Rainbow

[RockNGoalStar]

Hi guys, this is my first submission and is of a rainbow that I saw out of my window just after last night's storm.

I am new to photography so would appreciate as much constructive criticism as you are willing to give.

I am particularly keen to know how the brightness of the pic looks on your monitor. It looks completely different on my desktop to my laptop. I think I need to look into callibrating my monitor.

Anyways, here goes...



Cheers

[ScoutR]

Hi Tommy, excellent shot. I have monitor calibration issues too, so take that into consideration when reading my comments. On my monitor the buildings look perfect but the sky could be a bit darker. I don't know what you use for editing, but perhaps a graduated filter would help to darken the sky and bring out the rainbow a bit

I wish I could see something like that out my window. Nice one!

Wendy

[Donald]

Tommy

I agree with Wendy's comments.

The buildings are fine. A Neutral Density Graduated (NDG) filter or a bracketed set of exposures that you then blended with whatever post processing software you use, would have allowed you to get more out the sky and the rainbow. It is a bit bright, but certainly not to the extent that you've lost all the detail. But getting into filters and/or bracketed exposures may be a next step perhaps on your learning curve.

Notwithstanding the fortunate fact that there's a rainbow in it and, presumably, this is why you took it, I think it's a nice composition in general terms. You've positioned the roof line nicely in the image in a way that gives a clear impression of 'traditional' urban environment and of loooking out over the rooftops.

Not so sure about that treatment you've given at the edge leading into the border. Too fancy for my taste.

And, finally, if you're going to get serious about this photography lark, then I would really encourage you towards investing some money in something that will calibrate your monitor properly (i.e. missing out the guesswork). It certainly made a huge difference to me. I use Spyder 3, but there are others out there.

EDIT - And finally finally, I see vignetting in the corners. Don't know if that is deliberate or an unintended consequence. Either way, I don't think it contributes to the image.

[RockNGoalStar]

Many thanks to you both for your input...

The original pic was a little underexposed so I brought it to life a bit by adjusting the levels in Photoshop. I was watching TV and just happened to look out of the window and I saw this beautiful rainbow emanating from the spire of the church and luckily my camera was next to me so I took a couple of handheld shots from where I was sitting.

I appreciate your input in terms of filters and bracketed exposures. I have experimented with bracketed exposures to create HDR images, but not as much as I would have liked. Certainly I am a little disapointed I didn't have a tripod to hand to do it properly for this shot as I am pleased with the composition but not so much with the brightness / colour balance. Maybe I can improve it somewhat if I try again.

I also noticed the vignetting but couldn't see an easy way of eliminating it without extending my crop, but I agree that it doesn't bring anything to the party!

Thanks again for your comments tho. I appreciate them and will hopefully learn from them!

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Tommy,

I am only on my work monitor, and while I appreciate the buildings are not the subject, they look soft to me - tell us, was the window open, or is this shot through the glass? If so, just opening the window would bring more benefit to the shot than a tripod (IMHO). I will confess to having shot birds through double glazing, so I am not judging, just asking.

There is a PP adjustment that can be done with something as simple/cheap as Elements that would fix the vignette without needing to change the crop. What PP software do you use?

If you go back to the original (shot RAW I hope) and process again; using something like Local Contrast Enhancement would probably give better sky/rainbow separation, best done before the exposure/levels tweak though. Have a play, if you don't know what LCE is, there is a technique on it here at CiC.

Cheers,

[RockNGoalStar]

Hi Dave, thanks for your comments...

The window was open, but I think I may have oversaturated it slightly in Photoshop (CS4) and it has softened the edges a little (that should also answer your question as to which PP program I use :P)

Sadly, I did not shoot it in RAW - I was kicking myself this morning for not having done so. I was using the camera at a party the other night and was shooting medium quality JPEGs. I didn't change it before I snapped away at the rainbow Another lesson learned!

[Ashwin]

I am particularly keen to know how the brightness of the pic looks on your monitor. It looks completely different on my desktop to my laptop. I think I need to look into callibrating my monitor.

What you have done in photoshop, I don't know, but sky appears to be too bright, building bit dark.

Sky, and building portion corrected...

[RockNGoalStar]

Hi Ashwin, thanks for doing that, I agree it looks a lot better.

Could you tell me what you did to achieve that look please?

Cheers

[Ashwin]

Hi Ashwin, thanks for doing that, I agree it looks a lot better.

Could you tell me what you did to achieve that look please?

Cheers

Hi Tommy,

Very simple

EDIT > Shadow/High Lights Move shadow slider to 43 %, High Light Slider Move to 24 %, and DONE ... So Simple and Easy...! !

[RockNGoalStar]

Thanks Ashwin... I'd never really played around with that much, but it's amazing what you can achieve with it!

It's pretty incredible how it just brings the histogram into a nice bell-curve in the middle of the range

Thanks a lot!