Fortnightly Challenge - Nov 6 thru Nov 19 - Topic: Curvilinear

[deep diver]

St. John's Bridge, Portland, Oregon.

Nice image. The perspective is what creates the appeal. I see the cable on the left as a distraction that interferes with the contrast between the curve of the trestle and the line of the road bed. I am a minimalist when it comes to PP, but I think I would have taken out the cable. I would love to see this shot taken on a sunny day so that the colors weren't so flat. Looks like you, Dale, and I all suffer the same lighting problem.

 

[deep diver]

Agate-1

 

[Designer Dale]

Taken Sunday, Brighton Millpond artwork:

<snip>

I like this one the best. You did an excellent job of combining angular lines and circles in the frame. The second is interesting with the moon sitting in the loop. I didn't notice this at first glance. Good photos.

Dale

 

[RHVC59]

Nice image. The perspective is what creates the appeal. I see the cable on the left as a distraction that interferes with the contrast between the curve of the trestle and the line of the road bed. I am a minimalist when it comes to PP, but I think I would have taken out the cable. I would love to see this shot taken on a sunny day so that the colors weren't so flat. Looks like you, Dale, and I all suffer the same lighting problem.

You know I never noticed the cable until you mentioned it. I think I like the cable left in... to me it adds a little more tension.
I would love to go back and shoot the bridge again... Maybe next year, I was able to shoot the bridge because we went south on to a wedding, and stopped off to pick up my daughter who lives very near Portland's Saint John's bridge on the way to the wedding in Lodi, Ca.

 

[Designer Dale]

Agate-1

Do you look at histograms in Levels? The first screenshot shows the histogram of your post. All the flat space to the left and right of the info curve is all nothing. If you pinch the sliders in like I did for the second screenshot, you can make the image much more vibrant. I keep my post to a minimum, also, but some images need it. The result of my fiddling is posted last. Don't sue me. I'm broke...

Dale

 

[Designer Dale]

RHVC59: Alexander Archipelago

Very interesting place you have their...

Dale

 

[Chappers]

The sky was sometimes interesting back in the UK.
Bruce - cracking stuff - also like Dales changes.
Dale - How?
RHVC59 - I like this but it does need better light - make sure you come back when you shoot it again.
mtbdudex - good work

 

[BarryJ]

Line and curve.

Curve on the left, "line" as in railway line, on right!

 

[Designer Dale]

The sky was sometimes interesting back in the UK.
Bruce - cracking stuff - also like Dales changes.
Dale - How?
RHVC59 - I like this but it does need better light - make sure you come back when you shoot it again.
mtbdudex - good work

This is absolutely wicked! I can see Harry racing through the clouds with Death Eaters firing nasty curses at him.

Dale

re: How? Do you want a short tutorial on using Levels in PhotoShop?

 

[mtbdudex]

Taken this past Sunday.

[edit] straightened out based on 'deep diver' lesson (thx)

 

[mtbdudex]

The sky was sometimes interesting back in the UK.

Awesome sky is right.
I feel emotion as I'm looking into this photo, like some major event or something.
My daughter loves it as well (she's next to me right now)

I was in England a few time in 2002-2004, I'm pretty sure I walked on that bridge.....name escapes me (sorry)
[edit] yep, here's my tourist pose for P&S. I like your shot better!

btw, can I re-size the pict smaller here so I can comment with photo as ref??
I use google picasa, so the size is the /sxxx/filename for that format.

 

[deep diver]

You know I never noticed the cable until you mentioned it. I think I like the cable left in... to me it adds a little more tension.
I would love to go back and shoot the bridge again... Maybe next year, I was able to shoot the bridge because we went south on to a wedding, and stopped off to pick up my daughter who lives very near Portland's Saint John's bridge on the way to the wedding in Lodi, Ca.

I agree with you now that I see it without the cable. For me the cable adds connection rather than tension. Either way, it belongs there. Thanks for playing with it and reposting.

Very interesting place you have their...

Dale

Where did you pull those images from? I assume you don't have one of those new fangled satellite cameras.

The sky was sometimes interesting back in the UK.

Simon -- great shot. I would love to see this with either a little more light or color behind or a little later to put more emphasis on the lighting. We've all seen a hundred shots of London Bridge. There is something in your framing that is particularly good.

Curve on the left, "line" as in railway line, on right!

Barry -- great point/counterpoint between the straight tracks and the arc of the shore. The way this was framed/cropped, the tracks get a little lost. If you stand to the right of the tracks rather than the left and keep the same line of sight then I think you'll have this nailed.

Taken this past Sunday.

Dale has told us many times (correctly so) that the top line of the subject should parallel the top of the frame (unless there is a reason to do otherwise). I would rotate this image clockwise just a bit. Other than that, I think this is great.

