orignial raw image

Raj’s xdrive photography lesson lesson for November explored 10 edits that photographers should know about prior to publishing images.   My initial submission was of a family walking on a bike path during the golden hour.

Taking a few minutes to review this image in response to Raj’s feedback, I found that it is a bit of a challenge for me to notice the tilting due to 1) the curvature of the pathway as it moves my eyes to the background and 2) the presence of the trees hinders a clear view of the horizon.

In the markup below, my initial horizontal adjustment was the rooftop of the building in the background.  Raj noted in his feedback, “we can’t rely on anything man-made as it all depends on the orientation of these things.”   The areas I have circled were noted as over and underexposed by Capture One’s high exposure warning.

adjusted image

Raj noted that the image stilled seemed a bit tilted in the image above.  He also noted that the edited image is “kind of overexposed” and recommended that I “carefully check woman’s jacket, it looks kind of overexposed.”  Also my editing seemed need a bit more saturation.

The image below was cropped with Raj’s recommendation in mind and I find it to be more focused upon the family dynamics.   It also brings attention to Raj’s observation regarding the closeness of mother and daughter in comparison to the actions of the two boys.   I also did not attempt to lighten the shadow element of the boys as I wanted the image to be about the family.

While the image below seems to address the overexposure Raj noted in the above image, I’m still struggling with this as the histogram (within both Capture One and Photoshop) as well as the Capture One exposure warning does not indicate an overexposure.  So do I rely too much on technological guidelines over my vision?

It took me several tries to address the titling…sigh…

In regards to saturation, could the specifications of computer design as well as color calibration variances result in visual differences between what I see–or think I see–on my computer and what other bloggers see?  If so, is there a way to address this?   Also, I found that I needed to be very careful in regards to saturation as the image tended towards having a yellowish sheen.

All in all I the second edit does seem to be better.

monochrome images

When I compare the above initial monochrome image with the one below, I’m able to more easily see areas that may be a bit overexposed.  The woman’s jacket has a burned appearance.  The detail in the woman’s jacket below offers a bit of resolution to my question above regarding overexposure…it’s about the detail in the woman’s jacket and the girl’s top.

Since the young boy looking towards the camera suggests a message of interaction, I find that I prefer the lightening in the above image when compared to the one below.

Again, I wish to express my gratitude to Raj and to all those wonderful bloggers who stop by and visit.