B&W

Mike , the soft contrast slider creates the effect when it is pushed too much on the negative direction. It actually doesn't matter if it is an artefact or not, but it is obvious that the effect looks a bit distracting to the members and your experienced eyes catched it immediately :)

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Originally Posted by Mike Buckley

It doesn't seem to me to be an artifact. Instead, it seems to be a choice.

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Hi Binnur,

Nothing to add, but I wanted to comment just to let you know that I adore this image for the composition and tones...And of course that vast expanse of magical sky!

Enjoy your new bike, but please be careful... Leave lots of space in front of you when driving... similar to your sky... :)

Thank you Christina, I'm glad that you liked the image :) Actually my passion for photography made me buy the motorbike. I think it will be enjoyable to go to the countryside to find out nice scenes to shoot. I will certainly be careful while riding on it as I'm aware of the risks, thanks for your caring advice :)

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Originally Posted by Brownbear

Hi Binnur,

Nothing to add, but I wanted to comment just to let you know that I adore this image for the composition and tones...And of course that vast expanse of magical sky!

Enjoy your new bike, but please be careful... Leave lots of space in front of you when driving... similar to your sky... :)

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Hi Binnur.

Sorry I am only seeing this now. I agree with what you have already read about the ghosting/halo around the trees. I assume you adjusted the levels to give a more dramatic sky?

I love the image in general and it really suits the sepia tone.

Hi Chris, thanks for looking and commenting :) I edited the image mainly in SEP2, that's why there are no 'levels' adjustments but I made some 'amplify blacks' and 'amplify whites' adjustments on the sky by using some control points. IMO the same thing can be done with 'levels' adjustment layer in PS too, but SEP2 is my main software for B&W conversions and I prefer to use PS as an additional software when necessary.

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Originally Posted by Chri5

Hi Binnur.

Sorry I am only seeing this now. I agree with what you have already read about the ghosting/halo around the trees. I assume you adjusted the levels to give a more dramatic sky?

I love the image in general and it really suits the sepia tone.

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Oh I see its just when I started out with photo editing I had the same problems with ghosting. I use levels a lot in my images especially for my skies. I found that using a layer mask then a soft brush with the opacity turned down to around 25%, brush around the edges of my objects like trees to slowly neutralize the halo/ghost worked really well.

I see you have bought a motor bike. I ride a Yamaha dragstar. It looks like the bike from the film Ghost Rider. All decked out in black and chrome. (shes named Sophie) :)

Thanks for the tip Chris, I will keep it in mind :) I have reduced the halo already by using the 'shadows and highlights' slider selectively around the trees and I will upload an edit tomorrow but your formula seems helpful too. I will also give it a go to see how it works.

PS. I googled your motorbike, it is a nice chopper . Happy times with Sophie ! ;)

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Originally Posted by Chri5

Oh I see its just when I started out with photo editing I had the same problems with ghosting. I use levels a lot in my images especially for my skies. I found that using a layer mask then a soft brush with the opacity turned down to around 25%, brush around the edges of my objects like trees to slowly neutralize the halo/ghost worked really well.

I see you have bought a motor bike. I ride a Yamaha dragstar. It looks like the bike from the film Ghost Rider. All decked out in black and chrome. (shes named Sophie) :)

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Lot of comments and great suggestions by all.

But the most important thing is what you see.

Thanks for passing by Jim . I certainly agree with you about how you see the image in your mind is the most important thing. I edited the image according to the look in my mind but I actually didn't notice the halo very much. So the comments above made me look at the image carefully again and IMO the members are right that the trees look as if there are spot lights behind them and the halo needs reducing. Please see my revised version below :)

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Originally Posted by Ziggy

Lot of comments and great suggestions by all.

But the most important thing is what you see.

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I reduced the halo around the trees for a better look after your comments. I didn't remove it completely so that the image wouldn't look very dark and muddy and the image still suits my taste. I hope you will like it too :o Thanks again for warning me about the distraction :)

Chris, I used your method to reduce the halo because it was much easier than using 'Shadows and Highlights' sliders. Special thanks for that:)


http://i60.tinypic.com/qs8s5t.jpg

I am late to this party too...but your last submission above is really striking...the first time I saw your image, my thoughts were about you playing with Color EFX again...it certainly looks like it. And boy! it can be addicting. I spent most of this week playing with it with different recipes to suit my images and one of them is this effect you have here playing with the slider's plus or minus buttons depending on the shot. I am glad I saved the link to this post.

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Originally Posted by bnnrcn

I reduced the halo around the trees for a better look after your comments. I didn't remove it completely so that the image wouldn't look very dark and muddy and the image still suits my taste. I hope you will like it too :o Thanks again for warning me about the distraction :)

Chris, I used your method to reduce the halo because it was much easier than using 'Shadows and Highlights' sliders. Special thanks for that:)


http://i60.tinypic.com/qs8s5t.jpg

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Hi Isabel, I'm glad that you liked the image :)I didn't use the filter effects in Color Efex Pro 4 for the image, I edited it in SEP2 according to my taste by using the sliders. May be a similar look can be achieved with CEP4 too . I really like Nik Software because it has so many possibilities for editing images. But SEP2 is my favourite for B&W conversions.

It is good for you to play with the filters in CEP4 because if you know what is in the software, you can always reach them when you need. Editing an image by applying some filters on top of each other might be a good practise for you. This is what I did while learning CEP4 ;)

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Originally Posted by IzzieK

I am late to this party too...but your last submission above is really striking...the first time I saw your image, my thoughts were about you playing with Color EFX again...it certainly looks like it. And boy! it can be addicting. I spent most of this week playing with it with different recipes to suit my images and one of them is this effect you have here playing with the slider's plus or minus buttons depending on the shot. I am glad I saved the link to this post.

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Artifacts at light and dark boundaries are often a side effect of pushing the limits in PP work, and while some people jump all over them, more out of principle than anything else, I suspect, at times they can add to the composition. How you go there is really up to you as the photographer and the image you are trying to present. That being said, my personal view is that it usually weakens the shot by drawing attention to the effect.

I'm also not someone who loves shots with a lot of sky when it impacts the overall look / balance of the shot. I wonder if the composition might not be stronger if you take a bit off the top of the sky?

This is much better Binnur;)

Thanks for looking and commenting Manfred:) I actually tried a crop with less sky after reading some comments but I didn't like it very much.

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Originally Posted by GrumpyDiver

Artifacts at light and dark boundaries are often a side effect of pushing the limits in PP work, and while some people jump all over them, more out of principle than anything else, I suspect, at times they can add to the composition. How you go there is really up to you as the photographer and the image you are trying to present. That being said, my personal view is that it usually weakens the shot by drawing attention to the effect.

I'm also not someone who loves shots with a lot of sky when it impacts the overall look / balance of the shot. I wonder if the composition might not be stronger if you take a bit off the top of the sky?

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Thanks David, it seems better to me too :)

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Originally Posted by deetheturk

This is much better Binnur;)

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Originally Posted by bnnrcn

Thanks for looking and commenting Manfred:) I actually tried a crop with less sky after reading some comments but I didn't like it very much.

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That of course is what you as the photographer need to determine.

I played around with it in Lightbox and the crop I liked best is one that virtually eliminated all of the sky. I'm not sure if the real reason I liked it better is that it turned the image into more of a landscape orientation. I find the portrait orientation for this image creates tension in the image, and the scene does not really warrant tension.

Binnur I am a sucker for trees so this image to me is lovely! I like the sky element as well!

Beautiful image with a killer sky Binnur!

Much better!