Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: AndrewKulin on September 10, 2009, 10:24:01 pm

Title: Canoists
Post by: AndrewKulin on September 10, 2009, 10:24:01 pm

I'd like opinions on the use of clarity on this photograph.  Everything about these versions is identical except for the clarity slider in ACR.  

Basic version (Clarity at +5%):  
[attachment=16510:Canoists..._Clarity.jpg]

Version with minus (-) 100% clarity applied:
[attachment=16511:Canoists..._Clarity.jpg]

Hybrid (canoe and people at +5% clarity, remainder at -100%):
[attachment=16512:Canoists..._Clarity.jpg]

My preference at the moment is leaning towards the two with the -100% clarity - as the background trees+shoreline show a painted effect.

Thanks

Andrew

Title: Canoists
Post by: JeffKohn on September 10, 2009, 10:59:14 pm

I don't like negative clarity.  To me it doesn't look painterly, it just looks blech. There are other ways to get that painterly effect or a diffuse glow. Somebody posted some "painting-like" images here a while back, I don't remember the name of the plugin he used but the result was much better than what you can get with negative clarity.

I do agree that in this particularly image, smoothing out the background is desirable, though.