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Legananny Dolmen
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While the HDR brought got the exposure right, I feel a little sharpening would help for web viewing. and some curves would really help put a bit more definition to the foreground shadows and the shape of the distant hills.
Your use of DOF is nice and i think it worked well.Hmmm . . . I’ve been playing about with the Shadows/Highlights tool in CS3 recently, but I’ve given this a tweak in Curves to see the difference. Shot the pic at F4, so a smaller aperture would probably have helped the background. Also recently gave up sharpening images unless printing (stock agency reasons) and totally forgot to sharpen this for upload, so I’ve given it a touch in Unsharp Mask. No HDR in this, just a straightforward JPG. The lens I used has been on my SLR for years and it was on my DSLR for the first time during this shoot. I think quality is right up there along with my Sigma 10-20. Quality, Vibrance, Saturation all seem good. I’ve been meaning for years to try the film simulation modes in my S3 Pro, one of them is recommended for portraits and another for landscapes so I must make a point of trying them out. Alex.
OK, i see my mistake :) The shadow/highlight tool can give that hdr like look sometimes. I actually prefer your first version. The shadows are a bit darker in it.
Hope you dont mind, I just did a little S shaped curve to darken the shadows.http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o232/RaV3nous1/gxS4NxJ-510133c15d20f5253878c5aa0ac.jpg
Alex, I think you have gone too far with this – it looks like you have pushed the midtones and brought down the brightness too much. Checking the historgram, you can see the dynamic range is low. Even a quick drag of the right slider in levels improves the image no end…if you go back to the original you could really make a cracking shot.
Tried white point slider at 195 and midpoint at 0.81. Makes a difference OK. One for the work flow pattern I think! After processing, take another look at Levels! It’s the old story, put it away and look at it again in a week’s time.
RaV, I was trying to lighten the shadows a bit as I wanted the shadow detail visible. Shadows looked a bit dark on my monitor. I’ve just recently started using a LG television from Tesco’s which also functions as a monitor and I haven’t studied the CD manual yet, so my settings could well be incorrect.Thanks for everybody’s input, nice site here isn’t it? Alex.
Alex, also look into the dodge and burn tools (looks like a clawed hand and dark magnifying glass) – these allow you to brush areas to make them brighter or darker. Select the Size (of the brush), Range (Shadows, Midtones or Highlight) that you want to affect and the Exposure (% of the effect – set it around 10%) in the tool menu that appears. This will give you finer control.
Hi Alex,
Wecome along & nice image.
You have received some good advice from your fellow members.
I am only newish here myself & it is a nice site with good help for
anybody who seeks it.I would prefer if you imbedded the file so that it can be viewed when your
post is opened rather than having to click on the image. There are some
posts on how to do this.Well done.
John.
bigalguitarpicker wrote:
RaV, I was trying to lighten the shadows a bit as I wanted the shadow detail visible. Shadows looked a bit dark on my monitor. I’ve just recently started using a LG television from Tesco’s which also functions as a monitor and I haven’t studied the CD manual yet, so my settings could well be incorrect.
I would have a look at that so, not saying my monitor is completely right, but there is nothing worse(actually faulty harddrive is worse but..) than realising a bit late that something might be off and then seeing how your photos look afterwards. ;)
Theres a free program called WiziWYG XP (it seems decent enough), if you manual us not too useful or there is no software on the CD
Thanks everybody for input and comments. Finally got a look at the CD manual for my Monitor/TV and I’ve taken the plunge and changed a couple of settings. Next step is to try a print or three and see how they compare with what I’m seeing on-screen. Alex.
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