Thanks for the tips! You're completely right about the exposure, it was a rookie mistake to clip the highlights. I haven't tried using other PP programs but I'll try learn some PS and try your method when I can.
Great images from everyone, love your flower shots Ronny
rscheffler wrote:
It's likely the result of using a strong amount of shadow and highlight recovery in Lightroom/ACR and/or reducing the luminosity of select colours. You'll likely get technically better results by reprocessing the file several times, each time for a specific area of the image, bringing those into PS and layering them in a single image, then selectively masking the layers, but the trees and branches against the dark sky will be tricky. You could also try to do it in one shot in LR/ACR with the brush tool and negative exposure compensation at the outset, rather than highlight recovery, to retain the highlight detail you want and use the brush tool to open the darker areas in the image. It should avoid the 'pasty' look because you're not pushing the darker and lighter tones from opposite ends into a relatively narrow mid tone range, resulting the a flat blobs of colour you now see in the droplets. It might sound like basically the same as using the highlight and shadow recovery sliders, but by using the brush to open the shadows you can play around with more variables such as brightness, contrast, saturation and clarity to avoid the compressed mid tones. Also I noticed it was shot with the D800. In this case, considering the great shadow recovery ability of the sensor, I would have exposed for the sky and let the rest go dark (perhaps that is what you did) to recover in post. Here it looks like some of the sky still clipped and isn't fully recoverable. Just my 2¢....Show more →
Two eye- Thanks ! Beautiful composition and reflection.
Bob - Nice ! #1 and #4 really draw me in, as if I am surrounded by water.
frezeiss - IMHO, you are very good at street. Great BW. #1, #3 are quite special.
Lieutenant - Nice composoition !
Ronny - I like the composition of #1. Whether the foreground is too dark or not, to me is a matter of personal taste. I like shadow area framing the shot, so to me, it is not too dark. Very nice light on the tree. Beautiful flowers as always.
Frezeiss - love the street perspective on these. They're all good.
Lieutenant Z - You did exceptionally well to control the foreground exposure with such a bright background
Ronny - I'm partial to landscapes but the clarity of you flower shots is outstanding
Hugo - What can I say, you make living where you do seem like a magical place!
One from me . . . came home last night to find some interesting clouds over the city during blue hour. 21 Distagon.
Luka, well spotted street scene! You should do more street stuff as well!
Bob, very dramatic skies..it seems you're a man with good fortune in getting amazing skies in your photos
Ronny, I always liked your colors. What did you do in PP?
Z, excellent candid.
frezeiss, Z - thank you but I am way too shy to do street. What tends to happen with me is that I find some shot I like, and as I am slow setting up shot, by the time I am ready to shoot it, someone walk into the scene. ha ha Now, I admit, if someone gets in the shot, I try to make composition work.
Bob - Great sky !!
MIchaD- Very nice rendition from 2/25. #2 is my fav.
Ronny - Great flowers as always. Love your PP on those.
Edgecrusher - Very nice capture of water and rock texture. Beautiful sun set ( or rise )
Z- Gorgeous capture. Very nice !
Here is another 'incidental' street, with more PP than usual. Ron inspired me.
