Thinking of printing, need more eyes |
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SnowFella ![]() Senior Member ![]() Joined: 21 April 2013 Country: Australia Location: Sydney Status: Offline Posts: 2614 |
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Yep, all the above were stitched with Ms ICE. It's indeed good...but hardly perfect ;)
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Pirate ![]() Senior Member ![]() Joined: 16 May 2007 Country: United Kingdom Location: Liverpool Status: Offline Posts: 5763 |
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Ahoy! Have you used Microsoft ICE for stitching? It's free and surprisingly, it's darned good as well! |
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Roger Rex ![]() Senior Member ![]() Joined: 30 September 2005 Country: United States Location: North Florida Status: Offline Posts: 7852 |
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SnowFella - Thanks for showing the alternative crop from the bottom. I like it a LOT better but such things are very personal. I do find that once I have worked on an image for a long time and looked at the same aspect ratio, the suggestion to change it is sometimes hard to do having become so familiar with it. Maybe let it set for a couple of days and then come back to it - I usually see it differently when I do that.
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Hatred corrodes the container it is carried in. http://rogerrex.zenfolio.com/
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MichelvA ![]() Alpha Eyes group ![]() Knowledge Base Contributor Joined: 26 April 2008 Country: Netherlands Status: Offline Posts: 19342 |
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Agree with Roger on the exposure of the lights. For me, these are too yellow too, so i'd change the wb of this part. The rest looks ok wb-wise. What the compo is concerned i'm not sure of a big crop from the bottom will work, but a small one certainly would improve the slightly uninteresting front. Otoh i like the reflection in the water which go up to the border of the frame. Surely it is worth trying to crop - i am curious how it works out.
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Respect Observe Capture Enjoy
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SnowFella ![]() Senior Member ![]() Joined: 21 April 2013 Country: Australia Location: Sydney Status: Offline Posts: 2614 |
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Thanks for taking the time Roger!
Tested to implement some of your suggestions here, still need to take the "original" into PS to remove stitching errors so it's all temporary. Have a feeling though that the scene and all sailboats facing the same way, tide was going out, makes it feel more distorted and out of level that what it really is. Mast's were indeed all at an angle, no sailor here but mast rake does ring a bell. Never done a print like this so I feel alittle constrained by the 2 size options, either 8x36 or 12x36. 8x36 feels small on the vertical but matches rather well with the scene while 12x36 forces me to either crop out the sides or add an uneven border. Anyways, here's a new version with some quickly done changes following on with your suggestions. Might be able to recover more area above the horizon through PS to lift the crop somewhat more. ![]() |
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Roger Rex ![]() Senior Member ![]() Joined: 30 September 2005 Country: United States Location: North Florida Status: Offline Posts: 7852 |
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Several suggestions; 1. correct the image distortion; it bows in the middle and is not level (this look could very will be the way the scene really appears because the distant shoreline might not be "level" but since the masts of the boats are all tilted slightly to the right, I assume the image is out of level); 2. SUBSTANTIALLY lower the exposure of the lights on the right side of the frame, even more so than already done (unless that structure is "the" subject (presently, the eye shoots across the frame do that spot and misses the essence of the image; 3. balance the exposure in the sand from the left side, now brighter, with the right side, now darker; and lastly and most importantly to my eye, 4. crop about 1/2 of the area below the horizon to eliminate most of the shoreline. The shoreline with it's bowed look and all the debris as a huge foreground area is VERY distracting to the scene and offers virtually nothing; what doesn't add, detracts. To me the beauty of the image is to be found along the horizon with the nice colors and the boat profiles and their reflections in the "still" water (nice shutter speed). To simply check this cropping suggestion just scroll up to cut off the bottom of the image - to my eye it makes a HUGE difference in the quality of the image; the brain fills in the rest of the shoreline - you don't need to actually see it.
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Hatred corrodes the container it is carried in. http://rogerrex.zenfolio.com/
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SnowFella ![]() Senior Member ![]() Joined: 21 April 2013 Country: Australia Location: Sydney Status: Offline Posts: 2614 |
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Thanks.
