Suggestions Please

jandrewnelson

Your comments on how to make this a better shot would be appreciated.



Thanks and blessings
Jerry Nelson
www.Meesoon.smugmug.com

astockwell

jandrewnelson wrote:

Your comments on how to make this a better shot would be appreciated.



Thanks and blessings
Jerry Nelson
www.Meesoon.smugmug.com

Better sky would be one thing. If you can reshoot it, also what time of day was it? If possible shoot near sunrise or sunset, the shot seems lopsided to me, meaning, all this green and color in the foreground, and nothing to counterbalance it. Not much you can do about the fog or haze, but I think that adds to it if you can get a good sky.

-Andy

astockwell

astockwell wrote:

Better sky would be one thing. If you can reshoot it, also what time of day was it? If possible shoot near sunrise or sunset, the shot seems lopsided to me, meaning, all this green and color in the foreground, and nothing to counterbalance it. Not much you can do about the fog or haze, but I think that adds to it if you can get a good sky.

-Andy

The shot has good layering to it though, the foreground, then the mountains, and layers of them, and then sky, but the sky just kills it for me. I would also crop out that vertical line in the middle of the shot on the right side. Not sure if that is a tree trunk, or a pole or what.

jandrewnelson

astockwell wrote:

Better sky would be one thing. If you can reshoot it, also what time of day was it? If possible shoot near sunrise or sunset, the shot seems lopsided to me, meaning, all this green and color in the foreground, and nothing to counterbalance it. Not much you can do about the fog or haze, but I think that adds to it if you can get a good sky.

-Andy

Please explain "better sky"? more contrast? lighter? darker? I shot it about 8:45 tonight...very shortly before total sunset...was still light and i lightened it up a little more in post processing. Yes, I can reshoot.

Thanks for the help!

Blessings
Jerry Nelson
www.meesoon.smugmug.com

jandrewnelson

astockwell wrote:

The shot has good layering to it though, the foreground, then the mountains, and layers of them, and then sky, but the sky just kills it for me. I would also crop out that vertical line in the middle of the shot on the right side. Not sure if that is a tree trunk, or a pole or what.

Ach! I didn't even notice that pole/tree/post whatever. Thanks for the tips and help.

Blessings
Jerry
www.meesoon.smugmug.com

astockwell

jandrewnelson wrote:

Please explain "better sky"? more contrast? lighter? darker? I shot it about 8:45 tonight...very shortly before total sunset...was still light and i lightened it up a little more in post processing. Yes, I can reshoot.

Thanks for the help!

Blessings
Jerry Nelson
www.meesoon.smugmug.com

Darker sky a little, and more color for that time of night if there was good color. (Sunset on the east coast was 8:14 tonight, and Civil Twilight ended at 8:47). Did you shoot raw? If so you'll have a ton more ability to effect change, and also did you use any layer masking in PP? If so you could bring the sky color and exposure in, without darkening out the foggy mountains and foreground. I would also consider contrast masking the sky, dependent on fixing the exposure of the sky with a mask, depends on what it looked like after exposure comping.

-Andy

astockwell

You shoot with any filters for this shot? A Grad ND would have helped a lot here.

-Andy

jandrewnelson

astockwell wrote:

Darker sky a little, and more color for that time of night if there was good color. (Sunset on the east coast was 8:14 tonight, and Civil Twilight ended at 8:47). Did you shoot raw? If so you'll have a ton more ability to effect change, and also did you use any layer masking in PP? If so you could bring the sky color and exposure in, without darkening out the foggy mountains and foreground. I would also consider contrast masking the sky, dependent on fixing the exposure of the sky with a mask, depends on what it looked like after exposure comping.

-Andy

Here's a similar picture that I took just a moment before the other one we've been talking about. I shot a raw and jpg, but have absolutely NO idea how to process raw in GIMP. Layer masking? Exposure? I've heard the words, but exactly how to do it, I'm at a loss.



Anyway, thanks for the input and advice.

Blessings
Jerry Nelson
www.meesoon.smugmug.com

jandrewnelson

astockwell wrote:

You shoot with any filters for this shot? A Grad ND would have helped a lot here.

