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I rather like this.
It is, as you say, suffering from being very flat; it's also very blue.
I've uploaded a quick mod. and a couple of alternative crops although I dare say you'd already thought of those.
In the mod. I simply applied, firstly auto tone, followed by auto colour which brought it to life a bit.
To combat the blueness, I simply de-saturated the blue channel to taste; (mine, possibly not yours!) and the yellow channel to whiten the breaker.
I also cloned the front right of the breaker in the 8X10 as it was a distraction.
The whole thing took about ten minutes.
With more time and working on ((a copy of) the original, you could doubtless achieve more.
Hope this helps.
Edit: In the uploaded mods., the breaker is still quite yellow which it's not on here so you're not quite seeing the change as I'd intended but you'll get the idea.
It is, as you say, suffering from being very flat; it's also very blue.
I've uploaded a quick mod. and a couple of alternative crops although I dare say you'd already thought of those.
In the mod. I simply applied, firstly auto tone, followed by auto colour which brought it to life a bit.
To combat the blueness, I simply de-saturated the blue channel to taste; (mine, possibly not yours!) and the yellow channel to whiten the breaker.
I also cloned the front right of the breaker in the 8X10 as it was a distraction.
The whole thing took about ten minutes.
With more time and working on ((a copy of) the original, you could doubtless achieve more.
Hope this helps.
Edit: In the uploaded mods., the breaker is still quite yellow which it's not on here so you're not quite seeing the change as I'd intended but you'll get the idea.
This is still a little flat tonally, but that blue cast is strong, It would be helpful to see the original, so if you create a jpg from an unadjusted RAW file we can see what you had to work with, especially as you're asking about post production.
You say you did some processing to get this far. Agin it would be helpful if you could give some detail about that so we know what you tried.
The composition is attractive with the positioning of the girl and the dog. The sunlight catching the wave has produced a very strong area of brightness which is a distraction, which can be cropped out. Jester's second mod is a good suggestion.
It may be possible to reduce its prominence when processing the RAW file, so that's another reason to post an unadjusted jpg. Not as good as the RW itself, but suifficient for uis as a starting point.
You say you did some processing to get this far. Agin it would be helpful if you could give some detail about that so we know what you tried.
The composition is attractive with the positioning of the girl and the dog. The sunlight catching the wave has produced a very strong area of brightness which is a distraction, which can be cropped out. Jester's second mod is a good suggestion.
It may be possible to reduce its prominence when processing the RAW file, so that's another reason to post an unadjusted jpg. Not as good as the RW itself, but suifficient for uis as a starting point.
Make a jpg from your RAW file, unprocessed. You can upload it as a Modification to your own image. Click on the blue 'Modifications' button below the image, then click on 'Upload Modification' and follow the instructions.
As Alan says. This is what we really need when an image has had significant work done on it.
The timing and composition are good, Looking at the settings, F5.6 and 1/320 second would have allowed a lower ISO. But the real problem is the blue cast - looking at this I hope that you can see that the colour doesn't look 'right'.
The yellow in the blown highlight on the sunlit wave also looks weird. I would probably crop tighter, but Ivor has used the clone tool very cleverly there.
Moira
The timing and composition are good, Looking at the settings, F5.6 and 1/320 second would have allowed a lower ISO. But the real problem is the blue cast - looking at this I hope that you can see that the colour doesn't look 'right'.
The yellow in the blown highlight on the sunlit wave also looks weird. I would probably crop tighter, but Ivor has used the clone tool very cleverly there.
Moira
Dack, - as mentioned before, what we mean by an original, is a JPEG converted from RAW that has has no editing done, other than the defaults that the RAW converted applies. That is, in this case, before you run it through Luminar, so we can see what you started with.
You CAN upload the original the same day on this page here by clicking the Modifications button, then select UPLOAD, then select this JPEG, and it will upload it here on this page as your own modification, which at this point would be MOD 4. Thats what were looking for!
Hope this helps.
W
You CAN upload the original the same day on this page here by clicking the Modifications button, then select UPLOAD, then select this JPEG, and it will upload it here on this page as your own modification, which at this point would be MOD 4. Thats what were looking for!
Hope this helps.
W
Thanks for adding the original. Now that you've learned how to do this, it's a good idea to include it for any critique photo where processing is an issue.
I've uploaded two mods worked from it - tweaks to light, colour temperature warmed, some gentle dodging and burning. And a crop to get rid of the yellow wave. The first attempt looked a bit dull uploaded here, I've uploaded a second with 10% added brightness.
The whole foreground is in shadow, you can't get round that really, but I think the skin tones and the dog's fur look a bit better.