I'm on LR 5.6, have looked into LR6 but can't really see a reason to upgrade since most of the new features are things I'd hardly ever use. Good thought about doing a test print first! Never use this place for printing before so it would likely be worth it doing a first print at a smaller size to sus out if I need to go do any adjustments before pulling the trigger on a larger print. I'd likely head in and get it ordered in person rather than do it online, that way I can ask the staff. Downside is that it's a regular electronics/furniture chain that also do prints so chances are small prints are handled on site while large is sent offsite, who knows if the offsite printer is calibrated the same to the onsite one? As for crop, thought have crossed my mind but I'm kinda partial to the dark tree on the left contrasted by the lights in the marina on the right. 10 minutes later there were even more lights on but by then the horizon lights were gone. Did use a grad when shoothing but was more concerned with keeping the highlights in the sky in check and didn't even think about the lights at the marina. Probably should of been smarter and started my panorama from the right to get the exposure right in what in the end had the brightest lights rather than start from the dark left side. Lessons learned for next time I guess. Done a tiny little bit more today, have to say working on the file has my poor old laptop on it's knees just beggin for a coup de grace! *Tried taming the highlights on the right hand side using a radial filter *Slight crop from the left and straightening *Darkened the patch of grass to the left to match the grass on the right *Cloned out some distractions in the water *Slight noise reduction and sharpening *Minor adjustments to exposure and saturation ![]() |
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waldo_posth ![]() Alpha Eyes group ![]() Joined: 01 August 2012 Country: Germany Location: Potsdam Status: Offline Posts: 6379 |
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Just a technical remark - how to come to grips with the very bright lights on the right: I would use the "user defined gradual density" filter from NIK COLOR EFX. And I would just tone down the lights with it (with a bluish grey), i.e. using it only for a snippet of the image at the right (there are lots of ways to customize this effect in NIK, i am not sure whether LR provides the same customization options). To see what I mean look at this image: The upper three lights dominate the whole scene in the original file; the grad filter makes them bearable.
It is not a bad idea to use - real - grad filters (like the Cokin #120-133) when taking photographs in the night, particularly for those parts in the image that might suffer from to strong artifical lighting. Usually I am favoring HDR techniques over other ways of tweaking an image file. And your HDR process does a good job. But the results are too bright. I would think that reducing brightness by 1-2 EV will make the image more natural looking. All the best! |
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"Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long." (Walker Evans) http://www.flickr.com/photos/waldo_posth/
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mikey2000 ![]() Moderator Group ![]() OoU coördinator Joined: 10 January 2008 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Posts: 11659 |
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I think I like the latest HDR version the most. One thing I've noticed is that prints often come out darker than I expect. I brighten pics accordingly now before sending the files off. Have you tried a test print with your supplier?
few other thoughts.... I feel the horizon is a bit tilted - maybe rotate anticlockwise a little. I can't make my mind up about the bright lights at the right. Have you tried cropping? I think maybe to crop the same amount from each edge to keep that boat still in the centre. You would also lose the tall tree at the left. Also, the skies at both the left and right edges aren't massively interesting so maybe an edge crop might further focus attention on the dramatic parts of the sky. |
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Octupi ![]() Emeritus group ![]() Knowledge Base Contributor Joined: 28 August 2007 Country: United States Location: United States Status: Offline Posts: 5601 |
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LR CC has a Pano stitch option that works quite well. What version are you using?
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SnowFella ![]() Senior Member ![]() Joined: 21 April 2013 Country: Australia Location: Sydney Status: Offline Posts: 2614 |
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Yup, LR has plenty of horsepower though I'm not 100% confident it would deal with stitching errors as well as PS would.
I'm looking at a fair few sections of sky looking like this that would need to be sorted. ![]() With PS I'd just import the originals as separate layers, align them to the stitched layer and use layermask's to blend over the errors. In LR the only way I know of doing something like that would be with the spot removal brush and that's hit and miss when it comes to large bits like this. Funny thing is that every time I run the original's through MS ICE I get a slightly different result, both in size and stitching errors. Here's the same section from the "original" stitch, above is from the +-2EV HDR Stitch ![]() Edit: just finished running a +-1EV HDR stitch and think I might just have something to start working from. ![]() Edited by SnowFella - 01 June 2015 at 09:42 |
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Octupi ![]() Emeritus group ![]() Knowledge Base Contributor Joined: 28 August 2007 Country: United States Location: United States Status: Offline Posts: 5601 |
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You can do a ton in LR...keep playing and learning and you'll be amazed.
Could be a fun experiment w/ your original to do a Before/After using LR only if you provide the file. Make it a requirement that ppl document their process or at least show the history of the edits. |
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TheEmrys ![]() Senior Member ![]() Joined: 18 August 2012 Country: United States Location: Northern CO Status: Offline Posts: 2103 |
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LR is awfully powerful. I would give it a shot and see what you can do. The grad nd changed how I approach landscape PP.
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a7II, a6000 - Sony 28/2, 21mm converter, 55/1.8, 16-70/4, Minolta 28-135, 100/2, 80-200 HS G, Minolta 100-300 APO D,MD 35-70/3.5, MC 50/1.4
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SnowFella ![]() Senior Member ![]() Joined: 21 April 2013 Country: Australia Location: Sydney Status: Offline Posts: 2614 |
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Thanks for the input!
I have to agree on the blown lights in the marina/cabin and would have to work it over some more, likely make some more HDR tests along the way too to see if I can tame the highlights. Still haven't played around with the grad or radial filters in LR, above 3 are mostly 100% as they came out of the camera/photomatix and would indeed need some massage back in LR or PS, going to have to take the result into PS to paint out the stitching errors so might aswell do the bulk of the post work there. Downside is that my only rig with PS is dead at the moment so I'll have to get that fixed first before I can finalize the shot. |
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