those that are very artificially manicured and try and look like the Augusta National.

[Nicola]

Interesting and helpful first couple of comments.

I think you are both right in terms of the light and the 'washed out' look. That was how it felt to me at the time. It was a cold and grey day. The light was very diffuse and muted. There wasn't a richness to the light. It was one of these days when that old Scots language word 'dreich' was most appropriate.

hi Donald,
I usually try to capture the light(and so contrast, colour and saturation) of the subject as I see it in that moment, trying to don't change too much these parameters in PP.
For sure a well saturated and colourful pic of flower is more interesting for the viewer's eyes than a washed out one.
today, with PP softwares, we can shot on a cloudy morning and transform the picture so much that it seems captured at noon wiht clear sky or vice versa.

what's your 'guideline'? in this case do you change the picture as Willie (with wonderfull result) has suggested?
thanks
Nicola

[Donald]

what's your 'guideline'? in this case do you change the picture as Willie (with wonderfull result) has suggested?
thanks

Nicola

It has got to be that the photographer presents the image that he or she 'saw' when they made the photograph. That, of course, is not the same thing as presenting what was seen in the viewfinder. It is what was 'seen' in the photographer's brain.

As you say it is possible to present the image in many different ways to how it actually appeared at the time it was taken. That, I consider, is the artistic responsibility and skill of the photographer at work.

Willie's interpretation of my image is not how I 'saw' it at the moment of capture. It is an excellent image. And on a different day at a different time, that is how I might have 'seen' the final image. I do not know, because I can only react to the situation I am in at the time. But it was not how I 'saw' the image at the time I actually captured it. I think my version has more of the cold. clean air feel to it that I experienced.

I do, of course, accept that I may have made errors in the post processing in trying to convey that vision in my image.

But that is the joy and frustration of photography.

[Steve S]

Very nice image donald, and most deserving to be seen in color.

A couple observations................

I think the trees are a little over-sharpened.

willie's edit , has killed ALL the highlights and looks a little flat because of it. (sorry willie)

A little 'lab color' will help the saturation in this image alot. It can also be used with a mask to add different amounts to various parts of the image. Make a duplicate image---change to LAB---curves tool---A channel---change black and wite points to 67---B channel---change black and white points to 67---merge down---Move tool--Move this image over the original image---set blending mode to color---lower opacity to likeing (could use a mask and add different amounts to various parts of the image. ) Adding color with lab, looks so much better than the saturation slider.

since the flowers seem to be the main focal point, darkening everything around them will help them pop out some more. If you use the lasso tool and circle the flowers---click on quick mask---invert(now the only thing in red of the quick mask is the flowers)---gaussian blur around 120 or so---click off quick mask---layer mask reveal selection---switch blending mode to multiply---lower opacity to around 25.

[tihsgod]

colours are ok for me but the bright green leaves in the near foreground and the strong pinks make it a little right-hand heavy for my liking.. also foilage left side is not in but bnot out, if you know what I mean... neil