Just for Fun No C&C will be given: Breathe in...Breathe out...

[fahim mohammed]

 

[Asher Kelman]

Yes, it does immediately surround us with fresh mountain air. Is it just the view or did the processing add to that experience? There's a subtle sense of "posterization" or is it an overlay of cyan? What did you do?

Asher

 

[fahim mohammed]

Nothing special in pp. just a curve to lower the highlights, a gradient, slight selective sharpening and resized for post. The top left corner ( the darkish sky ) was cropped for the print.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Fahim mohammed: Breathe in! Breathe in!
Original
​

Fahim,

Thanks for providing the RAW file for another look at presentation. This is indeed a very challenging file to process as it's so easy to get a lack of contrast between elements and a veil hiding the crisp beauty of the scene.

Fahim mohammed: Breathe in! Breathe in!
Processed from RAW in Adobe Camera RAW
​

This is just a quick attempt to work around some obstacles in order to construct depth into the valley and the farms. I hope you might like the result! I'd like to see how it can be processed with other software too.

Asher

 

[fahim mohammed]

Asher, when I was in my early twenties, I used to see ads for cigarettes; ' Kool as a mountain stream'; and from Salem ' fresh as the mountain air '.

I confess that I am a smoker. I know it is terrible for my health etc., but you would know which
version of the pic I would tend to prefer.

I am grateful for the intrest shown by you, and the effort put in to salvage the original.

Maybe others could chime in.

Best regards.

p.s. Now I have this cartload of Raw files that need some work to be presentable....!!!

 

[Ken Tanaka]

Fahim,
Your travel snaps are fine personal mementos which will certainly bring you and your family pleasure for years to come (assuming you print them in some form to preserve them).

From an impersonal perspective, since you asked, I've noticed several extremely common characteristics in your photos which I now offer for your consideration.

- Color casts: Your images tend to be heavily blue-casted from the sky. The easiest general way to deal with this is to nudge color temperature higher, watching the blue curve closely. Casts have a way of infecting the entire image. Even if blue is your favorite color you should make an effort to better balance your image colors.

- Color and Contrast: Your images are nearly always far too contrasty. You might say you prefer this as a "style". But it generally looks pretty bad, crushing rich low/mid-tone details and making your images awfully flat. You also tend to amp-up your color saturations to rather garish levels, exacerbating the visual problems of overcooked contrast and color casts.

This landscape is a good example. How's your eye sight, particularly with respect to close/medium work and color vision? The reason I ask is because it's common for older people with failing close vision to hike contrast and sharpness to out-of-bounds levels. The images look good to them but...

- Composition & timing: You very often identify situations in which good image possibilities exist. But you tend to -just miss- the mark. That cathedral image is an excellent example. Your radar has sensed that there are posibilities in that scene. But it's a muddle. You've presented no decisions, no anchors. The eye is led, by loud color, in misdirecting ways. What's important in this scene? The people standing in the rain? The cathedral? The umbrellas? We don't know. Little of this, little of that. Photography is all about making decisions, even happy snaps.

I offer these comments constructively for your consideration. You clearly like taking pictures so perhaps you'll find something here to enhance your pleasure.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Advice we can all use!

Fahim,
Your travel snaps are fine personal mementos which will certainly bring you and your family pleasure for years to come (assuming you print them in some form to preserve them).

I too enjoy travel snaps as they remind me of what I saw and the boxes of images I have to prove it. I admit to getting a good deal of warm feelings!

Composition & timing: You very often identify situations in which good image possibilities exist. But you tend to -just miss- the mark. That cathedral image is an excellent example. Your radar has sensed that there are posibilities in that scene. But it's a muddle. You've presented no decisions, no anchors. The eye is led, by loud color, in misdirecting ways. What's important in this scene? The people standing in the rain? The cathedral? The umbrellas? We don't know. Little of this, little of that. Photography is all about making decisions, even happy snaps.

Ken,

Your remarks on ramping up contrast and over-sharpenng (and let me add using effect filters) for some easy razmataz effects are worth all of us considering.

The last point on constructing a composition is, IMHO, the most important. It's so fundamental.

I offer these comments constructively for your consideration. You clearly like taking pictures so perhaps you'll find something here to enhance your pleasure.

Well put!

Asher

 

[fahim mohammed]

Ken, I take issue with you on one specific detail in your succinct post..

Who you calling old ??!!

As for the rest of your sane and very helpful advice, I am extremely grateful. At last, some very objective and extremely useful suggestions/advice for me to improve my photographic pursuits.

Oh well. Guess I have to stop enjoying photography!!!

With profound thanks and kindest regards.

Fahim,
Your travel snaps are fine personal mementos which will certainly bring you and your family pleasure for years to come (assuming you print them in some form to preserve them).

From an impersonal perspective, since you asked, I've noticed several extremely common characteristics in your photos which I now offer for your consideration.

- Color casts: Your images tend to be heavily blue-casted from the sky. The easiest general way to deal with this is to nudge color temperature higher, watching the blue curve closely. Casts have a way of infecting the entire image. Even if blue is your favorite color you should make an effort to better balance your image colors.

- Color and Contrast: Your images are nearly always far too contrasty. You might say you prefer this as a "style". But it generally looks pretty bad, crushing rich low/mid-tone details and making your images awfully flat. You also tend to amp-up your color saturations to rather garish levels, exacerbating the visual problems of overcooked contrast and color casts.

This landscape is a good example. How's your eye sight, particularly with respect to close/medium work and color vision? The reason I ask is because it's common for older people with failing close vision to hike contrast and sharpness to out-of-bounds levels. The images look good to them but...

- Composition & timing: You very often identify situations in which good image possibilities exist. But you tend to -just miss- the mark. That cathedral image is an excellent example. Your radar has sensed that there are posibilities in that scene. But it's a muddle. You've presented no decisions, no anchors. The eye is led, by loud color, in misdirecting ways. What's important in this scene? The people standing in the rain? The cathedral? The umbrellas? We don't know. Little of this, little of that. Photography is all about making decisions, even happy snaps.

I offer these comments constructively for your consideration. You clearly like taking pictures so perhaps you'll find something here to enhance your pleasure.

 

[Ken Tanaka]

Who you calling old ??!!

Me! I suspect that you and I are probably rather close in age (56?). So I watch over my own predilections every day.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Fahim,

"Oh well. Guess I have to stop enjoying photography!!!" Well, the fun part is taking the pictures. One can still snap away. I do! But also to stop and hunt from a particular angle and height and distance so that the image in one's head gets better and better. Of course my spouse thinks there's no end to it but it pays off!

So your pictures are welcome. I have such fun with your posts, seeing places I have visited and then places I now need to get to. I am, I admit to sentimentality!

However the umbrella were asking for a composition as was the architecture. But there I go! I doubt I have done better in the rain!

Asher