Instead of going for a ride I took the dogs for a walk with my dad and took some photos in between thunderstorms. A couple of them turned out half decent so I thought I'd share them here (and I am prepared for the mass criticism that will probably come!)

Step away from photoshop….

matt_outandabout – Member
Step away from photoshop….

Too much time on my hands 😛

although the bottom one is un-photoshopped bar the border thing

I like them, especially the life belt one.

Nice sky.
Horizon needs levelling in all of them though, the water is all flowing out the right of the picture. 😉

isn't that what rivers do? 😉

isn't that what rivers do?

My Mum has just come back from a holiday in New York, all her pics taken from the cruise on the Hudson show the river going off at all kinds of weird angles! I had to straighten them all out for her. 😉

I really like the top one with the boat. Stormy skies are ace.

Yeah, I'll remember to straighten them next time 😛

Its nice that something good comes from bad weather, middle of another thunderstorm but I can't take pictures cus I don't want to get my camera wet 😛

The second one needs a bit more contrast, but the clouds are interesting. There's a wall cloud there that could easily drop a funnel cloud if it had been in the Mid-West, I wouldn't have been at all surprised to see a small spike dropping out of that. I quite like the mono pic with a single colour highlight, but it has been overdone in the camera mags. No reason not to do it for yourself, though.

I've just had a very quick play with the second one on my phone, so it's a bit shonky, to say the least, but it's got a bit more contrast. It's something I'd do with Curves, just a slight s-curve to get a bit more definition in the clouds and the water.
[edit] Stet that. Flikr have been **** around with their site and made a simple process on my phone into something unusable. Bugger.[edit/]

rather than making most of the photo black and white and keeping the subject in full saturation, try desaturating the photo about 40-60% and have the subject (boat/lifebelt) in nearly full colour saturation. This is a more subtle effect than the full on 'colour popping' effect and can look a lot more natural whilst emphasising the subject.

OK stupid question – how do desaturate different parts of the photo by different amounts on photoshop? (my photoshop skills are still somewhat limited!)

I've had another play with the second one, any better? or have I made it worse?

You'll need to use a layer mask. Apply a layer mask to the whole image and then desaturate the layer mask by about 60%. Then erase the section of the layer mask over the boat or lifebelt.

Have a look at the tutorial videos on photoanswers.co.uk

They cover the basic editing methods quite nicely

I rather like the first shot, despite the colour 'popping' not being to my taste.

how do desaturate different parts of the photo by different amounts on photoshop?

*cough* lightroom *cough*
Try the 30 day free trial. You can actually 'paint on' different degrees of saturation/desaturation/just about any characteristic.
I can't recommend it highly enough, in fact, for this sort of photographic work.
I'd second the comment about squeezing a bit more contrast out of the sky, but again that's a 30 second job in Lightroom with a custom gradient, which you could slso use to desaturate…
Oh, just give it a go. I *promise* you'll love it and, if you don't, I'll send you some VW sausages in the post.

john_drummer – Member
isn't that what rivers do?

Looks like a lake to me… Where is it anyway?

Looks like a lake to me… Where is it anyway?

It's pitsford reservoir

And thanks for the advice 🙂

bugger

nice pics anyway 🙂

Ok, here's my opinion: It seems a little odd that in two of the pictures have the subject pointed out with all the subtlety of a Las Vegas neon sign being shoved in the viewer's face to the exclusion of all else… and then the other two just have the background that took such a back seat in the first two, with no subject at all.

And have you considered placing the subject just a little away from the corner? (If I was being cruel I'd ask whether in two of the shots you accidentally placed it the wrong side of the corner altogether 😉

I would have liked to have not had the subject in the corner but the people in the boat were moving and I didn't have much choice as to where they were, and there was a rather ugly rusty iron pole just out of shot on the the other one which I was keen to avoid 😛

Is it such a bad thing that I saw something colourful against a background which was pretty dull even without being black and white and took a picture. But on its own I thought the storm clouds and water etc were still picture worthy? (that was my thinking when I took the photos, but I'm no expert in photography, 'tis good to hear some constructive criticism)

Of course it's not such a bad thing. If you like them then that's great, who am I to say ypu should't? But if all you're bothered about is whether you like them then why show them to the public at large? 🙂

Still, back to my point. You say that the background is "pretty dull" and yet at the same time "still picture worthy"… This implies that the entire content of two of the images is "pretty dull", no? 🙂

I showed you lot so I could find out how to improve (just because I like them doesn't mean they're any good 😉 ) and I have – I knew STW wouldn't let me down 😛

They're not the most exciting of pictures, but the bottom one at least has a bit of colour in it (grey cloud above water makes for a very grey picture even before photoshop 😛 )