Old sugar cane station

[Autumn]

It's a long time since I uploaded anything new. I feel I have lost my way with post processing.

I really would appreciate a critique on this pic. I did make it brighter and then subdued it slightly merely because I thought it was more suitable.

I don't know what those glass things are and don't really know how to deal with them.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Pops]

Re: Old sugar cane station

The one at the top is certainly a reflection of a door or window.
Taking a couple of steps to the right would I feel have aided the composition and given a more broadside view of the main subject. It would also have removed what appears to be a cage down the left side of the frame.
Maybe Stephen can work some magic and bring out some of the lost detail in the shadows.
It looks a great place to wonder around with a camera. I trust you took lots more.

[Ian]

Re: Old sugar cane station

The one at the top is certainly a reflection of a door or window.
Taking a couple of steps to the right would I feel have aided the composition and given a more broadside view of the main subject. It would also have removed what appears to be a cage down the left side of the frame.
Maybe Stephen can work some magic and bring out some of the lost detail in the shadows.
It looks a great place to wonder around with a camera. I trust you took lots more.

Pops - PM for you

Ian

[lumix]

Re: Old sugar cane station

What I have done here is a bit drastic. I decided that retouching the image was a little too difficult so took the easy option and excluded the main problems. Probably not what you really wanted but something along these lines may be a help.

[Pops]

Re: Old sugar cane station

Pops - PM for you

Ian

Thanks...received and replied to:

[spl]

Re: Old sugar cane station

I think Lumix did a good job of it.

You don't say what editing programme you have at your disposal or if you took the photo in RAW or JPEG.

I am thinking you might want to bring out more of the detail in the shadowed or blacker areas. Its easier to do this if you took the original in RAW. If you did go back to the original RAW file and produce from it one JPEG with normal lighting and one JPEG which is overexposed about 50 points higher. Then create a feathered clipping path for the black bits and copy and paste them onto the normal exposure from the overexposed JPEG. After that you can adjust with levels etc as per normal. (There are other methods of doing this as well)

The reason its better to work with drak bits from a RAW file is because RAW are 16 or 12 bit as opposed to the 8 bit of JPEGs thus offering more colour variations in the pixels of these areas which in all digital photos have the smallest range of shade variability within equivalent ranges elsewhere on the tonal spectrum.

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Old sugar cane station

Audrey...I edited with Paintshop 9. Mainly dodge & burn...blur or sharpen in places, plus use the one step photo fix! Maybe a bit too much...but brightens up the engines!

[Autumn]

Re: Old sugar cane station

Thanks to all of you for your different interpretations.

Ron as you say it excludes many of the problems but as I quite like the engine on the left, I have since cropped it as a letter box and now I see Jocelyn has done the same.

Sue I use Photoshop but have never made a clipping path (to my knowledge) - that is something else I must learn.

I have had several more goes as trying to get out more detail and to some degree it is successful, but the more I look at it I wonder if I am trying to "Make a silk purse out of a sow's ear! It was shot in JPEG and I am not sure if the quality is there to start with.

Anyway I will have a think about it, as to whether I spend any more time on it. Thanks all for your contribution.