Lightning Shot - Need advice on PP.

timethief · Mar 28, 2009

I got this shot tonight, I think I have a picture here but i am not sure how to go about processing it.
Would really appreciate some advice on PP.
There were a few water drops on the lens because of the heavy rain. I cloned them out and kept the rest of the picture as is for now. And yes i have the RAW file.
Also what could have i done better taking this shot?

daithi33 · Mar 29, 2009

It's a pity you have selected that it's not okay for your pics to be edited otherwise I may have had a go at tweaking this for you.

Plenty of interest in the shot and the picture is well taken IMO. It does need just a little boost to give it some extra punch but it would take some playing with. I couldn't give specific photoshop guidelines..I'm no guru but I do enjoy experimenting.

daithi

ValDR · Mar 29, 2009

The photo is great but I would suggest some improvements:

1. I would cut the lower part (the lamps are a little confusing) and start from the base of the tower.

2. I would put the tower on center of the frame and try to straight the blocks from the left part of the frame (a little distort in PS)

timethief · Mar 29, 2009

daithi33 said:
It's a pity you have selected that it's not okay for your pics to be edited otherwise I may have had a go at tweaking this for you.

Plenty of interest in the shot and the picture is well taken IMO. It does need just a little boost to give it some extra punch but it would take some playing with. I couldn't give specific photoshop guidelines..I'm no guru but I do enjoy experimenting.

daithi

Thanks for the comments daithi. I agree with you it doesnt have that extra punch that i want. I have not had time to play around with it at all. i took it late last night and had to work today. I changed my editing options. I dont mind if you take a go at it. I would appreciate it actually.

timethief · Mar 29, 2009

ValDR said:
The photo is great but I would suggest some improvements:

1. I would cut the lower part (the lamps are a little confusing) and start from the base of the tower.

2. I would put the tower on center of the frame and try to straight the blocks from the left part of the frame (a little distort in PS)

I agree with your improvement suggestions ValDR. As you can see i had to shoot at an angle, and cropping from the bottom of the tower crops a lot of the base of the other buildings. Maybe playing around with the 3d might help actually. not sure have to give it a go.

I am not sure what you mean by " straight the blocks from the left part of the frame (a little distort in PS)" could you be alittle more specific pls.

Thanks ahead.

daithi33 · Mar 29, 2009

Hi again,

Not sure if this will be to your taste but here's my adjustment to your image. If you want to fiddle around with the individuals layers from my PS version, I can send it to you if you like.

Cheers,
daithi

adamwilliamking · Mar 29, 2009

1. Clone all the white in the immediate left hand lower corner (Since it should be replaced by black this will be easy just copy the colour thats already under the bridge.

Create an adjustment layer using a black to white gradient map. Change the blending option to Soft Light, and than adjust the opacity until you are happy with the contrast ratio that it creates.

That should make the lightning pop a bit more and give the buildings in the background a bit more oomph.

Last step, dont do what the guy above me did.
That looks really bad

daithi33 · Mar 29, 2009

adamwilliamking - do you spend your day following me around the forum leaving wise ass comments after mine? I have noticed other comments such as Yuck etc behind my efforts like a dirty ass paper trail. This chap asked me to give a go editing his photo which I have done for him.

Nobody needs a smart arse that leaves criticism for people that are doing their best to help others. In future if you have nothing good to say - keep it zipped ! Or else just grow up and try to do something constructive yourself..

Cheers.

Al-Wazeer · Mar 29, 2009

played with it little

cloned things, more contrast, sharpen it, and reduced noise and that was i came with

hope it's good enough!

adamwilliamking · Mar 29, 2009

daithi33 said:
adamwilliamking - do you spend your day following me around the forum leaving wise ass comments after mine? I have noticed other comments such as Yuck etc behind my efforts like a dirty ass paper trail. This chap asked me to give a go editing his photo which I have done for him.

Nobody needs a smart arse that leaves criticism for people that are doing their best to help others. In future if you have nothing good to say - keep it zipped ! Or else just grow up and try to do something constructive yourself..

Cheers.

You're terrible at post production, if you can't take it than don't post it.

Edit: After actually taking the time to read your post clearly you are the one that needs to grow up. Im sure 90 percent of this forum will agree that both of the "Re-Edit's" of yours that I commented on were much worse than the OP's original. Take it like a man.

adamwilliamking · Mar 29, 2009

Al-Wazeer said:
played with it little

cloned things, more contrast, sharpen it, and reduced noise and that was i came with

hope it's good enough!

This is getting there but its way over sharpened you gotta watch for the "glowing effect" that you get once you reach a heavy radius in the unsharpen mask.

daithi33 · Mar 29, 2009

Let's see your own efforts so we can see how it should be done..

adamwilliamking · Mar 29, 2009

Im not here to hijack this thread, I'm here to detur the OP from being led in the wrong direction by people like you who download photoshop (most likely illegally) and than handout advice that they don't really have. If you want you can search my posts though.

Edit: I gave my instructions to the OP as to how I would edit the picture, why dont you go follow them as well, maybe you'll learn something.

nickfmc · Mar 29, 2009

I agree the last version is definatly the best and what I was thinking, yet it is way oversharpened. If you like how the very sharp lighting looks then at least apply a mask to the buidings, at the very least.

timethief · Mar 29, 2009

daithi33 said:
Hi again,

Not sure if this will be to your taste but here's my adjustment to your image. If you want to fiddle around with the individuals layers from my PS version, I can send it to you if you like.

Cheers,
daithi

Thank you very much for you effort and time daithi. What you sent is a different perspective.I cant say that i like it but its an option i will consider. Thanks again.