Dadashi_Hatake

I was at a fair thing this past Saturday (not yesterday, the Saturday before that), and I took some pictures of the area. This is one of them. I may upload some others later, but I wanted some comments/opinions/whatever on this one first. Be honest. Thanks.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...treeandsun.jpg

I really like it, but my opinion doesn't matter because if I'm the only one that likes it, I've failed in what I want to achieve.

WereBo

Personally, that's a photo to be proud of - The sun-flare is just right, without 'whitening' the surrounding area, the tree's contrast is well good and you've caught the cloud's details excellently

Well done indeed

DonaldG

This is where I disagree with you big time Dadashi!

Your enjoyment and satisfaction in taking the photo DOES matter. If it is in your opinion that the photo 'swings' for you, that is a very important thing.

Your opinion counts very much. Self criticism helps to see things that you didn't spot before.

I have a load of stuff that in 'my' opinion is great. Others may think it is garbage, I don't care 'cos I like 'em & thats what counts

Now, getting back to the sun in the trees... I like it - It is a nice result from a very difficult subject. When setting up a shot like that, take several photos at very slightly varying positions trying to make the sun just (& only just) hidden behind a thick branch or thin trunk. That will help to tone the sun down a wee bit but still preserve the dramatic blast of sunshine.

What I see is that you have the courage to 'get out of the box' and experiment. That is good to see.

Dadashi_Hatake

Thank you both. And DonaldG, I understand what you're saying there, I just kinda place others opinions higher than my own. You can probably already tell that by the way I ask everyone here what they think of what I post lol.

And as for the angle and such, as you can see, that tree has a big fork in the middle, where the thick parts go one either side of the sun in that image, and where I was shooting from, it was hard to maneuver around, there was carnival rides everywhere, as well as a lot of people. I took a few others, but they didn't turn out as well, as I zoomed in bit more, and it just led to more lens flare and such.

I did have to do a bit to fix that photo though, not sure if anyone can tell, but there were a few distractions in the bottom of the photo. I cropped it a bit, but that still left some wires and a carnival ride arm in the shot, as well as a small flag, so I had to clone those out <,< Sharpened a bit to add detail to the tree and clouds, and this is the finished result.

PhantomLover007

Great pic man.

Dadashi_Hatake

Thank you.

xD I love when I feel like I did a good job. Makes me all... Happy? (Rare for me lol)

WereBo

Well, even looking closely, I'll have to take your word for the distractions in the bottom of the photo, there's no sign of 'em anywhere.....

Done_Fishin

GReat pic .. It's not exactly my taste but then I must also ask myself if I am, also a bit jealous Good editing too.

When I say not my taste .. well it is and it isn't but you were obviously hampered by your surroundings as always befalls the enthusiastic photographer .. me I would prefer to see something from a different angle with shafts of sunlight streaming through branches .. and I bet that you would have too but you just couldn't find the right vantage point .. yep a great picture and I am jealous !!!

Dadashi_Hatake

@ WereBo http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...396smaller.jpg here, just uploaded the image unedited. Probably easier to spot the fixed areas now, but at least it passed the first test xD makes me happy you couldn't tell where I fixed it without a reference such as the original.

Here's a different picture I took of the same area. Just zoomed in on the tree bit, that's it.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...397smaller.jpg

I thought the lens flare made a cool pattern thing there, I didn't do that, so I thought it was kinda cool looking.

@ Done Fishin, thanks for that. And yeah, to my left there was a large bleacher thingy, all the seat things were people sit and watch performers. To my right there was a cotton candy stand. And where there wasn't buildings, rides, or other objects, there were people.

To get to a better area, I would have had to hope a fence and go into a field where there were people setting up fire works for later that night. Didn't think that was too good of an idea lol.

WereBo

Comparing the 'fixed' photo to the original, I still can't see any evidence of what you did, well done you

Re: your 2nd shot - I agree about the red blobby flares, they do give a nice effect, albeit accidentally.

That's the main bonus with digital photography, years ago, you'd have to wait for weeks while your photo's were sent away to be developed, then you had to hope the 'technician' didn't try and 'correct' any stuff like that (which they often did ). Nowadays, you can instantly see what you've taken and reshoot within seconds, if necessary

Done_Fishin

the editing involved careful removal of some metalwork coming in from the right and the only telltale sign is a strange effect with the leaves. apart from that the bottom edge looks cropped to remove what I guess are car roofs ..

I suspect that the leaves could have been done better but required a lot more time and patience than was available .. a really first rate job though and required both photos to be visible to notice the differences.

Youer editing skills will improve as your patince level increases .. .. a great piece of work!

Dadashi_Hatake

@WereBo O.O That would suck, if the person developing the pictures decided that something would look better than it was originally, then changed it. I'd be a little upset if it was changed to something that wasn't what I had planned/seen in the original shot. And thanks for the compliments.

@Done Fishin Yeah, I did mess up the leaves. I toyed around with that area a few times, added some leaves, removed some, and I just couldn't get it exactly right. I was hoping that it looked like the smaller branches leaves sort of blended in with the larger branch above it. I should go back and redo that part sometime. Too late tonight, but yeah... Small future project lol.

Thanks again.

Now I sleep, it's 3am _-_ zzzzzzz

DonaldG

Hey Dadashi - sleeping? only 3am? Gee, I thought that you were an enthusiast!

Done_Fishin

probably dreaming about ways to redo that branch ..

try taking something that looks more natural from elsewhere and see if you can work it in ..

Dadashi_Hatake

Sadly I didn't dream of redoing that branch lol. I slept in and had WEIRD dreams. One went from working at Wal-Mart to aliens from the game Halo attacking Wal-Mart and the surrounding area xD

Now, to what I fixed today. Only took a minute or two, and I took the easy way out, but I think it looks more natural now.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...reeandsun3.jpg

Tada?...

DonaldG

Hi Dadashi

I hope you don't mind, I had a play with your lovely photo of the sun through the trees. I have added some 'fire' to set the capture ablaze with colour and keeping the harvested field in the lower left. (Makes it look very rural & peaceful)





How it was done as follows
1) I saturated the colour in Photoshop using the technique I describe in this thread. I then saved it as a 'normal' photo.

2) then the 'Levels' were drastically altered to lift out the shadow detail in the trees and the detail of the hay bales in the field. (The rest of the image looked terrible but all I wanted was the shadow detail.) I then saved it as a 'light' version.

3) taking the 'normal' image, again the 'Levels' were dramatically altered to darken the whole image, purely for the sky detail. This was saved as a 'dark' version.

That gave me 3 images. Dark, Normal & Light. That in effect synthesised taking 3 photos at different exposures.

4) The three images were then processed (tone mapped) in 'Photomatix' HDR (High Dynamic Range) software. That combined the dramatic darker sky with the normal exposure and it combined the shadow detail from the lighter image.

5) Finally a little tweaking if the levels & contrast in Photoshop and cloning out the distractions.


The next version is an 'arty' version...

I hope you like them...

WereBo

WOW!!! That looks amazing!

Another advantage of doing that, is that where the fairground 'arm' was cloned out, in the lower right-hand side, now looks like a distant line of trees

The 'Arty' version looks good, but I still prefer the 'natural' photo

Done_Fishin

I'm giving up photography ..

DonaldG

That is the photo the Dadashi took. I did not add anything - all the detail was in Dadashi's original image. All I did was to enhance the colours an do a little bit of tweaking

Dadashi should get the credit for an outstanding capture.

Done_Fishin

I have noticed just how much detail is hidden behind those dark areas .. it just takes the right person to put it all together and let it be seen