So…I’m looking at this photo on the dark gray background on NPN, and it appears a little bright to me, which makes sense for the dark gray background. And, the “texture” slider I used to sharpen up contrast on flowers looks “crispy” on NPN…but not on Facebook or our Squarespace website. Also, the apparent brightness of the image is different on computers vs iPhones. With a different look on each medium…how in the world do you guys & gals find a “happy medium?”
All comments valued!
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Sony A7R4, Metabones Smart Adaptor, Canon 24-70mm F2.8 lens, 0.5 sec at f/22, 24mm, ISO 100.
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Hi @Doug_Blunt, a good shot in my opinion. I love the foreground, it’s gorgeous. Diagonal lines work well in the composition. Regarding post process, it’s ok in my opinion, i would add some vignette on the top left in the sky. Thanks for sharing.
That old axiom that if you try to please everyone you’ll please no one, seems to work for photos sites too. If I really care how an image will show, I process (or tweak what I’ve already processed) for a specific site. Working on a calibrated monitor helps immensely, but it doesn’t solve everything.
With that said, I think this looks darn good Doug. At full size, the sharpness looks about right on my monitor. I could see the image darker, but think it’s a small thing; it looks great as is.
Doug, I like this image as presented. Good composition, good fog, and nice natural color in the flowers and landscape, it all works well. The image has a nice mood to it.
The flowers and their texture do not look to crispy to me on NPN. In fact, I pulled up the large version here and the same image on your website and did not see any noticeable difference in sharpness between the two, the flowers looked fine in both places. Regarding your concern about the color of the viewing background, when I pulled up this image on your website I also noticed that the smaller thumbnail was on a white background, but clicking to the larger version showed it against a black background, so there’s even another twist to this viewing issue.
I agree with @John_Williams that if you try to please everyone you’ll please no one. You have no control over what device people view your images on, so there’s not much you can do about that. If you are here at NPN looking for input on your images, it’s relatively safe to assume that both you and many of the participants here are viewing it on a calibrated monitor (and on the same color background). That usually provides a reasonable consensus on whether an image is significantly too dark or bright. Personally I think the luminosity of this image is perfectly fine, with nice details in the flowers and foreground. Like @masdamb I could perhaps see adding some slight vignetting in the upper corners, but that is a matter of personal taste, I suspect that many people here will be fine with the sky as presented.
My own personal approach is to process images using a dark gray background in both Lightroom and Photoshop. I value the comments I receive here at NPN, so I want some consistency between how I view the image while processing and how it will be viewed here. If the image passes muster at NPN, in my opinion that’s more than good enough for other people viewing it on other platforms.
Doug, The image looks great to me as well. I like the sharpness and clarity of the foreground flowers as they contrast with the foggy sky. The diagonal is also an excellent compositional element. About how images look in different media, I edit my images on a white background. I learned this from Charlie Cramer. The white background is most like they would look when printed on paper or matted in a frame. My practice is to calibrate my monitor and leave it at that.
Larry, I use a variation on this approach. I process in LR & PS using a dark gray background for images that are primarily intended for web display, because I generally post images either here or on my website, both of which have gray background. When I go to print an image, I make a virtual copy in LR, and change the background color to white, knowing that will help me tweak the image better for printing. The white background usually makes images look darker, so you brighten them for print to help avoid the “prints too dark” problem.
Such interesting thoughts about the color of backgrounds to edit with. My primary posting sites have white backgrounds until you click on on them. Also, our Squarespace format has a white background, so it makes sense to edit a against a white background. Thanks for helping me think it thru.
This works perfectly well. The comp and development are perfect, IMO. How long did it take you to come up with that title? Sounds like a heavyweight boxing match, but certainly fits the image.
Good grief Doug, you’ve got a couple of absolute crackers on here!
I love the layers in this image but what I love more is the image seems to fade in colour as you follow the image through to it fading into nothingness in the background.
Tony…coming up with titles is even harder than editing, IMHO I’m not that good at it, but I got inspired by Lisa Langell as she has some really clever titles, that stick with you. I’ll keep working on it.
One of those shots that enables you to feel the time and the place so well. Beautifully composed with a great fg display of flowers - really excellent image, Doug.
I feel there is too much space devoted to the sky but a crop of the sky seems to make it worse. Otherwise the layered comp works well and the orange vs blue color palette also works well.
I’m not that good at it, but I got inspired by Lisa Langell as she has some really clever titles, that stick with you. I’ll keep working on it.