|
Post by ritage on Oct 11, 2015 17:05:57 GMT
Rita..... I hope you didn't think I thought your first submission was unacceptable......you can certainly use just part of an image for this challenge. Helen, I thought no such thing, if my answer gave that impression, I am sorry. Just wanted to see what else I could do without a lot of alteration. Painterly filters always cover a lot of sins, but looking at it again I think I should have added some sort of texture to the grey road. It looks pretty bland. Rita
|
|
|
Post by hmca on Oct 11, 2015 17:27:49 GMT
WHEW!
|
|
|
Post by ritage on Oct 11, 2015 17:34:08 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Sepiana on Oct 11, 2015 18:28:02 GMT
Sepiana, I have Simplify but don't think I've used the cartoon filter.....works well with your composition and i like the scarecrow and the frame....FUN! Sepiana, a fun composition and looks like you had fun making it! Helen and Rita, thanks for the comments! Yes, it was lots of fun.
|
|
|
Post by Lillias on Oct 14, 2015 9:03:35 GMT
I'm a bit late with this one but it took me a while to decide how best to tackle it... Used a couple of images from Pixabay.
|
|
|
Post by cats4jan on Oct 14, 2015 15:23:42 GMT
BillieJean - that is quite cool.
|
|
|
Post by Lillias on Oct 14, 2015 19:33:52 GMT
Thank you cats4jan. There are so many good entries and techniques used and I didn't know what to do for my effort and didn't realise time was passing…better late than never!
|
|
|
Post by hmca on Oct 15, 2015 1:38:35 GMT
Billie Jean.....love your edits...the person nicely fills that blank spot and now all of a sudden the picture has a subject!
|
|
|
Post by Tpgettys on Oct 17, 2015 4:10:13 GMT
Yes, I *really* like what you did with this image BillieJean! As you say Helen, there is now a subject; great observation!
I am wondering though, there is something about the look of the woman that says she was inserted. What is it that gives it away, and what could be done to address that?
I hope you don't mind my asking this Billie, as I really would like to understand what it is that makes it look that way to me, and how to lessen that effect.
One thought that just occurred to me is the difference in sharpness; would blurring her a bit be helpful??
|
|
Madame
Established Forum Member
Posts: 504
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
|
Post by Madame on Oct 17, 2015 13:41:28 GMT
Yes, I *really* like what you did with this image BillieJean! As you say Helen, there is now a subject; great observation! I am wondering though, there is something about the look of the woman that says she was inserted. What is it that gives it away, and what could be done to address that? I hope you don't mind my asking this Billie, as I really would like to understand what it is that makes it look that way to me, and how to lessen that effect. One thought that just occurred to me is the difference in sharpness; would blurring her a bit be helpful?? I hope BillieJean doesn't mind me answering. There are several things that are giveaways when you are composing. Light, sharpness/blurring, perspective, different textures, shadows and colors. Here there are a little bit of all. The one that is most striking to me is the perspective. If you look at the flowers to the left, they are to big compared to the person. A person that close to the camera would appear bigger. The light in the original picture seems to come from the right. and the person is lit from the left. The overall impression of the picture is that it has a painterly effect, and the lady is more natural. The head of the woman is nicely selected, but the hand and the sweater have a "halo", and that makes it look fake. BillieJean I love what you have done to the picture!! I know (and at least I do) that we are doing this for fun... so please bare with me, I just couldn't resist Tom's question.
|
|
|
Post by Lillias on Oct 17, 2015 14:17:19 GMT
I don't mind at all Tom (if I may call you Tom) this is how we learn. Your instincts are correct I inserted the woman having first cut her out from a photo with a totally black background. I was so intent on achieving a good cut out that perhaps I didn't pay enough attention to either the lighting or the sharpness. Probably didn't achieve a perfect cut out either as looking more closely now I can see some black edging remaining around the stem and leaves of the rose so that won't help. For this example I have put on a Gaussian Blur of 1.5pixels and applied a mask and attempted to mask out some of the black left around the rose. Not sure what to do about lighting. Please feel free to comment or if you want the file to work on yourself I will gladly send it to you if you tell me how.
|
|
|
Post by Lillias on Oct 17, 2015 14:32:51 GMT
Marianne I don't have a problem with your answering. It's all a learning curve for me. I'm just amazed that anyone is pleased enough with what I've done to even comment on it far less give me some pointers as to where I've gone wrong. It will do me good to look at my work through someone else's eyes. Now that you have mentioned it I can see that my flowers on the left are too big and I kind of knew that the lighting wasn't right but I wasn't sure how to correct that. Anyway feel free to throw your twopence worth in anytime…
|
|
|
Post by Tpgettys on Oct 17, 2015 17:57:25 GMT
There are several things that are giveaways when you are composing. Light, sharpness/blurring, perspective, different textures, shadows and colors. Wow, your thoughtful response really reveals to me how untrained my eye is still, Marianne! This little discussion has already helped me to be just a little bit more aware of how to "see" what I am looking at. More often than not, with these challenges I get to a certain point and then say, "OK, you get the idea" and just post what I have instead of working it to death. When I saw this image, it was a common experience I have with mine, where I saw there was something that wasn't "right" but couldn't say what, let alone how to fix it. I'm glad we have the trust in this community to be able to ask such questions.
|
|
|
Post by ritage on Oct 17, 2015 18:31:36 GMT
BillieJean, Just my two cents, if I may The blur is a good improvement. Another way to do this is to feather the cutout, reducing the selection by 2 px and feathering by 1 px would probably be enough (it depends on the resolution), and this is something that will work with just about every cutout, while blurring will not always achieve the purpose. To equalize the lighting you would have to flip the head horizontally, which in this case would probably make for a less pleasing image. It's something I always check out before I actually start work on a composition. (see the fox in my first entry, I had to flip it) The difference in perspective does not bother me at all in this case, on the contrary, I see it as an artist's perception. Rita
|
|
|
Post by Lillias on Oct 17, 2015 20:05:32 GMT
I agree with Tom that's it's nice to have the trust in this community to be able to ask such questions. Had the question not been asked I would not have benefitted from the comments and suggestions from Marianne and Rita. You have both given me food for thought.
|
|