Lake Como

[Kaye Leggett]

We spent a lot of time in the Italian Lakes this summer. Here are a few images of Lake Como - probably how we imagined all the lakes would be (but of course they weren't) so for us quintessential.

1 Our view



2 A lunchtime view




3 -4 If you've watched Casino Royale you may recognise these 2






5 -7 a few street views in Bellagio









Following commentary on my Venice images, I have increased contrast and black point in the processing of these - helpful comments as to whether I should push more or whether I've overdone it are welcome.

[Wavelength]

Very nice set of images....

[Geoff F]

Just a few thoughts, Kaye.

Too much sky in #1. Possibly crop to a different ratio?

#2 doesn't work for me due to the amount of out of focus foliage in the bottom right corner.

#3 has a lot of dark foliage in the top right corner which is tending to over power the scene. Various crop alternatives could be tried.

The others work fine although I wonder about a crop from the top of the last image (maybe a similar amount from the right side) which might reduce distraction from the top and concentrate more on the flowers and distant scene below the leaves.

[Shadowman]

Nice series, really like that tight alleyway shot.

[Mike Buckley]

Following commentary on my Venice images, I have increased contrast and black point in the processing of these - helpful comments as to whether I should push more or whether I've overdone it are welcome.

Much, much better! Seems just right to me.

[Clactonian]

Beautiful shots.
Just back from the Bardolino Wine Festival on Lake Garda, another to recommend.

[pnodrog]

Look good. You have not pushed the black point too far but I often find if I adjust the black I need to lift the shadows a bit.

[FootLoose]

Good set, Kaye. I like the 5th and 6th because they give me a sense of the town but 6 also fro the contrast between the rough texture of the wall and the smooth surface of the mirror, plus the 'dead end' of the wall v the vista in the mirror.

[Manfred M]

+1 to what Geoff has already written.

I think you are still being too conservative with the settings of your black point and white point and this results in some of the image being rather muddy. A lake in the summer will be hazy. I see areas that are essentially black (some of the shadow detail) and white (some of the clouds), so a more aggressive approach will get you a crisper and cleaner image.



I see you did these in Lightroom 5. Lightroom 6 (which I think is pretty well the same as Lightroom CC 2015) has the haze filter (I think) and really allows you to clean up the softness of the haze if you want to.

[Kaye Leggett]

Thank you all for encouragement and pp tips, my winter project is to improve these and then to do some justice to the thousands of images I have taken in our year of travels.

One thing that puzzles me is how to 'read' how other images in this forum are processed. Manfred you are right that I used lightroom and presumably can see the histogram? Is that because you are a moderator or do we all have this facility and I just haven't figured it out? Seeing others histograms would really help my studies in improvement.

[Clactonian]

Kaye on editing an image in LR a good starting point is to hold down the shift key and double click on the black slider 'handle' and then repeat with the white slider 'handle'. This will automatically set your black and white points which you will see on the histogram. You can then start adjusting the other sliders to set the mid-tones etc.
I hasten to add that this is just a general staring off point and you may feel that further adjustment of both black and white sliders is required for taste. Mono images may well justify a little blocking of the shadows but I would be careful not to blow the highlights which one can rarely get away with.

[Manfred M]

One thing that puzzles me is how to 'read' how other images in this forum are processed. Manfred you are right that I used lightroom and presumably can see the histogram? Is that because you are a moderator or do we all have this facility and I just haven't figured it out? Seeing others histograms would really help my studies in improvement.

Kay - I have two plugins on my Firefox browser; FxIF and Histogram viewer that let me see this data on the postings where the image hosting site has NOT stripped away this data. The reason I use Firefox is that it is colour managed, something that is not there in the other major web browsers.

Here are the links to these tools.

http://christian-eyrich.de/mozilla/fxif/

http://www.davidfichtmueller.de/histogramviewer-en.html


A number of the other members use these tools as well.

Mabfred

[Rebel]

Beautiful series Kaye!

[JohnRostron]

Just a few thoughts, Kaye.

Too much sky in #1. Possibly crop to a different ratio?

#2 doesn't work for me due to the amount of out of focus foliage in the bottom right corner.

#3 has a lot of dark foliage in the top right corner which is tending to over power the scene. Various crop alternatives could be tried.

Interesting that no-one else has commented on Geoff's comments. Personally, I like the sky in #1, it complements the darker lake below.

#2 does work for me due to the amount of out-of-focus foliage in the bottom right corner.

#3 has a lot of dark foliage in the top right corner which helps me to focus on the rest of the image. I think that it makes the image and I would be pleased to have taken this myself.

Chacun a son gout!

John

[Mike Buckley]

Kay,

When I want to view a histogram or the EXIF data, I simply download the image to my computer.

Now that Manfred has taken the discussion to a higher level of critique, I'll offer an idea about the image that displays the mirror: Now that you have gotten the image to the current quality, post-process the mirror as a completely separate image by getting its black point and mid-tone contrast up to par. Also generate a more appealing sky, minimize the haze and eliminate the direct reflection at the top. As the image currently stands, the subject (the scene in the mirror) is the weakest part of the image.

Considering the type of traveling and photography that you do, frankly I can't see you using Lightroom 5 knowing that Lightroom CC and Lightroom 6 have the same Dehaze tool that is so highly effective.

Having said all that, your recent attention to post-processing has certainly taken your images to a much higher quality.

[Mike Buckley]

The reason I use Firefox is that it is colour managed, something that is not there in the other major web browsers.

My understanding is that the major web browsers are color-managed. I believe Microsoft's browser was the last major browser to become color-managed. However, I can confirm that they aren't color-managed as effectively as Firefox's color management based on my experiences.

[Clactonian]

With regard to colour managed web browsers you may like to read this ...

http://www.gballard.net/psd/go_live_...Gprofiles.html

[Mike Buckley]

While that piece about web browsers contains helpful information, be aware that it is very outdated. As an example, it refers to Firefox 11 when the latest version is 43.

[Mike Buckley]

I mentioned earlier in the thread that Lightroom CC and Lightroom 6 have the same Dehaze tool. While that's true, I should clarify that I don't know if Lightroom 6 allows you to selectively apply the tool as does Lightroom CC. Perhaps someone who uses Lightroom 6 can let us know about that.

EDIT: According to Victoria Bampton's blog (she's known as the Lightroom Queen), only Lightroom CC provides the capability to selectively apply it as of this writing, which is Lightroom 6.3. It became available in Lightroom CC 2015.2. So, using Kay's image of the mirror as an example, it would be very easy to apply the Dehaze tool selectively to the scene in the mirror using Lightroom CC and not possible using Lightroom 6.

[IzzieK]

I prefer #4 and #5 in this series, not because the others are not good, they are but these two stands out for me. I love them both.