Predawn Pier

[Mike Buckley]

I like the sky in the revised version.

I haven't taken a long time to study the image, but I don't think it's a matter only of the camera not being level; I think it's also a matter of the camera not being positioned exactly in the center. If I'm right, the only way to correct it is to use a Skew tool as Manfred has explained.

If this image was mine, I would leave this aspect of the image as displayed in the first version and not bother with making the corrections to it. One heck of a lot of pros making one heck of a lot of money would make the same decision, as evidenced by their photos.

[Manfred M]

I like the sky in the revised version.

I haven't taken a long time to study the image, but I don't think it's a matter only of the camera not being level; I think it's also a matter of the camera not being positioned exactly in the center. If I'm right, the only way to correct it is to use a Skew tool as Manfred has explained.

If this image was mine, I would leave this aspect of the image as displayed in the first version and not bother with making the corrections to it. One heck of a lot of pros making one heck of a lot of money would make the same decision, as evidenced by their photos.

Yes and no Mike, it depends on the business that the commericial photographer is in. Perhaps a fine art photographer might get away with it, but none of the corporate photographers I worked with would have, as the art director would have ripped their heads off had they done submitted this. These people would be working on packaging design, catalogues and print / web based advertising. The standards were extremely high. Both the photographers and art directors would see things I thought looked perfect.

Sorry to get a bit off-track Rita. Based on what I saw when I "fixed" the issue is that that camera was likely not 100% square to the subject and likely not 100% level (very close though). You were really quite close and of course you are not a commercial photographer, so I think the alignment of your first set (before you updated) was pretty darn good. Ideally you would get this 100% on in your camera setup and we wouldn't be discussing this at all.

When it comes to noise reduction, you are actually softening the whole image, so I will often do noise reduction and follow that by a sharpening step to get back a bit of the sharpness that was lost. You are correct about the curves; they are quite sensitive and a tiny bit is usually enough in an image like this one. You are just trying to blend some of the darker tones together so that the blotchiness disappears.

Working on my laptop is not great, but I did use the skew adjustment to line things up a bit more. Not a 100% but fairly close.

[Rita]

Thank you Rachel.

[Rita]

Manfred and Mike. I appreciate all of your help. I am finding it intriguing that you both felt that I rotated the image but I really did use the skew tool. I must admit that I really haven't used this tool before so I am going to play with it to see how it really works (learning curve). Manfred, I like the visuals that you posted as I find it easier when I "see" something rather than read it
Manfred, when I went to view in PS and turned on the grid it had like a hundred lines on it which made it difficult to really see what I was doing. This may sound silly but I don't know how to get less lines in the grid, how do you do this?

[Mike Buckley]

Manfred and Mike...I am finding it intriguing that you both felt that I rotated the image but I really did use the skew tool.

I only expressed an opinion about the tool that would be needed, not the tool you used. That's because I didn't have an opinion about the tool you used. Sorry to be less intriguing than you originally thought.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Rita I think noise reduction has made a good job on the sky. If you used a mask on the layer that you reduced noise and brushed the stars they would look sharp like before noise reduction. You can adjust the opacity of the brush for a better result. Applying the noise reduction to the sky only can also be done by inverting the mask and painting with a white brush only the areas in the sky which you want noise reduction

[Rita]

Thanks Binnur, one day I am going to master all of this

[Manfred M]

Manfred, when I went to view in PS and turned on the grid it had like a hundred lines on it which made it difficult to really see what I was doing. This may sound silly but I don't know how to get less lines in the grid, how do you do this?

Make sure that you have the rulers turned on in Photoshop (done under the view menu). Then with the Move tool, click and hold and drag down (from the horizontal ruler) or to the right (from the vertical ruler) until you have the guide line where you want it. If the position isn't quite where you want it, hover the move tool over the guideline, the symbol changes and click an hold and readjust the position.

To get rid of the guides later on; again in the View menu, use the clear guides command.

[Rita]

Thanks Manfred, that helps me out. The guides work much better than the grid that I used

[Manfred M]

Thanks Manfred, that helps me out. The guides work much better than the grid that I used

I find it much better than the grid. I use this tool a lot and my in-process files can look rather busy at times.

One more thought for you. The skew tool is not as straight forward to use as some of the other transform tools. Every time you move something, another element in the composition will shift, so I find there is a lot of back and forth tweaking of both corners of the plane where this tool is used.

[Rita]

One more thought for you. The skew tool is not as straight forward to use as some of the other transform tools. Every time you move something, another element in the composition will shift, so I find there is a lot of back and forth tweaking of both corners of the plane where this tool is used.

Yes it is quit fiddly. I played around with it this afternoon with some "interesting" results. It is a tool that I will practice with.
Not only have I received feedback on my image but I have learned a few things from this thread and that is a good thing