Commons:Photography critiques/November 2006

Raw Power

• My own creation. What I like about shooting planes (no PUN intended) is that you don't get another chance. --Calyponte 05:59, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

• just be aware of the collateral damage in the background those cars draw the eye towards them and away from the subject, also maybe a tighter field of view around the engine exhausts. Gnangarra 08:09, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Blue Jay

• Thank you in advance for any feedback you can provide. The only change from the original raw image is that I cropped it, placing the subject off center to the left. --Calyponte 00:57, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

• I'd crop a bit more on the right so that theres only two pickets about where the backround door/gate finishes that dark verticle line. Nice detail good light I like this anyway. Gnangarra 08:13, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

• I have nominated this image at COM:QI Gnangarra 09:43, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Mountain lake sunset

• created by myself, attempt at hdr Wikimol 11:03, 24 October 2006 (UTC)
  • This looks awesome. Like a painting. Details please, how did you achive this effect? Exposure blending? What software did you use. --Dschwen 11:37, 24 October 2006 (UTC)
    • Yes, exposure blending. 3 exposures -> aligned in hugin -> save as layered PSD -> several hours of play with layer masks in Photoshop. Mostly channel mixer -> to monochrome -> levels, gaussian blur, -> use as a mask. ...some details of the masks are also hand-drawn, so I'm not sure if it qualifies as a pure photograph. --Wikimol 11:16, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
  • Great work. Though i would consider to cut away the whole front part (The stones part at the lower border of the pic). After some time of looking at that photo i got a bit confused by the perspective. I dont know if it comes from the a bit too hard edges between the stones and the lake or sth. Also this big stone on the right seems to fly in the air after looking at it for some time. So maybe it is worth a try to make a crop without the lower part. Or maybe make the edges a bit softer. Btw: is this place close to Zakopane in Poland? --AngMoKio 13:23, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
    • It's in Slovakian part of Tatras. From Zakopane it may be about 10km, but 10 hours walking - so I don't know if thats close or far. --Wikimol 22:07, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

Looks great when scaled down. For the resolution there is too much noise. Composition with the stones in front is good but the colors are oversaturated especially the turquoise stones in the left. Around the hard contrast edges (horizon) there is a band of sky that is brighter than the rest. The same happens around the stone in the lake. This may come from a too big radius in the gaussian blurred layer mask. I got the impression the image is leaning about 2.5° clockwise. --Ikiwaner 14:55, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

I like the image. What bothers me is that there is more detail/focus on the left than on the right side of the image. The right bank seems out of focus. Dori | Talk 03:58, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the nice comments.

• The band of sky brighter than the rest - yes, it comes from the Gaussian blur. I'm not sure whether it should be removed - it's a way how to fool the eye into percieving greater dynamic range than actually possible. (Under the name "local contrast enhancement" it's well known technique how to make images look better.) Maybe I'll try the oposite - increasing the radius.
• More focus/details probably comes from the alignment of source images with different exposures. When they are perfectly aligned in one half, theyre not so in the other. I'm not sure what to do about that. The tripod it was shooted from was a tiny pocket lightweight one, so maybe, the camera moved a bit between shots. --Wikimol 22:07, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

Bryce Canyon Hoodoos

File:Bryce Canyon Hoodoos 4.jpg File:Bryce Canyon Hoodoos 4 crop.JPG

• How can I improve this? Which way should I crop it?--Digon3 21:41, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
• I would crop about 10-15% from the top only, in order to get some white out of the picture. Once you get light out from the top, visually speaking, the rest will lighten up. --Tomascastelazo 17:29, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

  I'd also recommend cropping the top a little. If you had a tripod, it might have been a good idea to take some bracketed shots as it's a good candidate for HDR. Dori | Talk 19:14, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

•  Comment The one on the left is the edited cropped version, tell me what you think --Digon3 20:40, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

  I like the cropping, but I think you've brightened it too much. It seems overexposed now. Dori | Talk 20:52, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

•  Comment Keep the original light values, the image will lighten up visually when you crop, no need to alter the values. Also, try to put space between the images so we can compare them.--Tomascastelazo 04:09, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

 Info I replaced edited one with a crop only. --Digon3 18:07, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

• Good image, perfect exposure, nice colours. I dont't like the format (too much cropped). Try 4:3 aspect ratio and do partial shifting. I don't like that the stones on the side are almost falling into the image. --Ikiwaner 18:05, 13 November 2006 (UTC)
• I agree with Ikiwaner: good image and exposure, nice colours and contrast. What I like less is the feeling that the stones are about to fall down. This is, I think, the result of using a wide-angle lens and taking the shot from below. Maybe it could be corrected? Alvesgaspar 18:16, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

It wasn't taken with a wide angle lens (I just rotated the camera vertically) so it must be because it was taken from below. It would be nice if it could be corrected. --Digon3 22:47, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

I corrected 25° of perspective in Hugin and changed projection to cylindrical, cropped 4:3, see version 3 above. --Ikiwaner 06:45, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

• Looks much better now. I'm tempted to suggest a little bit more, but who knows if we are respecting reality? The rocks might be naturally tilted! - Alvesgaspar 18:42, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

I looked at the other pictures I had taken, and the hoodoos are straight (mostly). It must be the perspective. Thanks Ikiwaner for fixing it, it looks much better. --Digon3 20:23, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks! Perspective distortions always happen if the midpoint of your image is above your camera level which is the case here. You can correct this by loading the picture in Hugin and enter the angle you hold the camera in the sky in the "pitch" section. --Ikiwaner 20:51, 14 November 2006 (UTC)