Daily Group Critiquing: A Farm in Amish Country

JimFilmer 901 posts

—-—-—
I’d like you guys to do a few things:
1. Tell me what you think of the photo.
2. Tell me what techniques you see used here (like rule of thirds, open aperture, fast shutter, etc)
3. Tell me what post-processing you think would be a good idea for this photo (if any).

Remember to play nice or your post will be deleted and your involvement in this group will be considered for termination.

(Its a good idea to click the images link and view it in full before critiquing!)

_

A Farm in Amish Country

by: sewcrafty

A farm outside of Flora, North Central Indiana.

As is; Nikon Coolpix 5700

2 months ago

Peter Lusby Ta... 213 posts

First this is an excellent subject.
The foreground is poor, the road barrier cuts straight across the image so straightaway I would clone it out…together with the pylon. Now you have a very decent image.
The main focus is centered vertically and lower than the thirds line in the horizontal this can easily be corrected by reducing the sky and cutting off a bit of the left hand side of the photograph. ie zoom in to the buildings.. Now you have a more than very decent image…
So on to camera settings: its got reasonably DOF, so a medium to small aperture was used, its not ultra sharp so is probably a handheld image I think which hasn’t had any post processing applied. There is a slight red cast to it which could be adjusted.
First I would check levels, then check contrast, its not a very contrasty shot because of the overcast sky so this could possibly be boosted a bit.
I then think I would enhance the sky drama by a copying the layer set on multiply and possibly100% opacity at the top reducing to zero at the horizon (by using an adjustment gradient layer) . or copying another sky..
here is a very rapid sketch of what I mean. based on a very small image copied on to my desktop and then reloaded and hidden from public view.
I do trust this helps..

2 months ago

sewcrafty 176 posts

Thank you for all the suggestions. I will work on them. I don’t do a lot of post-processing so manage to forget about them :) There was another fence right in front of me I was trying not to get in the picture, again forgetting I could clone it out, which I have actually done in the past! I usually do macro’s, so was trying to “think” landscape.

2 months ago

JimGuy 390 posts

I dont have a problem with the fence. The vertical powwer line posts and powerlines are a bit distracting, and there is too much of that boring gray sky. Try croping it to 2/3 aspect (4×6) ratio and that should get rid of some of the sky, and give it the same dimensions as a dslr or 35mm shot.
Another more drastic approach wouild be to shoot a different sky and replace the sky in the photo above using photoshop. It could be a tricky selection with the light comming through the tree at the right, but maybe touch that up with the clone tool after sky replacement.
Stack a sky image (layer) below the farm image, create a layer mask and paint away the old sky using a brush tool (set to black)

Also, I would try to move around and see what other angles are available, and try to position the buildings a bit more off center.

As is it might be a good real estate add photo,

2 months ago

sewcrafty 176 posts

Thank you for the comments! I probably won’t be in that area again for a very long time, but I do have a closer up angle I may put up later. I will work on editing this one however; I can see I have a lot of work to do, and I definitely need to learn a lot more!

2 months ago JimFilmer 901 posts	—-—-— I’d like you guys to do a few things: 1. Tell me what you think of the photo. 2. Tell me what techniques you see used here (like rule of thirds, open aperture, fast shutter, etc) 3. Tell me what post-processing you think would be a good idea for this photo (if any). Remember to play nice or your post will be deleted and your involvement in this group will be considered for termination. (Its a good idea to click the images link and view it in full before critiquing!) _ A Farm in Amish Country by: sewcrafty A farm outside of Flora, North Central Indiana. As is; Nikon Coolpix 5700
2 months ago Peter Lusby Ta... 213 posts	First this is an excellent subject. The foreground is poor, the road barrier cuts straight across the image so straightaway I would clone it out…together with the pylon. Now you have a very decent image. The main focus is centered vertically and lower than the thirds line in the horizontal this can easily be corrected by reducing the sky and cutting off a bit of the left hand side of the photograph. ie zoom in to the buildings.. Now you have a more than very decent image… So on to camera settings: its got reasonably DOF, so a medium to small aperture was used, its not ultra sharp so is probably a handheld image I think which hasn’t had any post processing applied. There is a slight red cast to it which could be adjusted. First I would check levels, then check contrast, its not a very contrasty shot because of the overcast sky so this could possibly be boosted a bit. I then think I would enhance the sky drama by a copying the layer set on multiply and possibly100% opacity at the top reducing to zero at the horizon (by using an adjustment gradient layer) . or copying another sky.. here is a very rapid sketch of what I mean. based on a very small image copied on to my desktop and then reloaded and hidden from public view. I do trust this helps..
2 months ago sewcrafty 176 posts	Thank you for all the suggestions. I will work on them. I don’t do a lot of post-processing so manage to forget about them :) There was another fence right in front of me I was trying not to get in the picture, again forgetting I could clone it out, which I have actually done in the past! I usually do macro’s, so was trying to “think” landscape.
2 months ago JimGuy 390 posts	I dont have a problem with the fence. The vertical powwer line posts and powerlines are a bit distracting, and there is too much of that boring gray sky. Try croping it to 2/3 aspect (4×6) ratio and that should get rid of some of the sky, and give it the same dimensions as a dslr or 35mm shot. Another more drastic approach wouild be to shoot a different sky and replace the sky in the photo above using photoshop. It could be a tricky selection with the light comming through the tree at the right, but maybe touch that up with the clone tool after sky replacement. Stack a sky image (layer) below the farm image, create a layer mask and paint away the old sky using a brush tool (set to black) Also, I would try to move around and see what other angles are available, and try to position the buildings a bit more off center. As is it might be a good real estate add photo,
2 months ago sewcrafty 176 posts	Thank you for the comments! I probably won’t be in that area again for a very long time, but I do have a closer up angle I may put up later. I will work on editing this one however; I can see I have a lot of work to do, and I definitely need to learn a lot more!

Photography 101

Daily Group Critiquing: A Farm in Amish Country