Grass had grown up tall around this fire hydrant, making it seem both abandoned and cheerfully purposeful at the same time. Taken from the JPG, not RAW, for the Exposure II Mentorship program.
Shadows: 60/40/200, +5 midtone contrast
Lens correct, angle, 358 deg (The original was handheld and slightly crooked; I took more shots after setting up a tripod, but by that point, the lighting had gone flat on me. Looking at it, it still seems slightly off, but not so much so that I feel driven to go back and correct it right now.)
Crop to 3300x2200, cutting angled edges
Brightness/Contrast: Brightness +8, Contrast +5
Levels: Enhance Monochromatic Contrast
Selective Color:
Yellow:
Cyan: -10
Yellow: +10
Black: -10
(The yellow on the hydrant was still a bit dreary, and this also made the scene a little more cheerful looking by slightly enhancing the flowers in the background.)
Smart Sharpen (Lens Blur), 80%, 1.0 (my basic sharpening settings for an image that is fundamentally sharp to start with)
Flatten Image
Resize
Smart Sharpen (Gaussian Blur): 50%, 0.3 (a final output sharpen to counteract softness from the resize)
It's really difficult to come up with something that hasn't already been said. I think you did a great job bringing out the colors of the hydrant. It does seem cheery!
As for the twirly stem.....I like it.
-Laura
Wonderful colors that you have gotten exactly right! I would crop off the OOF section on the bottom, though - and clone out that curly plant as Tallbloke suggested :)
Zed, you've done a nice job with this in general but I want to highlight a few things I think are important.
You said you rejected some edits because they "didn't seem to go along with the story" you were telling. I think this is tremendously important. It is easy to get caught up in edits for their own sake, but we need to remember we ARE telling a story and whatever edits we do should contribute to the story.
Secondly, you used a light touch with the tools. I am a big fan of "the light touch." As with women's fashions, sometime what you don't see is more exciting than what you do. A light touch allows you to imply something rather than shout it out loud.
I like the contrast of the "industrial" against the natural not only in texture, but coloration as well. The warm bright tones against the cool grassy ones are a true stand out. I can't remember if I saw the first shot, but this one is a keeper for sure!
Thanks, Pidge. I actually considered both boosting the greens, and further boosting the red and yellow, but found that going much brighter on the hydrant made it seem newer (though I suppose I could have nudged it up just a slight bit further), and that didn't seem to go along with the story I was telling with the shot. Also, making the grass greener had the net effect of cooling the image, which made it seem a little less carefree and cheerful. I didn't consider desaturating the grass at the time, but after spending a few minutes on it, I've decided that I don't really like the look of it (plus the fact that although everything I've done so far would fit in Basic Editing, I'd have to use a gradient to desat the grass in the topmost portion due to the high amount of yellow in it). The result was a starker contrast... but it looked unnatural.
Very nice. It's interesting, as I personally would have tried to intensify the green in the grass, but what you've done is quite nice as it offsets the hydrant. My only critique is to maybe either make the hydrant more saturated, or desaturate the grass a bit more so the contrast is a bit starker. This is completely a matter of personal taste.
I think your PS version really increased the perception of depth of this photo... And you started out with an amazing depth of field shot with a blury, sharp, blury gradient that really works well!
IMHO, increasing the yellow color even more to a brighter one would help further! I love the sun streaks on the grass... In the end, the exposure seems perfect to me!
Well done.
Armelle