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Author Topic: Won't you please help me  (Read 5068 times)

wmchauncey

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Won't you please help me
« on: October 31, 2013, 02:19:47 pm »

No, it's not the Beatles...but don't know what to do with these swans which is part of a series of three images



I think that they're getting lost in the water...have made numerous detailed selections. Suggestions?
Want drama...
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Won't you please help me
« Reply #1 on: October 31, 2013, 02:22:16 pm »

Contrast their golden light with bluer water?

Christoph C. Feldhaim

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Re: Won't you please help me
« Reply #2 on: October 31, 2013, 03:10:13 pm »

I allowed myself to do a slightly exaggerated edit:

wmchauncey

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Re: Won't you please help me
« Reply #3 on: October 31, 2013, 06:05:10 pm »

In the past I've gone with both a light and a dark background...





Which might you prefer...or is there another direction that I might try?
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fike

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Re: Won't you please help me
« Reply #4 on: November 01, 2013, 10:04:46 am »

Unless you want to do something much more interpretive like chauncey has, I would suggest you crop it more tightly and work towards a wider aspect ratio.  The capture is excellent, but slightly churned water like this is rarely a great background. Normally I would suggest not trying with water like this, but the light on the birds is wonderful and the splashes in their wake are really pretty.  I would crop more of the bottom and top.  this will make it wider and reinforce the movement from right to left.  If this version is cropped at all, I would preserve as much to the left of the swans as possible.  If you are into it, you could even do a content aware scaling in photoshop to stretch that left-hand area out a bit. 
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brandtb

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Re: Won't you please help me
« Reply #5 on: November 01, 2013, 10:16:48 am »

as with previous poster...the main thing is getting the crop right...the crop as first posted...is working against your subjects.
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Chris Calohan

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Re: Won't you please help me
« Reply #6 on: November 01, 2013, 10:22:02 am »

I didn't mess with the crop but did some changes to the color of the water to provide a stronger contrast. Also popped up the brighter points of light in the water near their feet.

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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Won't you please help me
« Reply #7 on: November 01, 2013, 05:52:01 pm »

There is nothing wrong with the composition. It allows for a breathing room, space for birds to fly into, sense of place. Crop it too much and you get a crammed feeling. The OP is 8x10 ratio, so with different paper sizes it might withstand some cropping at top and/or bottom, but that's about it.

It is already fine as is. One may play a bit with white balance, contrast, clarity, etc. to season it to taste, though. This would be mine version:

davidh202

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Re: Won't you please help me
« Reply #8 on: November 01, 2013, 08:37:12 pm »

I like that  new version Chris .The water is a bit warmer than Slobodans and more fitting with the lighting.
I would not crop the top at all but it could stand slightly more than 1/8th taken off the bottom to make the birds coming out more from the corner and room to fly into the top.

David
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wolfnowl

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Re: Won't you please help me
« Reply #9 on: November 02, 2013, 03:15:10 pm »

Well, since everyone has an opinion, when I first looked at it I saw this.  Ideally there'd be a little more space behind them, and it would be better if they were taking off and not landing, but you can't have everything!

Mike.
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wmchauncey

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Re: Won't you please help me
« Reply #10 on: November 02, 2013, 03:33:55 pm »

All you guys are doing is arguing over the crop aspect...I'm looking for "vision" from the Post Processing perspective.     ???
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Christoph C. Feldhaim

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Re: Won't you please help me
« Reply #11 on: November 02, 2013, 03:40:55 pm »

All you guys are doing is arguing over the crop aspect...I'm looking for "vision" from the Post Processing perspective.     ???

Dude - did you see my awesome super-duper motion blur ? Thats vision ! :P

wmchauncey

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Re: Won't you please help me
« Reply #12 on: November 02, 2013, 07:05:51 pm »

Aah...not exactly what I had in mind Chris.      ;)
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wolfnowl

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Re: Won't you please help me
« Reply #13 on: November 03, 2013, 01:25:18 am »

Here ya go

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Tonysx

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Re: Won't you please help me
« Reply #14 on: November 03, 2013, 07:17:32 pm »

All you guys are doing is arguing over the crop aspect...I'm looking for "vision" from the Post Processing perspective.     ???

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stamper

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Re: Won't you please help me
« Reply #15 on: November 04, 2013, 03:55:44 am »

Darken the corners to make the area around the swans appear lighter?

Ed Blagden

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Re: Won't you please help me
« Reply #16 on: November 04, 2013, 07:49:47 am »

How 'bout this?

Increased exposure slightly and upped the highlights, then added a vignette.  Finally I painted all the OOF water and reduced clarity.

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wmchauncey

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Re: Won't you please help me
« Reply #17 on: November 05, 2013, 08:57:00 am »

Took you all's advice and ended with this...another one from the series. What say you guys?


.
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Harald L

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Re: Won't you please help me
« Reply #18 on: November 05, 2013, 09:42:37 am »

The neck could be a bit brighter and the back has a strong blue cast which should be removed.

Harald
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stamper

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Re: Won't you please help me
« Reply #19 on: November 05, 2013, 09:55:07 am »

Harald is correct. :)
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