Oh, HELP!!!

[Katy Noelle]

I've worked on this for so long that I'm cross-eyed!


original




I just have no idea what I'm doing - help, please!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you in advance!

[Donald]

I just have no idea what I'm doing - help, please!!!

STOP. Leave it alone. Walk away. Later on, think what it was you were trying to say when you pushed the button.

Then, later today or tomorrow, go back to it. Can it do what you wanted? Yes? Realise that vision. No? Bin it.

[RichB]

Perhaps have a look at what you've done and try applying a little less of it, helps me.

Shot looks good to me though, I don't know that there's much scope to go further.

[Rhoads238]

I've worked on this for so long that I'm cross-eyed!


original




I just have no idea what I'm doing - help, please!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you in advance!

Looks great to me katy. I think it really benifited from the darkening / contrast adjustments you made. Just curious did you spray it with water? or was it found that way.

[purplehaze]

I agree with Jason, Katy. I quite like the higher contrast version.

But I also agree with Donald. Often, it is best to stop and walk away and come back a day later and look at it with fresh eyes. In fact, I am doing that right now with a translation (walking away, that is; this site is a great distraction).

Janis

[Katy Noelle]

Looks great to me katy. I think it really benifited from the darkening / contrast adjustments you made. Just curious did you spray it with water? or was it found that way.

It's been raining but we had a lovely break.

[Rob Douglas]

I second taking some time and coming back to it. Though I do like the high contrast of the first shot I think you took the PP just a tad to far. Being that dark you lost a bit of the detail of the water on the web. Besides that it looks like you saved a good shot from being deleted.

[Katy Noelle]

Thanks for the further input! I've still been working on these.

[David deSousa]

What are you using for post processing? Are you fairly skilled with the program or are you experimenting?

Sometimes you have to put the picture down for a time, as others have suggested. Perhaps quite some time indeed. I took this picture in April of 2001. I keep coming back to it every two or three months or so, thinking I have a solution to whatever was bothering me about some part of it. Finally, I printed it and hung it on the wall were I would walk by several times a day. I have gone back to the original exposure a dozen times only to start from scratch each time! Other pictures have come and gone, some keepers, some not. This one haunts me no end. I cannot give up on it. The upshot here, however, it that I am learning and learning and learning as I go.

This is my favorite girl, a Queen Charlotte that pleased me no end when I had a rose garden. This picture is special to me, hence the attention. Roses don't do well where I live now.

Keep at it Katy. I think we all need a tough challenge to solve in order to change and grow.

David

And the B&W version

[Katy Noelle]

What are you using for post processing? Are you fairly skilled with the program or are you experimenting?

Sometimes you have to put the picture down for a time, as others have suggested. Perhaps quite some time indeed. I took this picture in April of 2001. I keep coming back to it every two or three months or so, thinking I have a solution to whatever was bothering me about some part of it. Finally, I printed it and hung it on the wall were I would walk by several times a day. I have gone back to the original exposure a dozen times only to start from scratch each time! Other pictures have come and gone, some keepers, some not. This one haunts me no end. I cannot give up on it. The upshot here, however, it that I am learning and learning and learning as I go.

This is my favorite girl, a Queen Charlotte that pleased me no end when I had a rose garden. This picture is special to me, hence the attention. Roses don't do well where I live now.

Keep at it Katy. I think we all need a tough challenge to solve in order to change and grow.

David

And the B&W version

Oh, that is so beautiful! I think that your rose, like my weed, is very saturated with lots of detail. This is what's making it hard for me. I'm going to come back later (after church ) and see if I can ask this question again, with what I have at the moment.

So, to be continued.....

[David deSousa]

Oh, that is so beautiful! I think that your rose, like my weed, is very saturated with lots of detail. This is what's making it hard for me. I'm going to come back later (after church ) and see if I can ask this question again, with what I have at the moment.

So, to be continued.....

Katy, once again I ask: What are you using for your post processing?

My first reaction to all of your work is a lack of sharpness (acutance), critical focus, and depth of field. Not detail in the subject, but the perception of sharpness and the placement of point of focus. Sharpening is a tricky and demanding task for digital photographers especially, who have to contend with a few specific phenomenon not found in traditional film. This website has some excellent explanations and tutorials about sharpening. You should read them and read them again if you don't understand perfectly the first time.

You have mentioned saturation vs exposure. That is another throwback from the days of film, where digital underexposure can cause noise in the shadow regions that is hard to get rid of. Film does not have this problem. Again, there are very good explanations on this site about those issues in digital photography. You should study the articles on understanding and using the histogram, both the one in your camera and the one that is usually found in good photo editing software.

Color saturation, in my opinion, is a matter of personal taste and style. Photographs are not but representations of the real thing, or scene, they are not the actual thing, or scene, itself. Because of this fact, we have the liberty and latitude to change or manipulate the data collected by our camera sensor at the time of exposure in ways that do not adhere to the reality of the original scene. This is called "creativity." How that expression of creativity turns out in the final image is almost entirely in the hands of the photographic artist or technician. What is important is that the artist learns about his or her medium, what it is capable of from exposure to final view.

That process involves many steps, or as they say, "work flows." Your choice of work flow will depend on your intent at the time of exposure, but will also be modified by the needs of the actual image during post processing. Sometimes you cannot achieve your original vision of the scene in the final result and so must make adjustments and or compromises -- or discard the exposure only to start over again.

The path of Previsualization is a very, very demanding taskmaster. Previsualization means that when you first conceive a photograph, either whimsically on location or previously in your minds eye, you know how your medium -- lens, camera, file type, and post processing tools, etc. -- are going to render the final result. Previsualization is the ultimate goal of a master, it is the course of learning for the student. Most of us, I dare say, consider ourselves students and understand that is where we will remain all of our lives.

I am reminded in this discussion of Michaelangelo's alleged remarks about working in stone after he produced the famous masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture, the Pietà. When asked about his technique, he said he simply chips away the stone that is covering up what is already inside, he just frees it from its coarse surroundings so that we can all see the beauty therein. Well, that is previsualization. And it should be well appreciated that Michaelangelo was a consummate master of his mediums.

You should be patient, Katy. You seem to have the drive and the eye. Now you should calm down and methodically learn your medium. On that journey you will meet your creative self and become close friends. Then you will be able to collaborate with the symphonic notes and tones you have within.

David

Behold, The Pietà. It is astounding that this was once a single block of marble.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietà_(Michelangelo)