Yes, the place was nearly dark, and I used a flashlight to focus on the wheelbarrow. I couldn't even see the rest, including the pile. I can't back off on the controls which light the pile without deepening the shadows quite a lot, and losing the entire back end except for the windows, so I would have to go to more invasive editing, i.e. manually darkening/defocusing the pile. I could try that later on today and see how it goes. I am not an expert in such work, normally working more with what I have, but it would be interesting to see what it would do for the photo. I could also try to slightly darken the reflection, that might make it more believable....Show more →
You're quite welcome. And you're right, if it's all or nothing, all is the better choice. Really good stuff (though the dark moody one you posted in the R thread is by far my favorite).
- I would crop to a more rectangular format, maybe 4:3. I find it too tall for the important parts of the composition.
- I would crop that tiny bit of white in the top left.
- The sharp flower is darker than the large ones just behind it, which makes you initially look at the wrong thing. I might burn the two flower a little, although I am not sure if that will work...
Yes, compositionally way better. I'd dial the highlights back a touch, maybe to get a little closer to Bifurcator's second edit. Don't lose the BG completely, though.
freaklikeme wrote:
Carsten, you are the man. Thank you so much. I spent an hour or so staring at it last night trying to figure out what was wrong, and I think you nailed it. I went with a combination of dodging the subject and burning his OOF companions in an effort not to lose detail. Does this look better?
Yes, that is a million times better! Beautiful shot, really special, with the tonality and B&W!
Bif's changes are also interesting, but I am undecided in the end. I think removing part of the background does help to isolate the subject better, but somehow it also loses something. Dunno.
Actually, I *do* like Bif's first shot a lot, but it has a very different aesthetic, and is somehow a completely different shot.
Like the BW handling - the black bg is powerful in shots like these.
Like the new crop 3x4, good point.
What I dont like: the flower to the right is too close, too big and too bright and obstructs the point of the image though the composition is pleasing. Rip it off next time 8-)
I did. I forgot to update. Thanks for the reminder, Carsten.
The first shot was what I was going for. Isolation, though, ended being the only way to get there (or using rubber bands to hold adjacent flowers out of the plane of focus). I was never 100% pleased with it, and in the end, the friend it was for decided to do her nursery in color, so I ended up using a desatch on multiple shots to get the focus on rainbow colors found in nature (a red delicious apple, a blue tropical fish, etc). The second shot is what we used for yellow.
Let's keep this thread alive. I am actually trying to manage new gear: Pentax 645d. So critique is very welcome. Some cityscapes from Berlin, shot from my new holiday flat, or at the surroundings. Each pic A 45/2.5, except the second one, which has been shot with the FA 75/2.8. Some adjustments in Lightroom as slight sharpening and noise filtering, adjusting tonality. 30s and f4 or 5.6 and ISO 400. Strangely the pics (at least the first one) don't look as sharp here as in Lightroom. Aside from this PP is different from the 5DII, less sharpening is necessary, nearly no shadow noise, better AF and AWB. But I changed WB nonetheless quite strongly. Overall less pp was necessary than would have been with the 5DII. I also think that different subjects are interesting with MF.
Whoa, congratulations! Very interesting results so far! Apart from the second-last one, I feel that the colours are very unusual somehow, hard to put my finger on it. Maybe because you can white-balance better than the naked eye, and I know that these should be orange tinged? Daytime shots please!
Thank you Carsten, I appreciate that. As concerning the colors, maybe, I have to reprocess the files on my home PC. On my laptop computer colors seem to be different on the screen than in lamp lighting conditions yesterday evening. Daylight exposures: I have some, but only from overcast days, so they are a bit dull.
Two from Bonn and one from Berlin (just a test shot), using the D-FA 55/2.8. ISO 200.
PP: no noise filtering, very slight sharpening, but details set to 100, about 15% clarity, shadows +40%, all done in Lightroom. First two f5.6, handheld, last one f/8 from tripod.
Super interesting results you've got there. Too bad the light is so grey, but I guess that is Germany in November The sharpness looks great. The next time we meet we should compare the 645D with my new D800 and see what the differences are in practice.
Carsten, I'm keen to compare the systems, too. I was annoyed that Canon did no major development on the sensor for the 5DIII like Nikon (Sony) did for the D800. Therefore the change of the system; which because I bought used, even cost less than my Canon system with my comprehensive L and alt lenses collection.
Depending on light and time I will take and post some more shoots.
I'll stick my neck out. I took this photo recently in a shut-down jail, and am quite happy with the processing. It is in the basement, with the "hole" on the right, and first floor up the stairs. The location was dim and outside was bright, but I wanted to present a dark mood.
carstenw wrote:
I'll stick my neck out. I took this photo recently in a shut-down jail, and am quite happy with the processing. It is in the basement, with the "hole" on the right, and first floor up the stairs. The location was dim and outside was bright, but I wanted to present a dark mood.
I really like the image. When I see it I think of it as exemplifying a turning point. On the one hand someone could go up toward the light or off to the right down the dark hallway. The choice to me is compelling. It seems like you should go up, but there is something that draws me to the right hallway. That is what I see in the shot at least. So if you are going for a dark mood, that isn't exactly what I see. Instead I see this compelling contrast between going up to light and being drawn to the dark. If you wanted a moodier image I think you would have needed to compose focussing more on the right side of the image. I also think if you wanted to contrast the light and the dark you could process it so that the graininess was more on the dark side and the light was a little more pristine with less blown highlights. I would be interested in a tweak of the processing to bring this out more.
On the more technical side whatever you did with the image I would have perhaps liked a little better control of the highlights at the top of the stairs, but I like the graininess of the image. Perhaps a little higher contrast as well would be nice.
Thanks for sharing the shot and being open to critique,
I did blow out the highlights at the top of the stairs on purpose, and in the original shot there is a lot more detail there. In the end, however, I decided that too much detail in the wrong places was distracting from the feel I was trying to achieve, which is also one reason I added the grain. These 24/36MP cameras have a tendency to give way more detail than needed to make a photo effective, just like I sometimes prefer SD to HD movies.
I like the blown out highlights in the window because it adds some drama to the photo and also what is outside of the window isn't interesting here, it is enough to know that the stairs will bring you up towards the light/freedom.
The stairs and window section works very well but for me the corridor to the right doesn't, the open door and the light you see further away seems disconnected from the rest of the image because of the large pitch black area between the bottom of the stairs and the open door, this breaks the path from the cell and up to the next floor. I would have liked to see something connecting the two like just a hint of the floor. (I am watching this image on a laptop so maybe I am missing some details).
But overall I liked the image and the grainy b&w works great here.
The sharpness looks great. The next time we meet we should compare the 645D with my new D800 and see what the differences are in practice.