Derek an I took a four day explore of some of the high passes in my Pathfinder last weekend. Except for a few evening showers on Saturday and Sunday the weather was very cooperative. We went to Clear Lake, Stoney Pass and Cinnamon Pass to American Basin. Course we did not see any of the advertised wildflowers in any of these places and had no fun at all Here is a photo from Clear Lake - I am in "learn mode" so C&C welcome and appreciated.
John
Here is another from American Basin and Handies Peak. C&C welcome here too.
John
Posted by Todd Caudle on July 29, 2007 at 10:37 AM
John, on both images there seems to be a lack of contrast. They look very flat. Try a levels or curves adjustment layer. If they pop on your monitor and not on anyone else's, you might consider a Spyder or something to profile your monitor. Actually, you should do that regardless, if you haven't already.
The first image has potential, but the second looks rather snapshot-ish. Foreground elements are your friends. Not needed in all photos, but certainly in this one.
John - can you provide some details of how you shot these - RAW, .jpg, grad filters, etc.? That info will help folks understand how you got to this point, and should help in gathering more specific suggestions.
I agree with Todd that some tonal adjustments would help each image. These have the feel of RAW images that haven't been optimized much beyond the original capture. The foreground flowers in each shot could lend a lot to the foreground interest if they can be made to stand out more - increase brightness/contrast. The comp on the first one feels well-balanced; on the second one, less sky and more of the yellow/purple flowers would step this up a notch.
Well, gents I agree on both counts. Rick these are pretty much unporocessed RAW conversions. That's what I get for peepin' me pixels late at night when me peeprs is pooped!. These were some of the first I opened and just didn't like 'em. Actually in the second one... That black spot to the left of the little water fall in the lower right is... Derek! He was shooting those columbines. After lookin through more of my shoots I am not so dissapointed. Got lots of good material to work with.
Thanks for looking!
John
Hey John - If these two are any indication, I'd agree that you've got some very good material to work with. RAW definitely requires some post-processing. And while I could spend an hour or so tweaking any one image, usually 5-10 minutes is enough to get a RAW file very close to the end product, and definitely good enough for web posting. If you've got enough memory card space, shooting RAW + .jpg isn't a bad approach. Unless I'm really cramped for space, I set my camera to capture a .jpg as well, and often it's good enough an image for web posting.
Discussion
5 repliesJohn
John
The first image has potential, but the second looks rather snapshot-ish. Foreground elements are your friends. Not needed in all photos, but certainly in this one.
I agree with Todd that some tonal adjustments would help each image. These have the feel of RAW images that haven't been optimized much beyond the original capture. The foreground flowers in each shot could lend a lot to the foreground interest if they can be made to stand out more - increase brightness/contrast. The comp on the first one feels well-balanced; on the second one, less sky and more of the yellow/purple flowers would step this up a notch.
Thanks for looking!
John