'Up in the mountains' for c&c

dr strangelove

Here's some photies i took yesterday while up in the Dublin mountains.
Tell me what you think!

Bit of a generic sunset, i know, but i love it:
http://flickr.com/photos/reverend_smarm/449297801/

The radio mast just after sunset, with lots of smoke in the background;
http://flickr.com/photos/reverend_smarm/449297955/

Long, lonely road up in the mountains, a wee bit too dark though;
http://flickr.com/photos/reverend_smarm/449297927/

Taken a while after sunset;
http://flickr.com/photos/reverend_smarm/449297965/

Scared the bejesus out of me when i drove past, then i went back to get a photo
http://flickr.com/photos/reverend_smarm/449317553/

5uspect

I like the first one too. It works very well. Gives the impression that the sun is a ball of fire and not a bright disk.

I dunno tho, Lonely Road is very dark. Its hard to see anything.
I had a go in PS to play with it, I hope you don't mind.
Its quite noisy but thats not always bad.

dr strangelove

Wow, i love that.
I really like the dirty, grainy feel to it.

I really need to get more experience with photoshop.

Ghost Train

do like the sunset ones,
but the others are a bit dark
also had a go at the lonely road one, hope you don't mind

road2.jpg small file
road.JPG large file

5uspect

PS is your friend!
Don't hesitate to ask if you need and help with it. Thats what the digital darkroom is there for!

Ruu_Old

Some brilliant colours, 'sunset 1' is my favourite out of the bunch. Nice stuff.

dr strangelove

eolhc: yep, no problem - mess around with them as much as you want (just mind and cut me in when you sell it for millions, ok?)

on the re-worked picture - i'm not sure, i think i might be a bit too light now, maybe halfway between mine and yours would be better, i don't know.

But that does bring me to the another can o' worms - i'm still not sure about the whole photoshop thing - i know it's been discussed at length on boards - but i generally think that once the picture's taken, that's it.
Maybe i'm a bit naive, or maybe it's because i'm still a bit new at digital photography, or maybe because photoshop/ gimp still scares the potatoes out of me.
But, saying that, if someone can make my pictures better by doing stuff to them i can't do myself, i have no problem with that.

Ghost Train

my room was a lot brighter earlier in the day, and looking at the picture now i'd agree i made it way too bright and noisy and yours doesn't look so dark(couldn't see the road earlier). so more an issue with my monitor and the sunny day
this is better i think, but maybe a bit bright still road3.JPG
if you sell it for millions, i wouldn't mind a small cut for the work

i think most people would not have issues with slight photoshop adjustments cropping/levels etc, but airbrushing etc would be a different story. i think having time to process all photos taken would be another factor, much easier to get a shot right first time and theres only so much you can adjust without degrading the photo

there are three are four free standalone programs here that are fun to try, more automatic than photoshop
http://www.mediachance.com/digicam/index.html

Roen

Well, they rock my world, (then again I am a mountainy/sunsetty type) and I'm not just saying that cos I met the dude that took em last night

dr strangelove

and I'm not just saying that cos I met the dude that took em last night

Hahahaha, that was one beer well spent!

shepthedog

Love the first one! Island in the sky has some great colors too.. nice!

Oriel

Those are all far too dark.
Look at the histogram of them, if you don't know what that is, learn it.

dr strangelove

Harsh words indeed!

5uspect

All you need to know:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understanding-histograms.shtml

PaulieC

dr strangelove wrote:

Harsh words indeed!

Yes. How to win friends and influence people, Sinecurea style!

Roen

It's odd that pictures taken at sunset would be dark, well you live and learn!

Oriel

dr strangelove wrote:

Harsh words indeed!

But God forbid, maybe we should hide the truth from him?

PaulieC

sinecurea wrote:

But God forbid, maybe we should hide the truth from him?

God forbid, maybe you could be civil about it. The OP asked for C&C, not rudeness. Look at 5uspect's post. Civil and pointing to some information about how to interpret a histogram.