 

[deep diver]

Do you look at histograms in Levels? The first screenshot shows the histogram of your post. All the flat space to the left and right of the info curve is all nothing. If you pinch the sliders in like I did for the second screenshot, you can make the image much more vibrant. I keep my post to a minimum, also, but some images need it. The result of my fiddling is posted last. Don't sue me. I'm broke...

Dale

Damn. I spoke to my attorney before I finished reading your post.

I appreciate what you did. You are absolutely right. You've given me something to work on now. I have never played with levels and I won't get it by reading the book. I am an experiential learner.

I won't sue you for the C&C. I might sue you for my impending loss of sleep.

 

[mtbdudex]

Originally Posted by mtbdudex
Taken this past Sunday.

Dale has told us many times (correctly so) that the top line of the subject should parallel the top of the frame (unless there is a reason to do otherwise). I would rotate this image clockwise just a bit. Other than that, I think this is great.

Thx for pointing that out to me, free lesson learned and applied!

 

[deep diver]

Do you look at histograms in Levels? The first screenshot shows the histogram of your post. All the flat space to the left and right of the info curve is all nothing. If you pinch the sliders in like I did for the second screenshot, you can make the image much more vibrant. I keep my post to a minimum, also, but some images need it. The result of my fiddling is posted last. Don't sue me. I'm broke...

Dale

I just did a little quick playing with a couple of the shots I posted here. Here is the picture of the floor I put up yesterday and here is a copy with the lighting levels adjusted. It is still an indoor shot but it does have a bit more life to it.

 

[deep diver]

A little goofier. What is it and whose name is attached to it?

 

[mtbdudex]

Playing around I tried to turn this shot taken last Sunday

into something for the curvilinear topic:

not working for me, guess somethings you try and learn what does not work as well.

 

[deep diver]

Playing around I tried to turn this shot taken last Sunday

not working for me, guess somethings you try and learn what does not work as well.

The cut out image does not work. The original image is a reasonable idea. I would try shooting this from the other side so that you can eliminate the electrical services. Given how close the services are to the window, I would not try to get the entire window into the frame. I also would not have shot this so far to the side.

 

[mtbdudex]

Tried curvilinear on various objects in backyard, kids slide lended itself for some shots.

Shot w/o kids ....boring, just a slide.

With kids, well cute but a distraction from the shot, here it is.

Next time, I'd take a picture of them going down the slide, would give the reflective/interpretation viewpoint I'm thinking and might work.

I do like the leave, they make the grass more interesting, guess this shot will have to wait for Fall-2010 for another go.

 

[Designer Dale]

I'm not sure of the level of PhotoShop knowledge here so I put together a tutorial on using Levels with Adjustment Layers. Adjustment Layers allow you to edit a photo by putting Levels, Brightness and Contrast and such on layers above the original. You can adjust the original without actually changing it. You can turn the Adjustment Layer on and off to see the changes and even throw it away if you don't like it. This means you don't have to go back to the History Pallet all the time. This process is called Non-Destructive Editing. When I do this with something important, I copy the original layer and hide it. Then I have a spare copy right there in case I really mess things up.

To create an Adjustment Layer, click on the split circle icon in the Layers Pallet. For this I selected Levels. The result is the second screen shot. I added some notes to the Histogram. My photo has lots of shadow detail and little in the highlights. I pulled the sliders in to put more emphasis on the shadows in the third screen shot. If you hold the Option key, the Cancel Button changes to Reset and you can go back to where you started without closing any windows. This works in most windows that have Cancel. Handy.

The result of all this is my next post. I'll include a thumbnail of the original.

Dale

 

[Designer Dale]

X Marks the Spot for Gas. Buckley, Washington

Dale

 

[RHVC59]

Chappers Wow that is a great shot!

Designer Dale It is a lovely place Whales, Eagles, Bears, Salmon, Cruise ships, 13 feet of rain a year...usually it looks like this weather map...

Deep Diver no problem, I love playing with PS, although using just the track pad is a pain, I was too lazy to go get my wacom ... and the adjusted version of your floor soes seem to have more zing... I need to remember to look at the levels as well.
Also after I posted the doctored bridge shot I noticed that I had forgotten to convert the image to SRGB IEC61966-2.1 from the ProPhoto RGB. which is a step I usually remember to use before I post an image. I have noticed If I do not remember that step, The color looks off to me. I need to remember to work that in to the work flow...

 

[Chappers]

Another in my day out in London - I used to live only 45 minutes away - but these were probably the only tourist pictures I've taken there in my 44 years on planet earth.

 

[someoldguy]

Here's some curves ... inside the Guggenheim , NYC , this morning.

 

[mtbdudex]

Curvilinear trees framing the drive.....

Campus path.....

slightly more than tourist shots??

I took one of the campus path w/o anybody, it was boring..