What does that mean?!

[ajax_andy]

This is another pic I took during my shoot for a keen motorbiker, I tried to add some humour in to the pic and also shot it in HDR (5 exposures) to bring out the detail in the road etc.

However it was a really dull and drab day, and the sky was completely grey and boring, so I added a gradient to just the sky portion... it looks fine in both High and Low Res on my pc, but I uploaded it to Flickr and now it looks a bit rubbish with clear wavy lines running right across it. How could I have avoided this? And is using a gradient on the sky a bad idea?

Also what do you think of the concept, does it work?






Exif data:
Camera Canon EOS 450D
Exposure 0.077 sec (1/13)
Aperture f/9.0
Focal Length 18 mm
ISO Speed 200
White Balance Auto
Lens EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

[zona5101]

the wavy sky is an artifact of the compression.

Its a neat concept, i get it. I wonder if seeing the letters right side up would be more effective ,,,or placing a turtle in the left lane

[ajax_andy]

Originally Posted by zona5101

the wavy sky is an artifact of the compression.

Its a neat concept, i get it. I wonder if seeing the letters right side up would be more effective ,,,or placing a turtle in the left lane

Hi, Thanks for the comments. So how could I avoid the wavy sky in future? Or like you say is it just the file compression and nothing could prevent this?

I hadn't actually considered it could be the file compression, thought i'd probs messed something up in photoshop

I did the shot with the words facing the camera, and facing the bikers... I used this one as I didn't want anyone to think they were confussed as they couldn't read upside down. I'm sure no-one would but I wanted it to make as much sense as possible to the viewer.

[High_Speed]

I have no advice on the compression issue, but I love the concept of the photo itself! This is print ad material, in my opinion.

[ajax_andy]

Originally Posted by High_Speed

I have no advice on the compression issue, but I love the concept of the photo itself! This is print ad material, in my opinion.

Wow thanks that comment just made my day

[High_Speed]

Here's an example of what I could imagine doing with this shot....

[ajax_andy]

Originally Posted by High_Speed

Here's an example of what I could imagine doing with this shot....

Haha yes I see what you mean, would work really well as an advert in a magazine

I might upload this to one of those stock image sites and see if anyone uses it.

[High_Speed]

Originally Posted by ajax_andy

Haha yes I see what you mean, would work really well as an advert in a magazine

I might upload this to one of those stock image sites and see if anyone uses it.

Worth a shot! Let me know how that goes if you do.

[Bruce A]

I like the concept and the shot very much. As far as the compression banding goes it may depend on the quality strength by which you saved it. In the beginning I used lesser quality compression for my Flickr shots, but now I save them at the highest quality (12) because I don't know how much Flickr compresses them for resizing.

[ajax_andy]

Originally Posted by Bruce A

I like the concept and the shot very much. As far as the compression banding goes it may depend on the quality strength by which you saved it. In the beginning I used lesser quality compression for my Flickr shots, but now I save them at the highest quality (12) because I don't know how much Flickr compresses them for resizing.

High, yes thats a very good point actually, as due to it being a large file size I saved it as quality 1, which was still 1mb... I guess as long as i know its not something i've done wrong in post processing then its not too big a problem, but in future i'll try and find a balance between file size and quality once flickr has compressed it.

Thanks for your comments