Of bygone years

[ied]

I came upon this homestead yesterday, I wish the lighting would of been more of a golden light and the sky more interesting. I would appreciate your input as to how I can improve it as I intend to revisit at a different time of day.
I did crop a dilapidated RV that was to the left, and farm clutter to the right of the trees. I've also cloned ( a first for me) a hydro mast and electrical wires from the roof along with a wire in the sky.
What I see that is in need of correction: slight off focus (hand held) and probably the brightness of the grass to the left, but I'm sure it could use more pp however I do not know what to do.
Ss 1/100, f/4 iso 100, 58mm
Very much a begginner eager to learn.
Irene

[Shadowman]

I came upon this homestead yesterday, I wish the lighting would of been more of a golden light and the sky more interesting. I would appreciate your input as to how I can improve it as I intend to revisit at a different time of day.
I did crop a dilapidated RV that was to the left, and farm clutter to the right of the trees. I've also cloned ( a first for me) a hydro mast and electrical wires from the roof along with a wire in the sky.
What I see that is in need of correction: slight off focus (hand held) and probably the brightness of the grass to the left, but I'm sure it could use more pp however I do not know what to do.
Ss 1/100, f/4 iso 100, 58mm
Very much a begginner eager to learn.
Irene

If you shot in RAW format, adjust WB to Cloudy warm up the image, add a little more contrast, and perhaps do a Curves adjustment prior to sharpening. Just one of many options.

[FrankMi]

It looks like you are getting to do a bit of effective post processing so you have a number of options at your disposal Irene.

First and foremost is shooting under more favorable sky and lighting conditions.

As John points out, there are an number of techniques available to make the final image more to your liking in post processing.

One of the options, if you can use masking and layers, is to shoot using bracketed exposures. You could then combine an underexposed copy of the sky and an overexposed copy of doorway to the normal exposed building to bring out detail in all three areas. Be certain to use a tripod to get the best focus, minimized camera shake, and control image alignment particularly if you do bracketed exposures or shoot late in the day under reduced light availability.

[ied]

Thanks John, I will work on that this coming week. Curves is totally new to me but I will look up tutorials on that.
Irene

[ied]

Thank you Frank. That is certainly an advanced assignment but i will certainly attempt that as well. This not so great a capture will make for a good learning exercise.
Irene

[AB26]

Hi Irene,

You can get the image warmer by bumping up the Kelvin setting in Manual WB.

I did some straightening, auto colour correction, added a little red and reduced the blue a little in ACDSee.

Hope you don’t mind.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Irene I like the image and Andre's edit.

[ied]

Wow Andre, you gave it some character. this is exactly what i had envisioned.
Thank you. Now to play with it till i can achieve that look. Thank you - Thank you.

Irene

[AB26]

Wow Andre, you gave it some character. this is exactly what i had envisioned.
Thank you. Now to play with it till i can achieve that look. Thank you - Thank you.

Irene

Hi Irene,
Glad you like it.

Learning to handle in camera setting will get you very close to whatever you want. A scene like this you can bump up contrast in camera, use Manual WB and shoot in a more vivid mode. By increasing contrast you get rid of the haziness in an image. More vivid will give you brighter colours. Manual WB will give you more control on how “warm” or “cool” you want the scene to be.
I use ACDSee for post as it is very user friendly and can do all I need to do. All you will ever need to do, once you master in camera settings, is to enhance an image in PP.

My advice to you would be to learn how to use in camera settings to get an image as close to what you want it, to look like, before resorting to PP software to “fix” mistakes. No matter, shooting either RAW or Jpeg, learn how to use in camera settings.

Always get the exposure right by watching your histogram!

Be careful not to shoot people with boosted contrast and more vivid colours!

You’ve got a good eye and a fantastic camera, use it to it’s full potential.

[ied]

Andre, thank you for the instructions re camera settings - something I had not attempted yet.
And thank you for boosting my confidence with your encouraging words.

Irene