Moira
I've uploaded two mods worked from it - tweaks to light, colour temperature warmed, some gentle dodging and burning. And a crop to get rid of the yellow wave. The first attempt looked a bit dull uploaded here, I've uploaded a second with 10% added brightness.
The whole foreground is in shadow, you can't get round that really, but I think the skin tones and the dog's fur look a bit better.
Moira
Thanks for the original Dack!
Your first upload is not a whole lot different, do you didnt do a huge amount in Luminar.
Its a difficult scene, with the very bright wave caps, and the darker, shaded figures, making for a very wide dynamic range, and forcing the camera to average a scene with a wider range than it can handle.
You used Manual exposure, - I would encourage you to abandon Manual exposure, and use, the vast majority of the time, Aperture priority, along with Auto ISO, and configure the camera minimum shutter speed to AUTO. This gives you access to the cameras Exposure Compensation adjustment; you did use a +0.33 compensation here, but as your in Manual mode, it has no effect at all.
The top of the image is a lost cause, abandon it with a crop as Moira has done; I tried working on it, but its really lost.
The lower area is significantly low in contrast, and this is because the level of actual black, is in fact closer to a mid grey; adjusting black to be = black helps, as long as exposure is also brighter. You will see a Black slider in the DPP Raw editor, drag the slider so the start of the graph (histogram) touches the left side.
The last issue is the use of AWB. It fine much of the time, especially when shooting RAW, because the RAW processor gives you the opportunity to correct it; you have options for all the camera presets available in RAW in DPP, such as daylight, shade, cloudy, etc. So use this to set the white balance to daylight, or sunny. In this case, the white balance has decided to make the image exceptionally blue, a very common occurrence.
I have uploaded mod & with all this done, and cropped the top and right side.
Regards
Willie
Your first upload is not a whole lot different, do you didnt do a huge amount in Luminar.
Its a difficult scene, with the very bright wave caps, and the darker, shaded figures, making for a very wide dynamic range, and forcing the camera to average a scene with a wider range than it can handle.
You used Manual exposure, - I would encourage you to abandon Manual exposure, and use, the vast majority of the time, Aperture priority, along with Auto ISO, and configure the camera minimum shutter speed to AUTO. This gives you access to the cameras Exposure Compensation adjustment; you did use a +0.33 compensation here, but as your in Manual mode, it has no effect at all.
The top of the image is a lost cause, abandon it with a crop as Moira has done; I tried working on it, but its really lost.
The lower area is significantly low in contrast, and this is because the level of actual black, is in fact closer to a mid grey; adjusting black to be = black helps, as long as exposure is also brighter. You will see a Black slider in the DPP Raw editor, drag the slider so the start of the graph (histogram) touches the left side.
The last issue is the use of AWB. It fine much of the time, especially when shooting RAW, because the RAW processor gives you the opportunity to correct it; you have options for all the camera presets available in RAW in DPP, such as daylight, shade, cloudy, etc. So use this to set the white balance to daylight, or sunny. In this case, the white balance has decided to make the image exceptionally blue, a very common occurrence.
I have uploaded mod & with all this done, and cropped the top and right side.
Regards
Willie
Yes, thanks for the original.
I'm entirely with Willie about Aperture priority, and here's why.
If you are only using the caemra's meter, and not a separate one, taking readings from individual parts of the scene and deciding where to place them on the scale of tones from black to white, or an incident light reading (again, with a separate meter), you are probalby pointing the caemra at the scene, and adjusting the settings until the camera says they're right. To all intents and purposes, you are just following the meter, but doing so very laboriously.
That would be OK if you were noting and internalising the settings every time, and collating them, mentally, with light, conditions and subject. Most people can't manage that much forensic thought at the same time as composing an image, so it makes snese to use Aperture priority for taking, and do the analysis at your computer, using hte EXIF data...
The aim is to understand how exposure works, and what that means for you and your pictures. Here, the big problems are because you have two parts to the scene - a low-contast, blune-tinged foreground, and the high-contrast, yellowed distance, lit by full, late sun. That means that if you've done the learning, you know, before you shoot, that it's a big ask for the camera to record everything. If you pull back highlights in doing a RAW conversion, you may be able to get some detail in the wave, but maybe not.
My mod from the unprocessed version used Adobe Camera Raw (the RAW conversion tool) to pull back whites nad highlights, alter colour balance a little, and tweak contast. I then dodged highlights in the lower part of the frame.
Does that work, or anywhere near it?
A cropped version is coming, too.
I'm entirely with Willie about Aperture priority, and here's why.
