Which crop under a very strange light.

[arith]

You might have guessed so far I've mostly done holiday snaps, I've got a few I consider photographic; here is where I bought my Mozart concert ticket, in the Tourist place, after I had a rather pricey coffee in the Mozart café. It is Albertinaplatz which is remarkably photogenic despite what I've done to it.

Which is the best crop, one and half horse or one horse. The sharpening is done with Topaz Infocus and Detail 3.



_MG_3874Info by Stephen Davis, on Flickr

_MG_3874InfoCrop by Stephen Davis, on Flickr

[Dave A]

Steve of the two I prefer the second image. Interesting light coming through the clouds.

Dave

[arith]

Cheers Dave.

[ccphoto]

Might I make two suggestions to your post processing: One, lose Topaz. I used it for a long time before I realized it is a contrast killer in that it dulls mid-tones to the point of drab as well as a cloud cruncher and again, this is no exception. I moved over to Tony Kuyper's actions a few years back, especially his luminosity and channels masking presets and have never looked back. What I find missing from your image compared to a quick edit I made for Mid-tones corrections is the brightness that's in the scene only waiting to be revealed. The second thing is to use Kuyper's sharpening presets and if you are fond of crispy clouds, his are the best.

It could still use a bit more contrast, perhaps, but I think you'll agree there is a lot more to this image than you have yet to reveal.

[arith]

Wow, it is like a new washed clean image. Cheers Chris.

[Urbanflyer]

I agree with others in terms of the additional processing that would benefit this shot. Speaking to the composition I will offer an alternative view. I rather like the one and a half horse for two reasons.

1. It tells me there is a taxi stand here and who knows how many other horses waiting--adding to my ability to imagine the scene.
2. It puts a little more weight on the left of of the image, reducing the distraction of the jeep on the right.

In the end it is all a matter of personal taste! Thanks for sharing!

[DanK]

I agree with Chris that the fundamental issue is that the image is drab. It's dark and has limited contrast. However, you don't need to get as fancy as luminosity masks to improve this. You can make a great deal of improvement with basic tonality tools, like levels or brightness to lighten the image and a curves adjustment to add contrast. I'll post below a very quick edit with just brightness and curves. I didn't take the time to get it the way I would want it; I just wanted to show the impact these basic tools can have.

Re Topaz: can't add anything, as I have never used any of their software.

[arith]

Cheers Judith; I think there were three carriages but at least one more. One hour in one of those things costs about 45 euro so I refrained from the pleasure.

One of the things I could have done in several images is add more fill light, but this was blowing highlights and I'm particularly fond of highlights. However, it is obviously possible with different applications and possibly even with Topaz although I tend to use presets and alter light channels such as green magenta, then hit the white balance hoping I don't set everything back to normal.

The more sophisticated methods described are worth investigation, I'm grateful for those.

[arith]

Cheers Dan. I can only use curves in 8 bit so don't look at them really. I always use curves to the extreme in my Ortonised images, always to change gamma on a pinlight layer, or that is what I think the middle grey arrow is.

[ccphoto]

I agree with Chris that the fundamental issue is that the image is drab. It's dark and has limited contrast. However, you don't need to get as fancy as luminosity masks to improve this. You can make a great deal of improvement with basic tonality tools, like levels or brightness to lighten the image and a curves adjustment to add contrast. I'll post below a very quick edit with just brightness and curves. I didn't take the time to get it the way I would want it; I just wanted to show the impact these basic tools can have.

Re Topaz: can't add anything, as I have never used any of their software.

I used one non-fancy Wide Midtones mask. The edit took less than 10 seconds. In fact, it took more time to set up the reveal than it did to do the edit. I could have popped a tad more contrast but was more wanting Steve to see the potential of the image. I agree it can be done with curves, etc but for me it is much more simple to use a preset that has all that built in. Either/or works. Cheers.

[DanK]

I used one non-fancy Wide Midtones mask. The edit took less than 10 seconds. In fact, it took more time to set up the reveal than it did to do the edit. I could have popped a tad more contrast but was more wanting Steve to see the potential of the image. I agree it can be done with curves, etc but for me it is much more simple to use a preset that has all that built in. Either/or works. Cheers.

I meant "fancy" not in the sense of "difficult to use," but rather in the sense of "less likely to be familiar." I'm willing to bet that many people on this forum have never used luminosity masks, while most will know what brightness and curves are. I didn't begin to explore luminosity masks for years after I made the switch to digital.

So my point was: "If you happen not to be familiar with luminosity masks, one can accomplish similar things--albeit with less precision in some cases--using basic tools with which most people are familiar."

[IzzieK]

I like the second one but what the heck, the first one looks good too despite the half-horse because at the right side is the half car, half bicycle and half a double decker. That makes it even...because I'll be damn if I try to clone out the right side or crop it...that one will take me ages to edit whereas the horse only take a crop to remove. The other problems had already been addressed so ... let you think of the rest. Just my opinion.

[arith]

I hardly ever think of cropping because it is really difficult to do Izzie.

[IzzieK]

I hardly ever think of cropping because it is really difficult to do Izzie.

Time to make that Adobe Photoshop CC pay to educate you...Simon (Ionian) recommended PHlearn to me. I like it.

https://phlearn.com/free-tutorials

Another one suggested Anthony Morganti -- Here is the index to his tutorial...

https://youtu.be/A95JLHOeS94?list=PL...wlRWXK7lLuDy4D

Cheers...
Izzie.