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Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections
Krikkit


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Morning (Advanced Editing IV)
Camera: Nikon D70s
Lens: Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM for Nikon
Location: Coloma, CA
Date: Oct 14, 2006
Aperture: 1.4
ISO: 450
Shutter: 1/8000
Galleries: Landscape, Nature
Date Uploaded: Oct 15, 2006

Taken at a spot we love in Coloma CA. Saturday morning. Editing was pretty basic; convert from RAW,(thanx to those of you who helped me out with that) USM, hue/saturation, cropped (probably should have cropped more on the right) and resized. I have only entered one challenge before this one. I hope you all like it! If not, I guess it's back to the start and try again!

Statistics
Place: 117 out of 188
Avg (all users): 5.4065
Avg (commenters): 7.0000
Avg (participants): 5.3253
Avg (non-participants): 5.4580
Views since voting: 809
Views during voting: 316
Votes: 214
Comments: 5
Favorites: 1 (view)


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AuthorThread
10/29/2006 10:37:39 PM
*Critique Club*

Congrats on a good score for your second challenge!

I don't do RAW and I don't know much if anything about converting, but I will try to comment on the other steps you mentioned in your comments.

I like the composition. Although I agree that a bit of a tigher crop on the right probably wouldn't have hurt, I love the overall shapes that the landscape and the reflection make. Your application of USM was good as I can see plenty of details but no signs of too much sharpening.

Hue and saturation look pretty good, although the shot overall looks washed out. I think that has less to do with hue and saturation, though, and more to do with levels or curves.

Pretty much always the first step I take when post processing is to use "auto levels" (in Photoshop). I may not always use the result, but it gives me a great idea of how the darks and lights in my shot should be balanced. I was working on a picture today, however, where auto levels gave my nice orange and yellow colors a greenish tint. So that is where I manually adjust the levels. Basically I want the lightest and darkest points of the histogram (the triangle sliders) to match up with the lightest and darkest points of the graph (so if the graph were to stop on the right, say a centimeter before the end, I might put the right slider a centimeter before the end as well). (This is a bad explanation but I hope it gets across at least a basic idea.) I don't use curves as much but some people prefer that to levels adjustments - I just don't know as much about it.

Why I'm saying all this is because the main problem I see with your shot is that the darks look too dark and muddy and the lights look too light, or washed out. Try playing around with the levels and see if you can get it to look a bit better. (I know this was a morning challenge where a lot of light was probably the point in a shot like this, but maybe this can give you ideas on where to go in the future.)

I hope this helps - PM me if you have any questions! :-) I am glad to see you participating in challenges - I love the seagull shot - and your portfolio shots are interesting as well :-)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
10/20/2006 07:51:17 PM
a morning photo, with a tremendous reflection.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
10/18/2006 05:46:30 AM
Superb! Wonderfully still water; beautiful colours.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
10/16/2006 01:37:33 PM
Meets Challenge - 2
Lighting/Composition/Processing - 3
Overall Impression - 2
"WOW" factor - 1
Score: 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
10/16/2006 12:27:58 AM
Beautiful landscape, wonderful reflection.
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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