Something different again from me - I had forgotten about critique group so I dug around for an image and thought this one looked promising but did rather more 'fiddling and diddling' than I would usually - before I was satisfied. I had intended to get some pictures of Autumn trees this year but this was only one of two occasions on which I did so because of a combination of a full schedule, illness, miserable weather and then the wind blowing the leaves off some trees I had planned to photograph, before I got the chance.
It was taken in Hester's Way Park (the current home of the GCHQ 'Listening Stones' sculpture) at the back of the College Campus - our unofficial 'grounds'. I was there earlier in the morning than usual (between 7 and 8 am) so had some time for taking pictures before class. The park has a reputation for containing one of the biggest varieties of tree species of any UK public park.
I believe this a beech tree but I might be wrong.
What you see here is an iPad picture (as I didn't have a camera to hand - I have been finding the iPad handy because the large screen makes it easy to spot things 'live' and even edit on the spot including checking crops - the only main let down is the narrow depth of field from how small the fixed, f2.4 31mm lens is, making sharpening necessary in order to get any depth into the picture - plus of course fully auto settings so even though it's capable of ISO 25 and 1/4000 shutter I rarely get that out of it). The weather was a bit grim and grey but it was around sunrise and the sun was trying to poke through a little bit. I have adjusted a great deal of things which I should list for the sake of clarity:
soft blur vignette 5%, global sharpen, textured noise reduction filter effect, saturation adjustments (boosting red / yellow / orange 50% + and holding back the greens -60%), clarity boost, white balance warmth +16%, global saturation +50%, contrast +50%, total reduction of shadows and highlights, luminance reduction (to counterbalance saturation adjustments), exposure adjustments, warm colour cast.
I did all the adjustments either globally or by using the dropper tool to pick specific colours - the blank sky behind the trees appears to be inherent in the original file as no masks were used even if it looks like it.
I chose the square crop to eradicate a vandalised and slightly ugly lamppost on the left and also to bring the path onto the bottom left corner in order to create a diagonal lead in.
My overall approach was to create a painterly impression. While I could easily have cloned them out I left the abandoned supermarket trolley (of which there have been a few dotted round this park, perhaps having been 'joyridden' by local shoplifters), half a lamppost pole (which I have admittedly cleaned up so it is less distracting) and the bench as I thought they added interest and placed the photo in its location.
I have a similar image with a squirrel in it but I felt this was in the end a distraction.
I'm interested about opinions on this one as I am really not sure if it works but my attitude was the original was dull so I might as well try to make something out of it.
I really like the autumn colours. Not bothered about the lampost or bench as they fit in but not too keen on the trolley. My main concern is the sky at the top right as it does not match the rest of the sky. If you selected the rest of the sky which could be done in LR or PS and, even if you gave it the same treatment as the top right, it would be be dramatic but I think that is what you wanted.
Comments
Something different again from me - I had forgotten about critique group so I dug around for an image and thought this one looked promising but did rather more 'fiddling and diddling' than I would usually - before I was satisfied. I had intended to get some pictures of Autumn trees this year but this was only one of two occasions on which I did so because of a combination of a full schedule, illness, miserable weather and then the wind blowing the leaves off some trees I had planned to photograph, before I got the chance.
It was taken in Hester's Way Park (the current home of the GCHQ 'Listening Stones' sculpture) at the back of the College Campus - our unofficial 'grounds'. I was there earlier in the morning than usual (between 7 and 8 am) so had some time for taking pictures before class. The park has a reputation for containing one of the biggest varieties of tree species of any UK public park.
I believe this a beech tree but I might be wrong.
What you see here is an iPad picture (as I didn't have a camera to hand - I have been finding the iPad handy because the large screen makes it easy to spot things 'live' and even edit on the spot including checking crops - the only main let down is the narrow depth of field from how small the fixed, f2.4 31mm lens is, making sharpening necessary in order to get any depth into the picture - plus of course fully auto settings so even though it's capable of ISO 25 and 1/4000 shutter I rarely get that out of it). The weather was a bit grim and grey but it was around sunrise and the sun was trying to poke through a little bit. I have adjusted a great deal of things which I should list for the sake of clarity:
soft blur vignette 5%, global sharpen, textured noise reduction filter effect, saturation adjustments (boosting red / yellow / orange 50% + and holding back the greens -60%), clarity boost, white balance warmth +16%, global saturation +50%, contrast +50%, total reduction of shadows and highlights, luminance reduction (to counterbalance saturation adjustments), exposure adjustments, warm colour cast.
I did all the adjustments either globally or by using the dropper tool to pick specific colours - the blank sky behind the trees appears to be inherent in the original file as no masks were used even if it looks like it.
I chose the square crop to eradicate a vandalised and slightly ugly lamppost on the left and also to bring the path onto the bottom left corner in order to create a diagonal lead in.
My overall approach was to create a painterly impression. While I could easily have cloned them out I left the abandoned supermarket trolley (of which there have been a few dotted round this park, perhaps having been 'joyridden' by local shoplifters), half a lamppost pole (which I have admittedly cleaned up so it is less distracting) and the bench as I thought they added interest and placed the photo in its location.
I have a similar image with a squirrel in it but I felt this was in the end a distraction.
I'm interested about opinions on this one as I am really not sure if it works but my attitude was the original was dull so I might as well try to make something out of it.
I really like the autumn colours. Not bothered about the lampost or bench as they fit in but not too keen on the trolley. My main concern is the sky at the top right as it does not match the rest of the sky. If you selected the rest of the sky which could be done in LR or PS and, even if you gave it the same treatment as the top right, it would be be dramatic but I think that is what you wanted.
Dave