Rural Road

[tbob]

[Digital]

Trevor, did you do anything in the way of PP this pic?

Bruce

[tbob]

I work in Aperture so I am not sure how applicable this will be to other programs.

I slightly increased the saturation of all the colours no more than 10 on the sliders, darkened the blue and the purples in the sky and clouds, made the yellow slightly more red, increased the definition (emphasizes the edges) and adjusted the overall saturation, increased midtone contrast, made a very slight S curve on the levels then adjusted the exposure to what I liked. The last step is to remove the sensor spots and sharpen slightly. I tried to darken the clouds on the horizon selectively with a burn tool but I didn't like the effect because the edge was too obvious.

I tried to post the original I keep getting an Error 503 Service Unavailable message. I will try later.

[Digital]

I work in Aperture so I am not sure how applicable this will be to other programs.

I slightly increased the saturation of all the colours no more than 10 on the sliders, darkened the blue and the purples in the sky and clouds, made the yellow slightly more red, increased the definition (emphasizes the edges) and adjusted the overall saturation, increased midtone contrast, made a very slight S curve on the levels then adjusted the exposure to what I liked. The last step is to remove the sensor spots and sharpen slightly. I tried to darken the clouds on the horizon selectively with a burn tool but I didn't like the effect because the edge was too obvious.

I tried to post the original but the internet is slow today and I keep being dropped

Trevor, I really would like to see the original because the pic you posted IMHO appears to be overly processed. Others may disagree.

Bruce

[pnodrog]

I like it. The saturation is bordering on being to high but is not annoying me. It would be interesting to see a version where the road (well that's what you call it) was smack bang down the centre - maybe a bit cliché but I think it would work.

[kdoc856]

I could just about ditto what L.Paul said. I really like the road, and think it may well be worth revisiting, but it is almost lost because of the large canola (only recently introduced to my visual and verbal vocabulary ) on the left. I was thinking a crop just between the two large clouds might make that road pop, and allow our eyes to travel its length.

I don't see this shot as heavily processed so much as at touch heavy on the yellow and green luminance. Course I've never seen this scene either. The blue, red and the brown all look right on this monitor, and the road doesn't look too "crunchy" to me, especially brought up on Lytebox. I'd probably bring down the exposure a touch, but I like everything darker than many.

[Geoff F]

Looks OK to me at full screen size.

The yellows in particular maybe a fraction on the 'strong' side; but that would be natural in rather harsh sunshine conditions.

The road may be rather straight but I think the left side fields give sufficient perspective to overcome this potential problem.

[Ken Curtis]

Nice image, Trevor. It's a good find and nice shot.

I agree with Kevin, who said, " I was thinking a crop just between the two large clouds might make that road pop, and allow our eyes to travel its length." I have trouble with my own images because I remember the scene and the photo brings back memories. I think that biases me somewhat, and I find it hard to be objective. I have had similar comments from forum members, and after I do the suggested crop, find a better image. BTW, not saying that you have the same problem I have, just rambling on.

[tbob]

Here is the original. sharpening and sensor spot removal done. It is slightly underexposed to retain as much cloud detail as possible in the bright clouds.
Wasn't until I swtiche back and forth between the to versions that I saw i had made the grass too yellow.
It will interesting to see what others make of it.

[Digital]

Trevor, after seeing the original I can understand the rationale for the way you PP it. Regardless, it is still a very nice photograph.

Bruce

[tbob]

Thanks Bruce, I went back to the original after your comments and reworked the saturation. As is my usual modus operandi; I went a little too far initially and had to ratchet it back notch.