Morlar

cambo_gueno wrote:

God forbid, maybe you could be civil about it. The OP asked for C&C, not rudeness. Look at 5uspect's post. Civil and pointing to some information about how to interpret a histogram.

Couldn't agree more - there is no law against being honest AND polite in responding. This reminds me of that big spiel from a while ago about how new people were apparently being put off from posting images on here.

Calina

sinecurea wrote:

Those are all far too dark.
Look at the histogram of them, if you don't know what that is, learn it.

as comments go that borders on useless actually. If you don't know what constructive criticism is, maybe you should go and learn what it is. Most people can see on their screen that they verge on the dark side and all that the histogram is going to do is tell them that. Additionally, it could be argued that it becomes subjective at a certain level.

In terms of fixing it, however, the OP will need to be pointed towards contrast tools, lighting adjustments, possibly some filters.

OP - for the record I like the islands in the sky shot - what I might trying doing with it is upping the contrast a little - but it would be an experiment.

From your photostream, which I took the liberty of looking at, it is sunset2 which appeals to me most.

The lonelyroad over the moment is in my view a bit too dark. Part of that might be the screen I am looking at, but I would venture to suggest that you need to adjust it slightly. In PSE that would probably mean

1) duplicate layer and and separate off the sky from the road. Adjust the lighting (PSE has a useful tool for that) and contrast.

2) flatten.

Normally I'd have a go at it myself but right now I don't have the tools to hand.

On the other hand, if you were in the position to take the photograph again I'd consider changing the settings on the camera and either reduce the shutter speed (did you have a tripod with you?) or widen the aperture. Maybe focus directly on the road and throw a flash at it.

You've a digital camera. You can - at that time - afford to try several different variations. It is by trying and failing that you learn the most. I know this to my cost after the weekend I had.

thebaz

Calina wrote:

to adjust it slightly. In PSE that would probably mean

1) duplicate layer and and separate off the sky from the road. Adjust the lighting (PSE has a useful tool for that) and contrast.

2) flatten.

.

Calina -- is flattening , converting the filetype frpm psd to jpg ?

Cheers .

5uspect

In fairness to sinecurea's point the images are under exposed to the point where they are quite noisy. The histogram is the best way of showing this and is an essential thing to understand when using a digital camera (or any analogue digital converter).

Of course it doesn't hurt to be nice, and in doing so dr strangelove may learn something new and go away work on it and post some more of his work in future which can only be a good thing.

Calina

thebaz wrote:

Calina -- is flattening , converting the filetype frpm psd to jpg ?

Cheers .

When you introduce multiple layers to a file, you can either save it as a psd, or flatten it first or merge the layers before you can save it as a jpg.

Calina

5uspect wrote:

In fairness to sinecurea's point the images are under exposed to the point where they are quite noisy. The histogram is the best way of showing this and is an essential thing to understand when using a digital camera (or any analogue digital converter)

It's a fair point that anyone needs to be able to interpret a histogram. But sinecurea didn't say that too noisy/underexposure. He/she said "too dark".

You have to extrapolate a lot to guess that, and that's not helpful if you're a beginner right at the limit of knowing what your camera is doing.

thebaz

Calina wrote:

When you introduce multiple layers to a file, you can either save it as a psd, or flatten it first or merge the layers before you can save it as a jpg.

i thought when you intoduced multiple layers , and then saved as jpg , it would force a flatten ? my ps skills arn't the best -- thanks - and sorry for going of topic .

Calina

thebaz wrote:

i thought when you intoduced multiple layers , and then saved as jpg , it would force a flatten ? my ps skills arn't the best -- thanks - and sorry for going of topic .

well for me, it defaults to saving as a psd, or, if you try to save it as a jpg, it saves as a copy - but yeah, maybe better placed in digital darkroom.

5uspect

Yep, if you do any layer based stuff PS will give you PSD as the default filetype when saving. Selecting JPEG etc amends the file name with copy, which is quite useful if you're forgetful like me.