self teaching photoshop, opinions

shadowdancer · Mar 26, 2006

I'm slowly teaching myself photoshop, and I've been playing with a picture I didn't think seemed quite right. Tell me what you think, its been cropped, the curves have been played with, and the color saturation and balance has been touched up a bit,...feedback is appreciated,...
before: nevermind the watermark

after

The water color just seemed off from what I was looking at through my eyes, and what came out on film. Shot with a Minolta SLR, polarizer lens, kodak 400 on auto settings

Pammi · Mar 26, 2006

The first thing I notice is that your horizon is not straight
but I like the colours especially in the second one
Pam

shadowdancer · Mar 26, 2006

yeah, i just noticed that too,..lol..nothing i guess i can do about that tho now,..lol...i was on vacation and sunburnt so I see I made a basic mistake,...i'm just trying to figure out the color thing in photoshop,...

I think that'd be a hell of a clone job to keep the horizon straight,....lol...

DestinDave · Mar 26, 2006

Hi Shadowdancer.. welcome to the forum. Another St Louisan here...

Aside from the vignetting I think the original looks more realistic. The sky could use a bit of a bump to a darker blue but the water and the palm tree look more natural to me. It's a great shot though - good composition, exposure, and DOF. And they're both nice images...
Look forward to more of your posts.
Dave

crawdaddio · Mar 26, 2006

Are you using photoshop CS2? If so you can quickly and easily fix a tilting horizon. Go to filter>distort>lens correction>you will see grid lines, adjust the photo 'till straightened>ok. Then crop to suit.

Nice photo BTW, wish I was there.............

JohnMF · Mar 27, 2006

the first is better. I don't think it actually needed anymore saturation. some detail has been lost in the shadows. on my monitor it looks like the second has a red/magenta tint too.

Keep experimenting with photoshop though because you can teach yourself alot

silentmaven · Mar 27, 2006

I am with John on this one. The colors seem more 'real' with the first shot. The second one isn't what the first one is. Mind you, the second one is good as well.

AuDan · Mar 27, 2006

I'd have to say with the second picture the shadows look a lot more darker and it looks a lot more real...

That is my opinion.

Also, in the horizon, as you said it was a mistake, but did you tweak it with the lense correction filter with in Photoshop?

I ask this because of the blackened corners.

Arch · Mar 27, 2006

yep the first one works best here, like john said there's too much magenta in the second. I also feel the shadows have 'blocked' too much and you've lost detail. You can fix the horizon in ps, i would also recommend trying the shadow/highlight enhancer to start off, then maybe select the sky area and adjust the colour in that area only. Good effort tho, just keep playing.

shadowdancer · Mar 27, 2006

thanks for the replies, the black corners is from the black shade thingy on the end of my telephoto lens, I don't know why my camera caught the very edge of it. When I get home tonight, I'll try to play around with the suggestions you've told me and see what I can come up with. I'm using photoshop 7. something. I shot that down in Mexico last week, I have since been wishing I was back there with all the cold weather up here in STL. Its comforting to be on a board where critiquing is done constructively rather than destructively.

DestinDave · Mar 27, 2006

Were you shooting at the low-end focal length of your zoom? The angle of view was wide enough to just pick up the edges of your lens hood. You can either remove the hood at the low end focal length or get another hood that spreads out more.
Interested in getting together for a shoot sometime this Spring or Summer? I'm relatively new to this area so I would appreciate knowing where to go for some good shots.
Dave

shadowdancer · Mar 27, 2006

yeah, i live in st.charles, and well,...there's alot to shot if you know what your looking forward, there's the historic french town on my side, downtown st.louis,...so much to take pics of....

DestinDave · Mar 27, 2006

I'm in St Peters and I work down on the river so all I ever see is the farms on Hwys B, C, and V...

shadowdancer · Mar 27, 2006

i tried to rotate my canvas, it evened out the horizon, but the rest of the shot looks like im drunk half way leaning over with the horizon straight,..lol...i don't have CS2 so the distort<lens correction isn't an option for me. maybe I'll have to pick it up from a friend.