Spider Web

[mooimeisie]

Spider web with dew drops

 

[camz]

I think the composition is awesome! Beautiful elements involved in your shot. The water beads and the color in the background.

I do find it a bit to overexposed. The background color is overpowering the webcast and you have some highlight clippings especially in the beads of water which causes it to lose details on the edges. Also can use some noise reduction. I went ahead and did an edit according to my critique. Let me know if you wanted it taken out. I think this focuses on the web cast more yet still remains the complementing background. I think it can go a little bit more on the darker side...

Happy shooting :sillysmi:

 

[mooimeisie]

I understand what you're doing. Please leave it up so I can take a look at it tonight on a better monitor. I found when editing it, there was such a fine line as to where to set all the sliders. I think i'm in need of a good editing course.

 

[DigitalScape]

I also like the composition, and agree with camz regarding the clipping of the highlights. I also like the colors in the background.

 

[camz]

I understand what you're doing. Please leave it up so I can take a look at it tonight on a better monitor. I found when editing it, there was such a fine line as to where to set all the sliders. I think i'm in need of a good editing course.

All I did was look at my histogram and found that there was clipping in your highlights(colors were off the chart on the right) on the shot and I based the exposure on that.

But you are right, you need a better(calibrated) monitor in order for your eyes to be in sync with the histogram and many other tools in your editing software because I actually looked at the shot and figured out there was clipping even before I looked at the histogram. (since my monitor is calibrated)

I think one of the best books I've read so far for editing are the Martin Evening series.

 

[mooimeisie]

Regarding the clipped hightlights, I have a question. When I open the raw file in photoshop elements and it shows the clipped highlights and dark spots, should I then be adjusting the exposure, fill light, blacks, etc. to get rid of all the spots showing. When all spots are gone, would this then be considered proper exposure?

 

[camz]

Regarding the clipped hightlights, I have a question. When I open the raw file in photoshop elements and it shows the clipped highlights and dark spots, should I then be adjusting the exposure, fill light, blacks, etc. to get rid of all the spots showing. When all spots are gone, would this then be considered proper exposure?

The clipped highlights and shadows just shows you that you are losing colour details. If you are clipping highlights that means anything that falls within the highlight clippings may come out as white. So if you had a detail in your shot that you wanted to convey for instance color blue or cream however you see that it is part of the highlight clippings may result in an output of white on print due to the overexposure. Same goes for the shadow clipping however shadow clipping has loss of detail towards the blacks. So depending on the details you don't mind losing, at times very minute clipping details can also be tolerable if adjusting exposure will affect the overall image. Instances like these clippings aren't as critical if the clippings obviously are not significant.

So generally speaking having all the colour gamuts without highlight clippings or shadow clippings can be considered a general proper exposure. However the histogram only sees the overall shot and bases the colour gamut exposure throughout the whole image. To me it isn't a good tool to use for specific subjects/objects in the shot. I tend to use my eye for proper exposure on the details relying heavily on a calibrated monitor.

 

[camz]

forgot to give the example in my post..

If you look at the image I edited I still had some highlight clippings on the overall image. The highlight clippings were probably from the upper left side of the shot were it is a bit more overexposed then the rest of the image. If I would've adjusted the exposure to where there were not clippings at all, the upper right side may have been properly exposed however the rest of the image(which is most of the shot) may have been well underexposed. So I did with the clippings still present from the upper left side of the Image. I think it actually turned out well since to me this is the focal point of your shot and having it a little brighter then the rest of the picture actually works.

So clippings on the focal point worked for this and the clippings on the rest of the image didn't IMO. LOL subjective as usual.

Hope this helps.