Smoky Hills Wind Farm - Lincoln County Kansas

racurtis

Hello everyone. Long time listener, first time poster. I spent Christmas in central Kansas this year, in very close proximity to the Smoky Hills Wind Farm in Lincoln and Ellsworth counties. I am relatively new to this hobby and not yet completely comfortable with Photoshop, however, I think I wound up with some decent shots here. Please tell me what you all think.

Thanks in advance.

#1


#2


#3


#4


#5


#6

Jack'll do

You have some nice shots here but they could quite easily be improved a lot.

#1. Overall a bit too light and washed out. If you add a brightness/contrast adjustment layer and decrease brightness and up the contrast a tad it will be much improved (especially the sky). If you are familiar with using curves, a curves adjustment would be even better. Alternatively, do Image -> Adjustment -> Shadow/Highlights and just darken the highlights and adjust the midtone contrast. Lots of ways to skin a cat just choose the one that gives the best result

#2.Level the horizon and adjust as in #1. If you are comfortable with using masks, you could limit the adjustment to the sky and windmill on this one.

#3, 4, 5 You've committed the cardinal sin of having the subject dead center which we all did in the beginning.

#3 Could be fixed by cropping the left side in to the start of the hill slope.

#4 I love the colors here. First fix the leftward tilt of the windmill. Since there are no other features but the windmill, I'd like to see this in a portrait format with the windmill still centered.

#5 Good color here. There seems to be too much black at the bottom. I'd try leveling the horizon, then cropping off about half the black making it more of a panoramic view.

#6 Again the centered subject. If this is a crop of the original, I'd go back and redo it to give it a little more room on the left and less on the right so that the windmill is about 1/3 into the frame.

All in all these are quite nice but as I said, they could easily be very very nice. Hope this helps. Looking forward to more posts from you.

Evangeline

I like #2.
The contrast between the past and future along with the slightly "alien invasion" quality to it.

racurtis

Jack'll do wrote:

You have some nice shots here but they could quite easily be improved a lot.

#1. Overall a bit too light and washed out. If you add a brightness/contrast adjustment layer and decrease brightness and up the contrast a tad it will be much improved (especially the sky). If you are familiar with using curves, a curves adjustment would be even better. Alternatively, do Image -> Adjustment -> Shadow/Highlights and just darken the highlights and adjust the midtone contrast. Lots of ways to skin a cat just choose the one that gives the best result

#2.Level the horizon and adjust as in #1. If you are comfortable with using masks, you could limit the adjustment to the sky and windmill on this one.

#3, 4, 5 You've committed the cardinal sin of having the subject dead center which we all did in the beginning.

#3 Could be fixed by cropping the left side in to the start of the hill slope.

#4 I love the colors here. First fix the leftward tilt of the windmill. Since there are no other features but the windmill, I'd like to see this in a portrait format with the windmill still centered.

#5 Good color here. There seems to be too much black at the bottom. I'd try leveling the horizon, then cropping off about half the black making it more of a panoramic view.

#6 Again the centered subject. If this is a crop of the original, I'd go back and redo it to give it a little more room on the left and less on the right so that the windmill is about 1/3 into the frame.

All in all these are quite nice but as I said, they could easily be very very nice. Hope this helps. Looking forward to more posts from you.

Wow, thank you for the input Jack. When I get some free time this weekend I will try your suggestions. I appreciate the help!

racurtis

Jack'll do wrote:

You have some nice shots here but they could quite easily be improved a lot.

#1. Overall a bit too light and washed out. If you add a brightness/contrast adjustment layer and decrease brightness and up the contrast a tad it will be much improved (especially the sky). If you are familiar with using curves, a curves adjustment would be even better. Alternatively, do Image -> Adjustment -> Shadow/Highlights and just darken the highlights and adjust the midtone contrast. Lots of ways to skin a cat just choose the one that gives the best result

#2.Level the horizon and adjust as in #1. If you are comfortable with using masks, you could limit the adjustment to the sky and windmill on this one.

#3, 4, 5 You've committed the cardinal sin of having the subject dead center which we all did in the beginning.

#3 Could be fixed by cropping the left side in to the start of the hill slope.

#4 I love the colors here. First fix the leftward tilt of the windmill. Since there are no other features but the windmill, I'd like to see this in a portrait format with the windmill still centered.

