Castle Howard

[wil59]

I like taking all types of photographs, but my favourites are Landscape and Macro. I took this shot of the Castle Howard Stately home in North Yorkshire and thought it was a great shot, but the more I look at it, something does not seem correct with it, but I can not put my finger on it, any tips. The photo is from camera with only a slight tweek in Photo Director to change the contrast slightly........................

[2Beers]

It appears to be running down from right to left but otherwise I like the shot

[wil59]

Yes, so it does. I could straighten that up with little difficulty, thanks.

[markgozz]

Nicely exposed sky and nicely composed but like Alex said the wonk needs sorting out and my preference would be to lighten the foreground ( mainly the shadows but also the grass ) to make the scene feel more like a lovely summers day .

Mark

[wil59]

Thanks for the feedback, the wonk should be easy enough to sort, but newish to photography and I am not sure yet how to lighten just one part of the picture such as the grass, need more practice with pp.

Cheers

[markgozz]

What software do you use .

Mark

[wil59]

Various......

An old version of Photoshop Elements, and PhotoDirector 2011 (just because it was free with a copy of the Mag).

Just had a go......

[markgozz]

I think the foreground does look better but unfortunately you're starting to loose the sky , my old photoshop CS2 has shadow / highlight adjustment which allows me to lighten the shadows and darken the high lights independently of each other but I'm not sure if your copy of elements has any kind of shadow recovery .

Nice job on straightening things up but the crop looks a bit tight now , any chance of pulling it back out a bit ?

Mark

[wil59]

I noticed straight away that the sky was worse, but could not figure out how to change it without making the foreground darker again. The crop has got a bit tighter, but as a schoolboy error I hit 'Save' instead as 'Save as', oooops, so no recovery on that one. I like the building and we go there often, so will try another shot at it again, hoping next time to get more detail from the fountain.

[alexharrison101]

maybe you could use that magic wand thingy in elements to select the grass only, then make your adjustment? i don't use elements myself (saving) but there's an equivalent in paint.net that i do use sometimes. just be careful not to get a harsh edge...