Advice sought on gallery pictures

[HowardB]

I acknowledge there is (massive) room for improvement and most of the pictures would benefit from additional processing – I don’t know where to begin! With the exception of two raw files that were converted to JPEG (adjusting white balance along the way) the rest are straight out of the camera in JPEG.

The images were reduced in size and the JPEG compression varied to get them below the file size limit. Some were cropped to remove unneeded details from the image.

My main questions are –

1

2

In the above photos, the colour of the water looks wrong, yet the geese and people appear ok. Granted, you’re lucky if you see the sea at Southport and its never Mediterranean blue, but this just looks grey (and horrible). Is there anything to be done to make the pics better?

3

4

The above two pictures were both shot in raw (my first attempts with raw). I then picked a white and tried to adjust colour balance. To me, they are too blue (=cold?). What other processing needs to be done to make these reasonable pictures?

5

6

Above are two pictures of a storm coming in from over winter hill. I prefer #5. I think #6 needs additional cropping?

7

I’m not sure of the colouring of the Windmill picture, can the picture be made better?

8

Finally, can anybody identify this bird ? I hear it screeching every time I cycle by the field, would like to know what it is!

I look forward to any comments people may wish to make. Go easy though!

Thanks

 

[CT]

Your bird is a Lapwing.

You'll get more response if you post your pics directly into this thread Howard.

All you need to do is open your pic in Gallery, right click on it, select Properties, and,copy the location from the top of that page. When you post the pic in the thread all you need to do is paste the location (url) between these two tags

with no blanks, for the pic to appear in the thread.

Where you're posting several pics, it's easier to format the post in Notepad or Wordpad then copy and paste the whole thing as your post here.

There's a full 'How To' HERE

 

[Hacker]

Hi Howard,

I've just had a quick look at your pics and here are my thoughts:

In the photos geese at boating lake and in the sea at Southport, the colour of the water looks wrong, yet the geese and people appear ok. Granted, you’re lucky if you see the sea at Southport and its never Mediterranean blue, but this just looks grey (and horrible). Is there anything to be done to make the pics better?

Not a lot that can be done with the water unless you change the colour in PS (or whatever editing tool you use) but this might make it look artificial.

WinterHill 1 and 2 were both shot in raw (my first attempts with raw). I then picked a white and tried to adjust colour balance. To me, they are too blue (=cold?). What other processing needs to be done to make these reasonable pictures?

I like the first one, if you don't like the balance try adjusting in your Raw processing workflow stage. I would also clone out the ariel as my eye keeps getting drawn to it.

I’ve included two pictures of storm over winter hill. I prefer #1. I think #2 needs additional cropping?

Unfortunately there is no foreground interest and I would crop away the field. It might look good in mono, give it a go.

I’m not sure of the colouring of the Windmill picture, can the picture be made better?

If this were mine I'd crop out the post on the right and maybe even the bench so the windmill is on the right side of the picture. I'd adjust the shadows and highlights to bring out the texture of the wall a bit more and reduce the glare.

Just my tuppence worth!

 

[CT]

Your first pic is the best for me Howard, although I might crop some of the foreground. The sea colour is mostly just a reflection of the sky and if it's drab and grey that's what you get. It looks perfectly correct, and PS meddling is only likely to make it look false as Hacker says.

Your landscapes could all do with a bit of a sharpen, but they're OK. Adding some foreground interest helps to give depth and interest to the shot. Just getting lower and making more of the foreground grasses would have achieved this in Shot 5, although a more obvious focal point of interest would help too.

The colour balance of your windmill shot looks fine on my monitor.

 

[HowardB]

Hacker:

Not a lot that can be done with the water unless you change the colour in PS (or whatever editing tool you use) but this might make it look artificial.

I tried an auto adjust in PSE4 and it made the water a better colour, but the people and the geese were spoilt. I will leave both as is. I really like the geese picture.

I like the first one, if you don't like the balance try adjusting in your Raw processing workflow stage. I would also clone out the ariel as my eye keeps getting drawn to it.

Point noted, however for me, winter hill without the antennae isn’t winter hill.

Unfortunately there is no foreground interest and I would crop away the field. It might look good in mono, give it a go.

I think I will loose picture #6 and keep picture #5 – that had quite a bit cropped off it (water overflow for reservoir below me). I’ll give it a go in mono tonight. See my note at the bottom of this post regarding getting the comments wrong with regard to these two pictures.

If this were mine I'd crop out the post on the right and maybe even the bench so the windmill is on the right side of the picture. I'd adjust the shadows and highlights to bring out the texture of the wall a bit more and reduce the glare.

I played with cropping this photo so that I had just the church and windmill in the frame and then just the windmill, so at least I’m thinking along the right lines!


CT:

Your first pic is the best for me Howard, although I might crop some of the foreground.

I did experiment with cropping this picture but left it as is. Whilst it’s clear that they aren’t walking on water, I wanted to try and show them as being well away from the shore, yet ankle deep, nearly walking on water!

Your landscapes could all do with a bit of a sharpen, but they're OK. Adding some foreground interest helps to give depth and interest to the shot. Just getting lower and making more of the foreground grasses would have achieved this in Shot 5, although a more obvious focal point of interest would help too.

Yes, my photos do lack that certain something. I’m still in the P&S mindset, instead of trying to compose an interesting picture – if that makes sense! What would sharpening the image achieve or overcome? I will try it tonight on the image though.

Thanks for identifying the bird.


Further Edit:

I’ve just noticed that I posted pictures 5 and 6 in the wrong order; as such my comments regarding additional cropping made no sense. I have now added numbers to the pictures and made the comments match.

 

[CT]

Yes, my photos do lack that certain something. I’m still in the P&S mindset, instead of trying to compose an interesting picture – if that makes sense! What would sharpening the image achieve or overcome? I will try it tonight on the image though.

.

It makes perfect sense Howard, don't worry though, you'll get there.

You should always sharpen an image after you've reduced it in size for web viewing anyway, as some resolution is lost in the process. Just applying USM in small amounts can give the pic much more clarity and sharpness, and get rid of some of the digital haze.