-Andy

Er, no...I don't have any filters. BTW, what's a Grad ND?

Thanks and blessings
Jerry Nelson
www.meesoon.smugmug.com

RogersDA

jandrewnelson wrote:

Er, no...I don't have any filters. BTW, what's a Grad ND?

Thanks and blessings
Jerry Nelson
www.meesoon.smugmug.com

Graduated Neutral Density filter.

Quick info: http://www.great-landscape-photography.com/graduated-filters.html

Hikin' Mike

If your taking photos in the evening, if you don't use a tripod, buy one. It looks like this is a bit fuzzy, or it's just my eyes.

Google 'Layer Masks'. I good tutorial is here.

Exposure? Read the book Unerstanding Exposure.

astockwell

jandrewnelson wrote:

Here's a similar picture that I took just a moment before the other one we've been talking about. I shot a raw and jpg, but have absolutely NO idea how to process raw in GIMP. Layer masking? Exposure? I've heard the words, but exactly how to do it, I'm at a loss.



Anyway, thanks for the input and advice.

Blessings
Jerry Nelson
www.meesoon.smugmug.com

I used to use GIMP. Good program for being free, but they need to get adjustment layering into the program. First you need a RAW editor. I used to use ufRAW, and then switched to RAW Therapee, which is more like LightRoom. Anyway, download one of them, install it, and then open the RAW with the program. ufRAW will act like a plugin program to GIMP. You can have it set up to send the outputed file from the RAW right to GIMP when you are done with RAW processing. Grad ND's are wonderful stuff. I religiously use them, If you check my site, you'll see that I use them in about 90% of my work, but I am a Landscape Junkie, if you don't shoot a lot of them, it might not be worth it for you. But a Cokin P series setup should only run you about $75 for a basic 2 filter setup. But when you actually buy the filters, buy from 2Filter.com, and buy Hi-tech 85/P series size if you go with a Cokin setup. I should really put in FAQ in the gear thread.

If you have more q's ask.

-Andy

jandrewnelson

Thanks so much for the help. I've downloaded ufraw and will play around with it to learn it.

I'll save the pennies for some filters.

Thanks and blessings
Jerry
www.meesoon.smugmug.com

Picture North Carolina

It seems to be very soft to me.

RogersDA

Hikin' Mike wrote:

If your taking photos in the evening, if you don't use a tripod, buy one. It looks like this is a bit fuzzy, or it's just my eyes.

Google 'Layer Masks'. I good tutorial is here.

Exposure? Read the book Unerstanding Exposure.

+1 on all three of Mike's suggestions.

RogersDA

Your original images are heavily pixelated. Are you reducing the jpg quality (increased compression) before uploading, or does the DMC-FZ28 have different quality settings and you are not using the highest quality?

astockwell

RogersDA wrote:

Your original images are heavily pixelated. Are you reducing the jpg quality (increased compression) before uploading, or does the DMC-FZ28 have different quality settings and you are not using the highest quality?

Also, along this line, if possible shoot the lowest ISO possible when shooting landscapes, unless you are going for a specific shutter speed to cause an effect. The lower ISO will give you the highest resolution, lowest noise. And learn layer masking, it is your friend. Basically, you create a duplicate layer in GIMP, add a layer mask to the duplicate(a white mask), then mask off the area with your paintbrush that you don't want to adjust in black, and then with the duplicate layer active, you can manipulate it's exposure, contrast, etc. for the area that you didn't mask off. Once you are done, flatten the image, and it should apply the duplicate's changes to the original layer. Most stuff you do in Photo Shop can be done in GIMP, but sometimes the steps are a little different. Like I said they need to get quick masks and Adjustment layers into GIMP, then they will have a winner.
Check out RawTherapee also, I like it better than UFraw, since you can browse the RAW files with it, and it has more control over adjustments, IE Chromatic Abberation adjustement, barrel distortion adjustment, and better options for highlight recovery and contrasting.

-Andy

jandrewnelson

OK, thanks for the tips!

Blessings
Jerry
www.MeeSoon.smugmug.com