Need an eye for printing

due to an overwhelming response , I'll toss in my 1 cent?
for what it's worth??

1st of all that heaven/haven looks very nice and love the view!
and the idea is great?!!
at 1st glance my vote w/b for #2?
because the property appears to be larger, trees seem to be more impressive?
concerning the 'foreground interest' however, the 'placement' of the black cow on the right and fence in the back are better in crop 1
(rule of 3rds!).

colours do look kind of natural, but light seems to be on the harsh side?
and it's very yellowish/greenish (due to time of day/season?), so that would have to go with the interior?!

did you try to calibrate your screen?

(Eizo screen here. never calibrated, but every print so far -mainly calendars and some stuff published in mags/papers (RGB > CMYK!) on request a.o.- showed the exact same colours etc. that screen displayed.
I would get really, ...... frustrated if I couldn't depend on my screen?! (hence the purchase of an Eizo long ago).
(I also have 2 (Braun) digi frames, 15" and https://www.amazon.co.uk/Braun-DigiFrame-3200-digital-frames/dp/B001N5M45U, that both have a brilliant display as well).
can't you attach a calibrated 'bigger' screen to your laptop?

speaking of... strikes me every time how the laptoppies of friends tend to 'kill' my pics! or 'change' them to put it mildly.
usually on extremely bright, reflective screens.
not to mention the wide screen of my friend C., that stretches every pic horizontally ).

IMHO it w/b sheer impossible to use 'advice' on colours, unless you can see for yourself?
exposure seems fine, nice and bright, you didn't seem to have blown out the whites.
if you were me, -no offense!-, you would try to make a couple of other pics during golden hours?
(hopefully with somewhat 'hazier' trees as well?) and see what would happen to the enormous chunk of yellow/green i.e. the main component of your image?!

whatever you decide, hope it will work out fine!
good luck!!

PS.?
when preparing for print, always check the gamut warning!
esp. when there is a lot of blue in the pic ...not! ;-)


Edited by angora - 24 July 2017 at 08:23

Thanks Angora!
Was starting to think the post was invisible.

The property is indeed quite large, although the cattle side of the fence is outside of it, but by rural Australian "standards" is tiny.

Colour is indeed funny, did my WB against the "house" that I know is an off grey colour but might indeed have boosted the yellow/greens too much in post. Being mid winter down here and with not much rain lately the colour is very muted. Dry yellow grass against evergreen trees in the background.
As it came out of camera with just crop, WB and some clones done it's looking like this. Just the nature of the land and vegetation and shooting around midday.


DSC09413_stitch-3 by Johan Olsson, on Flickr

And I do think I'm going to suggest to her to come back and re-shoot it, though I've already had to stop her from doing a large print of a 2048 pixel wide shot I uploaded to Facebook For now what I'll likely do is order her a 30x60cm print as I can get one done real cheap, specials on at the moment and figure out a time when I can come back and put some real effort into a "proper" take on it.

Edit: think this is what I'm going to go for at this stage and call it a birthday present to her at 30x60cm as a metal print. Same WB and crop but just moved some cattle around and cleaned up the right hand foreground.


DSC09413_stitch-4 by Johan Olsson, on Flickr

For some reason she want's my watermark somewhere in the shot but I'm not convinced I'd want it added anywhere in the image, low center might "work" but I don't think it's needed/justified.

Edited by SnowFella - 24 July 2017 at 09:45

TY! (for your TY ;-) no need, but appreciated!).
FB? (never say ..... though, might look very interesting pixelated? ;-))

yes, I know what drought does to luscious meadows? does add some extra 'shades of green'?
from what I can see now, even more 'natural colours', the new version lacks the 'punch' of the previous version and what's worse, the cows are no longer shiny, the most important one now has a silhouette-like appearance?
-edit edit- seeing a new version miraculously appearing,
last one seems fine? like it a lot!!-

I would consider a reshoot when the light is at its best and colourtemp. is lower. and, very important, arrange the cows. ;-)
perhaps even try to find some extra foreground interest to add depth?
and compare?
on the other hand, your crops may be just fine?!!
cloning out the bushes at the edge or not w/b a matter of taste?

can't you optimize your best versions and have them printed 10 x 15 or 13 x 18 cm (at a local print service/camerastore) as a test, prior to ordering the metal version?


Edited by angora - 24 July 2017 at 10:17

Hi,

First, apologies - I should have sent you something earlier..

However, that said, I think you've ended up with something close to what I was going to suggest anyway so no harm there! I do like the balance of the cows in the shot - they are nicely distributed and show what the farm is all about; I think it's a nicely balanced 'context' shot. Good that you lost the 'shrubbery' in the bottom right of the frame as well - far too distracting. I guess there is little that could be done to make the shot more interesting - the location 'is what it is' after all, but as long as the friends wife likes it what is there to be unhappy about? I guess you could offer to go back and re-shoot at another time of the day etc., but you would have to ask the cows to come along as well - might be a problem...

Please let us know how well it was received - good or bad!

Best regards (and good luck),

Neil.

Doubt this mob does any kind of individual "finishing" to submitted photos being one of the big box retailers of all things from furniture to bathroom fittings and some electronics tossed in for good measure.
Just another big box store that contract their printing out to another source, in this case Fuji Australia for their off site prints.

I'll find out in the morning how it all came out, got an SMS today that it's ready to be picked up.

Turned out quite alright, colour seems accurate to my edits. Touch on the noisy side though, especially in the blacks.
Though that is looking at a 30x60cm print from quite up close, back away a touch and naturally that noise is gone.

Wife's still trying to get into contact with her but her little cabin out in the sticks has no phone line (or electricity other than some solar panels/batteries, running water or even a proper loo) and it's too far out for mobile reception.
We'll likely try to catch her on the weekend where she works to hand it over, need to print her a decent A4 of her fav bird before then.
Not really as sharp and clean as I like but was taken more or less from her front porch.
Gang gang Cockatoo

DSC09396 by Johan Olsson, on Flickr