Tp placate Aggressive Anatidae

Seeing that everyone (?) is putting forward images for comment I am
opening myself up for attack on the first image that has made it's way
through Lightroom under my care. Attack is expected and constructive
comments are welcomed.

The original https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/IMG_1294.JPG
and the butchered:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...ridge-1294.jpg
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

On 2014-10-19 01:18:16 +0000, Eric Stevens said:

Seeing that everyone (?) is putting forward images for comment I am
opening myself up for attack on the first image that has made it's way
through Lightroom under my care. Attack is expected and constructive
comments are welcomed.

The original https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/IMG_1294.JPG
and the butchered:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...ridge-1294.jpg

Thanks for the recognition in your subject line?

I would like to establish a few things first.
I see you used your G12 and processed the original you offered with
Nikon Transfer, which seemed a little odd to me.
Did you shoot RAW+JPEG, as the G12 has that capacity?
Did you import a CR2 or a Nikon Transfer adjusted JPEG into Lightroom.

Along with the crop in Lightroom, what were the sort of LR adjustments
you applied?

Now that the queries are out of the way, as the first image you have
worked on in LR it isn’t too bad, and catches the postcard scene.

If you are more familiar with ACR now that you have been using PS CC
for a while, just remember the LR adjustments are the same just a
prettier GUI. Just do some experimenting and explore what LR can do for
you, and I am sure you will be pleasantly surprised at just how quickly
you will become comfortable working in it.

--
Regards,

Savageduck

On 10/18/2014 08:18 PM, Eric Stevens wrote:
Seeing that everyone (?) is putting forward images for comment I am
opening myself up for attack on the first image that has made it's way
through Lightroom under my care. Attack is expected and constructive
comments are welcomed.

The original https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/IMG_1294.JPG
and the butchered:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...ridge-1294.jpg




I liked the original just fine other than the people on the left.
If you are a very good photo editor, I'd get rid of them and leave the
image uncropped.

Ideally you should have waited until the people were out of the
way...but assuming you have no such photo...in my opinion this would be
a good use for extensive editing.

It certainly /can/ be done ...but such editing is definitely beyond my
ability. An expert could make it seamless though.

On Sat, 18 Oct 2014 19:28:50 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:

On 2014-10-19 01:18:16 +0000, Eric Stevens said:

Seeing that everyone (?) is putting forward images for comment I am
opening myself up for attack on the first image that has made it's way
through Lightroom under my care. Attack is expected and constructive
comments are welcomed.

The original https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/IMG_1294.JPG
and the butchered:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...ridge-1294.jpg

Thanks for the recognition in your subject line?

I would like to establish a few things first.
I see you used your G12 and processed the original you offered with
Nikon Transfer, which seemed a little odd to me.
Did you shoot RAW+JPEG, as the G12 has that capacity?
Did you import a CR2 or a Nikon Transfer adjusted JPEG into Lightroom.

I had taken delivery of the G12 only a few days before I left on what
turned out to be a six-week trip away. As I recall, the camera came
from B&H without a manual. Either that, or it was small and dense and
required that I change glasses every time I wanted to use it. Whatever
the reason, I printed out the PDF file in which the manual was
contained but this gave me a wad of A4 paper which was bigger than the
camera.

My use was under pressure (only one chance to get most of the shots)
and the settings were mostly wrong as I was totally unfamiliar with
the camera. To make matters worse, it was not a Nikon and didn't think
like a Nikon. What I found particularly frustrating was that when I
tried to set up the camera to suit what I wanted to do next, half the
time the thing I wanted to adjust couldn't be found as the camera was
not then in a mode which required it. I ended up thoroughly disliking
the camera and gave it to my wife. Things might have been different if
I had had more time to get used to it.

My wife has another Canon, an Ixus, and I had already tried using
Nikon Transfer to copy JPGs from that without any problems, so I tried
it on the G12, also without any problems. I had previously tried the
Canon software and found it very clumsy and amateurish to use. The
Nikon Transfer worked and was already set up to do what I wanted to do
with imports, so I used that.

I had thought of using raw with the G12 but I was so put of by the
Canon software I decided to use only JPG. (I didn't have Photoshop at
that time).

Along with the crop in Lightroom, what were the sort of LR adjustments
you applied?

I would tell you exactly, if I could find a history of the edits: but
I can't (yet?). What I was trying to do was generally brighten up the
image but make the people on the bridge stand out. The weather was
hot, humid and stuffy. The town (Annecy) was packed. The water's edge
was packed, and the coastline of the lake from which the lake runs was
packed. It was wall to wall people literally for miles. It was the
people I was trying to emphasize.

Now that the queries are out of the way, as the first image you have
worked on in LR it isn’t too bad, and catches the postcard scene.

If you are more familiar with ACR now that you have been using PS CC
for a while, just remember the LR adjustments are the same just a
prettier GUI. Just do some experimenting and explore what LR can do for
you, and I am sure you will be pleasantly surprised at just how quickly
you will become comfortable working in it.

Yep. I'm generally aware of all that. I find the hardest thing is
getting my existing shots into LR library so that I can find them
again. Give me time.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

On Sat, 18 Oct 2014 21:49:09 -0500, philo* wrote:

On 10/18/2014 08:18 PM, Eric Stevens wrote:
Seeing that everyone (?) is putting forward images for comment I am
opening myself up for attack on the first image that has made it's way
through Lightroom under my care. Attack is expected and constructive
comments are welcomed.

