Learning Landscapes - Foggy morning Scenes

Christina. Regarding building straightness.

I've had a go at some simple straightening.

http://i58.tinypic.com/v3kbyu.jpg

A fairly easy procedure, although it does vary slightly depending on the software used.

Firstly create a suitably placed guide line to give you something to work against.

Select the image (eg Ctrl+A). Go to Edit Menu and Transform then Skew.

Drag the top left corner handle inwards until the buildings are upright. I always find that dragging inwards (squashing) works better than outwards (stretching).

Deselect and crop as required.

And I also had a slight variation by adding an Adjustment Layer with the Blend Mode set to Soft Light at 60%. But there are other similar methods for adding a little extra punch.

Thank you Binnur.

And Geoff... Thanks a million. Very helpful. If I could give you ten helpful clips they would be well deserved!

The building looks much better straight.:) I will give it a try when I get to my edits. Thank you.

Nice job moving the bird!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Christina S

The image for me is big picture and all about the look of the fog and the mist and the colours, but landscapes need to have a clear subject matter hence I made the building the focus of attention.

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True. Keep in mind that the general mood of a landscape may be the primary reason that you photograph and like it. Even so, the general mood is rarely the subject; the subject is almost always some particular part of the scene. As an example, people like to make landscapes shot during the first or last hour of sunlight. Though that light is characteristic of such photos, the light itself is rarely the subject; instead, it complements the subject.

Following are my edits taking in all the advice and suggestions received, to the best of my processing ability.

The lagoon scene with the highrise straightened, LCE and soft light, and the bird moved (Mike, if I may say so I think I did a nice job of moving the bird!) Geoff, thank you so much for teaching me how to straighten things.


http://i1098.photobucket.com/albums/...2.jpg~original

PS I feel that I lost some of the softness that I liked in the original scene with the soft light and LCE but I can see how it makes the image pop and as I progress I will learn how to use these tools more to personal preference.

And the boat scene...

Square Crop

http://i1098.photobucket.com/albums/...d.jpg~original

The crop I prefer which is with just a little less of the boats and a little less of the reflections of the masts.

http://i1098.photobucket.com/albums/...2.jpg~original

A big thank you to everyone!

Yes, you did a great job of moving the bird. However, it was much more difficult to move the tree in the other thread and you did an equally good job at that.

I also prefer the last crop of the boat scene.

If I remember correctly, I think Geoff's method of straightening is as used in Photoshop. I prefer the tools provided in Lightroom for doing that because everything is so much more intuitive for me. Try both and decide what works best for you.

Thank you. Oops... I have my threads mixed up. I didn't move the tree that was a differently composed image, and in the other image I just straightened the tree a little, ie; I didn't move anything. So much for your impressions of my quick learning. (:

I have yet to try the straightening tools in Lightroom as this is the first time I've had to straighten anything but I will check it out. Thank you for sharing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mike Buckley

Yes, you did a great job of moving the bird. However, it was much more difficult to move the tree in the other thread and you did an equally good job at that.

I also prefer the last crop of the boat scene.

If I remember correctly, I think Geoff's method of straightening is as used in Photoshop. I prefer the tools provided in Lightroom for doing that because everything is so much more intuitive for me. Try both and decide what works best for you.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Christina S

I didn't move the tree that was a differently composed image

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Sorry! My confusion. I was actually wondering how you moved it so effectively.

Hmmm... Actually, I am a "budding post processing genius" who will likely advising you on how to bring out the best in your reflections, shadows and highllights, and Chauncey on the art of photo manipulation to create photo art! :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mike Buckley

Sorry! My confusion. I was actually wondering how you moved it so effectively.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Christina S

Following are my edits taking in all the advice and suggestions received, to the best of my processing ability.

The lagoon scene with the highrise straightened, LCE and soft light, and the bird moved (Mike, if I may say so I think I did a nice job of moving the bird!) Geoff, thank you so much for teaching me how to straighten things.


http://i1098.photobucket.com/albums/...2.jpg~original

PS I feel that I lost some of the softness that I liked in the original scene with the soft light and LCE but I can see how it makes the image pop and as I progress I will learn how to use these tools more to personal preference.

And the boat scene...

Square Crop

http://i1098.photobucket.com/albums/...d.jpg~original

The crop I prefer which is with just a little less of the boats and a little less of the reflections of the masts.

http://i1098.photobucket.com/albums/...2.jpg~original

A big thank you to everyone!

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I must admit that for my taste I like the square re-crop of the boats. The reflections of the masts make it for me. But all three re-do's were worth your time.

Thank you Brian. Your suggestion of the square crop reinforced the same suggestion made by others.

Your taking the time to comment and help me out is truly appreciated. Now if you could send me a few interesting critters in the mail (alive, well and happy), I would be especially delighted!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JBW

I must admit that for my taste I like the square re-crop of the boats. The reflections of the masts make it for me. But all three re-do's were worth your time.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Christina S

Thank you Brian. Your suggestion of the square crop reinforced the same suggestion made by others.

Your taking the time to comment and help me out is truly appreciated. Now if you could send me a few interesting critters in the mail (alive, well and happy), I would be especially delighted!

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I'll work on that. But until I can figure it out have you ever considered the conservatory at Queen Elizabeth park (aka Little Mountain) it is tropical and there just might be a beasty or two lurking in the dome?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JBW

I'll work on that. But until I can figure it out have you ever considered the conservatory at Queen Elizabeth park (aka Little Mountain) it is tropical and there just might be a beasty or two lurking in the dome?

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And for sure there are some nice birds in there.

Hi Christina,
I haven't check your "Learning Landscapes" for a while. You really improve a lot. All your hard work are paying back.

Brian and Rita... thank you for the suggestions. I Googled the conservatory and it looks like a wonderful place to photograph birds.

Hui... thank you. Your landscapes are gorgeous and I truly appreciate your encouragement.

very mysterious images.... really liked them all :)

Your last crop with less reflections is better Christina:)

Thank you Nandakumar and Binnur, for your kind words and encouragement.

Very much appreciated.

Mysterious! I quite like that description.;)

Yes Christina, you have done it. ;) You have done very well in capturing the mood in these images.

When shooting with wider angle lenses, verticals do get distorted. With a single vertical in the image, that is not vertical, it makes it look like you were not holding the camera level. Correcting lens distortion in PP, to get your verticals right, is no sin.

Well done! :)

Got here late, Christina, but want to say I think these are great. There are some interesting and instructive adjustments in the thread, but I think what you presented at the outset is very fine, and I think the boat scene is an especially lovely treatment of a subject well seen.

I downloaded the cropped version of #2 and played around with it a Little in CC. You need to rotate the image abt 0.6 degrees clockwise (judging by the buildings). There seems to be a very small amount of motion blur - I was able to improve sharpness a tiny bit by using CC´s Sharpen>Shake reduction tool. But basically your image is sharper than most of my handheld shots..