Hello everyone. My name is Stefano Merlini and I have recently joined this community.
I would like to know your opinions about the following photo. I have been working on it in the last few days and after experimenting different editing styles, this is my final result. I believe that is not so bad, however, there is still something that doesn't convince me. Any comments are more than welcome. Thank you very much for your time.
Could be improved in post-processing?
its cool. maybe experiment with cropping and punch up the shadows and contrast with curves adjustment in photoshop.
Thank you very much for this.
Perhaps paint down exposure/contrast of the 3 yellow lights. Not eliminate but turn down 1 notch.
I tike the green/grey tones of the trees in the lower portion contrasted against the sky tones...possibly try working that subtly up.
Nice pic!
First, this is a godd photo and a rather nice location. Personally I do not like winter scenes without snow that much with the dead trees. Compositionally everything is fine. Regarding postprocessing: maybe you could also post the original to compare.
I'm not sure but I think there is a soft halo around the hill on the upper right side. If you push the shadows try to do it locally and don't go to the very edge of the dark parts.
Thank you Jens. Probably you are right, what is missing is the right season or time in order to push it further in terms of vibrance and colours.
About the soft halo, I have tried to make it less obvious but I found it a little tricky. I will try to adjust it better.
I think it's a great image, Stefano. Love it! In contrast to Jens, I DO like images of bare winter tree without snow - perhaps because here in Australia, that's pretty much all we get!
I think the composition is excellent, and agree with Jens about the "halo" around that hillside. I suspect you've had to do a fair bit already with this image to unlock its potential, as the RAW file probably looked dull.
There is a difficulty with the scene in that the foreground lacks contrast, although you wouldn't want it to compete with that beautifully-lit village!
I append my edit, in which I've increased contrast, clarity and exposure on that foreground area, burnt in that "halo", and then applied two vignettes at the bottom - one straight, and one curved (higher at the edges) to concentrate the eye towards the centre. I've probably overdone the foreground contrast to make clear what I'm talking about.
Keep up the good work!
I now await being shot down in flames for my edit...!
Thank you Chris! Yes, definitely have and I should probably spend more effort in the final and local adjustments. Your edit looks definitely better to me, so for sure I can achieve something more from this shot.
Ciao Stefano, personally if you had to work on a photo for a few days....it's not worth it! You can mess around as much as you like in post prod but always try to get as much as possible correct in the camera with your settings.... The framing is good, perhaps l would have waited for more interesting sky and brought the framing down a bit?( crop the bottom ) Worth going out and re-shooting this scenery.
Thank you Lynne! I agree with you and for sure I will go back there for a more interesting time and probably during spring season. I believe that the whole scene could be pushed to something really cool in a better period of the year.
I think if you lowered the shadows slider it would not look too HDR like. If you dodged and burned some areas on the buildings you might get the look you are after. Very cool picture none the less man.
If I could get the RAW I would love to have a go at this image.
Thank you for this. I have already adjusted the shadow in the new version and it definitely looks better so I will follow your advice putting a little bit more effort on it.
I don't know whether this would be effective (my work tends to be pretty literal), but my urge here is to introduce a really tight, off-centre vignette, focused on the hill. Basically turn it into a dark low key image with the buildings high contrast.