My first picture for critique

[bucketman]

Heres my first pic. Hope it work. Now you can tell me whats wrong with is DONT laugh to loud
rob

[bucketman]

Done it pity about the pic
rob
let the training commence thanks again

[Daniel Salazar]

Done it pity about the pic
rob
let the training commence thanks again

it blew up, you have to control the light. Either you could choose a high speed to reduce the luminosity or you could use a Polarizer to reduce the light.

[bucketman]

First off thanks for you reply but 1 if I darkend the foregroud would that make the back ground too dark? Is that a ps thing will get ps
2 I think I started this post in the wrong place could mods sort that
3 I hope am not boring you but I really want to get good at this
rob

[Dave Humphries]

I think I started this post in the wrong place could mods sort that

Hi Rob, How's this?

As for the picture, that is a hard subject to pick because;
a) technically it has what we call a wide dynamic range, meaning the bright bits are very bright and the detail in the shadows is going to be difficult to see because it is so dark.
b) because as a picture, it is hard to decide what the subject is; the river?, the tree? he moss covered rocks?
c) I note from the EXIF data: 1/125s @ f9, ISO400 at 18mm on a Nikon D90, that it is quite a wide angle shot and you have pointed the camera upwards a fair degree. To my eyes, although you have kept the trees on the left bank vertical, the ones on the right, and even the bank itself is leaning over at quite an angle.

You definitely need some PP software, but you don't have to go the whole hog on PS CS4 at 500-600 £/$/Euros, Elements at around a tenth of that will do you fine for now, or even one of the free ones (GIMP comes to mind, not that I have used it).

I was going to have a go at PPing this, but I think I need to know what the subject is first, then we can see what can be made from it.

BTW, no, not boring, I like a challenge (and, more seriously; I like helping people)

Hope that helps,

[Dave Humphries]

Rob,

Further thoughts:

Daniel's suggestion of a polariser isn't bad, it can help give better saturation in shots like this, as well as adding a bit (well 2 stops) of ND (neutral density), although you are right that would make the shadows and rocks darker.

If you were not just starting out, one might suggest HDR photography, but I think that's a little too far, too fast.

Perhaps a better way would be to shoot the scene with RAW, rather than jpg, as that would allow two bites at the cherry of exposure, one better set for the sky, so it doesn't "blow", i.e. lose all detail as Daniel says, and a second to give a better foreground + shadows exposure, then merge the two in PP software in layers.

Cheers,

[bucketman]

Thanks for comments. I think the picture was meant to be the river. I will take on board the comment about RAW and set my camera and leave it there. Feel free to PP the picture I would like to see what it could look like.
But if you PP it could you please tell me what you have done to get it to that stage
Ta
Rob

[john w revie]

Hi Bucketman
I have done a quick edit of your photo
first I opened it in ACR from there I open it in photoshop as a smart object in Prophoto colour space this gives a slightly larger dymanic range
next duplicate the layer and desaturate change the blend mode to softlight invert this layer
this will compress the dynamic range of the photo.
after that just some curves to increase the contrast and clone stamp to remove the lens flare

[Dave Humphries]

Hi John,

WOW, when I see transformations like this, I realise I still have so much to learn.

Thanks,

[Colin Southern]

Results of a Photoshop 30 Second Makeover (TM!) ...

[john w revie]

Hi all
this is a link to the action use to recover the shadow/highlights this action will run on CS2 and above

http://files.me.com/jwrevie/yb61cy

john

[Daniel Salazar]

Results of a Photoshop 30 Second Makeover (TM!) ...

If you don't mind Colin, could you please let us know what you have done, it's quite impressive. You've transformed a dull picture into one with vivid colors, contrast and a more appealing light composition.

[bucketman]

Wow this is a brill make over. I now releise how much I have to learn. I really dont know what to say other than how you done it. Oh and by the way is was a hot spring day but thats nit picking. I will go out tomorrow and get ps or could GIMP do this. Then I can sill get a new lens or some other stuff pay day
rob

[bucketman]

sorry but forgot to ask can I down load thes two pics to show my mate feel free to put a water mark on them before i do
rob

[Colin Southern]

If you don't mind Colin, could you please let us know what you have done, it's quite impressive. You've transformed a dull picture into one with vivid colors, contrast and a more appealing light composition.

Hi Daniel,

No worries

Fairly heavy editing to be honest (The 30 second bit might be a "wee misleading" in this case)

- The first and probably most significant step was to bring up the shadows and tone down the highlights; I usually like to do this using ACR, but I only have CS2 on my hope PC, and you can't open a JPEG in ACR with CS2 - so I used Image -> Adjust -> Shadows & Highlights instead.

- I switched to LAB colour and added a curves layer, and then steepened the A and B curves (by different amounts) to bring out more subtle colour variation, and to null out some white balance issues.

- I sharpened the image.

- I added a HSB (Hue-Saturation-Brightness) Layer and changed the (overly dominant greens) into more of an autumn brown using a global correction, and also some minor tweaks to just the greens (which are really under the yellow control!) (reduced their brightness about 30%).

- Quite a lot of hand dodging / burning / sponging

- Added a subtle jagged edged vignette around the outside of the image.

- Added frame (which I also think is quite important as it "frames" the composition and gives it a "point of reference").

Job done

[Colin Southern]

Wow this is a brill make over. I now releise how much I have to learn. I really dont know what to say other than how you done it. Oh and by the way is was a hot spring day but thats nit picking. I will go out tomorrow and get ps or could GIMP do this. Then I can sill get a new lens or some other stuff pay day
rob

Glad you like it

By the way, it may have been a hot spring day when you took it, but it was a cool autumn day when I'd finished with it!

I'm sure that GIMP could do all that I've gone (I'm assuming, but I've never used it), but the big problem you'll have is that 99% of all tuition (both paid and free) is based around Photoshop.

Something that I've noticed over the years is that when people want to improve their photography the first (and usually only) thing that they ever talk about is "new lenses" or "new camera" ... nobody ever seems to think of "new Photoshop book". And that suggests to me that they're grossly undervaluing the post-processing side of things. Debates over "how much is too much" aside, I think of photography as being a combination of technology and art - and the technology bit doesn't stop with just the camera and lenses; post-processing is every bit as important. So ...

... although others may disagree with me, but my suggestion would be to grab a copy of Photoshop CS4 (assuming you have the hardware to run it) - and then come back for a list of some books that will dramatically and forever change the look of your images (the books will probably cost you $200 max! - cheap investment eh?).

[Colin Southern]

sorry but forgot to ask can I down load thes two pics to show my mate feel free to put a water mark on them before i do
rob

LOL - I can't speak for John, but as far as I'm concerned they're your images, so no permission necessary (If anything I should be asking your permission to work on your images)

[ajith.rajeswari]

John and Colin - Nice transition from a pebble to a diamond

[carregwen]

I edited this in CS4 using the grad tool to darken the rocks in BR corner. User the brush tool to darken the sky and lighten the tree trunk. Fill flash might have helped here when you shot it. There is also lens flare at the base of the tree. Hope you don't mind the edit.

[Bill44]

A Lightroom variation.
Slight reduction in exposure, maximum recovery, raise the black level, add the Punch preset, capture sharpen for landscape, export sharpen for screen at standard. Still has a couple of flare spots.