Ski track

[reima000]

I tried that almost cliche path in the woods photo, but I don't think this photo is especially interesting. Well, I still tried if I could get something nice out of it with some post processing.

I corrected the vignetting and the white balance, tried to distort those trees straight, then did something with the composition, made levels nicer, lifted contrast, and then lifted contrast of the bottom snow part some more, took out a bit saturation and then I put some orange color into it. Any thoughts about the shot or PP greatly appreciated.

Reima

f/3.5, 1/250s, ISO-200, EF-S 18-55mm@18mm

[Bobobird]

I like the 2nd one best. The footprints stand out better and overall the mood feels more like the wintery day that it is.

[annie5154]

I really like the 2nd one best. More detail and more 'alive' look from it. Well done for 2 lovely captures.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Reima,

Not a lot to improve on there, but I have a couple of suggestions;
a) you posted with a height of 1500px, which means no-one without a superduper screen resolution, or their monitor turned sideways can see it 1:1 without scrolling, or reduced by their browser.
b) the sharpening looks ok on the trees, but lacks bite in the snow, I wondered what threshold you used?
c) it is very central, perhaps offsetting to one side a little?

Cheers,

[Rob Douglas]

I think #2 looks great. I just happen to have a superduper screen turned sideways though lol. Dave has good points. I'd also like to add that it needs a tick or two of clockwise rotation. Well done though Reima.

[reima000]

Thanks for the comments!

It is good that the second one is liked best, because that is the one I ended up with the post processing and the first one is the JPG that the camera makes along the raw, forgot to mention it. I reason i added it was that everyone could see the changes i made.

Dave, thank you for the tips I didn't think about the loss of quality done by the browser reducing the size (is that the downside of it?). I thought that 1500 should be large enough for everyone I will be posting smaller in the future. What do you think would be optimal height for both vertical and landscape mode photos?

Actually I don't recall using sharpening at all, i just messed up with the levels. I also did something like this; color selection -> shadows -> select inverse -> and copy to new layer and then played with that layer. I played with it and the picture for quite a time, tried a bunch of stuff and don't remember all what I did with it. I did give the snow some sharpening, and found that it needed it.

I have another shot a couple of steps further, i think I'll try to make another one from it and crop it differently and see how it looks like when it's not so centered.

Douglas, I wish the trees to be straight, so I don't want to add rotation. Perhaps I could rotate the ground only and make it look normal but I don't think it would do much good. Thanks for the thought anyway

Reima

[ScoutR]

Hi Reima: the second one gets my vote too, and I think you've already had good advice regarding PP so I can't add anything there except to second what Dave said about it being a bit centred.

I'd love to see the same scene with a fresh coat of snow. This one is great showing that the path is used and for that reason I too would try to sharpen and emphasize the footprints and tracks in the snow. A fresh coat of snow would give an entirely different feel to the image. Not necessarily better, just a different mood.

Wendy

[reima000]

Wendy, I think I just might wonder there again some day when there'd fresh snow. This photo is beginning to be quite educating for me.

I did the photo again, of that other shoot, and it is better now, when it's not so centered - there's some nice curve to the path that I like and I think it gives something to the photo. The upper most part does not look so good because I had to distort the image quite a lot before getting it straight, and give it serious sharpening, but I think that the main focus of the photo is the path and where it leads, so it's not so big of a deal. Just need it to be there for the

Now the height of the photo is 1000 px.