An Old Church

[jstp]

Hello,

Having seen a pic earlier by rob marshall who used Silver Efex Pro and thinking wow that looks great, I felt compelled to lash out and get it myself. I tried it on this pic but I do not think that I have how to use it correctly right. There seems to be a fair bit of artifacting in the flowers and the overall finish does not seem that smooth. If anyone has any pointers they would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

[allenlennon]

i do love this photo, and rob marshall's is fantastic. And trying to do something similer to another is a great way to learn and to get ideas. I find the bright shinning roof a bit distracting, i find it that my eyes are focusing more on that. Perhaps either a slower shutterspeed or apreture could help(i could be wrong, someone will definatly tell you). although the composition is great, nut i would crop the left and right of it, or just the left of the church, but thats me.

[Harpo]

Keep playing with it! I plan to get Silver Efex Pro eventually. Looks good for a start. Is the Church listing or is the horizon off?

[dave keeley]

Silver efex is a superb program, just finished the trial and will have to invest, great punch and contrast to this image a little cropping and straightening and you will have nailed it.

[JPS]

Hi Jason,
I agree with the comments above, Particularly the levelling of the horizon.
Rob Marshall certainly seems to have this process cracked and I therefore wait his comments, so I can learn some more as well.
Please post any alterations you make to your picture; once you have evaluated everybody's advice.

Well done on the picture; as is, it still looks good, but I look forward to seeing it look even better.

[Donald]

If anyone has any pointers they would be greatly appreciated.

Jason - Stick with it. Once you've mastered it, you will love having SEP2.

In terms of learning, have you visited the training and learning section of NIK's website. There is good stuff on there that helps get you started. It gives you enough knowledge that you can then go and start experimenting from a more informed baseline. I keep going back to some of the video tutorials to remind myself of what can be achieved by certain actions.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Jason,

Please don't forget the basics, like vertical walls, while Silver Efexing

Also, the church is just a little too central for me, I tried covering left and right sides, but a simple crop of this isn't as good as a slightly different shooting position, perhaps further to camera right - if that were possible.

Hope that's helpful,

[jstp]

Hello again,

Thank you everyone who has offered help and advice, everything has been taken on board and is very much appreciated. Donald, thanks for pointing out those vids and tutorials, I of course dug straight into it without even looking at those, very helpful. I have had another go, I have a couple of different photos to chose from but they are all from the same perspective. I will go out again and take some more but it will have to wait a bit, the Church is a 2 hour drive from my place. I have attached the reworked version as well as the original colour. Again all feedback is eagerly awaited.

Cheers

[PBelarge]

Learning any processing software is a process (sorry for the play on words).

But, getting the photo as correct during shooting is more important generally speaking than the processing portion of image making. It may be hard to see on such a small image, but it looks soft, and contrast tweaking will not make it much better.
It is a decent composition.

[Polar01]

Like your first effort best, maybe try a control point just on the roof to bring it down, bightness, con, sat, or even shadow. It is your sky that I like the most, I am a sky drama type of guy, maybe a control point on the front of the church to remove some of the shadow, (brighten, or Shadow adjustment).

[Donald]

I'm afraid my conclusion, as I scrolled down, was the opposite of Allan's above. For my taste (and that is all that it is) the sky is 'overcooked' in the first image. I much prefer the more subtle treatment applied in the second image. I think it retains a much more realistic look.

Glad you found the SEP2 video tutorials useful. I went back to a couple of them last night. The better (I think) I get at learning and understanding SEP2, the more I want to go back to the tutorials to 'fine tune' my learning. For example, last night I explored the use of soft contrast to a much greater degree than I had previously. It is an amazing tool.

All I've got to do now is capture some images that I can work on. Went out at the weekend to capture the best image ever made. Dumped them all.

[jstp]

Hi PBelarge, Allan and Donald,
Thank you for your comments. I haven't had a great deal of time to explore SEP2 any further, work and my ability to mess up my computer have conspired to keep me away. That and finding new things to take photos of. I have the PC working again now so I am going to try some different things with SEP2.

Cheers