K5 Dynamic Range...

..and a bit of tweaking

I recently visited a friend of mind in Rutland and during the afternoon he took me for a little tour of the area (I'd never been before). When driving through a small village he pointed out a particular tree that he liked and asked if I'd take a photograph of it sometime. When I left his house I went back to the village and took a few snaps, but it was crap weather and lighting conditions.

The first shot is how it came out of the camera, the second is... erm.. improved a little ( I added a nice sky I shot a few days later from my back garden). I'm constantly amazed by the detail you can pull back from K5 RAW files! I don't think it looks to unnatural but I'm new to this sort of manipulation so thought I'd see what you guys think.

My friend certainly didn't notice that the sky was fake, he just thought it was a great photograph of his favourite tree

Before
[IMG]http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj591/akkirkby/MikesTreebefore1of1.jpg[/IMG]

After
[IMG]http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj591/akkirkby/MikesTreeafter1of1.jpg[/IMG]

Second shot looks more like it's taken in Africa than Britain

But yup I'm still amazed at the dynamic range of the K-5

Using a sunset as a replacement sky, when the ambient lighting in the foreground doesn't match that, looks odd IMHO. It's probably just my personal taste, but I'd prefer to see a more measured tweak to the shadow levels and a slight contrast enhancement to the sky.

Smeggy, didn't you know that Rutland is the spiritual home of the fuqawi tribe? They left the shores of Africa in a boat many centuries ago, and after 5 days of heavy seastorms, they were shipwrecked on Britains shores. When they encountered an indigenous Briton, the first words they exchanged was "we the fuqawi"

BTW: you could be right about this looking like the savannah.. isn't that a wildebeest taking a kip at the base of the tree??

I can't help but think that pic 2 resembles the cover of a book I saw.

I love #2 - even though it does look contrived with, as mentioned, the ambient light on the tree not matching the sunset.

Certainly does have a very 'African wilderness' look to it, you can even spot the Fuqawi tribesmen, camouflaged as sheep, stalking the photographer. Surprised Hullman made it back alive !

You all know my thoughts on this.

Thanks for the comments guys, it does look a bit 'African', I just want to give him something a little more exotic that grey day in Rutland. Getting out of the field alive was easy FF, the Fuqawi tribesmen, camouflaged as sheep were to busy posing for the convoy of tourist filled landrovers that I had to photoshop out !

PP, have tried your suggestions, what do you think ?

[IMG]http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj591/akkirkby/MikesTreeafter2.jpg[/IMG]

Hi Walkeja, sorry I don't but would love to hear them

I'm guessing perhaps something to do with photo manipulation ?

The second version looks A LOT more convincing!

I like the first PP version best if presented as an HDR image. This new version is a lot more natural - but, for me, lacks punch. You can't win eh

As you did it for a friend and he's happy with the result, I'd say go for it.
Stop messing about give him a print of the 1st PP.

You might also ask 'how many would realise you'd cheated if you hadn't owned up up front'

regards
Bernard

I think I'm not allowed to say anymore?

could you point us to a thread that might give us a clue ?

btw I don't like either of the PP'd versions

Don't know how to set up a link, but go to:-

PentaxUser competitions

and read the fun

there's a good few different comps there - can you narrow it down please