Difficult photo for me - what are your thoughts?

[Parker219]

I am trying to balance the bright sun with the rest of the scene.

I keep messing with the shadows and curve adjustment tool but I would like some other opinions.

What should I do to edit this photo? What is good and / or bad about it?

 

[480sparky41 40]

What is it you're doing with the curves?

How about the original shot?

 

[Parker219]

^ Increasing shadows and decreasing highlights. What should I change?

 

[480sparky41 40]

So are you basically adjusting the black and the white points (similar to using Levels)? Or are you putting any curves into the diagonal line?

 

[Parker219]

^ You are right, pretty much adjusting the black and white points.

 

[480sparky41 40]

So are you moving the bottom left to the right, and the top right to the left?

 

[Parker219]

^ Just sliders I think actually.

 

[480sparky41 40]

You're moving them inwards, towards each other? If so, you're increasing the contrast.

 

[480sparky41 40]

If you want to lighten the shadows and darken the highlights:

 

[Parker219]

^ Moving the blacks and shadows up as well as the whites up.

What are your thoughts?

 

[vintagesnaps]

Looks like the exposure was off, and what I often do is to aim the camera somewhat downward to meter, so the meter will read the light where I want to photograph. (The camera's meter may have been reading the light from the sun coming in from the background.) Then I reframe the shot.

I find it can be tricky late day when you're losing light. If I've been shooting in lower light I may have to brighten it up. I don't do much editing but if I need to I'll make copies and adjust brightness and/or contrast and maybe save more than one to compare which looks best.

I find looking at it too long I need to take a break and come back, then often I see exactly what the problem was and what I need to do.

 

[480sparky41 40]

^ Moving the blacks and shadows up as well as the whites up.

What are your thoughts?

I'm lightening the shadows and darkening the highlights. Is that what you are wanting to do?

 

[WesternGuy]

I would suggest that you most likely have to produce two versions of this image - one edited for the lighter parts of the image and a second edited for the darker parts of the image. You can probably then combine them in Photoshop using layers and masks. Not sure how else you are going to do it and end up with the "properly" exposed image you want.

WesternGuy

 

[Tim Tucker 2]

I am trying to balance the bright sun with the rest of the scene.

I keep messing with the shadows and curve adjustment tool but I would like some other opinions.

What should I do to edit this photo? What is good and / or bad about it?

View attachment 161096

With the setting sun you have orange/yellow against a cooler colour in the shadows. Orange/yellow is a perceptually brighter colour and trying to darken it just kills the impression of colour and light.

So keep the yellows bright and you'll be able to raise the shadows more. It's the darker yellows/orange that's your problem, thinking only in terms of luminosity and not considering the effect of colour:

 

[Dave442]

I would do some dodging and burning, adding some exposure on the flags and the reflection of the sun on the street. In the color panel I would then lighten the greens and also drop their saturation (very small adjustment). I would darken the exposure on the left so things like the chair and such were less visible. A bit of correction to make the metal poles vertical.