Project 52 by Ron (ronlane)

[ronlane]

Thanks Geoff.

[ronlane]

Here's another couple for this week. These pictures were taken a while ago, but I edited them in LR4 tonight.

[ronlane]

I have to admit that I haven't been taking as many photos this week. And to top that off my Lightroom 4 trial ran out this week. But here are a couple that I did take. Please tell me what you did or didn't like about them. I know that the composition isn't that great.

1. I really like the color of this tree as it changed this fall.



2. This one I would title "The beginning of fall." Because it shows the grass changing and the bare ground and the lone leaf.

[Geoff F]

With the first one, Ron, I would be tempted to try a very slight crop of the bottom and right side to reduce the impact of that dark fence. You have a little bit of 'fringing' around the twigs and leaves at the tree tops.

A very common problem from some light angles and virtually impossible to avoid.

Maybe the shadows are a bit strong from that angle. But editing is constrained by the roof brightness.

With the second image; for me, there is too much out of focus area at the top.

I would try a crop, possibly 5 x 4 ratio, which would still give a good gradient from sharp foreground to blurred background. And I suspect this would place more impact on the lone leaf.

The colour looks fine with this shot. Grass can be surprisingly difficult to look natural when it is a main part of the scene.

[ronlane]

Thanks Geoff. I see what you mean about the first one. I used a multiply layer on this to darken everything but the tree and didn't do a good job of zooming in and taking my time to fix it right. (apologies on that).

On the second one, I will try to change the crop and see if that helps. I just did a sort of cropping of the top of this by hiding the top of it off the screen and it does help this picture some.

I knew that these weren't some of my greatest work but didn't think they were bad either.

[Geoff F]

Certainly not bad, Ron; just another viewpoint.

I find that using the Multiply Blend Mode on a layer needs some care. I usually reduce the opacity as well. But I often get best results from the Soft Light blend mode.

[ronlane]

I'll have to try that. I was using a process that I watched Scott Kelby do in a video on youtube. He was processing travel photos and I thought it was really neat how he darken everything but the subject of his video. It made his pictures pop so I thought that I would try it on those two because, they were just kind of bland without it.

I know that I'm not posting my best work here but to me the point of this 52 weeks is to make the bad shots better, the okay shoots closer to good and the good shots awesome.

[ronlane]

Here are the two pictures again after cropping them.

[ronlane]

I took this one this week as I was out walking in the afternoon. It was about 3:00 pm local time, so the sun was out causing the blown out back ground but I think it adds a little to it.

I'd title this one "Which Way?"

[ronlane]

Question about composition and framing on the above picture. I realize that this isn't a special picture by any standard but I would like to ask for any suggestions on composition of it. What could or should I have done differently to improve.

When you are taking street pictures, do you use a wider angle lens and then crop down or is it better to fill the frame like I did above? Thoughts and comments, please.

[Geoff F]

Had a quick glance at this yesterday, Ron; and thought I would leave it a day then relook with 'fresh eyes'.

Nothing particularly wrong with this shot; but nothing inspiring either.

Always very difficult to shoot this sort of scene. Unless there is something humourous about it.

At the moment it is very 'square on' without any 'perspective' interest.

Would it be possible to shoot from a different angle so the signpost arms had a bit more apparent 'depth'. You have just about achieved that with the top set of arms.

Maybe move to the left or right, depending on the background. You were obviously standing slightly to the left of the sign but maybe just a little bit more - or would that be dangerous.

With scenes like this, and modern cameras with plenty of pixels, I usually prefer to leave myself a bit of cropping space so I can try a few alternatives instead of being forced to have everything absolutely central.

Incidentally, it's nearly the end of another week and I still haven't taken anything for this week's Project 52 photo; so with a dull day forecast tomorrow I might be scratching around for some unusual subjects.

[ronlane]

Thanks Geoff. I realized posting that this was an okay shot at best, but I feel that there is room to learn a lot from this. I have room to move around on this shot and will be going back this evening to do that and try to back up and possibly get higher in order to show the top of the sign better. I will try about 5-10 shots with different angles and see what I can come up with.

Thanks for the feedback. Good luck with shooting.

[ronlane]

Took these this weekend at a family gathering. Like the b&w but including the color, what are your thoughts. Was enjoying action shooting.

[ktuli]

Ron,

I like the B&W better as it shows the face detail better. In the color version, the face is a tad too dark (possible could be lightened slightly). However, I think both could use some noise reduction as it looks like there is quite a bit of grain on the man's face.

- Bill

[ronlane]

Thanks Bill, I agree about the noise on it, I saw it after I posted it. I see what you mean about the faces on the color version as well. My focus of the shot is the dust cloud that is swirling behind the tire that I found very interesting and looks better in color.

Thanks for the comments.

[Geoff F]

Ron,

I like the B&W better as it shows the face detail better. In the color version, the face is a tad too dark (possible could be lightened slightly). However, I think both could use some noise reduction as it looks like there is quite a bit of grain on the man's face.

- Bill

The problem with that overall scene is the pale sky which is controlling the exposure. Shooting for dark areas like faces would over expose the sky. You can get away with this better in B&W.

Using noise reduction controls can sometimes also cause a little image softness.

What I sometimes do in these cases is, after shooting Raw, create two different conversions with one having lighter shadow plus more noise reduction then selectively combine them with masks.

Similar adjustments can be made to selectively correct Jpeg shot photos using layers and masks or selections.

However, it is a good piece of action which has been captured here.

[ronlane]

The problem with that overall scene is the pale sky which is controlling the exposure. Shooting for dark areas like faces would over expose the sky. You can get away with this better in B&W.

Using noise reduction controls can sometimes also cause a little image softness.

What I sometimes do in these cases is, after shooting Raw, create two different conversions with one having lighter shadow plus more noise reduction then selectively combine them with masks.

Similar adjustments can be made to selectively correct Jpeg shot photos using layers and masks or selections.

However, it is a good piece of action which has been captured here.

Thanks Geoff, as always you are tons of help. Question about this, I had an nd filter on the lens on this, would that effect anything at all? I felt the it helped the exposure some.

[Geoff F]

It would certainly have helped with the sky, but may have also caused a bit of extra darkness in the shadows where you are facing into the light. Increased the contrast slightly.

Certainly worth a go at lightening the problem areas in the colour image.

[ronlane]

The edit on this is why I am missing LR4. I ran out of my free trial and am having to wait to purchase it. I feel like I could have improved this so much. I'll save it for reprocessing after I get LR4 bought.

[ronlane]

Thought I would see if I could layer this one and lighten up the rider's face a bit. I think it helped, do you?