St. John's Perlethorpe

[Benedictine]

This is the historic church of St. John's Perlethorpe which is situated on the Thoresby Estate in Nottinghamshire. I am not that happy with the image as the sky is really quite uninteresting, but I would like to have c&c just to see how bad it is and how I can improve the image.

[FrankMi]

Hi Andrew, I often have issues with sky like this so I'm looking forward to hearing what the experts have to say! Thank you for posting the image.

[JohnC]

Not much you can do,Andrew when you have a blanket of grey stratus like that,maybe someone will suggest putting some 'sky' in there - I don't know how to do that .

I'm hesitant to give more than minimum cc, I learn from it on here ,not sure if I'm qualified to give more than the fleeting comments I have so far but here's what I think and I've got to this stage because of closely following the cc on many photos.

Here goes. It looks a bit lifeless as it is. The trees seem to hem in the church and the tree on the right is ragged and unattractive anyway, so I've cropped them out. I took it into Lightroom 3 and changed the B&W to Antique Greyscale and adjusted in Split Tone and used the grad filter on the church alone to take the exposure down a tad. Also that process blackened the tree on the left side so I used Viveza to lighten that up a tad too-Viveza can edit a a very small area.

It's the first time I've taken a photo from here into Lightroom and I hope it's ok with you.

[arith]

The hardest thing for me is the perspective

[JohnC]

Very good job on the sky,Steve.

[Benedictine]

Hi Andrew, I often have issues with sky like this so I'm looking forward to hearing what the experts have to say! Thank you for posting the image.

Yes, so am i!

[Benedictine]

Not much you can do,Andrew when you have a blanket of grey stratus like that,maybe someone will suggest putting some 'sky' in there - I don't know how to do that .

I'm hesitant to give more than minimum cc, I learn from it on here ,not sure if I'm qualified to give more than the fleeting comments I have so far but here's what I think and I've got to this stage because of closely following the cc on many photos.

Here goes. It looks a bit lifeless as it is. The trees seem to hem in the church and the tree on the right is ragged and unattractive anyway, so I've cropped them out. I took it into Lightroom 3 and changed the B&W to Antique Greyscale and adjusted in Split Tone and used the grad filter on the church alone to take the exposure down a tad. Also that process blackened the tree on the left side so I used Viveza to lighten that up a tad too-Viveza can edit a a very small area.

It's the first time I've taken a photo from here into Lightroom and I hope it's ok with you.

Thanks for this and I like very much the treatment you have applied, the antique grayscale works well, I like it. The sky is still a problem! Not so sure about the cropping out of the trees but I guess that is very much personal preference, but thanks anyway as it does produce a different feel altogether.

Andrew-Bede

[Benedictine]

Not much you can do,Andrew when you have a blanket of grey stratus like that,maybe someone will suggest putting some 'sky' in there - I don't know how to do that .

I'm hesitant to give more than minimum cc, I learn from it on here ,not sure if I'm qualified to give more than the fleeting comments I have so far but here's what I think and I've got to this stage because of closely following the cc on many photos.

Here goes. It looks a bit lifeless as it is. The trees seem to hem in the church and the tree on the right is ragged and unattractive anyway, so I've cropped them out. I took it into Lightroom 3 and changed the B&W to Antique Greyscale and adjusted in Split Tone and used the grad filter on the church alone to take the exposure down a tad. Also that process blackened the tree on the left side so I used Viveza to lighten that up a tad too-Viveza can edit a a very small area.

It's the first time I've taken a photo from here into Lightroom and I hope it's ok with you.

Thanks for this and I like very much the treatment you have applied, the antique grayscale works well, I like it. The sky is still a problem! Not so sure about the cropping out of the trees but I guess that is very much personal preference, but thanks anyway as it does produce a different feel altogether.

Andrew-Bede

[Benedictine]

That's better! Thanks Steve the sky is much better, but how did you do it?

Andrew-Bede

[JohnC]

Glad you liked it ,Andrew..iIid hesitate before editing it and yes, the trees in or out are subjective. We''ll see what Steve comes back with.

[arith]

That's better! Thanks Steve the sky is much better, but how did you do it?

Andrew-Bede

In PSE7 I noticed the sky is all one colour and everything else is a different colour so; duplicate the Layer, choose Magic Wand tool Contiguous and 20% Tolerance which was just the settings it already had, click on the sky, choose Edit and Cut.

Load a picture with a nice sky that is big enough and Crop to the sky, Select All, then Edit and Copy.

Go back to the original and Select the Base Layer then Edit and Paste.

Go to Layers and Flatten. Done

[Benedictine]

Thanks Steve, very helpful.
Andrew-Bede