Help with this image

[Dave A]

Yesterday I came upon this 1937 Cockshutt tractor but unfortunately there just wasn't a good shooting angle that didn't have a busy background full of brush. Plus the metal wheels were a bright yellow and I just can't seem to hit a balance between then and everything else. I'm close to just discarding this image. Feel free to process it if you feel you can improve it.....probably wont be hard to improve.

Dave

[Kaye Leggett]

I think your first image is best - the yellow is too bright in the second. I'd also crop some off the LH side as the bush doesn't add anything.

[Ziggy]

You could give B&W a try.

[Shadowman]

The brush isn't an issue for me so this subject could be taken from any angle, it depends on what shape you wanted to capture.

[Dave A]

A tighter crop is a good suggestion, thanks Kaye, and going B&W may be the way to go Jim. I guess I could also go back and try to shoot just some interesting parts of this tractor. I like old rusty machinery so I want to like this image but I don't so far.

Dave

[Geoff F]

I've had a quick go at getting more subdued colours and brightness, Dave. Unfortunately there isn't any true whites to give a guide but it was over exposed in the yellows and greens.



I dropped the red and green highlights then brightened the midtones a little. Probably this really needs tweaking with two Curves Layers, one working in the Colour Blend mode and another in Luminosity Blend for brightness. There are several options here.

Then I pushed the tractor back a fraction to give a little bit of extra frame distance on the right side.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Dave,

You shot at f/5.6, so (if re-shooting) you could try f/4 (the lens' maximum, I believe) to blur more background, although you'll also begin to lose sharpness of some of the subject too I suspect. It is certainly surrounded by lots of finely detailed distractions

You shot with Aperture Priority and used an EC of -1, which looks like it may not have been enough, the yellow parts look blown.

The first image here, which I take to be the processed version - is best.
The second is, I assume, SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera).
UPDATE: no, not sure it is, there's something odd happening to the background above the tractor.

You should crop as others have suggested, it ought to have more space in front than behind ideally - something else to remember if you go back.

HTH, Dave

[Dave A]

Geoff that is much better, thanks.
Dave, thanks for the suggestions. I think you hit the nail on the head with a few mistakes I made. Seems I was limited by a few things that I had the ability to change. I was worried about DOF with the tractor but I could have put the 1.8 50mm lens and shot at 90% to keep most of the tractor in focus.

Dave

[GBO25]

Here are a few suggestions Dave.

In this one I made a hue/saturation layer in PS Elements and reduced the lightness and saturation of the yellows.



In this one I made the image B&W in Macphun Tonality CK then softened the areas that don't require sharpness using Macphun Intensify CK.




Finally here I used the first pic above (with the reduced yellows) and blurred the area around the tractor using Macphun Focus CK via the portrait blur tool.



Don't know if you like any of them but for what it's worth that's my ideas.

[MrB]

The basic ideas used here are, for the tractor, decrease brightness, increase contrast and saturation, and for the surroundings the opposites.

Cheers.
Philip

[Dave A]

Graham I like your first image, thanks. Philip thank you for that image correction.

Dave

[Jeff Blakemore]

Hi Dave, Great subject you have there. I love shooting anything that has rust on it. For me, more texture the better.

If you get a chance to shoot this guy again and want to eliminate some of the background, perhaps try shooting from a lower perspective. Maybe even try a wider angle so that it pushes that brush further back. It won't give you a more shallow DOF, but the WA will isolate it more as long as you shoot close. If you do go the WA route, you may want to shift to the right a bit and get more of that great front grill.

Also, it cant hurt to climb onto this guy and start shooting some details. It'll give you a chance to really get some great texture.

If you have time, take a look at the tractor I shot here: https://flic.kr/s/aHskq4ANpG

Maybe it can help give an example of what I'm talking about.

[Dave A]

Jeff loved that series you shot of the rusty tractor. It has given me some more ideas so I think I will go back and try again.

Dave

[Jeff Blakemore]

Great Dave! Very glad I could help. Can't wait to see what you come back with this time.

[rpcrowe]

When shooting, you might try using a color balance target like the WhiBal Card http://www.whibalhost.com/_pf_sitefi...rGuide_V10.pdf

This will give you a pretty decent starting point for your white balance. However, it is not an end-all. Our personal tastes go a long way in balancing color. This is especially true when there is no skin tones to worry about...