Processing.. when to stop?

MagicMarker

I'm only talking casually here. Processing some pictures taken with a standard digital camera.

How, as a novice do you know what to do, where to go, when to stop?

The following is an example...

The is the original picture.



The is the first alteration, adjusting levels etc. (although looking at it now i can barely even see a difference, however it was quite obvious at the time)



This is the 2nd alteration (using the original image).



Personally, i like that last image, but i dunno, is it too dark? Is it overly processed?

They were done in iPhoto. What would you folks recommend to use? Photoshop? Also, are there any good tutorials to have a read of?

Cheers.

*edit* Just cropped the last image.

Shiny

I usually stop before the point at which it looks fake.
You don't want people asking you the question "ah sure you played
around with that in photoshop?".

While I like the contrast in the middle photo, it has resulted in you
loosing the blue in the sky. Maybe just do some selective contrast
adjustments so that you can maintain the blue while pushing the
rest.

As for the black & white, it looks great.:)

kjt

Shiny wrote: »

I usually stop before the point at which it looks fake.

+1

smelltheglove

Everyone's personal preference is different but you don't want an obviously photoshopped pic, again though some people like that look. I see in the first edit you tried to remove the person at the end of the path and not in the 2nd edit. That is one thing I would aim for in the finished picture as they are slightly distracting.!

I like your first edit, the colours are lovely and bright and would probably work well in the same size as the second edit but I feel the colours are too nice to lose them!

I lean towards Corel Paint shop pro in editing software but most people recommend photoshop.

Solarina

I think Processing is all about quality, if you make well planned and good adjustments, then using 50 layers and spending 5 hours can create a stunning photograph (Im thinking of those gorgeous painterly landscapes now) but if you spend 2 seconds pulling the curves line so it goes all graphic... then I think its just any old "myspacey" shot, and with landscapes that look is pretty awful,

Both your edits are really nice so I would say, keep going! Experiment more, Id get photoshop (but then Im not familiar with any other ones) and really learn all the tricks and tools, its a great original photo and I think could look great with minimal editing, or with a lot of careful tweaking!

Also I agree, I think you were right to remove the figure at the end, in the B&W one it is really distracting, and I think the B&W version looks great (Though I think id stick with the original crop, the cutout benches are a bit strange looking)

MagicMarker

Thanks for the responses guys, much appreciated. I think i have a general idea of where to go from here, practice makes perfect.

Here's a revised version of the original, uncropped with the person removed.

Solarina

I really think its quite gawjuss