Project 52 by Ron (ronlane)

[Geoff F]

Sharp with good colour, Ron.

There may be an argument for cropping a little from the left side so that the tower isn't so central. Possibly turn it into a 5 x 4 ratio.

I'm not sure. At the moment I am merely holding a piece of card against my screen.

[ronlane]

Sharp with good colour, Ron.

There may be an argument for cropping a little from the left side so that the tower isn't so central. Possibly turn it into a 5 x 4 ratio.

I'm not sure. At the moment I am merely holding a piece of card against my screen.

Thanks Geoff. That was as far out on my left as I could go. There was the edge of another building that just didn't fit with this picture.

[ronlane]

Went back south this weekend and played golf with a good friend. Decided to take the camera with me.

Here are a couple of pictures.

1.



2.



3.

[ronlane]

No help for these last three?

[Geoff F]

I was hanging back to let someone else have a go, Ron.

OK then, #1. If possible, I would like to see the top of that windmill. And would probably crop a bit from the right side to make somewhere around 5 x 4 ratio; so as to make the windmill appear taller, and reduce the tree 'confusion'. Otherwise it looks fine to me.

#2. Again, I would crop the right side to reduce conflicting background problems with the tree and building. Probably unable to totally lose the building but reducing it would help. Cropping a similar amount from the bottom would retain your size ratio and help to eliminate some of those shadows. That would also tend to 'move' the wagon closer to the viewer.

Sharpness and exposure are fine.

#3. Composition, focus and exposure are OK. But I wonder about the 'harshness' of those ripples. Is that natural or exaggerated by sharpening? When sharpening becomes a problem for water, I often sharpen on a duplicate layer with a mask then edit the mask to reduce the amount of sharpening on the ripples.

If layers/masks aren't available, I suppose sharpening with an adjustment brush etc and avoiding the water, or reducing the amount applied might work.

[ronlane]

No problem Geoff. I appreciate the help.

I was trying to get all of the windmill in but only had the 55-200mm and couldn't back up far enough without bringing in the trees and weeds that I would be kneeling in. I'll go back and take a wide angle next time.

On #3, I don't think that I did any sharpening to it. I have been starting lightroom and setting WB and then using the auto on the exposure and such and then just tweaking it a little. Unfortunately these were all taken around noon local time and the sun was overhead making them hard to get just right. (I took the camera along while playing golf.)

I will have to play with the 3rd one to see if I can fix that.

[Geoff F]

Is your camera set to auto apply sharpening or do you shoot Raw? The background also looks to have been sharpened but this might just be a little bit of dazzle from the harsh sun angle.

On the rare occasions when I shoot Jpeg, I always turn off the auto 'enhancements'.

[ronlane]

You know it may have been on auto sharpen. I have been playing with the AV and TV modes lately as I am studying an exposure book that I bought. I shoot in RAW all the time now.

[ronlane]

I was shooting in AV on those pictures. I'll have to check the settings when I get home to see if the auto sharpening are on. Here is one that I took portrait of the windmill.


IMG_6661 by Ron_Lane, on Flickr

[Geoff F]

Just clone out the little bit of leaf in the top right corner and that shot looks good.

If you shoot Raw, there shouldn't be any auto camera settings applied. Although some Raw converters can apply a default amount of sharpening unless you specifically adjust it otherwise.

I normally add a fraction of Capture Sharpening as the first stage. This usually has a small radius around 0.4 and a higher amount. Say 50 to 300 depending on the software used. The actual amount applied seems to vary between software and a setting of 50 can be equal to a higher amount, say 300 with another converter.

It's something which needs a bit of experimentation but Capture Sharpening should be hard to spot. Just enough to firm things up a little.

[ronlane]

Just clone out the little bit of leaf in the top right corner and that shot looks good.

If you shoot Raw, there shouldn't be any auto camera settings applied. Although some Raw converters can apply a default amount of sharpening unless you specifically adjust it otherwise.

I normally add a fraction of Capture Sharpening as the first stage. This usually has a small radius around 0.4 and a higher amount. Say 50 to 300 depending on the software used. The actual amount applied seems to vary between software and a setting of 50 can be equal to a higher amount, say 300 with another converter.

It's something which needs a bit of experimentation but Capture Sharpening should be hard to spot. Just enough to firm things up a little.

Geoff, thank you so much for the honest and great feedback and help that you are giving me. I hope that it can be seen in my work as I continue to learn.

[ronlane]

Here's the last one cloned.


IMG_6661 by Ron_Lane, on Flickr

[rawill]

Thank you for the thread, very interesting reading the comments on the shots. Helpful for a newbie like me. Not sure if I have the courage to upload any of mine!

I like this cloned photo of the windmill, I think it is a big improvement on the original photo posted.

[ronlane]

Thank you rawill. Don't be afraid to post your pictures up here. That is the best way to learn.

[ronlane]

I may have more for this week, but with Halloween just a couple of days away, I thought I would share my ghostly picture from the amusement park yesterday. I am starting to see the limitations of using a 55-200 mm f4 as a walk around lens.


IMG_6754 by Ron_Lane, on Flickr

[ronlane]

Here are two more from this week. The first is an action shot that I could use advice on. It was shot AV at 1/250 but the boy's face seems really soft, like it didn't stop the action. What are your thoughts?



The second is from halloween. I thought that it was a really good image. Again, what are your thoughts and suggestions to make it better.

[Geoff F]

A shutter speed of 1/250 is rather slow for an action shot, Ron. I would be looking at using twice that speed as the minimum. A good action shot composition.

With the second image, I wonder if it would take a slight increase in highlight brightness. Keep the shadows dark though. And/or try a little LCE; perhaps Unsharp Mask around 20% and 30 or 40 radius setting. That is just a starting point suggestion. Try a few alternatives and see what works best.

The basic shot is fine though, it just needs a very slight additional bit of impact.

[ronlane]

Thanks Geoff. I am not familar with LCE, can you please explain. I will play with it some more to see what I can come up with.

[ronlane]

Geoff, is this any better?



Or this one?

[Geoff F]

Those are scary, Ron, exactly what I was thinking about.

LCE is just using Unsharp Mask sharpening but with different settings to increase contrast.

See this CinC Tutorial https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tu...nhancement.htm

Some people use it with most photos but it can get overdone; a bit like HDR.

I sometimes use it on a duplicate layer then add a mask which can be edited to selectively apply the effect. But that assumes suitable software and slight editing skill with masks.