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Too much?

jeffzoom91

jeffzoom91

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 25, 2005
201
1
Florida
After a 2 week stint in europe I've finally gotten around to actually processing some of my images. Here's one of them:
3772231493_9e29a1b9cb_o.jpg


Normally I'm not a fan of people who max out the sharpness and contrast on their cameras and ruin the image. But seeing as how I do in fact own a low end canon, post processing is required, what I want to know is, have I ruined the image? I have only done some minimal stuff in aperture and I can't decide whether or not it's an improvement over the original image or not.

Original image for reference:
3773052718_5e5337749d_o.jpg
 
I like your improvements. (Although, I'm not sure a consumer camera isn't capable of getting similar results on the first go-through. But I wasn't there.)

However, I find all of the upwards lines distracting (and detracting).
 
It's taken a very long time to get my camera to reproduce what I saw when i decided to take the picture, I am getting the hang of it finally.

That said, You're right, London isn't that bright ever...

I was attempting to retain the red of the underground side, unfortunately a side effect of which was a boost in orange tones (All done in Aperture, I guess if it gets printed I can run it through photoshop and play with the sliders a bit)

What I was worried about was the tone of (what i believe is) Westminster Abbey.

Thanks for the critique guys!:D
 
The contrast and saturation aren't the biggest improvements. The rotation by far has a bigger impact on the actual image.
 
I wouldn't say it's too much, though it's on the edge. London's famous Underground logo needs to have strong colours, but if it wasn't there I would've said the image is too saturated...
 
Define low end canon? What lenses are shooting with? What was the exif data with your shot?

I was not happy with my kit lens, I was constantly trying to get vivid colours like my friend who has a Nikon D40 untill I realised he had his camera set to super vivid, and everything looked over the top! I found by adjusting the picture style in the contrast and saturation helped alot. But to be honest with my Tamron non of that is necessary and the colours and contrast are what I wished my kit lens was!
 
think you blew out the red channel a bit. look at the shirts.

try using the dodge & burn plugin, it has saturate/desaturate, dodge/burn, and blur/sharpen, along with feathering and what not. or export it to photoshop and use the sponge tool. this way you can selectively saturate specific parts, rather than doing all of one color.

you might've oversharpened, but it's impossible to tell based on such a small image.
 
The colours are definitely not realistic, so it depends on what you are trying to achieve with the photo.

For reference re. the underground logo, click here.


PS Hope you enjoyed your stay in London :)
 
The rotation was done because I shot this from the top of a moving tour bus and was composed with great haste.

I have a Canon Rebel XTi and I shot that particular shot on a 17-40L f4.0

Yeah, I guess it definitely isn't done, I'll keep working on it and report back
 
Padaung said:
For reference re. the underground logo, click here.
Click to expand...

Yep, but the logo plate looks very different if it's printed on paper or painted on metal. There are some old very bright and strong-coloured logo plates around london, take a look and they do look unreal. The older the better ;)
 
jeffzoom91 said:
The rotation was done because I shot this from the top of a moving tour bus and was composed with great haste.

I have a Canon Rebel XTi and I shot that particular shot on a 17-40L f4.0

Yeah, I guess it definitely isn't done, I'll keep working on it and report back
Click to expand...

Mother of God... your camera isn't the problem. Yes, this is over-done. Just a bit too much contrast and the sky is too far gone. London does get bright (honestly) but it's never quite that colour. I prefer the original.
 
My rule is that I process the image untill it looks "processed" then back off a bit. Yours looks "processed".

The prospective correction is resonable, if you were there the eye always corrects for perspective. But some times it looks good to leave just a little of that in. In LF terms "leave in a little tilt." Makes it look more natural.

I think full white point correction is almost always OK too unless you are trying to show the color of the light, as at sunset.
 
jeffzoom91 said:
The rotation was done because I shot this from the top of a moving tour bus and was composed with great haste.

I have a Canon Rebel XTi and I shot that particular shot on a 17-40L f4.0

Yeah, I guess it definitely isn't done, I'll keep working on it and report back
Click to expand...

The XTi is a very nice little camera, and the lens you are using is a great one. A little too much saturation, but otherwise a nice image considering that the light was working against the camera. Don't forget that you want the light to work in favor of the camera's sensor, which is not the case with your image as can be seeing by the direction of the shadows.
 
AlaskaMoose said:
The XTi is a very nice little camera, and the lens you are using is a great one. A little too much saturation, but otherwise a nice image considering that the light was working against the camera. Don't forget that you want the light to work in favor of the camera's sensor, which is not the case with your image as can be seeing by the direction of the shadows.
Click to expand...

Agreed, for photographs of this type you could not get better equipment.
 
It's never that bright in London?

You've got people from Houston and Florida telling you London is never that bright, I was in london last weekend and believe me it was glorious, we do get sunshine in this country, it just never happens when the tourists come:D and you were no exception! looks like a dull day that had to be tweaked.
I see the red circle on the underground sign as just about right, even though it may have blown a few other colours, certainly the original is disappointingly dull due to a dull day, all in all I think you did a good job with it, I like it anyway, but i'm a native, so I would:)

On second thoughts, looking at the shadows on the original it doesn't look very dull at all, perhaps its a bit under exposed?
 
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