One or Two?

[lunathea]

Hey all! Took these the other day and can't decide which one I prefer. One bugs me a bit because a butterfly flew in between shots and apparently ran into one of the flowers so it's a tad bit blurry, but I like the colors. Two is nice and sharp (imo) but not quite as vibrant, at least on my screen. So which do you prefer? Thanks ahead of time!

[Tito87]

I take number 2.

[IABoomer]

Looking at both in full size, they both look to be a bit over-sharpened, IMO. I think you could tone down the sharpening and add a little color noise reduction to smooth out the sky without losing much detail in the foreground.

Having said that, I like the richer blues and greens of the first one.

[lunathea]

Originally Posted by IABoomer

Looking at both in full size, they both look to be a bit over-sharpened, IMO. I think you could tone down the sharpening and add a little color noise reduction to smooth out the sky without losing much detail in the foreground.

Having said that, I like the richer blues and greens of the first one.

How would I go about that part using Gimp? And ty for the feedback guys!

[kcoppock]

My recommendation would be 2 (and also less sharpening, as suggested). Try pulling in the black point of the red channel; that should get your colors back to normal.

[IABoomer]

Originally Posted by lunathea

How would I go about that part using Gimp? And ty for the feedback guys!

I'd say duplicate the image to another layer and play with the Filters -> Enhance -> Despeckle. You might have to tweak things a few times to smooth out the sky the way you'd like it. From there, you could use a layer mask to keep the sky without distorting the foreground.

[lunathea]

Would you say this is heading a bit more in the right direction? There's still some distortion that I need to work out in the leaves. I think I was so afraid of it looking underexposed and the flowers in front not popping at all that I just overdid it entirely initially. I think I'm going to shut this one out of my brain for the weekend and come back to it in a few days. I like this shot but it's giving me a headache lol. Once again thank you for all the help and making me aware of the tools I should be using.