Hey folks! I am new to FM and am hoping to learn a lot from the great people of these forums. I am kind of a dullard and took me sometime to figure out how to upload a pic here. I posted this same pic in the city/street/Architecture forum. I guess this forum passed me by and I would like feedback on it if I could.

About me, I am kind of all over the place with my photography. I mainly do outdoorsy stuff and wildlife as it comes up. I am trying to expand my knowledge and skill shooting. I am a Canon guy so please don't hold that against me Nikon peeps. I just shoot with my 28-135 that came with the camera (t3i) and have rented a macro lens to try that world out. I am looking to expand my lenses as money becomes available this year. I also have been experimenting with LR4 to kind of get an idea of the processing aspect of things before I jump into PS.

Anyway, this is a cropduster that me and my girlfriend chased down in Central Illinois this summer. This is one of the handful pics I have had time to process in LR4. It was shot in jpeg and I am now shooting in RAW. C&C would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to take it and run with it and show me the way.

Looking forward to sharing more with you in the future.

Let me be the first to welcome you to this forum. This is a great place for discussion and experimentation.

You posted a cool looking image. I don't know if you intended the colors to be highly saturated to the point of being cartoonish. Generally I prefer more realistic looking colors. I hate trying to fine tune colors for a downsized image but have posted an example that has much less saturation. Unless you are going for the cartoonish look you should have little difficulty coming up with a better, less saturated version starting with a full sized image file.

Camperjim wrote:
Let me be the first to welcome you to this forum. This is a great place for discussion and experimentation.

You posted a cool looking image. I don't know if you intended the colors to be highly saturated to the point of being cartoonish. Generally I prefer more realistic looking colors. I hate trying to fine tune colors for a downsized image but have posted an example that has much less saturation. Unless you are going for the cartoonish look you should have little difficulty coming up with a better, less saturated version starting with a full sized image file.

Thanks Jim! I have 3-4 different versions of this pic. I was on the fence with the colors on this one hence me bringing it here. I am still working on my LR4 skills and I agree you didn't have much to work with.

The photo would have more visual impact if the aeroplane () wasn't smack dab in the center of the frame. Here's what I mean:

Hey Cackmandu, and welcome to FM! First of all, EW! You shoot Canon! jk :P

I agree with both Camperjim about oversaturation and Ernie that the airplane being "smack dab in the center of the frame" isn't really good. But I think since the leading lines are right below the plane, it looks a bit unbalanced and unpleasant to crop only one side of the picture (that's just my personal opinion).

What I would do is crop vertically to have just the road and the plane and nothing on the sides. I was going to upload my crop of your pic, but forgot my subscription expired recently =( So I took the liberty to upload it to my personal site on a private page. You can view it on www.hanelchoi.com/temp Hope you don't mind. =)

Anyway, that's an interesting image. The super fast shutter speed makes the plane look frozen in the air, which is interesting. I actually like how it's right above the road. Keep it up!

Cackmandu,

Let me echo the welcome of those already commenting.

I've reworked to illustrate some processing suggestions but understand ultimately you determine how things match your vision and there is an infinite number of variations on that vision.

As noted, typically "rules" suggest allowing sapce to right for subject to be perceived as moving into the frame, but as @joshim's rework illustrates, rules are also successfully broken.

You're shooting RAW now, a big improvement for gaining latitude in post-processing interpretation without introducing jpegs artifacts.

What I did, LR4, (1) reduced noise & sharpened, (2) cropped, (3) used the gradient tool to reduce foreground saturation & blurred a bit, and (4) selectively sharpened plane.

Hope this helps...

Regards & again, welcome

Bob

+1 @ Welcome to FM

Like the others have mentioned, it is a bit "overcooked".

That being said, while conventionally a centrally placed subject can present some issues, I think this is a case where it isn't nearly as problematic as it might be for another subject / scene. I think the plane's placement above the road helps with two parts of the story. One, is from the perspective of the viewer traveling along the road, the other is from the crop duster moving from the corn field to the bean field. The ability to distinguish the two fields being different is kinda aided by the plane's position between them.

I've thrown some noise/blur at the sky, and also some desat and levels adjust, as well as the crop.

Welcome to the forum. Good advice already and I like Bob and Kents rework and could not improve on it.

Welcome!

cackmandu wrote:
I also have been experimenting with LR4 to kind of get an idea of the processing aspect of things before I jump into PS.


LR is a really good tool, often underestimated, and you should really master it IMO before worrying about photoshop... my major complaint about post processing is the amount of time it will rob out of your life per image, so I'd advise you to stick to lightroom until it takes you no more than a couple minutes to adjust each image you import, save those exceptions you really want to do something special about (those will always be time consuming, but will be that much more rewarding as well).

cackmandu wrote:
Anyway, this is a cropduster that me and my girlfriend chased down in Central Illinois this summer. This is one of the handful pics I have had time to process in LR4. It was shot in jpeg and I am now shooting in RAW. C&C would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to take it and run with it and show me the way.


As most already pointed out, color saturation seems a bit too much - unless that's really on purpose, it should be tweaked out. Other than that, your cropping could be tweaked. Here's yet another view on your image - as you can see, there are plenty of ways to do it, and each one of us tweaked it accordingly to a particular interpretation of your original image. It really depends on what your vision for the image is, and your post-processing efforts should always focus on bringing the image closer to your vision.

To all who replied and offered assistance....THANKS!

I know I need some work on processing and that will come. AS gneto mentioned it takes a lot of time out of your life and I have to make time to sit down and "master the craft". I liked seeing your takes on my photo and your insight as well. I will have to work on cropping and processing. It has been an eye opener and I am ready to get in the trenches and do the dirty work. I will see you all around soon, I'm sure. Happy Holidays and stay safe!

cack

cackmandu wrote:
To all who replied and offered assistance....THANKS!

rand I am ready to get in the trenches and do the dirty work. I will see you all around soon, I'm sure. Happy Holidays and stay safe!

cack

Cack - I'll argue it is half the enjoyment, for me at least

Best,

Bob

cackmandu wrote
I know I need some work on processing and that will come.


It is wise of you to understand that it is something that is more evolutionary rather than revolutionary ... studious & steady, it is an ongoing process.

Like Bob mentions ... there can be as much joy in the processing as there is in the shooting ... with much abounding in both.