Remembrance Sunday

[Dovrob]

Hi another attempt to capture the perfect photo, haha. These were taken at the local war memorial. Interested to hear comments especially as a member of the veterans society approached me afterwards and asked if they could get some of my pictures.

[FrankMi]

Hi David, I particularly like the last one but think off-level treatment detracts from the mood because it is so obvious. I think I would tone down background participants slightly to bring more attention to the reverent activity in the foreground. You might want to clone out the leaf between her legs. Of the three placing wreaths, she alone appears to be doing it with somber dedication to the fallen.

Very well done!

[Dovrob]

Thanks Frank, the girl's from the local army cadets and placed the wreath just in front of me. I was gutted when I came home and saw it was off level. Unfortunately I find it difficult to check the picture in the screen due to my eyesight. I particularly like the first couple with the flags lowered, though they may be too bright to bring the proper atmosphere to a solemn moment. i feel me photography is slowly improving now people have started critiquing them, so long may it last.

[FrankMi]

Thanks Frank, the girl's from the local army cadets and placed the wreath just in front of me. I was gutted when I came home and saw it was off level. Unfortunately I find it difficult to check the picture in the screen due to my eyesight. I particularly like the first couple with the flags lowered, though they may be too bright to bring the proper atmosphere to a solemn moment. i feel me photography is slowly improving now people have started critiquing them, so long may it last.

Hi David, if you are not in a position to make the suggested changes, would you be interested in letting me give it a try?

[Dovrob]

Hi Frank, Yes I'm interested in letting someone else see show the possibilities of the photos. I'm hoping to get an upgrade in photoshop at the end of the week so all suggestions and help are most welcome. if you let me know what you're doing, I'll hopefully be able to work on some of the other shots I've got. Cheers

[FrankMi]

Hi Frank, Yes I'm interested in letting someone else see show the possibilities of the photos. I'm hoping to get an upgrade in photoshop at the end of the week so all suggestions and help are most welcome. if you let me know what you're doing, I'll hopefully be able to work on some of the other shots I've got. Cheers

Hi David,

I opened the image in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) and increased the Recovery to 35 and the Fill Light to 25 to compensate for blown highlights in the sky and to lighten the image a little. Now the histogram is fairly reasonable. Then I opened the image in Photoshop CS5.

I used the Ruler tool across the top of the roof of the building to straighten the image.

Next I used the clone tool to get rid of the inappropriately positioned leaf.

I created two layer copies of the image and on one copy, added two Brightness/Contrast layers with the contrast on both set to -50 and the Brightness on one of them set to -40.

Created a Selection and made from it a mask for each layer except the original. This allows us to make the adjustments to the background and foreground independently from each other.



Added a Brightness/Contrast Adjustment Layer to the Foreground and changed the Brightness to +10 and the Contrast to -30 to tone down and lighten the foreground.

As a last step, I used the Unsharp mask at 40% and 3 pixels, then again at 40% and 1.5 pixels to sharpen the foreground. At 549 by 413 pixel image size, there isn’t much we can do to sharpen it but you should be able to do better with the original image.

Although this is far from perfect, hopefully, it will give you an idea for a direction you can take this image.

[Dovrob]

Thanks Frank, she's no longer falling into the memorial. Its now more as i wanted it when I took the shot. Thanks also for taking the time to explain clearly what you did, it gives me a better chance to start to create my manipulated images. its frustrating when you see a perfect opportunity but the execution of the shot lets you down.

Glad I found this site ;-)

[JPS]

Hi David,
it always makes me feel proud that the great job our armed forces do and the sacrifices they make are acknowledged in this ceremony. I personally think that it is a great privilege to both attend and be allowed to record 'in pictures' these historical events. As you say some of your pictures did not come out exactly as you would have liked, but that's the nature of photography. In general I think you have captured the mood of the day; sad but proud. I can only say that the advice Frank has offered is second to none, it just goes to show that even if 'we' (photographers) don't manage to obtain our goal in capturing the perfect picture in camera, there are normally other ways to improve what we have got.
Well done on the pictures and please keep attending and recording these events; so that we hopefully never forget or take for granted our armed forces.
Thanks to the both of you, I certainly learned a lot about PP today and greatly enjoyed the pictures.