Allright, I need some advice here!

Hello there,

This is not a question for the great beginners of the site (even though advice is always welcome), in the sense that it is a bit of an advanced photoshop editing...

I shot this the other day, and I am trying to make the photograph stand out a bit more. There has already been some photoshop work, but I think that it lacks something.

Any advice and comments, would be welcome,

[IMG]http://i517.photobucket.com/albums/u332/nathanever82/Autumn.jpg[/IMG]

Photography is a very personal thing, so it's your picture and I wouldn't presume to try to improve it. What I can do is show you what I would do with the image, and it would end up something like this:
[IMG]http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff250/johnriley1uk/025-nathans-picture.jpg[/IMG]
Nothing too radical, but I tend to find skies can distract and split the image and I've changed the emphasis of the composition. I've also warmed the image (Photo Filter) and added a bit more sharpening.

I agree with John's comments on this the only thing I would give, is the forground leaves abit more colour.

Hi Nathan,

if I were to use the whole image, which I like btw.. then this is the edited version..




admittedly, it was only a couple of minutes.

Levels. Lighten about 1/3 stop.
Saturation. Up all 20, then add a little more Red and Yellow, I think it was maybe 10 yellow, 20 red.. I was just playing.
Channels. Lift the Red channel in the middle, and at about 3/4.. not much though. Green channel, just a little lift in the middle.
Unsharp Mask. Radius 5, Amount 0.40 Threshold 0.

It pulls out the colours in the mid ground, without taking away the drama.. if you know what I mean..

Cheers

Liam

Hi Nathan,
Although I like the Autumn colors, I would like you to consider this:


I think this subject does very well in mono. I started out by adding a ND gradient over the sky, to bring it down a bit. Masking of the trees in the process.
After that I converted to B & W using channel mixer. Then I used curves in combination with some tonal selections to lighten and darken some areas.
Finally I added a slight Blue tone to the sky and a warm bronze tone to the foreground.
I hope you like it. BTW...all this was done with GIMP.

Martin.

Sorry Nathan but I think you've overcooked the sky, it does'nt blend with the lower half, which is probably why John suggested the crop (he did'nt want to hurt your feelings)

I thinks Liams idea was OK but I think thats overcooked too, by all means darken/saturate the forground leaves but leave the middle alone.

Malo's is a nice interpretation (bit of a bummer for an autumn shot though)

Johns is the winner for me, maybe with the forground adjusted slightly.

THank you all for the suggestions.

I really like Liam's and Martin's versions, both improve the impact of the landscape.

John, I really don't understand your point, as I consider the sky to generally be integral part of a composition, in nature landscape photographs. as much as it might be distracting, I think that it is essential for the composition to have a "place of rest" where the eye is free to wander and rest after having followed the strong lines that make the composition itself work.

ALAN (Found your name ), funny that you say this, because in this photograph, the only part that hasn't received any correction in photoshop is actually the sky. THe photo was shot with an ND grad, .06 (so 2 stops) but from the moment it was dropped on photoshop, I haven't changed one bit. If it looks dramatic, its because it was indeed, very! At the same time, I find the sky very very interesting - and mainly the gorgeous light rays that come from the top of the clouds, and the smoke of the fire that rises from the middle of the trees.

Very interesting comments though, thank you all very much for your help. I very much appreciated Terry's advice of adding colour to the foreground. I did that, and also worked on the curves and other small things.
this is the result i've come up with. Comments are more than welcome!

THank you all,
Nathan
[IMG]http://i517.photobucket.com/albums/u332/nathanever82/Autumn2.jpg[/IMG]

It's a solid, good image. your revision looks more polished.
in a competition, I don't think it really has anything to raise it up to prize winning status.
the light on the log is a little flat, and the open area of sky, pulls the eye up to the left, where there is really nothing to look at.

Now if there was some intersting light on the logs, that would be one image, as JR suggested.
The shafts of light from the clouds, hitting the treetops, shot with a telephoto...there is a second image.
either of which would've been stronger than this one.

A child (imagine a child tossing some leaves into the air where that block of open sky is), or animal, or anything to add a sense of scale and point of interest would make this image a winner.
I'd use it as a backdrop for studio portraits of kids and pets that get cut out and pasted onto this one.

Of course......I knew that, I should have made myself more clear, "covercooked the sky with the use of an ND grad"

right, I'm off to hide in the darkest corner I can find untill Nathan forgets this post completely

Alan, I'm not a monster!!!!

And you really describe me as one...

and I really appreciate your advice.

So come out of the corner and say something appropriate!!!!

My thoughts are the ground is a bit flat and the sunbeams in the sky are a bit over exposed (maybe just a JPEG issue).
The sky may be natural/unedited, but it doesn't look natural. It looks like glacier ice. If that is natural, I suppose that is a big part of the draw.

I played with boosting the contrast (levels) a bit on the ground and narrowing the 'a' channel in Curves in Lab mode and it made the colors much more vibrant. I did not touch the sky, assuming the unusual look is part of why you took the photo to begin with.

But I do have to agree with Don, there is nothing so special that would make it award winning. It looks like a great area to be, maybe 30-60 minutes later.

FYI, Converting back to sRGB for the web seems to have killed any color boosting effect completely. I saved in AdobeRGB, so it may not look right unless you use FireFox3 or other color management aware browser. (MSIE is close but a bit flat.)

OK, just kidding, I know your not a monster

I still think the sky is overcooked, maybe a 1 stop grad would have been better.
Maybe the image itself just does'nt do it for me, I know its the sort of scene we'd all stop and snap, even spend some time on, but this one is no where near as good as your other stuff, I think deep down you feel the same way too and this is why you've asked for advice, you look at the image and can see something there but cant put your finger on it, maybe Don's right and it needs another element.

PS; took my 16-50 out for the first time today, unfortunately I did'nt get much, I could have used some ND grads

never mind the experimenting on color and shading, what do you think of this 8x10 crop, Nathan? I forgot to mention, there are many that would be very happy with the original, so newbies, take note, I set the bar very high when commenting on Nathan's images.....

Alan, you have written exactly what is in my mind. And you've perfectly understood the reasons behind my OP.
Don, I don't think the crop changes much, to be honest, I agreed with your first post, and convinced myself that even if it is a pleasant image, its nothing special, and that's it

And I completely agree with your comment for newbies; I am very relieved that you guys really understood my personal concerns with the image.

THank you all, very much