Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Landscape & Nature Photography => Topic started by: batmura on October 13, 2013, 02:12:48 pm

Title: Which pp do you prefer?
Post by: batmura on October 13, 2013, 02:12:48 pm: #1
(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8259/10251531554_0e22ef8424_c.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/batmura/10251531554/)
Riva 3 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/batmura/10251531554/) by batmura (http://www.flickr.com/people/batmura/), on Flickr

#2
(http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5485/10251705155_45c2de4331_c.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/batmura/10251705155/)
Riva 2 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/batmura/10251705155/) by batmura (http://www.flickr.com/people/batmura/), on Flickr
Title: Re: Which pp do you prefer?
Post by: Jeremy Roussak on October 13, 2013, 02:33:15 pm: The second one looks, with respect, absolutely ghastly. I think it probably shows more detail than the first, but the toning is really unpleasant. IMHO, naturally.

Jeremy
Title: Re: Which pp do you prefer?
Post by: batmura on October 13, 2013, 02:46:39 pm: Thanks, Jeremy. I appreciate your honest C&C.
Title: Re: Which pp do you prefer?
Post by: KMRennie on October 13, 2013, 06:03:05 pm: First one for me. The tone in the second one is not for me even though it looks as though it has more detail in the bright areas.
Ken
Title: Re: Which pp do you prefer?
Post by: mrazster on October 13, 2013, 06:04:33 pm: The first one...by far.
The post processing is lovely...love the grayscale !
Title: Re: Which pp do you prefer?
Post by: john beardsworth on October 13, 2013, 06:08:07 pm: #1

But burn in the sky .
Title: Re: Which pp do you prefer?
Post by: batmura on October 13, 2013, 06:35:37 pm: What do you mean by "burn in the sky" John? Were you suggesting I should have shot during sunset perhaps?
Title: Re: Which pp do you prefer?
Post by: john beardsworth on October 14, 2013, 02:34:36 am: No, it's from darkroom language (used in Photoshop's dodge and burn tools) and means to darken. What are you using - Photoshop? If so, try adding a curves adjustment layer to darken the sky and apply a graduated mask to it - like adding a neutral grad. While a light sky invites the eye to drift up and out of the frame, this will push the eye into the body of the image.
Title: Re: Which pp do you prefer?
Post by: batmura on October 14, 2013, 12:50:36 pm: John, I am using Lightroom and I already darkened the sky a bit despite having used a grad filter. I didN't think making too dark would work. Thanks for your valuable feedback. I will try that in the future.
Title: Re: Which pp do you prefer?
Post by: john beardsworth on October 14, 2013, 01:50:39 pm: One idea that often works on skies is to give the LR grad filter a negative value for the highlights or for the shadows - it can be more subtle and targeted than negative exposure - and you can always apply a few grads to build up the effect.

In general, the eye is attracted to the lighter areas of a B&W image, so light regions near the picture's edge tend to lead the viewer out of the frame and away from the subject. So B&W's often benefit from a little "edge burning" where the edges are darkened and hold the image together (that's the vignetting in the Effects panel). But I certainly wouldn't want to impose my taste on you - just encourage you to do more B&W.
Title: Re: Which pp do you prefer?
Post by: batmura on October 14, 2013, 07:07:08 pm: John, what you described in the second paragraph about using vignettes makes perfect sense. Thanks so much for broadening my horizon! I would really experiment more with monochrome, but so far I have been dissatisfied with my processing. I am also using Silver Efex Pro 2 because it has some nice presets.

What I am not clear about is giving the grad filter in LR a negative value. I actually pulled the highlights all the way to the left while also darkening the exposure a stop. Then, I boosted the contrast. Should I have only pushed the highlights without touching anything else and add another grad filter on top of it repeating the step?

Thanks a lot for your help and time!
Title: Re: Which pp do you prefer?
Post by: Roman Racela on October 14, 2013, 08:20:26 pm: I like the 1st one but make the sky a tad bit darker. I would like to see a revision of the 2nd image with 50% less toning. :)