Help and comments please

[smoke665]

All the elements of a bad shot today. Lack of time to stage the shot, lack of space to set up, middle of the day bright sun over head with truck in shade, highly reflective surfaces that were catching the reflections from across the road. The turnouts are important and have to be in the shot. I really won't have an opportunity to go back and try again, but if I have to I will. Any suggestions on improving this beast as is? 18 mm, 1/100, F/16.
View attachment 119216

 

[Didereaux]

WB

 

[jcdeboever]

White balance, camera level up-down-side to side. Circular polarizer. Not sure if lens needs to be wider.

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[dxqcanada]

Yes, white balance adjustment
Crop a bit closer
Camera tilt adjustment

example

 

[smoke665]

I had to use filters to remove a lot of "blue sky" reflections in the paint., Maybe cool the image down?

 

[smoke665]

Ok the WB is showing a little different in the online photo than in my file, but I can work with that. I really like the crop and blur, it makes the turnouts the main focal point, which is the idea I was looking for. As to tilt adjustment if I bring the bumper straight, the "Fire And Rescue" is not level. Maybe split the difference? Despite the appearance, the whole front of the truck is rounded.

 

[dxqcanada]

You can work with blurring out stuff so viewer will not notice the other stuff.

 

[Rick50]

WB and crop out the bumper. It's too bright and uninteresting.

 

[wfooshee]

My first thought on seeing the first post was, "Damn, that's yellow!!!" So WB. yeah.

The tighter crop dxqcanad showed us is great, even without the edge blur. Those cones in the original are messy and distracting, as are the chrome pieces visible higher in the frame. He's dropped the color temperature a good bit, but it still seems high to me.

I might have even tried a lower point of view, looking up, like from a child's eyes. I'm not sure the gear wouldn't have blocked the lettering in that case, though.... it would also have put sky onto the reflection on the front. maybe good, maybe not....

 

[smoke665]

Ok made some revisions based on comments above. Liking this direction more and more. Any other comments

 

[smoke665]

For some reason, the WB on my uploaded version looks different then my resident image. Is there something on the site that is changing how colors are displayed? Haven't had this issue before.

 

[smoke665]

Maybe increase the size of the focus area while still leaving some blur to the outside to draw the focus in?

 

[robbins.photo]

For some reason, the WB on my uploaded version looks different then my resident image. Is there something on the site that is changing how colors are displayed? Haven't had this issue before.

I'm pretty new to this forum, so I'm not sure, but I can tell you I have given up on posting pics to this site because the quality degrades during upload (which negates the purpose of C+C since people will likely comment on what was lost during upload). It's a shame!

EAL, have you tried uploading to flickr and posting BBcode instead? Uploading to the board directly is pretty limited in file size from what I recall.

 

[smoke665]

Thank you for the comments and suggestions. WB issue is something I'm still working on in calibration of monitor, and settings within PSP. Last request - Is WB correct here or do I need to adjust more?

 

[dennybeall]

I prefer the last one. The colors look right on this laptop.
I'd like to have seen the gear set a little differently so that the hat and boots are more prominent. The blue cloth doesn't add anything for me.