How would you change this picture? C&C and post processing suggestions

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On a recent trip to the cottage I took this picture:



Nikon D40, f/9, 1/400, ISO 200, matrix metering

I realized that it was over exposed so I did some post processing, and ended up with this after adding in some contrast, saturation, and a slight blur:



Please let me know what you think - this is only the second photo I've posted on this site so please, be gentle

M

made it a bit too dark in the shaded areas...other than that, it looks pretty good to me!
It's a pleasant, peaceful looking scene/composition.

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Jim K...just outside Detroit, MI
DeeFifty; CeeTwentyOneHundred; EffZeeFiveK

http://www.pbase.com/jkorsog ...Pbase supporter
http://motorcityjim.fotopic.net/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/motor_city_jim/

Hello M,

Hope you are well.

The composition of this photo is very nice, great job!

Took into Nikon Capture NX version 1 for a slight tweak.

1. Started with Auto Levels Advanced +30 contrast +50 correct color cast.

2. Control Point water lower right dark area. -10 Saturation, +12 Bright, +35 contrast.

3. 2 Control Points dark tree and dark area on left. +65 Bright on tree, +40 Bright +25 contrast scruff on ground.

4. Control point on cottage. +25 Bright, +12 Contrast, +25 Saturation.

5. Control Point on light green portion of trees to left of cottage. -25 Bright, +15 Contrast.

6. 2 Control Points on bluish trees in background. +15 contrast, -15 Blue Channel. Limited effect to the background hazy trees only with minus brush.

7. Control Point on water in background section and foreground section. -10 Bright, +10 Contrast, +25 Blue Channel background and -10 Bright +15 blue foreground. Limited with minus brush to water only.

8. +20 Contrast to all but the sky with Opacity set to lighten.

9. Noise reduction on the sky.

10. Few small control points on rocks to add some selective contrast.

11. High Pass sharpen on the cottage only to draw eyes into the photograph to it.

12. Few small control points in the deepest shadows to bring out some details in the shadow areas, but leaving the shadows intact.

Here is the edited version.



--
Later,

Tony

Nice job Tony
Deborah

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Just stunning!!! Personally, on my monitor, I like the OP edited photo the best, Tony, yours was really good too, but it looked a bit over processed on my monitor, but a great improvement over the original. I'm no pro, it's just my opinion.

Trish

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Later,

Tony

Hello Trish,

Hope you are well.

To improve technique, what part of the image did you find over processed so I can take another look at it?

Monitors are so very different, especially if not correctly calibrated. It is a shame that we all can not see the same image as intended by each other.

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Later,

Tony

You did a good job on the PP as a whole and the PP'd image looks much better in general, but you must have raised contrast so you have burned some of the highlights (look at the white clouds where now there's a white "hole" at the place where there where details originaly) and you've darkened more some already dark parts (as the grass and the rocks on the foreground left)

The solution is called selective adjustments. I did my pp with the selective brush of the Capture NX, a very easy tool that lets you apply whatever you do (contrast, levels, colour adjustments, sharpness etc) only where it is needed, so I brightened the dark parts and darkened the very bright ones. The resilt may be not absolutely natural but it has some "pop" which is not bad for landscape photography. Tell me what you think, and keep up. You're in the right way.
Regards Alex

PS This is just a 4 minute job. With more patience and having the original file, the result would be much better.
Original



My PP

My take:

1:st



2:nd



original:



Is original really over exposed?

I've never used Nikon Capture NX but I like the result you got - thanks.

tmascolo said:

Hello M,

Hope you are well.

The composition of this photo is very nice, great job!

Took into Nikon Capture NX version 1 for a slight tweak.

1. Started with Auto Levels Advanced +30 contrast +50 correct color
cast.

2. Control Point water lower right dark area. -10 Saturation, +12
Bright, +35 contrast.

3. 2 Control Points dark tree and dark area on left. +65 Bright on
tree, +40 Bright +25 contrast scruff on ground.

4. Control point on cottage. +25 Bright, +12 Contrast, +25 Saturation.

5. Control Point on light green portion of trees to left of cottage.
-25 Bright, +15 Contrast.

6. 2 Control Points on bluish trees in background. +15 contrast, -15
Blue Channel. Limited effect to the background hazy trees only with
minus brush.

7. Control Point on water in background section and foreground
section. -10 Bright, +10 Contrast, +25 Blue Channel background and
-10 Bright +15 blue foreground. Limited with minus brush to water
only.

8. +20 Contrast to all but the sky with Opacity set to lighten.

9. Noise reduction on the sky.

10. Few small control points on rocks to add some selective contrast.

11. High Pass sharpen on the cottage only to draw eyes into the
photograph to it.

12. Few small control points in the deepest shadows to bring out some
details in the shadow areas, but leaving the shadows intact.

