One for Dave

liljj323 · 26-09-2007, 02:22

please do ur worst...

**Dabhand16** · 26-09-2007, 08:19

I like the composition and the textures in this one, but it is cropped way too tight top and bottom, and is not quite square to the door on the corner, so gives the impression of not being straight.

A viewpoint of about 2 or 3 steps to the right would have given a shot straight onto the door rather than the slight angle. I'd like to have seen all of the pavement/sidewalk, and as the left hand roof line is clean, I would have removed the trees from the right hand roof line and cropped the RHS to take out the trees on the side.

This would give a cleaner image that is more in keeping with the building which has a starkness that lends itself perfectly to the mono treatment.

I think an incerase in contrast by setting the white and black points will give a bit more punch too.

You might think there are a lot of negatives here, but the basic picture is fine, and you should be pleased with it, I'm just throwing a few ideas in.

***Dave*** · 26-09-2007, 09:48

I'll only comment on the Mono conversion :-

- Good to see a decent black & white point in the shot
- Sky is excellent
- Building looks slightly over sharpened

Overall a good Mono conversion ..... more please

BTW, love the reflection of sky in that top window

***Dave*** · 26-09-2007, 10:00

OK, taking a risk here as you haven't got your "image-edit" option switched on in USERCP ..... so happy to delete shots if you want

Here are 2 examples of alternative crop that for me puts the main focus point, the front of the building , on a 1/3 line . Just another option

.....................

hoffy · 26-09-2007, 10:20

The tonal range you have achieved is great, Dave is right you have over sharpened.
My main problem is that you have crop to tight on the top of the building, if you had left a touch more sky, the perspective would be increased greatly.

**Dabhand16** · 26-09-2007, 16:18

Having now seen the other comments about the tonal range - I have to say that I've only seen it on my work monitor, so it might not be giving me the best image quality. On here it does not show true white.

liljj323 · 26-09-2007, 20:53

thanks for the comments, and this is actually heavily cropped, so i will go back to the orig. and have another go.

and about the sharpining the full size doesnt look as sharp, Flickr Photo Download: DSC_1175

Rob Barron · 03-10-2007, 01:12

I had thought that the moire lines in the brickwork would not be there when it is bigger but they are still there in the Flickr shot. I am guessing though that these disappear when you print this out at full res. I do find them a bit distracting and they are a difficult problem when dealing with this level of bricks.

The larger version highlights just how much you have over-sharpened as the halo is very evident all along the top of the building to the point where it is hard to see if the halo is due to the sharpening or to a different sky being added. If it's the latter it is very easy to get rid of the halo providing you still have a separate layers version saved. If it is over-sharpening alone causing the halo, the only real way would be to clone it out or go back to the original and try again. As a tip, when sharpening, zoom in on an area of high contrast as that is where a halo will show first.

Cheers,
Rob

liljj323 · 03-10-2007, 21:56

thx for the tips rob, but wat are moire lines. as i am going to reedit this image from the origional soon i want to get it right.

liljj323 · 03-10-2007, 22:00

oh and the halo is from sharpening, i never use those fake skies...

Rob Barron · 04-10-2007, 17:40

Not fake skies liljj, simply different skies to the one that existed on the day. It was good enough for Ansel Adams so it's good enough for me should the need arise :o)

Moire lines are so much easier to show than to explain as their existence is for highly complex reasons. Look at the wall to the left of the picture and start from the brickwork between the 2nd and 3rd window upstairs. Radiating downwards from there you can see a pattern of lines caused not by the actual brickwork but by aliasing.

To explain it all would require a far more complex reply than I can give here as people would fall asleep from boredom but in order to give you a very simplified basis for understanding moire patterns, take a grid of clean lines both vertically and horizontally and print onto acetate. Now take a second copy and overlay it. If perfectly matched up you will see just one set of grid lines. If you move the top layer very slightly out of alignment with the lower one, you will see a pattern of lines caused by the crossing of each line. In terms of light rays, this is the same as what a polariser eliminates!

You tend to get this effect execerbated by showing online as the resolution is a lot lower than a high res print where the effect will usually not be noticed. You will see the same effect with: tight black and white checked squares, brickwork, window blinds seen from a distance, net curtains, funky striped ties.... the list goes on and on!

When you anti-alias lines of high contrast in a picture, you are effectively helping to get rid of artefacts like moire lines.

I am aware this has probably not answered your question very well but without putting pictures up, it is hard to describe adequately and frankly I doubt you would care that much. I hope at least this has given you an idea. If not, I'll go the whole hog and put some pics up that show the moire lines.

Cheers,
Rob

liljj323 · 06-10-2007, 00:57

i see them now but how do i get rid of them? (besides going and taking the picture w/ my polariser on)

Rob Barron · 16-10-2007, 21:38

I'm afraid you can't remove the moire lines, they are there and that's that. However, as mentioned before, these will not be so obvious and maybe not there at all on a higher resolution or larger version so a printed version will usually be fine.

It's something to be aware of when you shoot this sort of thing so you can consider it for next time, but repairing this time is not really possible, sorry!

Cheers,
Rob