[Charlotte]

Furthering my image editing studies + practice, had a go with this one. Please let me know what you think. In particular, has it got depth? Does it look 'overcooked'? I think it does, but perhaps that's because I cooked it I think it's acquired a bit of a surreal look, but is that a bad thing here? All comments welcome.

[Dabhand16]

Nice shot, Charlotte

It does look very green to my colour-blind eyes, but it works because it has a kind of 'follow the yellow brick road' feel to it (Skip will like that comment). Not a lot of blue in the sky, though. That might have been a good touch.

The cherry on the cake would be somone on the path. Or maybe the Tin Man, The Scarecrow and The Lion.

[Charlotte]

Good point about the sky Dab. It is a lovely blue in the original, and I didn't realise how much of the blue got lost during the post processing, so thanks for pointing this out ... back to the drawing board with that one

[Rob Barron]

I do agree with your own view Charlotte, it is a bit overcooked but not enough to make it inedible

I think the thing I am not keen on is the composition. The angle of the right side of the path is ok, works as a lead in line but the left of the path is a central line from the middle into the picture where it then almost meets up with the sky which is a dividing line coming down from the centre. I think to get a strong composition, you needed to get off the path a touch to the left or move to the centre of the path moving you to the right. I am not sure whether actually a portrait would have been better but it would still feel a bit cliched. If the path meandered a bit more you'd have a much stronger shot but this one doesn't do a lot and doesn't feel as though it takes me somewhere my eye wants to dwell on.

I just held up a piece of card on the screen and definitely feel the best improvement here is to crop a quarter of the image away from the left hand side. It actually changes the composition quite dramatically and makes it work a lot better IMHO. Might be worth a go?

Cheers,
Rob

[Soupdragon]

On my lap top monitor:

It looks over exposed, I can't find black anywhere.
The greens are wrong, too yellow, come to think of it, the whole thing looks a bit yellow.
Some of the top of the picture needs to go as it leads my eye off the path (which I assume is supposed to be the lead in).

To be truly objective you should really post a before and after! "I edited it" or "I think I overcooked it" are rather ambiguous statements.

[daveyuk]

It's a bit to green maybe a touch of contrast to bring it out a bit more.

Otherwise a very nice shot with that path leading you through the image nicely done

[Charlotte]

Many thanks for all your comments.

Rob, thanks for your views + suggestions, all are being taken on board Re: compo, I have lots of photo's of this location, but all pretty much from the same viewpoint, + I take your point in regard to the direction of the path. The undergrowth is very thick in these pic's, so the path does become obscured at its first bend. I will try cropping as you suggest + see what that looks like. I thought the eye was led quite well into the distance via perspective, i.e. you can see at the V where the two lines of trees meet that this is the unseen continuation of the path, but maybe I can see that because I was there I didn't see need for diagonals etc. as this isn't meant to be a dynamic image, it's a quiet country walk through nature, + no matter how much of the path you see, you still won't see the end of it I thought it was quite effective, the way the path + the sky met on the same vertical line, but I agree that this does keep the eye in the centre of the pic.

Thanks Soup, now that you've pointed it out, I think you're right about too much yellow. I didn't want to post the "before" yet, as I wanted feedback on the edited version as an image in its own right first. But here it is below. It's a high contrast shot, + I wanted to bring out the shadow detail to show the scene as light + airy. I think I did that pretty well, without losing any highlight detail. I made the greens down the far end of the path bright intentionally, to lead the eye effectively, but perhaps they are too bright.

Thanks daveyuk for your comment as well. I think you're right, too much bright green + more contrast needed. You will see from the original below that the greenery was very dull + all the same colour, + that the contrast was very high. So I've overdone the corrections, basically. In addition, as Dabhand16 pointed out, I neglected to bring the sky in line with the green colour corrections, so the blueness of it got a bit lost.

Thanks for taking the time to comment, and any other comments are still welcome.

PS It got a couple of good reviews in my gallery with a score of 9, so someone likes it as it is, which is always nice to know

OK here's the original, uncut version






Pretty dull huh?

[Soupdragon]

At least the colours are real.
I prefer it to the modified version.
Still needs some off the top.
It looks a bit like Moors Valley!

These are my opinions, not anyone else's.

No animals (to my knowledge) were harmed by typing this response.

[silver]

much prefer the colours and tones on the original,.

really only you know whether you've captured the scene as you wanted,. whenever you are out shooting a subject be creative and try a lot of stuff even if you think it won't work,. you can do many things in PS but you cannot change the angle it was taken etc

once you have the same scene captured from many angles and viewpoints you'll know what you like,. rather than find out what other ppl like, think of it like sketching

Sil

[Rob Barron]

I have to say I MUCH prefer the original version, the colours are natural and the 'pleasant relaxing walk' is exactly what I feel with this version. I would still crop off the left hand side and then I think you've got a lovely image with minimal work needed.

As I think you said of another picture fairly recently: don't mend what isn't broken!

Cheers,
Rob

[Charlotte]

LOL Well, as this was another exercise for me in image editing, I didn't do very well it seems, as you all still prefer the original

I guess I did get a bit carried away with "improving" the shot ... Comparing the two images now, basically one looks real + one doesn't! I guess I'm still learning that "less is more" in a lot of aspects of photography - including editing As soon as I look at the edited version now, I want to put my sunglasses on, even tho' I'm sitting (at my PC) indoors + it's nighttime

Many thanks for your comments everyone, they are all very helpful indeed - I've learned a lot thru' this exercise, thanks to your feedback