Southwold Harbour

[Paulson]

Here goes.....this is my first month with a DSLR, so still learning and experimenting. I thought it might be useful to get some pointers on some of my more recent efforts, to ensure I am going in roughly the right direction!



The background is that this was shot handlheld on my Nikon d3100 at mid afternoon on a cloudy/sunny day in July, and some saturation changes were made to blues/greens in photoshop elements.

Any comments/advice would be most welcomed!

Thanks!

[MattUK]

A great effort! Slightly cluttered scene though - maybe practice some cloning by removing the stuff bottom right?

[amk1977]

I agree with Matt in that its a little cluttered. You also have a blue cast over the scene too, maybe a result of not presetting the white balance or if you've used one of your new ND/ND Grads.

I've had a crack at removing it and improving the colours. I'm no newcomer to photoshop but, I am attempting a new technique which is completely alien to me and confusing as hell but, here goes anyway). Be interested in your impressions and other peoples too.

[Paulson]

Thanks for the feedback. I've played around a bit with it too!

I've cropped it slightly and used the healing brush to clean up the bottom right corner, plus I've taken on board the colour cast tip:

[MattUK]

Amk - bear in mind that you're good at photoshop. It might be better to suggest chanes for others to try rather than doing them yourself?

Paulson, much prefer the edit, nice one!

[amk1977]

Liking the edit too Paulson. I think it works much better. The emphasis is on the boat and the distractions in the foreground being removed is definitely an improvement.

Matt, I hear what you're saying but, at the same time the reason that I do the edits is to give newcomers to photography/ Photoshop, some sort of idea of what can be achieved and hopefully inspire and encourage them to push the boundaries with their own photography. Not that I'm a professional, far from it. I've just had a good few years experience with the software and have been taught and picked up many different techniques and developed some of my own along the way.

I very often get PM requests for the edits I do in critique threads like this, so that the original poster can use it as something to aim for. I always endeavor to include as much help and direction in requests too, so that people can follow the techniques and develop and understand the different methods on their own. In turn, they can then teach others and share the knowledge, which is what a forum should be all about. Alternatively I sometimes post the basic methods I use to achieve the effects in the thread if requested to do so.

Unfortunately at the moment, I can't offer any help to people on the techniques I used above as I can hand on heart say, I really don't understand it myself at all, which is why I was hoping to get both the original posters response to it as well as other peoples', purely so that I can gauge if I'm at least in the right area. Once I understand, then I can begin to help others. I can't teach what I can't comprehend.

What I was thinking of suggesting to the powers that be, is a dedicated sub section in the photoshop technique forum, where members could post step by step tutorials, of unedited pictures, through to the finished article, explaining the techniques used and detailing the resulting effects. Would others be interested in contributing their time to this as well?

[donoreo]

Myself, I would have got my knees dirty. I would have got down low and still used the boat as the main object. I might have even got more dirty and tried to get just the boat and sky.

[rbarry]

Hi Paulson,
I like your original image; you've done well to expose the foreground and sky in keeping great detail in both.
Having just looked at your blog site, this was premeditated by use of a filter. Your images show you are no newcomer to photography! There are some great pictures there.

The crop and cloning has worked well although the image is a little soft.

amk, I like your idea for a "photoshop technique by example" area in the forum. So often members publish their work on these forums asking for advice/help/opinion. I understand what Matt and others say in regard to editing other's work, but so long as it's obvious you're not claiming the image as your own I can see no harm. After all, what better way of trying to explain an opinion by offering an edited example of just what you mean. Speaking of which, the edit you have done here seems a little too sharp and slightly oversaturated in the green of the grass. I realise you said that you were using an unfamiliar technique, but what is this mystical method!
To reiterate, I love your idea of an "edit by example" area in this forum.

Rick.

[Paulson]

Thanks very much everybody for your feedback.

Yes, Rick, I have been snapping for years, with small compacts and recently with a fuji bridge camera, and have always loved the idea of going out to spend a few hours snapping something interesting. This was fine for learning about composition and colours, etc, and the final straw came when I read about the D3100 and had some savings available, so.......

Composition is something I am getting more confident with. I spent last night reading and making notes on that most basic of concepts [yet the one which probably confuses the 'new' DSLR user the most], the exposure triangle. I'm starting to get my head round it, but I suspect lots and lots of photos need to be taken for me to fully under stand!

I'm grateful to amk as well for the edit of my photo; I have noticed a few other pictures from the same set have the colour cast and so have done some edits to remove it.

I find doing the blog helpful, because it demands me to go out and shoot regularly, so I can then start to apply some of the things I have learnt to my pictures.

Thanks again and will post some more soon.