Calabria Coast

[FrankMi]

At sea in the Strait of Messina and I’m just about out of shooting options. It’s a hand held shot shortly before dusk of the shoreline.



In the southern boot of Italy, the A3 highway, or Autostrada del Sol, runs from Salerno to Reggio, Calabria, through 190 tunnels and numerous high bridges such as this one just southwest of Scilla.

[FlyingSquirrel]

Hi Frank,

There are a few things about the photo I'd like to point out:

The composition is very nice. The lines of the bridge and structure contrast nicely with the soft lines of the hillside. The positioning of things looks pretty good. The overlapping angles of the hills is attractive to me and leads my eye around.

The light is very nice.

The two comp issues I see are:
- there is too much going on and I don't know what the main subject is, except that you talked about the highway, so I assume that is the subject.
- The shore at the bottom appears slanted, even though the bridge is horizontal.

The best way to solve both issues above is to crop out the shore and leave only the hillside and bridge

Quality related, there are a few issues (hope you don't mind me pointing them out)

The photo is flat and washed out. I haven't viewed the data but I would guess it was maybe a high iso shot since you shot handheld at dusk, which would explain the low dynamic range.. Just a guess.

Also, at 100% I see some artifacts which could be from noise reduction, sharpening, jpg save, etc.

I wouldn't know unless I saw the original file, but it could probably just stand to have some curves adjustments, lce, saturation shifts, color correction for the bluish cast in the shadows, etc.

Those are just my opinions of how I see the photo. Again, it is a very nice photo and aspects of it are really good, but some improvements in post processing could be made.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Frank,

Matt has given a fairly thorough assessment to which I can only add that I think you have tried to isolate the bridge as the subject by selectively blurring the more distant hills (and perhaps the foreground too).

I guess that is the problem with cruises - running out of subjects while on board.

All the best, Dave

[Suede]

The photograph is fine for the circumstances in which you took it.

More importantly, I really appreciate the trouble you take to tell us about the Autostrada ... its geographic location and more.

... Scylla and Charybdis, I add.

[FrankMi]

Hi Frank,

There are a few things about the photo I'd like to point out:

The composition is very nice. The lines of the bridge and structure contrast nicely with the soft lines of the hillside. The positioning of things looks pretty good. The overlapping angles of the hills is attractive to me and leads my eye around.

The light is very nice.

The two comp issues I see are:
- there is too much going on and I don't know what the main subject is, except that you talked about the highway, so I assume that is the subject.
- The shore at the bottom appears slanted, even though the bridge is horizontal.

The best way to solve both issues above is to crop out the shore and leave only the hillside and bridge

Quality related, there are a few issues (hope you don't mind me pointing them out)

The photo is flat and washed out. I haven't viewed the data but I would guess it was maybe a high iso shot since you shot handheld at dusk, which would explain the low dynamic range.. Just a guess.

Also, at 100% I see some artifacts which could be from noise reduction, sharpening, jpg save, etc.

I wouldn't know unless I saw the original file, but it could probably just stand to have some curves adjustments, lce, saturation shifts, color correction for the bluish cast in the shadows, etc.

Those are just my opinions of how I see the photo. Again, it is a very nice photo and aspects of it are really good, but some improvements in post processing could be made.

Thank you for taking the time and effort to help me with this one Matt.

I liked the scene because it isn't often that you see mountainous tunnels associated with such high bridges and a sea shoreline as well. What I didn't like was the haze that flattened the image beyond what I am comfortable with.

The EFIX shows the normal shot at f4.5, 1/80 sec, ISO-100, 135mm FFE so it wasn't as low of light level as I remembered. I ended up using the underexposed shot and increasing the brightness significantly because the normal shot was too washed out.

Here is the Normal SOOC:



As we know, neither bridges (which can be sloping) nor shorelines (which can be receding) are great indicators of level, but the bridge columns are more likely a valid indicator and they do show a little under a 1° CW rotation. That would make the shoreline look closer to level. Good catch!