#5 Good color here. There seems to be too much black at the bottom. I'd try leveling the horizon, then cropping off about half the black making it more of a panoramic view.

#6 Again the centered subject. If this is a crop of the original, I'd go back and redo it to give it a little more room on the left and less on the right so that the windmill is about 1/3 into the frame.

All in all these are quite nice but as I said, they could easily be very very nice. Hope this helps. Looking forward to more posts from you.

OK, I was able to attempt a couple of the edits. I'm still learning the masking technique and I'm not very well versed in layers yet but I was able to try out a few of your suggestions.

#1: I tried masking the sky and then editing the levels, the brightness and contrast as well as the color hue (for the sky and turbine). I also adjusted the curves so I think it looks better, especially the sky.


#2: I had trouble getting the blues to come out in the sky, however, I did mask it, and the turbine, and was able to adjust the levels and brightness/contrast.


#3: I cropped per your suggestion and here is what I came up with.


#4: Again, cropped per your suggestion.


#5: Cropped.


For #6, I just wasn't able to get it cropped correctly so I'm going to punt on that one.

What do you think?

TPBinKC

Definite improvement. I really like 4 and 5. Good color on both of those.

Jack'll do

I think you've made some significant improvements here.thumb But what's important is what you think. To help getting up to speed with photoshop and post processing have a look at the "sticky" posts at the top of the topics list in the Technique forum and the Finishing School forum.

racurtis

Jack'll do wrote:

I think you've made some significant improvements here.thumb But what's important is what you think. To help getting up to speed with photoshop and post processing have a look at the "sticky" posts at the top of the topics list in the Technique forum and the Finishing School forum.

Well I think they all look great!
Thanks, I will take a look at the sticky posts and see what I can get out of them. I am working with Photoshop 6.0 so I'm behind the curve a bit but I plan on upgrading to Elements 6 or 7 so that might help a bit.

Thanks again for the input everyone.
-Alex

Dwayne Oakes

Here is another tip : These things look really cool with motion blur (spinning)
and a slow shutter speed, a good time would be on an overcast
low light day. Try f/16, ISO 100 to slow your shutter speed down and
use a tripod and the self timer. The results will amaze you.

Take care,

Dwayne Oakes

TPBinKC

racurtis wrote:

Hello everyone. Long time listener, first time poster. I spent Christmas in central Kansas this year, in very close proximity to the Smoky Hills Wind Farm in Lincoln and Ellsworth counties. I am relatively new to this hobby and not yet completely comfortable with Photoshop, however, I think I wound up with some decent shots here. Please tell me what you all think.

Welcome to Dgrin by the way.

racurtis

Dwayne Oakes wrote:

Here is another tip : These things look really cool with motion blur (spinning)
and a slow shutter speed, a good time would be on an overcast
low light day. Try f/16, ISO 100 to slow your shutter speed down and
use a tripod and the self timer. The results will amaze you.

Take care,

Dwayne Oakes

I actually have a couple of shots where I did that. I haven't had the chance to clean these up as much so don't be too critical.






I think that these make the turbines seem like they're spinning faster than they really are. It's still a cool effect though.

Preacherman

Welcome to Dgrin..I am sure you will enjoy it here.

I have no comments to make on the techniques etc.

But - as a general comment - I can not find anything artistic or pleasant about wind turbines!!:D We have loads in my area and they are perched on a lot of previously beautiful landscapes - breaking up the skyline, and just looking plain ugly!! As someone said - they are aliens!!

I know about green/the environment etc etc...but urghhh

Sorry to use your lovely photographs ( and I do admire what you are trying to do with your pictures by the way) as a chance to unload...please forgive me

Keep posting please.

Take care

John

racurtis

Preacherman wrote:

Welcome to Dgrin..I am sure you will enjoy it here.

I have no comments to make on the techniques etc.

But - as a general comment - I can not find anything artistic or pleasant about wind turbines!!:D We have loads in my area and they are perched on a lot of previously beautiful landscapes - breaking up the skyline, and just looking plain ugly!! As someone said - they are aliens!!

I know about green/the environment etc etc...but urghhh

Sorry to use your lovely photographs ( and I do admire what you are trying to do with your pictures by the way) as a chance to unload...please forgive me

Keep posting please.

Take care

John

No problem, vent away. I know my wife's family, who pass them twice a day (once going to work and again going home) don't find them near as fascinating as I do.