Naples Castle

Johnboy2978 · Dec 8, 2004

I would also like some critique and/or opinions of this one.
Thanks

Big Mike · Dec 8, 2004

I like it. Nice colors and a simple & effective composition.

It look a little odd because the road & front lawn are on a slant though.

The castle stands out quite nicely from the sky...it almost looks as though the sky has been digitally dropped in.

Nice photo.

JonMikal · Dec 8, 2004

nice colors! looks like a neat place to live in. photoshopped sky?

Johnboy2978 · Dec 8, 2004

the sky was photoshopped, as it was a very hazy day. Since I probably won't get a chance to go back anytime soon, I dropped in the sky.
Here is the original as it came out of the camera before the people were eliminated and the sky as it was.

mad_malteaser · Dec 8, 2004

The photoshopped sky certainly makes the castle stand out a lot better than the original one. For me, I'd like to see the road cropped out. It doesn't add anything for me, and the colour just seems to drain the bottom of the picture.

Peldor · Dec 8, 2004

to make a better sky you can download a free program called terrigen,

This is a skybox I made in about 2 min

And this is what it looks like in your pic

Not to bad, and the good thing is you can do anything you want with it, make the clouds dark or light, low or high, thick or thin its your choice!

Johnboy2978 · Dec 8, 2004

I like that. I downloaded that Terragen software to play with later. I have been using a filter from Xenofex2 called Little Fluffy Clouds but haven't used it enough to create a background that is realistic enough to pass for a photograph.

andycarnall · Dec 8, 2004

I think the "original" photoshopped sky looks better then the terrigen one.

One think that is really distracting me about the photo (and I didn't work it out until I saw the actual original) if the cloning of the lead couple - my eyes get drawn to that point immediatley

well done on the rest of it though - my attempts at this normally look more like a 5 year old's finger painting

Youngun · Dec 8, 2004

The sky pops out at you at first, but at second glance looks really fake. You should at least make the sky darker, as that is what the reflected light hints at.

Peach Comma · Dec 8, 2004

The fake sky makes it kind of funny looking.

DocFrankenstein · Dec 8, 2004

I am amazed. The original photoshopped sky is just the "noise" feature in photoshop... and I didn't notice it till it was mentioned.

Nice!

DocFrankenstein · Dec 8, 2004

Why did u remove the pigeons?

the_peel · Dec 10, 2004

I love castles and this one looks very cool! I like how you're trying different things on it as experimentation is a great way to learn! With that said, onto the crits!

I don't like the fake backgrounds... they just look too fake. Maybe you could play around with the original real background... maybe try dome dodge/burn, possibly bring out some more cloud details.

My other personal opinion is that I like having the people and the pigeons in the photo as they add interest and movement. With the people/pigeons removed, there's not much else for me to look at other than the castle itself, and because it stands so rigid, it is a very static picture.

BLS · Dec 11, 2004

Ditto to what Peel said. Plus the PS'd ones look unreal and, therefore, uninteresting to me.

Johnboy2978 · Dec 11, 2004

Okay, trying to take a little of everyone's critique, here's what I have. I originally, I took out the people, dog, and pigeons b/c I started with the street sign and just got carried away. So, I left all that and just cropped it to eliminate the street sign. I toned down the sky a little, and this is what I have. Oh, and I cropped the street some too as someone had commented that it seems like the color is running off the page as well as the street being tilted.

I also thought the B&W version maybe interesting.