- This topic has 16 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 6 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
We recently took a family vacation to the east coast. As in James’ blog about a “Normal Vacation”, we took photos as we had opportunity, but didn’t usually have time to find just the right vantage point, wait for ideal lighting, etc. Here are a couple I’d appreciate constructive criticism about.
The first was taken in the Library of Congress. It’s an amazing place, packed with seemingly endless artistic subject matter. The problem I had was composing photos that would draw attention to a particular subject – the surroundings and background are nearly always really busy (and beautiful), thus distracting. So I ended up with quite a few like this, which take in a broader area than I might ordinarily try for, and therefore to me kind of lack subjective focus.
The second is of the Delaware River at Bushkill Access. It was mid-day, with grayish skies overhead – not ideal, but the setting seemed like it had potential for a nice shot.
Comments, suggestions for improvements are appreciated.Attachments:
Oops, looks like photos attached above didn’t upload in the same order as the text… but you can tell which is which!
About the upload order, that’s something I have yet to figure out.
I agree the Library of Congress to be a very difficult building to shoot! Not only is it so ornate that it’s almost impossible to find simplicity amid the extravagance, the architecture and sculptures are so influenced by Greek ethos that not everything on display should really be on display, in my opinion. But for the specific subject you have here, it lends itself to a centered composition. Shooting it straight on would bring out the symmetry and increase it’s message of profundity. Another way to make interesting shots in places like that, is to find a subject where you could incorporate depth of field, as you can see in the attached image. It didn’t take time to set up; just a snapshot as I was walking around, trying to think how I could capture what I saw in the building without holding up the rest of the folks in my group. 🙂
For the “second” image, I like how you got close to the rocks and water. It’s a good perspective, looking down the river and seeing the hump of hill at the end. I would have tried composing this vertically. There’s a lot of empty space on the left that could be cropped out and I think it would help lead my eye deeper into the scene if it was vertical. It would also have made the curve of the reflected tress stand out more, and the reflection of the clouds in the water too. You’re eye candy is all there in the center portion of the image.
Attachments:
Agreed James.
They both look like good candidates for HDR shots particularly the water shot.
I think you could pull the shadows up and pull the sky down with a lower exposure and really make the clouds stand out.@timtam, do you mean something like this? (I put the original too, so you can switch between them to see the difference.) Basically what I did, was increase saturation and contrast with a duplicated layer set to ‘Overlay’ mode, then I added a gradient, also set to ‘Overlay’ which I then masked to lighten the shadows in the trees. Finally I sharpened it.
Attachments:
@buddingphotographer, I like the enhancement you made to the photo. It makes the scene appear as I could imagine it being on a sunnier day.
This is veering off-topic for this particular forum, but I have 2 questions: 1. Can enhancements like this be done with GIMP? 2. Can you or others on the forum recommend a good intro/how-to guide for GIMP?
Thanks for the feedback!Yes, the enhancements by @buddingphotographer really do make the areas in sunlight pop out.
Like @timtam mentioned, exposing for the sky at first and pulling out the shadow detail in post would certainly make the clouds pop better. Using a polarizer filter would also have done the trick I would think. It would be especially helpful especially since it’s a water shot. Even a cheap one should work great; adding an extra touch.
@snmiller, You absolutely can do those edits in GIMP, in fact, that’s what I used for the edit that I just posted here!
I don’t know of any specific how-to guides, I would have to know what you’re interested in learning. I don’t like to recommend a website or video tutorial generically, because there is apt to be a lot of inappropriate content. If I knew exactly what you were wanting to learn, I could probably find a suitable tutorial without too much trouble.
I have also written a few of my own, which can be found here: GIMP Tutorials.
@buddingphotographer, thanks for the link to the tutorials you wrote. I took a quick look at them, and I think they will give me a good start with GIMP. Adjusting sharpness and lighting and using layers seem like some of the primary things I would be likely to want to do. I also appreciate your concern about inappropriate content – it’s hard to avoid on the internet, even with filtering. Thanks!
Very true, @buddingphotographer. There aren’t too many websites . . . or books, or seminars, or blogs, or magazines, or training material for that matter . . . on photography anymore that can be wholeheartedly recommended from a Christian ethics standpoint. That sprawling void is something that I hope Lenspiration.com will help to fill, and if there is any content that I recommend or link to in any post or topic or anywhere, let me know so I can make this website as clean, safe, and God-glorifying as is possible!
Some tools I have found very helpful in blocking inappropriate content are Adblock Plus and Remove It Permanently I never see ads when I’m browsing the web when Adblock Plus is installed (unless my web-browser update breaks the plugin…) Remove it Permanently is very useful for websites with distracting/annoying/innapropriate sidebars, etc… You just right-click on the annoying element, and RIP, and it should be gone forever!
P.S. I’m working on another GIMP tutorial, but I have no idea when I’ll get it done. I’ll post here if/when it’s done. 🙂
I use AdBlok Plus for Chrome all the time, but I had not known about Remove It Permanently for Firefox! Thanks @buddingphotographer!
Very detailed. Thanks @buddingphotographer.
You could very easily title that tutorial something like: “10 Easy Steps to Touching Up a Photo in GIMP”. 🙂 Or were there 10 steps? I don’t know. Could you number the steps to make it easier to follow? It’s nice having these detailed tutorials.
- This reply was modified 56 years, 5 months ago by .
Thanks @buddingphotographer for the tutorial, and glad my photo was useful. I stepped through the process and only had a couple challenges: 1. Arranging the dockable dialogs… I could get them to be side-by-side next to the main window, or on an additional tab, but couldn’t figure out how to stack them as in your screenshots, and 2. I had to hunt a bit to find out where to set the size of the paintbrush. Otherwise, it was easy to follow your instructions. Thanks!
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.