Outdoor Art Festival - C&C Welcome (even encouraged)

rlemert · May 19, 2013

They're having their annual Arts festival downtown this weekend, so I thought I'd exercise my (lack of) photographic skills. These are the one's that I feel may have actually worked - there were others where I can see that shot I should have gotten but didn't. Also my focus today was more on composition and subject - and not so much on the 'technical' side of things. (Comments on both are welcomed, though.)

1) Watching the band

Artsplosure spectator by Rich1760, on Flickr

2) Chillin' with a recorder

Chillin' with a recorder by Rich1760, on Flickr

3) Living Statue

Artsplosure Living Statue by Rich1760, on Flickr

(On the last one, is the blue on the kid's shirts and the phone too vivid? If so, how could I tone it down without washing out the other blues - I'm using RawTherapee for my post work?)

The_Traveler · May 19, 2013

#1 - he is looking at something that we can't see and we can't see his face so there is nothing really to look at here.

#2 the center of interest is the man playing. If this was shot from 4 or 5 feet to the right, we'd see him playing and all the recorders pointing at him or as supporting info. As it is, he is scrunched in the corner, there are recorders to look at on the right, competing for our attention and a bright blue patch on the left that pulls the eye.

I think you haven't through completely what the centers of interest are and how this needs to be conveyed to the viewer and thus framed in the scene.

rlemert · May 19, 2013

The other big lesson I learned today is - don't go out on a photo-shoot with a spouse who doesn't share your interest and spends the time mentally tapping her toes and telling you to "come on, let's go already". :er:

Heitz · May 19, 2013

rlemert said:
The other big lesson I learned today is - don't go out on a photo-shoot with a spouse who doesn't share your interest and spends the time mentally tapping her toes and telling you to "come on, let's go already". :er:

Ooh I hear ya brother. Hard to concentrate when the wife is impatient. Try isolating your subject more. In each I'd these shots it's not clear what the subject is, and even if so, you have other distracting elements

Ysarex · May 19, 2013

I can help with your RT question.

The bigger name raw converters now typically provide some degree of local adjustments. So in ACR/LR or Capture One for example you could mask the kid's shirts and the phone and then alter the blue saturation locally for just those masked items. RT can't do that but it does allow you to alter saturation for a single color/colors without effecting the other colors in the photo.

This is a feature where RT really shines compared with the big guns. Under the exposure tab RT has a sub-section for Lab Adjustments -- it allows you to edit the photo using the Lab color model. This has always been one of Photoshop's most powerful features and it's always surprised me that it hasn't been available in ACR/LR as it's hard to imagine living without it.

Two things to note in your case with the RT Lab Adjustments option. First: the check box for Avoid Color clipping and the saturation limiter that goes with it. That could be all you need. Second: you can use the Curves adjustment with either or both of the color channels. The "a" channel is magenta/green and the "b" channel is yellow/blue. You need to lower blue saturation so you access the "b" channel and from the drop box select the control cage. Blue is the lower left corner and yellow is the upper right corner. Move the end point node to make the line more horizontal lowers saturation for that color. Move the end point node to make the line more vertical raises saturation. Place a node in the middle of the line and drag the middle of the line back to the center position to retain color balance. Here's an example of a change that lowers blue saturation.

Joe