Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: Chairman Bill on March 27, 2009, 06:10:23 pm

Title: Quantock Pines
Post by: Chairman Bill on March 27, 2009, 06:10:23 pm

A stand of old pine trees on the Quantock Hills, Somerset, UK. There's some banding effect (no idea of the technical term) noticeable in the sky to the right of the far left tree. Any simple means of dealing with this sort of thing? (I'm using Aperture, don't have Photoshop)
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3456/3390963602_bf1c2254ac_b.jpg)

Title: Quantock Pines
Post by: dalethorn on March 27, 2009, 07:25:17 pm

Very nice photo - I enlarged it but don't see any banding. I see hills or something near the bottom, a cloud layer above that, and a thin cloud layer or jet trail above that. Everything else looks clean.

Title: Quantock Pines
Post by: Chairman Bill on March 28, 2009, 03:44:10 am

I wonder then whether it's my monitor. Towards the top of the photo, the sky shows up as distinct patchy bands of darkness rather than a smooth gradation.

Title: Quantock Pines
Post by: John R on March 28, 2009, 07:03:26 am

Quote from: Chairman Bill

I wonder then whether it's my monitor. Towards the top of the photo, the sky shows up as distinct patchy bands of darkness rather than a smooth gradation.

I have 22 inch monitor and what I see is banding or clustering, barely perceptible, where the sky turns from dark to light rapidly at the top left just to the right of the most left tree. IMO this comes from altering the contrast-brightness controls too much. I have done this myself and your image has an infrared look which often produces this kind of banding or clustering and makes part of the image unrealistic looking. Try a one time BW conversion paying close attention to the contrast alterations. The more you alter your image at the extreme ends of the contrast-brightness controls, the more this kind of look will appear.

As much as I like the composition, the lighting looks unrealistic. But perhaps that is the look you are going for.

JMR

Title: Quantock Pines
Post by: jasonrandolph on March 29, 2009, 12:05:03 pm

I did see some banding, although I had to look closely to see it.  The real proof would be to make a print and see if it shows up.  As for the image itself, the contrast is quite strong, maybe just a bit too strong.  Otherwise, there's nice detail in the light side of the trees.  The composition is nice, with eyes drawn to the dominant tree one-third og the way to the right.  Nice photo.

Title: Quantock Pines
Post by: Chairman Bill on March 29, 2009, 03:12:50 pm

Thanks for the feedback. I've reduced the contrast a bit, which certainly cleans things up a bit
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3551/3395434979_efca772393_b.jpg)

Title: Quantock Pines
Post by: ProPhotoInsights on March 29, 2009, 03:25:05 pm

Are you retouching in 16 bit?
Making large movements in PS etc in 8bit will produce posterisation and normally can show up in the historgram as large gaps.
Cheers,
Simon (also somerset)

Title: Quantock Pines
Post by: John R on March 29, 2009, 05:06:51 pm

Quote from: Chairman Bill

Thanks for the feedback. I've reduced the contrast a bit, which certainly cleans things up a bit

Certainly this second version looks more realistic and I like it better. Not sure I understand the problem, is this image full of backlight and that is why it appears so contrasty?

JMR

Title: Quantock Pines
Post by: Chairman Bill on March 29, 2009, 05:31:11 pm

The trees have a heavy hoar frost covering much of them, so the contrast looks rather more pronounced as a result