Critiques please - NOT my cat this time!

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

01/23/2005 05:59:01 PM · #1

A couple of photos I took a few years ago in San Diego.
Just played with converting them yesterday.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

rscorp

Nikon D70

01/23/2005 06:02:42 PM · #2

I like the pier shot a lot, especially the tones that you used. Sets a very nice mood. Nice composition too.

01/23/2005 06:06:42 PM · #3

Originally posted by rscorp:

I like the pier shot a lot, especially the tones that you used. Sets a very nice mood. Nice composition too.

Thanks!
I was a little concerned the right portion of the shot was a bit flat in appearance and the composition was not quite right.

Message edited by author 2005-01-23 18:07:21.

just-married

Canon EOS-10D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

01/23/2005 11:56:43 PM · #4

Originally posted by autumncat:

I was a little concerned the right portion of the shot was a bit flat in appearance and the composition was not quite right.

That was my first reaction, and I was going to suggest curves, but it loks as if darkening the darks would severely affect the pier and water beneath it in a negative way. If your familiar with layer masking, I'd mask the left side and apply curves to the right. I think I'd also tweak the first one a bit with curves.

I like the composition of both quite a bit, and you've got a great eye for tonality if these two images are the norm for you.

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

01/24/2005 12:39:11 AM · #5

Originally posted by just-married:

Originally posted by autumncat:

I was a little concerned the right portion of the shot was a bit flat in appearance and the composition was not quite right.

That was my first reaction, and I was going to suggest curves, but it loks as if darkening the darks would severely affect the pier and water beneath it in a negative way. If your familiar with layer masking, I'd mask the left side and apply curves to the right. I think I'd also tweak the first one a bit with curves.

I like the composition of both quite a bit, and you've got a great eye for tonality if these two images are the norm for you.

Thanks very much for your comments and suggestions. I REALLY need to learn how to do the layer and masking thing. I just got a couple of books for Elements 2 - but haven't had a chance to read up on those tecniques that you suggested.

I lightened the pier shot by using fill flash in Elements. It seemed to really improve the texture of the shack - but it probably also flattened the right portion.

Do you know what the equivalent of curves would be in software that doesn't do curves?

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

01/24/2005 01:17:01 AM · #6

Levels is a cruder way of gaining the same effect you gain with curves. The following is far from optimal (I didn't want to take the time to do precise selection on this lo-res image, and I had to grayscale it to work with it, then duotoned it back differently than your original) but it shows some of what is possible.

The sky was selected, a new layer was made, the selection was inverted and the foreground was deleted. On that layer I went to layer blending options, chose gradient ovrlay, adjusted the gradient to favor the upper right, and faded it until it looked reasonable. The selection has been saved.

Then I made a new layer from background, loaded the selection and deleted the sky, and applies a gradient to that as well.

I flattened thjis image, then selected everything but the pier, more or less (I didn't take the time to select the bright reflections under the pier, and it shows), inverted the selection, and did levels on the pier. Then I reverted the selection and did levels on everything else.

Finally I duotoned it, then converted back to RGB and saved as a jpeg.

It's realtively crude, but you can see what's possible. It would work much better going from the original before you had toned it. I definitely may have gone in a direction you don't want to go in, this was just an exercise to show how an image can be evened with layers and gradients and levels.

Robt.

Message edited by author 2005-01-24 01:58:48.

01/28/2005 04:22:01 PM · #7

Bear_music - thanks so much for taking time to work on that photo.
I'm sorry to have been delayed in commenting.
I like how the sky has more interest now.
Honestly, I've read through the steps you noted - and I'm lost.
When you "select" the sky - how do you specifically do that? Do you have to use a manual selection tool to draw around the building?
And you also mentioned inverting the image - inverting, as in a negative of the image?

If you don't have time to answer these questions or go into the explanation further - no problem. These are things I am trying to learn and teach myself - just haven't had time to study it as much as I need to.

Kylie

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35

01/28/2005 04:28:54 PM · #8

Autumncat - great pier shot. I am in the same boat as you - I haven't had the time to learn any advanced editing either. You asked what the equivalent might be for Curves in PS Elements - well, the way I have been told, it is a much more precise and superior way of adjusting Levels. I use the Curves in MS Digital Image Pro 10 now. I also know there is the program/book "Hidden Elements" that enables you to do many of these things in Elements. If you do a search of the forums, you will find many threads on this, also. Good luck!!!!

Edit: And I love your cat photos!!

Message edited by author 2005-01-28 16:29:36.