[PeteT]

This was a shot taken on the one evening of our Norfolk Broads holiday last year when it wasn't pouring with rain!

I was trying to convey the tranquility of a still summers evening.

Taken @ 7:30pm on 13th August 2007 at How Hill.

Nikon D200, f7.1, 1/200 sec.
Nikon 18-200 VR Lens, at 24.0mm

I took several exposures, as the lighting was quite tricky. Even so, there has been some post processing to improve the apparent dynamic range.

[Summerleft]

It reminds me of an old oil painting in some respects, Could possibly crop a little off the top , mostly thats because I cant get the whole image to fit on my monitor (19inch) and I think it would also bring focus back down to the boat.

[Rob Barron]

Yes, I agree with Summer, I'd definitely lose a bit at the top as it is quite a lot brighter and draws the eye away from the lovely scene below. Maybe a tiny bit of lift to the levels to get a fuller range in but it's a pleasant scene and you have achieved your aim of showing tranquility

Cheers,
Rob

[Dabhand16]

Lovely image Perhaps just a touch more contrast would add some detail to the trees. I think the leaves reflected in the LHS are a slight distraction with no tree to provide the reflections and might consider cloning them out.

I find myself wishing there was just a little more in the bottom of the picture to complete the jetty or whatever is there.

I quite like the sky as is, but it is difficult to judge as I have to scroll so much to see the whole picture.

I tend to size my portrait format pictures to 550 pixels to ensure they fit on most monitors. I'm guessing if I could see the whole image in one go I'd say stick to the sky as it is.

As Rob said, you have captured the mood you wanted perfectly - well done.

[PeteT]

Thank you for taking the time to comment, it really is appreciated. I have been playing with the cropping, and I think taking out a bit more of the sky does indeed improve the composition.

I'll post a smaller picture next time - (although it fits fine on the screen of my 24" iMac )

[marcinklysewicz]

PeteT - and i like it as it is. brighter sky gives it some balance and it gives some perspective, also idea what is going on - it's quite dark, so when i see the sky i know why. i like this composition. could be a little bit better with small adjustments using some software - auto contrast, maybe levels.

[TIM]

I think this use a stop more exposure, and perhaps a slightly lower angle, but still a great moody photo!

[Steve]

Pete, I spent a few minutes having a play with the image as I thought there was a lot more potential than has been shown here. The basic framing of the image is fine but the processing can really make the shot come to life. The colours are soft and subtle but the sky is lacking just a little impact and there is masses more detail in the boat and foreground just waiting to be shown. Even on the web version I was able to transform this shot.

If you would like to see my results posted up you'll have to tick the 'allow image editing' option in your user control panel, but if not, be happy knowing that this image is a great starting point and I enjoyed both looking at and working on it to see what other potential was there. Thanks for showing it

[PeteT]

Originally Posted by Steve

If you would like to see my results posted up

Steve,
How can I resist - I would love to see your results, and have done the necessary in my profile.

I am very new to the digital manipulation of my images, so seeing what you and other people are able to do would really help, especially if it were possible to give a short description of how you achieved your result too

Can't wait to see it !

Cheers and thanks
Pete

[Steve]

Here you go....



If you like the results I will write out details of what I did

[Markulous]

Think Steve's given it a much needed kick in the Levels - glad to see no crop done as I liked it as is (balance of sky with reflection), tho' I'm none too sure about the somewhat bright (overbright?) water in the boat and the greenery/fence/edge of walkway in the corners which I'd have preferred left a little more in the shade

[PeteT]

Steve,
Thank you for posting your version, it is always interesting to see someone else's take on how to post process an image.

There are areas of the picture (the sky and its reflection in the water, and the distant greenery) where your version is clearly better than mine, but I do have to agree with Markulous in that the boat and the surrounding area seem over bright. The image overall is a tiny bit oversaturated for my liking too.

I think my vision for the picture lays somewhere between the two versions.

Your edit clearly demonstrates that the verdict on my original image should be "nice, but could do better with the post processing".

I would really appreciate it if you could describe the steps you went through, then I can see if I can "do better"

Cheers
Pete

[Steve]

I’ll start by saying two things, first of all I have no idea what the lighting was actually lie at the location when you shot the photo so my work was done from the perspective of making the image come to life rather than true to form. Obviously I just tweaked what was already in the shot and if you find the foreground or the boat to be too bright then that can easily be compensated for during your processing. The second thing is that I was working from a small, web sized, highly compressed JPG, whatever you do as long as you work from the original image you should be able to get a far better result than I did with much less effort. If you shot in RAW then you will benefit even more.

My steps…I first opened your image in Photoshop and then altered the brightness in small steps from just slightly darker than your original image through to about 3 stops over exposed. At each stage I save the image using a different name and then I opened all the images together in PhotomatrixPro. This is a program that is designed to combine images to form one final High Dynamic Range (HDR) shot. There is a tutorial by Orangepeel on the different software options available that can create HDR shots here and a very good tutorial by Gainful Shrimp on using Photomatrix here.

Once I had combined the shots in Photomatrix I then opened the image in Photoshop and ran auto levels, besides levelling everything up this made the sky a more vivid shade of blue which looked a little unnatural. So I opened up the channel mixer and selected just the blue channel, from there I adjusted it to be more natural. Whilst still in the channel mixer, I switched to the red channel and gave that slight boost to bring out the orange in the clouds. That is all I did in the first version…

Following on from your comment in the reply above about the boat being too bright, in the version below, back in Photoshop I simply used the burn tool at 50% and by first selecting the midtones and then the highlights, carefully and selectively applied it to the boat and foliage in the bottom right corner.



Again this may or may not be closer to what you had hoped the result to be but hopefully my example will work as a guide to what can be done and should help you achieve your desired result.

I hope it has helped you at least in some small way. These days of digital, photography is as much about processing the shots as it is about taking them. Shoot RAW and enjoy learning the process. Best of luck and post your progress and questions (if you have any)

P.S. Photomatrix is available as a free trial if you fancy having a go, as is Photoshop.