The SOOC is more noisy than I would expect and I had reduced the noise somewhat. Perhaps I should have gone further.

I struggle with color correction in particular but also with setting most of the basic settings for some reason. I can tell if it looks good but I have not as yet developed a good sense as to how far to change the settings particularly for color or when multiple settings need to be adjusted.

Sometimes I'm torn between only posting images I know are good and posting those I can learn from. Everyone likes the accolades from the great images but unless I am willing to take my lumps with images like this, I'm not going to improve very much so I sincerely thank you for the feedback.

[FrankMi]

Hi Frank,

Matt has given a fairly thorough assessment to which I can only add that I think you have tried to isolate the bridge as the subject by selectively blurring the more distant hills (and perhaps the foreground too).

I guess that is the problem with cruises - running out of subjects while on board.

All the best, Dave

Thanks Dave. I had my hands full with just trying to recover from the haze! There are times when the SOOC may just not be worth bothering with, but knowing that I may never get another chance to shoot some scenes provides the nudge needed to give it a try. Each time I try, I feel I learn just a little bit more and that can provide a sense of satisfaction, despite the failures.

[FrankMi]

The photograph is fine for the circumstances in which you took it.

More importantly, I really appreciate the trouble you take to tell us about the Autostrada ... its geographic location and more.

... Scylla and Charybdis, I add.

Thank for the encouragement, Pritam. It helps!

[ajsmith]

Don't know which software you use, but if you have Photoshop or PS Elements a quick fix is to duplicate the layer, apply the multiply blend mode and then lower the opacity of the blend mode layer to your liking.

[FrankMi]

Don't know which software you use, but if you have Photoshop or PS Elements a quick fix is to duplicate the layer, apply the multiply blend mode and then lower the opacity of the blend mode layer to your liking.

I hadn't tried that Ali. Now that I have, it looks very close to what I came up with, using only one quick step! Thanks!

[bnnrcn]

I agree with you Frank,it is much better to post some images which are not good enough,I learn a lot from those kind of photos:-) I don't have better images anyway

[FlyingSquirrel]

I downloaded the SOOC jpg image that Frank posted above, and gave a go at some edits; he agreed to let me post my version, with notes on what I did. I don't think the SOOC version was full size or original format, but I took whatever was there and ran with it (his OP image looks larger than what I got)

Please note, there are many people on these forums that are excellent and knowledgeable about editing images- I do not claim to be one of these experts; there were some challenges I ran into and didn't know the correct way to deal with them, so I just dug into the bag of tricks that I do know and did the best I could.

With that, I present the image. I cropped the photo how I would prefer it, although it probably isn't how Frank envisioned it. Also, with a higher res original, I might have cropped differently.



A summary of what I did, in Photoshop:

- Curves adjustment layer (set blackpoint, whitepoint, and graypoint with eyedropper. I used the respective eyedroppers on: a point which was very dark but still held detail, a point which was very bright but still held detail, and a point which was mid toned and as neutral as possible. I found these points using an action that I recorded in pshop. To summarize, the action finds very dark points, very light points, and neutral points, using various layers and threshold adjustments, then I view the rgb info for various points and decide which ones to click on for white, black, graypoint droppers) Then I manually added points to the curve and adjusted them visually to what looked good to me. Best way to learn this is to search google for photoshop curves tutorials

- I decided to try a duplicate layer and set to multiply blend mode. I liked the result, but I set it down to only 8% opacity.

- The curves helped some of the color casts, but since some of the image is in shadow and some not so much, trying to fix the shadow blue cast in the same curve set was troublesome to me. So I duplicated all of the layers, added a new curves adjustment, adjusted the blue channel to remove the blue cast a bit- still not as good as I'd like, so I added a hue saturation adjustment layer, selected "blues", dropped the blues saturation down, and I think also I dropped the cyans down. Then I merged these new adjustments and layers into a flattened layer which had the better shadows. Then I added a layer mask (alt click layer mask) and then painted the mask with white to show that layer wherever I wanted it to fix the color casts. Basically this was the entire top of the photo, and the valleys in the center and behind the bridge

- Next, some LCE (local contrast enhancement) I duplicated everything, merged it, to create a single layer with all adjustments so far, then set to overly blend, 50%, ran high pass filter, adjusted amount, then hit ok. Next I went to blend options for the layer, adjusted the blend if sliders for this layer to that only the midtones were affected by the new layer. Then I adjusted the opacity of the layer to my liking. As it turned out, I did two LCE layers, one was large scale contrast (high amount value in the high pass filter) and another was small scale to make the smaller items pop a little, so a lower value in the high pass filter for that lce layer.