If you are only using the caemra's meter, and not a separate one, taking readings from individual parts of the scene and deciding where to place them on the scale of tones from black to white, or an incident light reading (again, with a separate meter), you are probalby pointing the caemra at the scene, and adjusting the settings until the camera says they're right. To all intents and purposes, you are just following the meter, but doing so very laboriously.
That would be OK if you were noting and internalising the settings every time, and collating them, mentally, with light, conditions and subject. Most people can't manage that much forensic thought at the same time as composing an image, so it makes snese to use Aperture priority for taking, and do the analysis at your computer, using hte EXIF data...
The aim is to understand how exposure works, and what that means for you and your pictures. Here, the big problems are because you have two parts to the scene - a low-contast, blune-tinged foreground, and the high-contrast, yellowed distance, lit by full, late sun. That means that if you've done the learning, you know, before you shoot, that it's a big ask for the camera to record everything. If you pull back highlights in doing a RAW conversion, you may be able to get some detail in the wave, but maybe not.
My mod from the unprocessed version used Adobe Camera Raw (the RAW conversion tool) to pull back whites nad highlights, alter colour balance a little, and tweak contast. I then dodged highlights in the lower part of the frame.
Does that work, or anywhere near it?
A cropped version is coming, too.
Dudley, I think you mod comes closest to what I was trying to say with this photo. Thanks!
To everyone who modified and gave me helpful comments I also thank you. These ideas help me improve much quicker than just fumbling around on my own.
I use manual which on the EOS RP allows the ISO to still be on auto so its not truly manual but it allows me to quickly set the aperture and shutter speed. It also allows the exposure compensation ring to function because it can still alter the ISO picked by the camera and I use that based on the histogram.
In this case the sun was just clearing the cliffs behind me and hitting the breakers. I would have loved to have waited until the light was a little higher but this was not a model, just a random girl that my dog went out to meet. As with a lot of my shots its the old f/8 and be there approach. I got one shot and she turned away, the dog walked off and the picture was gone.
To everyone who modified and gave me helpful comments I also thank you. These ideas help me improve much quicker than just fumbling around on my own.
I use manual which on the EOS RP allows the ISO to still be on auto so its not truly manual but it allows me to quickly set the aperture and shutter speed. It also allows the exposure compensation ring to function because it can still alter the ISO picked by the camera and I use that based on the histogram.
In this case the sun was just clearing the cliffs behind me and hitting the breakers. I would have loved to have waited until the light was a little higher but this was not a model, just a random girl that my dog went out to meet. As with a lot of my shots its the old f/8 and be there approach. I got one shot and she turned away, the dog walked off and the picture was gone.
It's an easy mistake to make, especially as I live 10 miles from a town called Dudley...
It's only a nickname - all my grant cheques from Berkshire County Council were made out to a person called Dudler, although my name is Duder. It stuck...
(Local stuff - I may need to explain, as I think you're in North America, that up until the nineties, British university students were elegible for a grant from their local authority to pay most of their living and tuition expenses if they were not from rather wealthy families. Those who went on to be high earners repaid it in tax, those who worked in public service paid it back in their work.
We now have a silly system whereby the government facilitates loans from the private sector, ensuring that graduates start their careers in debt. I know it's worse in the USA, but it seems to be designed to channel people into accountancy and business management instead of research or social work...)
It's only a nickname - all my grant cheques from Berkshire County Council were made out to a person called Dudler, although my name is Duder. It stuck...
(Local stuff - I may need to explain, as I think you're in North America, that up until the nineties, British university students were elegible for a grant from their local authority to pay most of their living and tuition expenses if they were not from rather wealthy families. Those who went on to be high earners repaid it in tax, those who worked in public service paid it back in their work.
We now have a silly system whereby the government facilitates loans from the private sector, ensuring that graduates start their careers in debt. I know it's worse in the USA, but it seems to be designed to channel people into accountancy and business management instead of research or social work...)
The content is good, the quality is not so hot. Very flat and blue. You must master RAW processing, or don't use it. RAW givs the best results - sometimes - but only if the processing carried out correctly and it often seems to me that people use RAW because they have been told it is he best way to go without understanding the processing technique or even what a 'correct' final image should look like.
Shoot RAW + best JPG. hen do your Raw processing and compare it to the best JPG. It should be better but not always. I find, for my purposes, and that is selling images via library, that the best quality JPEG is as good as a properly processed RAW file. You then, at least, have the choice.
I usually find the JPG is accepted after normal processing of that JPG file.
paul
Shoot RAW + best JPG. hen do your Raw processing and compare it to the best JPG. It should be better but not always. I find, for my purposes, and that is selling images via library, that the best quality JPEG is as good as a properly processed RAW file. You then, at least, have the choice.
I usually find the JPG is accepted after normal processing of that JPG file.
paul
