Before & After

[Scott Whaley]

A friend of mine took this photo of her mother while at the beach last week. I had her send it to me so I could process it in Lightroom. Her camera must be set to a low resolution because the file was less than 1 mb in size. I was able to do a so so job with what I had to work with. What do you think?

Before

After

 

[Derrel]

It looks like that cloud is a little bit too full of mustard

 

[Pixeldawg1]

In my own opinion, I think the first image is far superior. The bottom image is far too saturated. In photoshop, you can use the RAW File filter and make adjustments to individual colors, even if it is a JPEG. If I were processing this, I would bump up the greens, but leave the remainder of the image alone. Additionally, I might make some slight exposure and contrast adjustments, crop a little, fix the horizon, but they would be minimal. The image is a lovely moment and I think your friend did a nice job capturing it.

 

[charlie76]

I’d say that there is a little too much saturation in the blues and reds. I like the original image. A little hazy and also conveys a mood that the edited version does not. Generally over-processed imo. However... the first one is great. I’d say give out another shot, consider the suggestions in this thread and tone it down a bit. Try to retain the mood and tone during PP

 

[Space Face]

I'm another for the original. The second is just a tad over imo. The horizon is straitened tho.

 

[Dean_Gretsch]

Most definitely the first for all previously mentioned reasons.

 

[zombiesniper]

I like the first image as well.

This image being of lower quality really needs a light hand in editing or you begin to quickly loose detail and just make a muddy image.

In the first one I can see a lady with her dog however the second almost looke like Jesus walking a dog.
It's unfortunate that the focus was on the grass and not the subject since this also makes any global adjustments more likely to degrade the clarity of the woman.

 

[Original katomi]

The first image for me,
In addition to what others have said about colours I notice more artefacts around the woman and dog n the second image

 

[Scott Whaley]

Thanks for the comments everyone. I tend to want to over post process in order to bring out some of the colors I like. Here is what I came out with based on your suggestions.

 

[mjcmt]

I like natural colors in first one w/ a bit more contrast and detail...possibly some color noise reduction.
A little cropping (keeping the same format) with a little less top, right, and bottom (to bottom of the weed clump on right) would focus your attention on the figure looking left. My 2¢

 

[Scott Whaley]

The problem with cropping that photo is the low resolution. It blurs the woman and the dog. The one I just uploaded is cropped as much as I could.

 

[Pixeldawg1]

Thanks for the comments everyone. I tend to want to over post process in order to bring out some of the colors I like. Here is what I came out with based on your suggestions.

View attachment 196750

Would you mind if we took a stab at post processing this? Would be interesting to see what others come up with, I think. Won't do it unless you're ok with it.

Cordially,

Mark

 

[Scott Whaley]

Go for it.

 

[Pixeldawg1]

OK... Here is what I did. I cropped, fixed the horizon made the green a bit more intense, dodged her face a bit to make it more detailed (cropping also helps with this) and fixed the noise in the image as well. In the RAW Filter, I also added a bit of density to the outter edges to give the clouds a bit more punch and add detail and shadow to the bottom portion of the frame. I also actually cut back on the yellow in the cloud to give it a more natural tone and to not take away from her, since she and the dog are really what the image is about. Sometimes, I think anyway, less can be more.