How to improve this pic?

[getg3]

Hi All,

I need your help, can this pic be improved. Please share your tricks so everybody can learn from you. Thanks!

[frate]

OK, here it is. 1st, I globally adjusted the levels in the shadows upward to give a little more detail; increased the contrast with the levels to loose the washout the first step created; then brought up the saturation a bit. Then I isolated two different parts of the image, one from the top to about 1/2 into the building spires on the left. I created a gradient mask with full effect at the top until about 1/2 of the upper image segment and gradient to null effect by the bottom of the same segment. Using this mask, I selected the upper blue range and saturated and darkened to enhance the sky. It brought out some of the clouds nicely, but also managed to show off the banding in the sky. This is probably due to the double jpeg sampling in reducing the original for posting here. It may not happen in such a visible way in the original.

[Fireguy274]

This is just a suggestion and I dont know how to do it. What if you blurred the foreground where the cars are to make the DOF out where the bridge is?

[JimL]

To adjust this photo I:
1. Cropped the cars out trying for the base of the distant light pole.
2. Promoted picture to a layer and duplicated this layer one time.
3. Copied the new layer and pasted as a new image.
4. On the new image I used the curves adjustment and darkened the picture until the clouds looked ok.
5. Copied that picture and pasted back to first two layer picture.
6. Made a mask from luminence values of the picture I darkened and attached it to the third layer of the photo (making a group)
7. Merged the mask layer group.
This leaves me starting from the bottom layer:
a. The original photo cropped
b. A copy of the first layer
c. The merged mask layer on top...A total of three layers
8. Changed the blend mode of the second layer to overlay
9. Changed the layer blend mode of the top layer to multiply.
10. Used a levels adjustment layer to bring up the dark (left hand side) of the bridge.
11. Merged all and saved.
Done in PSP8.1 but easily done in PS also.
JimL

[Ralph Newman]

My simple answer here is really what is it you are trying to feature? It the cars? is it the city scape or what. To me you have about 3 main focal points here and it is a simple matter, to me anyway, of deciding what it is you you are trying to feature.If it is the cars then I would mke the focal point on them and use a narrow DOF to blurr the back ground and if the city scape I would blurr the forgroud or even elimianate it altogether. I think you need to decide before shooting what it is you want to show off then set up the shot accordingly.

[ap.]

How about this version? :thumb:

[pilgrim]

How about this version? :thumb:


hahahaha, aww man thats awsome :up:

[Carlton]

Heres my take....

1. cropped
2. saturated
3. lightpole removed
4. add clouds
5. filter=crosshatch

Thanks for the challenge!

[JimL]

How about this version?

I think he's looking at the guy on the bridge and thinking "Taste like chicken?"
Good one.
JimL

[digitalgal]

wonderfull ideas
I don't have photo shop, but i know my software has a layer thing. Have read a lot of post about layers.
Never tryed it. guess i will have to . Thanks

ap


How about this version?

That is interensting!!!!!! lol

carlton, i like what you did I had to double check to see if it was the same pic.

[getg3]

Hi All,
Thank you for all your input! Very creative! :-)
Frate, I like it, you made it better without cropping.
JimL, I did almost what you did by cropping out the cars, but I don’t really like the ratio of the image size, for me, I prefer the 4x3, so it can fill the whole monitor screen when set as wallpaper or screensaver.
Fireguy274, I like to do that but don’t know how to blur the foreground.
Ralph, thanks for the suggestion. I did make another shot from the river bank, but I also like this shot, I used the cars as foreground to frame the picture, also by including the cars I tried to show viewers that this is a scene in Europe (European cars), if you noticed the cars’ license plates, you can see Swiss flag and the letters BS for Basel. It was sunny and sun was too bright, I know I could get a better result if I shoot it in the morning, but I don’t live there. :-(
Andy, wow, fantastic! I hope nobody in this forum is from Basel, Switzerland. I don’t think they like having a monster in their city. :mrgreen:
Carlton, I like your cropped version, simple and clear.

This is fun and good for us to learn from others. Please dig out some of your “almost deleted” images from your photo file folders and let others help you out.
Shouchen, this is a suggestion, besides the popular bi-weekly challenge, maybe a “Photo Clinic” (to save some “so-so” pictures being deleted) challenge can be added, this is not a competition, but a very good place where we learn from each other.

[mgbeach]

It's been a while everyone. Thought I'd jump back in by messing with someone else's stuff. I just selected the foreground with the polygonal lasso tool in PS7 with a feather of 10 pixels, brought up the shadow detail some in curves, inversed the selection and toned down the highlights with curves. Voila. I agree with Ralph though, in that the subject matter might have been better determined when the shutter was clicked.

[JimL]

Hi All,

JimL, I did almost what you did by cropping out the cars, but I don’t really like the ratio of the image size, for me, I prefer the 4x3, so it can fill the whole monitor screen when set as wallpaper or screensaver.

I seldom use wallpaper that covers the whole screen. I find that when I do that some of my icons are hard to see. I just fill the center of the screen and let my "wallpaper" become a divider for different types of programs so I have four different groupings along the sides of the picture.

JimL

[mickegan]

How to fix ?

Hate to be a bit old fashioned, but why not ask how the image could have been taken better to start with?

[Stuart Elflett]

Hi Mick,

A good question - but it is one that dates itself a little towards film - it is a question that does apply with film too, isn't it... after all, while we can discuss how a shot can be taken better, with many images once they're shot, for better or worse, that's the opportunity gone - hence, what can be done to improve the image is just as viable a question as what did I do wrong, or, how can I do this better next time...

Cheers,
Stuart

[HarleyCowgirl]

Here's my attempt using Photo Explosion Deluxe.Started off by cropping out the cars,adjusted overall lighting and focus,added a few clouds,recolored top left tree and further lightened from the top of the bridge downwards. :-D