Editing

ChaKira

I'm not sure how to edit these and I'd like to enter them in a competition:

pathfinder

ChaKira,

Your horizons are not horizontal in the first two images. That may or may not be what you want in a contest entry.....

Are you wanting cropping suggestions for these images, or suggestions for image editing to increase their pop, like changes in tone, color, contrast or sharpening?

ChaKira

pathfinder wrote: »

Chakira,

Your horizons are not horizontal in the first two images. That may or may not be what you want in a contest entry.....

Are you wanting cropping suggestions for these images, or suggestions for image editing to increase their pop, like changes in tone, color, contrast or sharpening?

That is true for those!
A bit of both. I'd like to make them as good as possible. I'm not very good at cropping photos.

Thanks for replying

pathfinder

I might crop your first image with the dog in the lateral third, taking care to keep his tail and his shadow, while getting the skyline horizontal. Some shots fair nicely with oblique horizons, but water usually is not one of them.

I would brighten the surround of the dog, which looks slightly under-exposed, and then lighten the dog further with a screen blend to give you something like this frame below.

Are these the kinds of suggestions you are wanting? Maybe some of our readers will suggest alternatives for your other three images.

Peano

ChaKira wrote: »

I'm not sure how to edit these and I'd like to enter them in a competition:

What limits does the competition place on editing? And how far do you want to go within those limits?

EDIT: For instance, would the contest allow editing to this extent? And if it did, would you be inclined to go this far ... or perhaps further? (I darkened the blue of the sky, opened shadow details on the dog's face, leveled the horizon, ran Noiseware on the sky, selectively sharpened subject and foreground, added a tint, and obviously cropped.)

ChaKira

Peano wrote: »

What limits does the competition place on editing? And how far do you want to go within those limits?

EDIT: For instance, would the contest allow editing to this extent? And if it did, would you be inclined to go this far ... or perhaps further? (I darkened the blue of the sky, opened shadow details on the dog's face, leveled the horizon, ran Noiseware on the sky, selectively sharpened subject and foreground, added a tint, and obviously cropped.)

Wow I love that. I don't think there is any limits for the competition but it's pretty competitive!
What should I do with the 3rd pic? Similar to what you've done on this one?

Peano

ChaKira wrote: »

What should I do with the 3rd pic? Similar to what you've done on this one?

Play around with different crops on that one. I tried sticking with the square crop. I think it sorta works with this shot. Same treatment otherwise ...

ChaKira

Thanks!
I'll try that. I'm not very good at cropping photos!

Peano

More of a pano crop ... might also work. It's a pretty subjective decision.

ChaKira

Thank you for your help! Really appreciate it.
Would you keep the 3rd photo in colour at all?

Peano

ChaKira wrote: »

Would you keep the 3rd photo in colour at all?

No, I prefer B&W for that one. For both, in fact.

ChaKira

Peano wrote: »

No, I prefer B&W for that one. For both, in fact.

Thanks

ChaKira

hmm... the rules say: Only minor burning, dodging and/or colour correction is acceptable, as is cropping. High dynamic range images (HDR) and stitched panoramas are NOT acceptable.