Reflection

[casper]

I took this photo in Portsmouth early morning while on holiday in the UK last June, showing the town hall/council chambers reflected in a building across the street – behind a statue of Queen Victoria. (one snap, upload is SOOC - Olympus OM-D EM-10, Lumix G. Vario 12-60mm, F5.6, 1/100s., ISO 100, FL 53mm hand held). I did not have any other gear with me and was in a hurry but I felt this was a missed opportunity and was a bit disappointed with the result. All comments and suggestions welcome.
- Noel

[Shadowman]

Nice effort, you could about get away with cropping the bottom to remove the UTC sign or perhaps clone it out if possible.

[DanK]

It's a good capture, but the image is lacking. SOOC is precisely the main problem. This is a good illustration of the main issue with SOOC: it will give you good images when the processing algorithm the camera uses happens to be appropriate but weak images when it isn't.

First, you need to straighten the image.

Second, look at the histogram. It has a very narrow tonal range. That's why the image looks drab. That look is fine for misty mornings, but it doesn't work for reflections.

Here is a simple, quick edit--not a finished product, but an illustration. I leveled the image. I used a levels tool to raise the black point and lower the white point. I then added contrast with a curve. Finally, the smallest change is that I added a bit of local contrast (USM, radius 45 amount 10).



PS: this might get more comments in the "nature and architecture" forum.

[Manfred M]

+1 to Dan's comments and I have moved the image to this thread.

SOOC is something I can pull off when I shoot in a studio and can control the lighting and exposure, other than that, some tweaks are usually necessary, as Dan has demonstrated. Lack of global contrast is a common problem are framing errors and perspective distortion with a shot of buildings.

[lovelife65]

I took this photo in Portsmouth early morning while on holiday in the UK last June, showing the town hall/council chambers reflected in a building across the street – behind a statue of Queen Victoria. (one snap, upload is SOOC - Olympus OM-D EM-10, Lumix G. Vario 12-60mm, F5.6, 1/100s., ISO 100, FL 53mm hand held). I did not have any other gear with me and was in a hurry but I felt this was a missed opportunity and was a bit disappointed with the result. All comments and suggestions welcome.
- Noel

Nice effort, but as others have said it lacks contrast and to me it also looks crooked. Maybe that's just how the image is.

[casper]

Hi Dan,
Thank you for your comments and edit. I was actually prompted to submit this shot after seeing the fine examples of reflections posted by yourself and Richard in the recent "Travel Photography" thread.
I had tried to improve in PP but felt that technical shooting errors prevented me from getting an acceptable result, which is why I uploaded the SOOC version. I had increased the contrast a little but tried to avoid anything too drastic.
This was my edit:



On reflection (ha!) I may have given myself more to work with if I had done a few things differently :-
1. My OM-D has a 2-D leveller in the EVF – I didn’t activate it
2. I could have sacrificed some of the reflection and made the statue more prominent by moving closer, although I would have been much lower and may have had issues with the verticals, or
3. Perhaps shot a bit wider and given myself more room to crop (I was a bit too tight on the clock)
Having said all that, I have just reviewed my shots from that day, and found I did take another shot beforehand – I think I disregarded it because it included the shops below the office block. A bit closer with similar settings but straighter and with better tonal range, perhaps a bit underexposed (upload also as shot).



Thanks again, and thanks also to John, Manfred and Sharon for your comments – much appreciated.

[Manfred M]

I find that your original posting is a far more interesting image as it mirrors the other building so effectively. This latest posting doesn't have the "magic" of the original.