The original https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/IMG_1294.JPG
and the butchered:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...ridge-1294.jpg




I liked the original just fine other than the people on the left.
If you are a very good photo editor, I'd get rid of them and leave the
image uncropped.

Ideally you should have waited until the people were out of the
way...but assuming you have no such photo...in my opinion this would be
a good use for extensive editing.

See my response to Savageduck. I would still be there if I was to wait
for a gap in the people.

It certainly /can/ be done ...but such editing is definitely beyond my
ability. An expert could make it seamless though.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

On 10/18/2014 11:16 PM, Tony Cooper wrote:
On Sat, 18 Oct 2014 21:49:09 -0500, philo wrote:


snip

Doesn't that depend on what the intent is? Is the intent to show a
view of the town and buildings, or is the intent to show a festival
crowd? That doesn't look like an ordinary crowd of tourists unless
something special is going on.





The crowd was obviously part of the photo, I was referring to the rear
view of the man on the left who the OP cropped out.

Without doing /extreme/ photo editing , I think the OP cropped the image
properly.

On 10/18/2014 11:17 PM, Eric Stevens wrote:
On Sat, 18 Oct 2014 21:49:09 -0500, philo wrote:

On 10/18/2014 08:18 PM, Eric Stevens wrote:
Seeing that everyone (?) is putting forward images for comment I am
opening myself up for attack on the first image that has made it's way
through Lightroom under my care. Attack is expected and constructive
comments are welcomed.

The original https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/IMG_1294.JPG
and the butchered:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...ridge-1294.jpg




I liked the original just fine other than the people on the left.
If you are a very good photo editor, I'd get rid of them and leave the
image uncropped.

Ideally you should have waited until the people were out of the
way...but assuming you have no such photo...in my opinion this would be
a good use for extensive editing.

snip


Then the original ...with cropping...was perfectly fine.

In no way did I mean that you should have waited for /all/ the people to
leave...I was referring simply to the unfortunate rear shot of the man
on the extreme left.

On Sun, 19 Oct 2014 00:14:35 -0400, Tony Cooper
wrote:

On Sun, 19 Oct 2014 14:18:16 +1300, Eric Stevens
wrote:

Seeing that everyone (?) is putting forward images for comment I am
opening myself up for attack on the first image that has made it's way
through Lightroom under my care. Attack is expected and constructive
comments are welcomed.

The original https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/IMG_1294.JPG
and the butchered:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...ridge-1294.jpg

Do you mind if I comment without attacking?

That's hard to do, but please go ahead.

I think it's well enough done. There's the minor point of it being
slightly tilted to the left, but the overall effect is very good.

I thought it was vertical. In fact I thought I squared it up by
tilting it slightly to the left. The trouble with these old buildings
is that they usually have a slight lean in one direction or another
and it's impossible to get them all lined at the same time.

The real problem is that it lacks description in your post. This
doesn't look like New Zealand to me, but I know zilch about NZ. Is
this a festival, regular tourist weekend, or what? A little
back-story would be good.

The shot was taken in Annecy, France.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31088803/Annecy.jpg is a
screenshot of Google Earth where I have zoomed in to show
approximately where I was. The river drains water from the lake and my
shot was taken to the left in the screenshot. At that point there is
an island in the river and the stonewall and tower to the right of my
photograph is it's down-stream end.

As I explained to Savageduck, it was hot, humid and oppresive day. The
crowds were enormous - see
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/IMG_1303.JPG - and
continued for miles around the shore. In my original image I was
attempting to emphasize the crowds and to that extent I made some
local adjustments, sharpening, saturation etc, to the crowd on the
bridge to make them more intense. At the same time I attempted to damp
down the buildings behind by softening them and adding a slight blur.
Not that there is much that you can do with a blur to a smooth blank
wall.

The question that comes up with a photograph like this of what
alterations should be done. Not the adjustments that are normal, but
the alterations to the natural scene.

That wall dead-center in the photo is nothing short of ugly. But,
looking at the unprocessed image, it's naturally ugly. Should it be
darkened (burned) or not? Do we want realism or a more pleasing view?

Suggestions will be willingly received.

The color of that wall reminds me of the Crayola "flesh" crayon's
color. Dunno if they have those in NZ.

Nope, but I know what you mean.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

On 10/18/2014 9:18 PM, Eric Stevens wrote:
Seeing that everyone (?) is putting forward images for comment I am
opening myself up for attack on the first image that has made it's way
through Lightroom under my care. Attack is expected and constructive
comments are welcomed.

The original https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/IMG_1294.JPG
and the butchered:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...ridge-1294.jpg


It is anice souviner image. As other's have said, I would have tried to
wait until the guy with the blurred rear end was not so prominent.
Somehow for me it is closer to a picture of a rear end, than the
beautiful canal.

--
PeterN

On Mon, 20 Oct 2014 12:06:21 -0400, PeterN wrote:

On 10/18/2014 9:18 PM, Eric Stevens wrote:
Seeing that everyone (?) is putting forward images for comment I am
opening myself up for attack on the first image that has made it's way
through Lightroom under my care. Attack is expected and constructive
comments are welcomed.

The original https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...3/IMG_1294.JPG
and the butchered:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...ridge-1294.jpg


It is anice souviner image. As other's have said, I would have tried to
wait until the guy with the blurred rear end was not so prominent.
Somehow for me it is closer to a picture of a rear end, than the
beautiful canal.

Perhaps a little vignetting would help?

By the way, the 'guy' is wearing a bra.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens