What to do with this photo?

[391615]

I'm not sure if its worth spending so much time editing this photo, the lighting was metered manually taking a neutral reading from the lighter coloured rocks. I think the tree ruins the shot.

I have been experimenting with layers but have no idea how to merge the layers together, really frustrated me.

I didn't think the image was impacting enough so what I wanted to do was sharpen the building, soften the grass and the tree, soften the sky a bit more, as was noisy. I also wanted to take the colour out of the sky, Increase the colour in the grass. I can do this in one hit, but with the use of layers I couldn't work it out. Id made a whole heap of layers, but wasn't sure what order to do them, and how to merge them together.

I guess the question is, Is this photo worth the effort. It looked so good in the viewfinder.

 

[mark h]

I'm not sure if its worth spending so much time editing this photo

If possible, go back and re-shoot. If not, cut your losses and move on.

Post-processing is not a crutch to lean on when you take a bad photograph.

 

[twozero]

If possible, go back and re-shoot. If not, cut your losses and move on.

Post-processing is not a crutch to lean on when you take a bad photograph.

i have to agree. the whole image looks soft as well. if you intended for it to be soft, then pay no attention to me...

 

[Mystwalker]

I think the command to "merge layers" is called "FLATTEN" - something like that.

 

[eminart]

You can merge any layers you wish by highlighting the first one you want, holding down the ctrl button and clicking the others you want to merge with. Then click the little down arrow at the top right of your layers palette and select "merge layers". You can also merge all the layers without doing the highlight step by selecting "flatten image" from the same list.

 

[Jedo_03]

Is this old house on t'Adelaide Road???
Jedo

 

[Ls3D]

Shadow Highlight & desaturated a bit... -S

 

[Raze]

Is that "Riverina Bluebell" I see? (Paterson's Curse for those that hate the stuff eg: farmers! )

 

[LaFoto]

Raze's edit looks good! Wow, the tree becomes so much more "transparent" in the edit!

 

[391615]

Is this old house on t'Adelaide Road???
Jedo

Its on the Barrier Highway just out of Burra.

I liked the shot except getting it to a striking image meant heaps of editing. I did get something resembling Razes Edit, just with softer grass and tree. I did however use the channel mixer on the sky which brought out the building more.

One of my main questions was regarding layers. I know how to flatten images, I know how to change the layer mode and opacity, but when I created layers, I had a soft layer, a sharpen, saturation, desaturate, levels, but when I merged them together the next layer sharpen layer got overrode by the soften layer and so on. Where I was isolating particular parts of the image for soft and sharpen.

 

[Jedo_03]

Hmmm - thought I recognised it...
Passed it, like 100's of times on the way t'Adelaide (aye - usually with a local cornish pasty from the bakery in Burra...
small world...
Jedo

 

[Raze]

One of my main questions was regarding layers. I know how to flatten images, I know how to change the layer mode and opacity, but when I created layers, I had a soft layer, a sharpen, saturation, desaturate, levels, but when I merged them together the next layer sharpen layer got overrode by the soften layer and so on. Where I was isolating particular parts of the image for soft and sharpen.

You need to remove the parts from the layers you don't want eg: remove the bits you don't want soft so the sharp bits stay sharp either with a layer mask or just erase it (with a mask tho, if you make a mistake you can "paint" it back in so its easier to work with than the eraser). Do a search for tutorials on layer masks, that should help.

 

[391615]

Thanks Raze,

Funnily enough I was actually reading a guide on layer masks, and was getting into it late at night and the computer crashed, so I went to bed, I remember the erasing bit on the layer mask. I have to give it a go this weekend.

However, I took a look at the shot, and thought, even if I heavily edited the shot, I could get better shots before editing anyway. Its just frustrating when you spend 4-5 hours driving, spend a day somewhere take some photos, and they turn out ordinary, and the shots you wanted to take won't work out under the conditions.