- Then i added layer masks to these lce layers and painted in / out various areas that I wanted to show or hide detail in.

- Also added a new hue/sat adjust layer and upped the greens, yellow, orange, red a tiny bit

- I did a little dodging and burning in a fashion which I call sculpting, based on something covered in 'the digital negative' by Jeff Schewe. Basically I created a layer, overlay mode, filled with neutral gray. Then I used a soft brush at very low opacity to paint black into areas that I want to look darker and 'recessed'. This was the hillside and valleys where the 'creases' are and where things come together. Then I did the same on a new layer, but painted white, to brighten various areas and make them stand out, which was the higher points on the hills in the front, around the bridge sides, etc etc. With the white and black layers in overlay mode, you get a dodge/burn effect, which, in combination, can let you create a lot of depth and a 3d look, at least compared to the flat photo, and gives more control than curves or lce can. You are basically painting with light.

Next, I duplicated and merged EVERYTHING to create a single layer at the top above all of these layers, which I then ran an action on which allows me to sharpen the photo selectively. The action sets the layer to luminosity blend, 50% opacity, guides me through creating an 'edge mask', then I used USM to sharpen the layer (i forget but think it was like 300-400% at radius 0.3). Then I adjusted the opacity of this layer to fine tune the sharpening effect, and then tweaked the edge mask with a brush to increase or decrease the coverage of the sharpening where it looked like it needed it. I also went into blend options for the sharpened layer and pulled off the shadows and highlights a few levels and rolled it off by splitting the sliders on each end (hold alt while clicking the slider and it will split it). All of this lets you tell phsop which levels/tones/brightnesses to apply the sharpening layer to, and lets you soften the appearance of the change from where it is applying it to where it isn't applying it (that is what the splitting of the slider does). Research google for 'blend if', 'custom edge masks', etc

- Lastly, I cropped the photo and then I did another layer exactly the same as the burn overlay layer noted above, but with a very feathered large brush I created a vignette. In most cases people say not to center the subject, but I think the bridge looks pretty good where it is because of the way the lines of the hills lead your eye into it. I would have preferred more space below the bridge, but I did not want any of the shore or buildings showing, so I had no choice.

Finally, save as Jpg at full quality (12).

This was a lot of work (way more than was really needed), but when I got into it I started liking what I was seeing, so I wanted to keep playing around to modify the effect. Easily you could do much less, or even much more, to this or any photo. It all depends how much time and energy you want to spend, and what the result is that you want.

Also, there is a lot more that I need to learn about photoshop and especially color correction and color cast neutralization, which I sometimes struggle with. Basically, if you want to learn all of this, I recommend 'the digital negative' by jeff schewe, as well as reading a lot of tutorials online for advanced curves, advanced sharpening, layer masks, etc.

[FrankMi]

Thank you so much Matt for the informative edit. I too still have a lot to learn so this is very helpful.

The SOOC image was the original format but in order to post in the thread using Tinypics, it was reduced from 4000x3000 pixels (2.33 MB) to 1333x1000 pixels (551 KB).

I'll copy these steps for reference. It will take me some time to digest all that there is to learn from your effort and apply it to the next image that has these issues!

There used to be a way to upload the original images to Mediafire and better options may now be available. If I can locate them, I don't mind uploading any of my SOOC images at original resolutions for others to play with. Just let me know and I'll dig into it for you.

[Wavelength]

Lovely images

[FrankMi]

Lovely images

Thank you Nandakumar!