2016 Project 52, First Quarter by Joe/ Joebranko

[ionian]

Waterline centered and colours de saturated, and clarity reduced:

I'm just catching up with your latest pictures Joe - some really nice ones, especially the last bridge image. Great job.

For this image, a suggestion for the lampposts: paint them with a selection brush and reduce the exposure so their tones blend with the trees. In LR, I suggest getting nice and zoomed and use the auto mask, very small feather.

If you have dehaze in your version of LR, it would do wonders with the sky.

[Shadowman]

Went back to see if I could improve on my previous exposure of this scene. The ice is gone but a slight breeze was causing a ripple. I thought of changing my filter for an ND 10. But the light was fading fast when I got there so I kept the set up on my camera. This was shot with my Canon 18-55mm, my previous one was with my Sigma 17mm. Not sure why I can not get the verticals vertical!!
This is my fourth and last attempt!

You have a lot of straight lines to use, the problem is which one is straight; could be bent from unstable foundations. Nicely captured.

[Shadowman]

Waterline centered and colours de saturated, and clarity reduced:

Nice shot.

[joebranko]

The second shot of the pier with those excellent reflections looks good. The right side verticals seem correct so maybe the top left corner needs a bit of an inwards 'push' until the lamp posts are upright then a slight crop to keep everything square.

I tend to find that I get better results by pushing in to condense a few pixels rather than by pulling out and 'stretching' them.

Thanks Geoff;
I tried straightening by rotation and by playing with the lens profile. I don't understand the 'pushing or stretching ' the pixels. How is this done?

[joebranko]

You have a lot of straight lines to use, the problem is which one is straight; could be bent from unstable foundations. Nicely captured.

Thanks John

[joebranko]

I'm just catching up with your latest pictures Joe - some really nice ones, especially the last bridge image. Great job.

For this image, a suggestion for the lampposts: paint them with a selection brush and reduce the exposure so their tones blend with the trees. In LR, I suggest getting nice and zoomed and use the auto mask, very small feather.

If you have dehaze in your version of LR, it would do wonders with the sky.

Thanks Simon. I did not try because I did not think I could do it well enough. My versionofLR does not have dehaze. Thanks for the suggestions.

[John 2]

This is ridiculous Joe. I haven't spotted this post in the past and there are some nice images. The problem (nice to have problem) with C in C is that posts come so thick and fast that they can come and go before you spot them. As to you original intent, composition in all of them looks fine to me.

[ionian]

Thanks Simon. I did not try because I did not think I could do it well enough. My versionofLR does not have dehaze. Thanks for the suggestions.

I understand, believe me - but the beauty of Lightroom is non-destructive editing, so trying can't ruin the image. Maybe for the future it would be worth having a go at some specific edits with the brushes, as practice makes perfect. My editing has come on leaps and bounds in the past 6 months, but only through repeated trial and error and a healthy amount of googling!

As an aside, it's a shame that LR6 doesn't have dehaze as (used sparingly) I have found it to be incredibly useful in turning a bland sky into something with texture and interest. I found this - maybe something for you (or anyone using LR6) to try:
https://cutthruthefog.wordpress.com/lightroom-6-dehaze/
It's a plug-in that replicates the dehaze tool; for me it's one for the first things I try with an image, once rough tonal adjustments have been made.

[joebranko]

As an aside, it's a shame that LR6 doesn't have dehaze as (used sparingly) I have found it to be incredibly useful in turning a bland sky into something with texture and interest. I found this - maybe something for you (or anyone using LR6) to try:
https://cutthruthefog.wordpress.com/lightroom-6-dehaze/
It's a plug-in that replicates the dehaze tool; for me it's one for the first things I try with an image, once rough tonal adjustments have been made.

Thanks Simon; I downloaded the dehaze tool and am playing with it. Thanks for this tip!

[Geoff F]

Not sure what you have in the way of software, Joe, but the basic method of straightening verticals goes something like this.

Select the whole image and go to Transform settings (Edit menu?). Choose Skew then push the node on the required corner inwards until the lines become vertical. This can be done on just one corner or all 4 if needed. Could also be applied to horizontals if required.

Afterwards, crop the image to remove any left over bit of 'blank canvas'.

I usually add a few guide lines over the image to clearly show when I have achieved sufficient skew.

It might sound a bit of a challenge at first but once you get the knack this becomes very easy.

[bnnrcn]

Hi again Joe The centered waterline works better. Desaturated colors don't work for me because I now that you have some nice soft colors in the original and if you could bring them out just a bit , IMO the image would look lovely. But this is my personal preference, it is your image and your preference matters most

Waterline centered and colours de saturated, and clarity reduced: