* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #845 / Revived #065 on 2024 06 26 *

I'm responding to this version because I like it best of the various versions posted. It's quite a fine moon image, with more (fascinating) detail than I usually see in those images and certainly more than I can get with my limited abilities and my humble m43 kit. Mad respect for the photographer and his equipment, which he clearly knows how to use to best advantage.

Another pretty shot of a bird I shall never meet, with a rainbow of natural coloring that boggles the mind. I do like the unusual effect of the shadow of his beak and the quizzical posture. I think some brightening would help combat the effects of the contrasty lighting, add some facial detail and clarify the wonderful colors - maybe raising shadows and overall brightness or maybe even some selective brightening around his mask too. You are becoming a bird whisperer!

A pleasing set that conveys the sense of place. I like them all but the one with the dog stands out - well, because of the dog! The dog helps make the place real for me. I appreciate that you made thoughtful choices about shutter speed to preserve the sense of wildness in the water even when you slowed things down some. The raging nature of this river is a significant part of the personality of this place, and even though a very slow shutter (and ND filter) could have smoothed it all into a fairyland scene that might have been pleasing in its own way, it would not have conveyed the power of that water. Lovely place, lovely photos.

You've caught an oddity there, and illustrated it by how you framed the image with that concrete barrier (support post?) separating the sides of the garage or station that are lit differently. That they are both seemingly abandoned gives a sort of post apocalyptic feel to the image. It is hard to look at this without feeling alone. Interesting capture.

Very good idea, thank you.
(I am really not good at selective PP.
I suppose you turned my wife into a layer
or you lassoed her (it's been a while since I last did that)
or you masked everything but her
or something else like that..
I should remember to use that kind of tricks more.)

Faux Victorian

A commercial building at the main intersection in Carlsbad, CA. It houses, what else?, a surf shop.

Not a lot of artistic work for the photographer. Present it honestly. Line it up straight. Correct some perspective distortion.

And include the palm tree to give some SoCal location flavor, as well as the crow saluting Old Glory. Don't get no better'n that.

Rich

Thank you for your comments minniev 🙂

I posted earlier that this type of image is not everyone's cup of tea and I have no issue with that because it gets people talking about my images.

There are some who like it very much and some who don't like it at all.

I obviously like it as is and it looks good on my screen so making adjustments to suit some who don't like something about it is most likely going to lead some who currently like it as is to find something they now dislike.

Feel free to edit my version and post it Sagittarius 🙂

I like high contrast b&w or close to b&w images so I settled for that version.

The final look of these types of images is very subjective.

You're welcome 🙂

I used 2 layers.

I first selected your wife and used the selection to create a layer mask on a Levels Adjustment Layer to brighten her a bit.

The scarf still looked a bit dull so I selected just the scarf and used the selection to create a layer mask on a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer. I bumped up the saturation to help the scarf pop a bit.

It is very hard to work with small JPEG, but I tried

Thank you Sagittarius. I don't normally keep raw files after I have finished converting and editing them.

I experimented with various looks and feels when I first processed the original raw file and finally settled on the version I posted. With full moon photos there is a lot of flexibility for adjusting shades and tones and they can all look nice to different people. It's a matter for the creator to finally settle on a version they are happiest with.

Agree!

Thank you for explaining these good ideas.

No problem 🙂

You could also cut your wife onto a separate layer and resize and reposition to anything that might look better. But you would need to use content-aware fill, cloning or similar to fill in where she was cut out of. Here I just enlarged her a bit and brought her forward to help make her standout a bit more. This covers most of where she was originally in the frame so filling in the "hole" is fairly straight forward.

LA GRANDE BELLEZZA - ON CLONING/HEALING vs IN SITU COMPOSITION

This is an interesting trick and well done, so I thank you for showing it to me.

But it is something that I would never do (and this is not a value judgement, but just my POV).

At heart I am still a documentary photographer, so moving a subject around in the frame is basically a no-go for me.
I also hardly ever clone/heal anything. I would certainly not extend the frame (although I do crop) or use AI to fill in missing parts of an image.

I want my images (in principle) adhere to the rules for photojournalism: no manipulation.
This does not mean : no post-processing.
But in general I limit myself to what could be done in the traditional dark room: cropping, straightening, and such.
I enhance brightness, contrast, saturation and all that just like the next guy.
So basically I will manipulate the LOOK of an image but not the CONTENT.
Distortion correction is borderline. It depends on the objectives.

BTW this does not mean that I am holier than the pope.
There have been instances where I have cloned out that one candy wrapper from an otherwise pristine beach.
But I then soothe myself with the thought that I could've also removed the wrapper in real life.
And I only do it in images that are intended as "beauty shots" or "artistic", never in my documentary series.

In general, I try to create a good composition at the location, carefully positioning the elements of the frame and choosing my own vantage point and focal length to create the best visual tension without overlaps, and avoiding (or hiding) distractions.
This does not mean that I stage my shots. Obviously this one was posed, but 99% of my images are just snaps of the dynamic situation before me, so that process of positioning and compositioning happens instinctively and super fast.

Now to get back to this particular case and your effort and result :

1) Your effort is valiant, but an attentive viewer can still see that the image is manipulated.
That my wife's legs are straight while the little columns behind her are distorted, is a clear give-away.
Being closer to the camera and the edge of the frame should have resulted in bent legs.
That is, BTW, also the reason why I could not ask her to just move closer.
Getting her as close to the center (thus higher in the frame without overlapping the important center balcony behind her) was paramount.

2) I thought it was actually a benefit for the image that she was balancing on that precariously slim metal bar.
It adds fun to the image and the pose, and tells you that my wife is willing to jump through a few hoops for me (sometimes).

And that is why I value your input in showing me the selective brightening of the image. I might do that in the future.
And I value also you showing me to take it a step further, but I don't see myself doing that in the future.

It is not really my personal cup of tea (taking as criterium: would I hang this on a wall for me to look at it more often).
But I do appreciate every expression of creativity and the willingness to share it.
Much like with LouHolland actually (a former contributor whose PP experiments went often in the same kind of direction).

No problem Roel 😊

I don't normally move elements about in a scene unless it's necessary for some reason. But given that "she who must be obeyed" likes to be "featured" in any photos I take of her I thought I would try with your image as well

It needs a bit of tidying up to be a final image that looks totally realistic but this was just meant to be a quick proof of concept without necessarily being perfect.

Anyway, you have some food for thought for the future now 😊

We are on the same page.