Weekend Saunter

A few taken whilst out with grandchildren

Not entirely happy so looking for advise to improve next time.
[IMG]http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/ff444/Frogherder/IMGP6406.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/ff444/Frogherder/IMGP6390.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/ff444/Frogherder/IMGP6377.jpg[/IMG]

Critique, as always, most welcome


regards
Bernard

#s 1 and 3 I like - yes a bit chocolate boxy /snapshot but they are my type

#1 - sky is a bit flat - I'd try and take out the teeny TV arial and the power cable [ ? ] a bit fiddly but the cable is intrusive Don't think that the greenery in the top R hand corner is doing anything for it so try cropping to lose a lot of that very dull sky .

# 3- has much more punch and is a favourite type shot of mine , however the gate could do with a bit more emphasis- it's getting lost in that vibrant greenery [ and I love the different greens ] .

[IMG]http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/ff444/Frogherder/IMGP6406b.jpg[/IMG]

Improvement ?

Snag is the sky was bland and I'm not sure a wash is any better. I must learn how to add clouds as a layer

Bernard

can't help with putting in clouds as a layer - me no use Photoshop and you can't do that sort of thing in Aperture

Sorry - don't like the wash - the blue is very unnatural - go back to the grey and carry on ' playing' with it - you should manage to get some different textures into it [ this is where I mess about with Brightness , contrast , highlights and shadows and can usually get something in ].

Be careful though and make sure that you are working in non-destructive ways as you will probably need several goes at this .

The alternative is to shoot on these sort of flat grey days [ do I ever get anything else up here ? ] with a CPL on and that can help the sky.

Certainly removing the cable and arial have helped a lot.

As folk know I'm no expert , but I'm slowly getting to grips with pp work and find that just ' playing ' with what you have / know , can sometimes give you a better result than you thought was possible.

I didn't like it either - it looks as bland as the grey.

I tried fiddling with the curves/brightness/contrast but there is no decernable content in the sky

I often know when things arn't right just rarely sure what the problem is.

I'm just happy for someone to point me in a direction

regards
Bernard

A little more contrast is needed I think - try a quick curves adjustment and the shots will become much richer. (Won't help the sky though! If you want to do a sky replacement - keep it extremely subtle, on a faded out layer... you just want a 'hint' of tones in the sky without looking dramatic.)

[IMG]http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/ff444/Frogherder/IMGP6406c.jpg[/IMG]

It's becoming painfully obvious I need to practice more


regards
Bernard

A lot of this was about the light available to you - and not just the quantity. You can optimise it, but it's a bit difficult to make it something it wasn't on the day.

The re-worked shot looks fine. I don't see what else you could do... sometimes the light's just not with you and the sky is flat and white. On days like that, going for detail shots like the one of the sculpture will be more successful imo.

Thanks all - I really must figure out how to do layers properly so I can at least make an attempt to insert a sky of some sort.

I seem to make a pigs ear of cutting around trees etc which have a multitude of bits - Hair gives me the same problem so that my pic starts to look as if it was put together by a 3 year old with sissors.

regards
Bernard

Had a play
Not the best sky but it's only to show the difference a good sky makes to this type of shot.

[IMG]http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/ad254/weldingblues/Modified%20forum%20shots/Weekendwalk.jpg[/IMG]

Will remove if you require me to do so.

Regards

Hi Colin

I like it - but tell me - how did you cut around the tree and its associated twigs, as I said earlier mine always look as if they've been cut out with wall paper shears.

Bernard

Hi Bernard,

Make a new layer above the image you are working on
Find a sky or what ever to insert
Copy the sky onto the layer you made and set the opacity to around 40%
Using the eraser - set to brush mode, erase the majority of the unwanted sky that is on top of the original image i.e. the bottom bits (the image then will appear)
Zoom into the image near the edges until you see the actual pixels
using the eraser - set to block mode, carefully erase up-to the edges of the leaves etc.
And that's it.

Hope you understand the above.

BR

My approach would be as above but change the layer mode to 'multiply' and then erase the lower part of the sky using a large eraser brush set to 40 percent and maximum softness - working it so the sky becomes paler towards where it meets the trees and so a little overlap between the sky and foreground doesn't look noticeable. In other words use the sky layer a bit like a soft grad filter rather than attempting to create a perfect join between the shots.

The very English sky in no.1 never leads to a great picture but the structure with a little cropped off the bottom is good. I'd return and shoot it again with an intersting sky.

The statue is fine and would make an effective mono conversion.

The gateway is good but needs a little of the dull path cropped off.