The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Uh oh, what are these radiating lines around the sun in the foggy sky? Haven’t run into this before. But I’m expecting there is nothing I can do to edit them out. No matter how lightly I process the sky, they remain. Interestingly, the lines did not show on my monitor while processing in Lightroom Classic, only after I exported as jpeg. Fuji XT-3, Fuji XF14mm f2.8 R, ISO 200, f/8.0, shutter 1/180 .
The surrounding sky is not blown.
Hi Meredith - what a lovely scene! Nothing quite like fog; a photographer’s best friend. The banding is probably a result of image compression - a combination of creating the jpg in the first place and what the website does. So I’ll ignore those since they aren’t present in your RAW file. Overall I like your processing and the way you’ve managed the luminosity range by not making things too contrasty which wouldn’t feel right for a scene this light and airy.
I think this is a good start, but there’s room for improvement. Since you posted this in flora, I assume you wanted this photo to be all about the flowers. Unfortunately I don’t feel connected or immersed in them. Getting lower and closer would probably have done that more effectively.
Also there is an awful lot of empty sky here that isn’t necessary - it’s the brightest part of the photo so our eyes are naturally attracted to it. Going with more of a panorama-type crop can put our eyes back down in the flowers.
I would also remove the large group of trees on the far right. They have a heavy visual weight that makes the photo unbalanced and at odds with the light dewy-ness of the meadow.
Last would be some cloning of the long grasses and sticks poking up into the background. Also some edge patrol to remove bright objects going out of frame will help us stay in the middle where you want us. I LOVE the spider webs, so don’t clone those!! What a soothing, fresh landscape.
Kris may very well be correct with her suggestion of the jpeg compression but it may be the Fuji XT-3 file format, I can’t offer any specific knowledge on the subject but another member here mentioned that he was having a similar issue, it turned out to be with the Fuji XT-3’s version of RAW files, it had something to do with the way it converts to jpeg as I recall, seems there was some setting that needed to be set before exporting but take this with a grain of salt, I’m only passing on what little I know (and that is very little). I don’t remember which member it is, otherwise I’d look him up for you!
A quick Google search might yield some results for you, or someone else that knows more about it may chime in.
This truly is a wonderful image with lots of appeal and interest! It just needs fine tuning.
I love how the light dances across the wildflowers in the FG! The colors are gorgeous and the fog really works well at setting the mood!
I feel that a crop would help, maybe a 16:9 ratio? Which involves a slight crop off the bottom, I can tell you’re already down about as low as you can get with your 14mm lens but that very bottom FG area opens it up creating the illusion that you’re higher up, so, a bottom crop would emphasize being low IMHO.
A crop of part of the sky seems appropriate as well just to put more emphasis on that field of wonderful flowers.
The tall grass is a little distracting but I’m on the fence about whether or not to keep them or clone them.
If you decide to clone the tall grass and need advice on how to do that without leaving a trace, let us know and we’ll be happy to assist.
I wish I could help more with the banding lines around the sun!
Here’s a quick example of what I think a 16:9 crop could look like if you’re up for such an idea.
Wonderfully gorgeous scene and well captured! It’s not an easy image to make, lots of challenges but you did very well!!
Meredith,
I’ve been doing some research but I couldn’t find anything on banding with RAF files in Lr.
Most of what they’re saying concerns sharpening artifacts and noise reduction artifacts with the RAF files (Fuji’s version of RAW files), that’s not the issue here though.
While looking closer at your posted image, I noticed that this image is 3918x3028 pixels but it’s only 326 KB, that is a really small file size for such a large pixel width.
Could you check to see what the original file size is (the exported and saved image that you uploaded) please?
If your image file size is quite a bit larger than 326 KB, that would mean that NPN’s software downsized it and if that’s the case, I suspect that the 3918 pixel width might be the reason.
Could you try resizing it to 2500 pixels wide and re-upload it? (as long as the file size is less than 3 MB).
I have a feeling that the file size and possible resizing by NPN’s software is the issue.
Personally, I would try for about 2500 pixels wide and a file size of roughly 1.5 MB.
Also, you could check the export settings in Lr, too, make sure the output file size isn’t being limited to something really small. Just a thought.
Let us know what you’re able to figure out based on the information I just provided, please.
You’re brilliant! I had exported this image to jpeg with a small KB limit (Lightroom offers only a KB size). Why? because I had changed the default export screen for a different project and forgot to revise it back this time. After reviewing your comments, I tried the exports again. I first exported with 100% quality (which over rode any kb/mb limit) and that jpeg ended up at 6.51 MB. Then I exported again and set a limit of the file size to 2.0 MB. That ended up at 1.93 MB and the radiating lines disappeared.
Now I will finish my editing and will post a revised version. That will take me a couple of days. I wanted to first get this verbal update to you quickly. Many thanks!
