The Lonely Hut

[swood]

Hi everyone,

Well having been a regular reader of the DPS RSS feeds, I've decided to get more active in the forums now as well, so this is my first ever post (loud cheering and whistling in the background).

I've only been playing with my Nikon D5000 for a year now, so I'm pretty new and trying to learn heaps. One of the things I battled with was the post processing side, but I *think* I'm starting to get the idea now...I would really appreciate it if anyone can critique my post processing.

Before


After


I took this photo at Waddington on the Canterbury Plains in Christchurch. Settings, 1/80 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200, 24mm. I'm not too worried about the composition, I would have preferred a smaller aperture, but I'd left my tripod at home, and while I could have bumped up the ISO, I was trying to really get the hut in as much detail as I could.

Using Lightroom 3, I dropped the exposure, increased recovery, fill light, and blacks. Bumped up the brightness and contract. Next came the clarity, vibrance and saturation.

I like the colours and textures I managed to get out, but I'm not too sure if I've overcooked it.

Thanks in advance for taking to time to view and provide feedback.
Steve

[Quo Fan]

Looks a little overcooked to me, but some people like that look.

[FireDawg]

I like how you brough back alot of detail but it does appear to be a bit over cooked. The color in the trees and sky seem to be too saturated. Of course, every monitor is different so I may be seeing something totally different than you are.

[swood]

Thanks guys for the feedback...you reinforced what I was thinking, I did overcook it...in a strange way I like it, but is does look too unreal. I'll work on it a little more.

[TNH]

Great edit! Nice work.

[NathanFranke]

It looks like the omnipresent HDR, to me. Which is not necessarily a bad thing--HDR is just overdone lately. I'd like to see a second version with less saturation/vibrance.

[swood]

Originally Posted by NathanFranke

It looks like the omnipresent HDR, to me. Which is not necessarily a bad thing--HDR is just overdone lately. I'd like to see a second version with less saturation/vibrance.

Nope, I tried HDR once before, didn't get the results I wanted, haven't played with it since...
I've reduced the saturation in the sky, but kept the trees and hut, and I don't think this version is too bad...
Lonely Hut - Final | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Thanks to everyone again for sharing your thoughts...

[silverbirch]

I prefer the flickr version too :-) Nice shot too.