Adam Woodyatt wrote:
If you have time Mark can you be more specific with what you did?
To be absolutely honest I didnt keep any of the settings I used - however this was the process - and its just basic very basic adjustment layers and not a lot more.
add new adjustment layer - levels
dragged both end sliders to the "meat" of the histogram edges
add new adjustment layer - curves
very slight tweak to the slightest S curve
add new adjustment layer - contrast/brightness
about -1 brightness and +3 contrast
add new adjustment layer - saturation
saturation +2
Flatten the image
Now a 375 radius dodge tool set to shadows and 4% exposure I just "wiped over" the windmill and the grass
next a 375 radius burn tool set to midtones and about 4% (my standard setting) and I just toned down the very bright sky on the RHS just because Adam didnt like the "false" effect, If it were mine I would have left the brighter sky
Finally one pass of unsharp mask at 100%, 0.4, 1
I just did it again to get those settings for info and the resulting picture is ever so slightly different - however the method is identical. Once I had typed this lot out I did it yet again in a very honest approximation of real time and timed the total conversion and it was certainly under 4 minutes.
Originally this was only a very rough tweak in literally minutes because I was sure the shot had really good potential and I wanted to see for myself what some of the possibilities actually were. - Hence my post that a couple of minutes in layers made all the difference to my eye.
I have driven my kids past this for the last eight years on the School run with them saying "Good Morning Windmill" everyday. They open the Windmill up to the Public every August unfortunately one of the sails came off in 2006 and clipped someone on the way down and the Air Ambulance was called out. Fortunately they were okay but it took until late 2007 before the Windmill was restored to its former glory.
This shot was taken in May 2006 before the accident.
Mark Eley wrote:
Now I cant keep away from this one!
BTW - I researched the windmill and it dates from the early 1600's !!
I originally preferred Adam's version, but then I like things more "ethereal". Bob's version was nice, but just too much for my taste. Mark's version is much softer than Bob's, so I like it better, but still prefer Adam's original. Maybe it could use a teeny bit of punch, but I'm with Adam in that I like to keep things as close to wysiwyg as possible without extensive manipulation.
Just one woman's opinion, for what it's worth! I wanted Adam to know that some of us like it just like he intended it!
Personally, I like Bob's version more than Mark's, because just WYSIWYG is boring, adding little bit more 'spicy' make thing more exciting, plus in real life there are more "contrast" (i.e more range in many thing).