Here is the edited version.



--
Later,

Tony

Click to expand...

Alex,

Thanks for the help - your PP looks like what i was going for, is there a way to do what you did in NX in Photoshop? There must be....

alexring said:

You did a good job on the PP as a whole and the PP'd image looks
much better in general, but you must have raised contrast so you have
burned some of the highlights (look at the white clouds where now
there's a white "hole" at the place where there where details
originaly) and you've darkened more some already dark parts (as the
grass and the rocks on the foreground left)
The solution is called selective adjustments. I did my pp with the
selective brush of the Capture NX, a very easy tool that lets you
apply whatever you do (contrast, levels, colour adjustments,
sharpness etc) only where it is needed, so I brightened the dark
parts and darkened the very bright ones. The resilt may be not
absolutely natural but it has some "pop" which is not bad for
landscape photography. Tell me what you think, and keep up. You're in
the right way.
Regards Alex

PS This is just a 4 minute job. With more patience and having the
original file, the result would be much better.
Original



My PP

Click to expand...

I really like your image, here's my version.

Original:



Modified (more contrast, local contrast, saturation, color adjustment):

alexring said:

You did a good job on the PP as a whole and the PP'd image looks
much better in general, but you must have raised contrast so you have
burned some of the highlights (look at the white clouds where now
there's a white "hole" at the place where there where details
originaly) and you've darkened more some already dark parts (as the
grass and the rocks on the foreground left)
The solution is called selective adjustments. I did my pp with the
selective brush of the Capture NX, a very easy tool that lets you
apply whatever you do (contrast, levels, colour adjustments,
sharpness etc) only where it is needed, so I brightened the dark
parts and darkened the very bright ones. The resilt may be not
absolutely natural but it has some "pop" which is not bad for
landscape photography. Tell me what you think, and keep up. You're in
the right way.
Regards Alex

PS This is just a 4 minute job. With more patience and having the
original file, the result would be much better.
Original

My PP

Click to expand...

I like the one from Alex, he's is the only where the detail in the clouds was not lost, a bit to saturated for my taste, but it's the best in my opinion.

--
Pushed the button and the world stood still.

Hi, a very beautiful pix. Where is your cool cottage? I was going to suggest some top cropping. You may want to crop to only the island. I believe the second pix is too dark. I am not the greatest fan of Photoshop, tho. I liike the natural look. Good luck and keep clicking.
--
Drwritelight

This is a picture that has a lot of possibilities. It can be lightened up to show more details or the sky darkened to look more dramatic. Having never scene the local in person and just as a viewer of the photo it is hard to say what the real colors might be like. But I did a couple quick variations just to see how they paly out. I do this with my onw photos to see what I might want to do with the photo, if anything.
Starting with the original







--
Brooks
http://bmiddleton.smugmug.com/

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Out of all the variations posted, I like the original poster's edited version and this "old film" version the best..

Are most people doing their post on UN*calibrated monitors?? The problem I see with a lot of the variants is that they are too warm and have way too much magenta hue when viewed on my monitor: the beach looks pinkish/orange and the greens of the pine trees have too much yellow in them and not enough blue, giving them a bright "fluorescent" appearance which is completely unnatural to my eye.. Many of the variants also show a lot of sharpening/contrast adjustment artifacts..

C_4 said:

Out of all the variations posted, I like the original poster's edited
version and this "old film" version the best..

Click to expand...

I'm with You. How about this...

Hello C_4

Hope you are well.

Reading your comment made me think. What do people actually see when someone else edits something. I am doing my editing on a calibrated Iiyama VisionMaster Pro CRT with a DiamondTron tube. What I see on the screen is what I get when I print on my Epson 2200.

Reading your comment I took the picture I edited to my laptop, and then my Wife's computer with an LCD. I was appalled at what I saw on those two screens. Middle cloud in sky was blown out, the greens appeared very yellow on both LCDs. I have never liked LCD monitors except for the expensive 10 bit panels, but consumer LCDs are only 8 bit devices with limited gradients and color fidelity.

Even if it is not seen as intended, if steps are laid, out the original poster can tweak the colors and still get some input on different ways to manipulate an image.

I tried below to compensate for the horrid LCD screens.

First the original file:



My First Edit is here from my Calibrated CRT DiamondTron:



My Attempt to correct for the uncalibrated LCDs still does not look all that great. This version looks way too dark on the calibrated CRT, and when printed is not right at all.



Now the question is, what should one do when editing for an open forum? My conclusion is, as long as the steps are laid out, the original poster can utilize techniques for themselves with a not perfect but viable preview on the forums, an approximation of what the techniques can achieve.

--
Later,

Tony

--
Later,

Tony