Home › Forums › Photo Critique › Dixie in the fog
- This topic has 11 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 9 months ago by
James Staddon.
-
AuthorPosts
-
September 27, 2014 at 7:19 pm #7679
Farmboy
ParticipantSeptember 29, 2014 at 3:42 pm #7681Sarah.Brown
ParticipantAww! I just love your cow! Great shot! I personally like it a lot!
September 29, 2014 at 6:55 pm #7682Farmboy
ParticipantThank!
October 2, 2014 at 7:49 pm #7705Ezra Morley
ModeratorWelcome to the forum, @farmboy !
I must say, I agree with @sarah-brown, it is a nice shot! That cow looks like it has a personality!
In my opinion, the image could use a bit of help as far as editing goes. I took the liberty of making some basic edits for you, and show them here, so you can see what I did.
I think it’s pretty self-explanatory, I upped the WB (white balance) just a tad, brought up the ‘whites’ slider, which basically made the whites in the image whiter, then I brought up the shadows a little. I had noticed that the picture didn’t look very sharp, but I think it was a result of the resizing/scaling rather than a focus issue. As you can see, with a little sharpening, it looks quite a bit better!

October 3, 2014 at 1:36 pm #7726timtam
ParticipantNice edits. The shadows have too much blue. The whites in the cows fur looks blue in the shadow arras
October 3, 2014 at 4:41 pm #7727Ezra Morley
ModeratorOctober 4, 2014 at 11:00 am #7734timtam
ParticipantWay better.
October 7, 2014 at 8:51 am #7742
James StaddonKeymasterWhen I first saw this picture the other day, I thought “that’s a shot one would be proud to have in a portfolio.” It’s a great shot.
My second thought, after zooming in on it, was “Ah, I wish it was sharp!”
The mist in the background, the full sunlight on the subject, the off-centered composition, the glint in the eye . . . it’s an idealistic situation. You’re even at a more dynamic angle, eye level with your subject looking straight at you, it is very engaging.
But my comment would be that I wish the eye was “tack sharp”. Here’s how I do that. Set the camera to One-Shot focus mode, change your focus point to be in the center; then focus on the eye, lock the focus, recompose ever so slightly if necessary, take the shot, then zoom in 100% on your screen to see if it is indeed sharp on the eye. I do this all the time.
October 7, 2014 at 7:04 pm #7751Farmboy
ParticipantThanks everyones for your counsels.
I wish I have lightroom, seems to do a very great job!October 8, 2014 at 8:16 am #7752
James StaddonKeymasterWhat program do you currently use for editing your pictures?
October 8, 2014 at 8:31 am #7755Farmboy
ParticipantI use Windows Live photo gallery.
October 8, 2014 at 8:53 am #7757
James StaddonKeymasterOk, so you should be able to make the same adjustments that @buddingphotographer was talking about.
In Photo Gallery, double click on the picture you want to edit, choose “Fine tune” on the top bar, choose “Adjust exposure” on the right side bar, and play around with the following controls until you get the contrast you’re looking for:
1. I don’t recommend you use the Contrast slider, but it’s available for global changes if you want. You can do better using the other sliders.
2. Combination of shadows and Highlights sliders will probably produce the best results.
3. The “Whites” and “Blacks” in Lightroom are equivilant to the black and white sliders to the left and right of the histogram under “Histogram” section in Live Writer. Just drag those sliders in from the sides to get the same effect.
4. If you scroll down the panel, you should be able to adjust the sharpening. Don’t use it too heavily. -
AuthorPosts
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.





