Travelling Figurines

[PraZ]

Hi All,
This was captured in the city of Hyderabad, India at a traffic signal. Luckily, my view of the subjects were in the same plane.



Specs:
Camera: Nikon D40
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture: f/10.0
Focal Length:38 mm
ISO Speed: 200
(As you can see I am an amateur photographer )
Cropping:
I have cropped the lower part of the picture to remove unwanted portion of the vehicle. But didn't find a convincing need to crop out the top layer (Billboard and the statue in the background). Felt they were not that great an eye catcher than these figurines.

Photoshoped
Used to enhance the colours of these figurines, resulting in the same effect for the background.
Blurred the background to reduce the sharpness and take the focus out of them

Please critique this image in terms of the post production processing idea and suggest if it needs cropping of the top portion.

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/prashu_...on/3246735850/

Thanks,
Prasanna

[jiminyClickit]

PraZ, Welcome

here's when layers and/or masks help. With a separate layer added for the color enhancement, you could remove the portion of that layer covering the billboard, thus not giving it any brighter look. And then a mask over just the billboard could further reduce its brightness and color. Blur, same thing. That means you can adjust the background separate from figurines, getting any balance you want.

My attention is drawn to the billboard and the golden statue, because of color, brightness, and because they're both cut off at the top. Experiment with this one.

[PraZ]

Thanks Jiminy
Will try your idea...

[jiminyClickit]

Given the brightness overall, I might try the same background layer/mask steps, but making them lighter instead of darker, as if the Sun were extremely bright and washing out the background. I'd think about dropping contrast if you do that. Could be a good learning project. Thanks for bringing this image to show us. Bring your changes, too, if you want?