Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: Jonathan Wienke on November 25, 2006, 08:48:24 am

Title: A Rainy Afternoon In Trier
Post by: Jonathan Wienke on November 25, 2006, 08:48:24 am
Here's an image I captured in Trier, Germany recently; constructive criticisms welcomed.
Title: A Rainy Afternoon In Trier
Post by: boku on November 25, 2006, 08:57:12 am
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Here's an image I captured in Trier, Germany recently; constructive criticisms welcomed.
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Johnathan,

The sky looks very rich - don't change a thing. On the village, have you tried a bit of curves to bring up the low tone just a bit to show more detail?

Another thing I would experiment with is perspective control. Plumbing up the verticals might be an intriguing concept. Certainly your 1Ds image has enough pixel to support such manipulation. Just a thought, worth a try?

I think the tint (assuming there is one) suits the material perfectly. Again, very rich and Teutonic.

On a totally unrelated note - how have you been? I sure hope you found that the military is suiting you and delivering the intended returns you were seeking.
Title: A Rainy Afternoon In Trier
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on November 25, 2006, 11:24:46 am
I would also like to see a bit more detail in the shadows, but please keep the sky as is.

The tonalities remind me of prints I used to make in the "wet" darkroom that looked great in the fixer, but dried down, losing shadow detail. I think the shadows can go lighter without losing the rich sense of mystery.

<End Criticism -- Begin Useless Ego Stroking> I like the picture.  

-Eric
Title: A Rainy Afternoon In Trier
Post by: john beardsworth on November 25, 2006, 11:49:43 am
The current picture is very bottom heavy, and you lose the lead in line to the church on the right. Lift the landscape with a curve gently brightening its midtones and shadows. Then add a second curve with a graduated mask, darkening the sky. You need to radically darken the sky's highlights - the bright qtr tones should output below half tones, so you have a really steep incline into the highlights. I tried this earlier but only posted after seeing two "leave the sky alone" posts - make more of the sky.

John
Title: A Rainy Afternoon In Trier
Post by: Jonathan Wienke on November 25, 2006, 03:19:55 pm
I made some curve adjustment layers for the sky and buildings, and darkened the the sky a little and lightened up the ground and buildings.
Title: A Rainy Afternoon In Trier
Post by: john beardsworth on November 25, 2006, 03:26:34 pm
And that's remarkably similar to my version. I also tweaked the perspective.

John
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Title: A Rainy Afternoon In Trier
Post by: Jonathan Wienke on November 25, 2006, 05:06:13 pm
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<End Criticism -- Begin Useless Ego Stroking> I like the picture. 

Hey, at least you offered some non-useless feedback to go with the ego-stroking, so I'll let it slide this time...
Title: A Rainy Afternoon In Trier
Post by: Morgan_Moore on December 09, 2006, 01:41:27 pm
 
Title: A Rainy Afternoon In Trier
Post by: Bobtrips on December 09, 2006, 03:09:12 pm
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I made some curve adjustment layers for the sky and buildings, and darkened the the sky a little and lightened up the ground and buildings.
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Lightening the city helps.  Increases the details.

There are a couple of bright spots that capture my eye without reason.  I'd tone them down a bit - awing center right and sign(?) lower just right of center.

And it looks like you might have a slight sharpening halo along the city/sky boundary.
Title: A Rainy Afternoon In Trier
Post by: Jonathan Wienke on December 12, 2006, 01:17:30 pm
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And it looks like you might have a slight sharpening halo along the city/sky boundary.

The sharpening halo is actually more of an I-need-to-blend-the sky-and-ground-adjustment-layer-transition-better thing; sort of like doing HDR blending and making it look natural.