Photo Editing Suggestions

[Margaret Falk]

Hi Comrades!

I am including an attachment in zip form and would like some feedback. I have labeled the layers as to what I did from the original picture. Now this is the first time, ever, that I have Photoshopped a picture.
I am open to all critiquing and suggestions. Please don't leave out any details, no matter how small they seem. The only way I'm going to learn is listening to suggestions.
Oh, and please tell me why you made your suggestion. If need be download the picture, it's in PSD and what changes you made. I used levels and the Shadows/Highlights from the Images-Adjustment menu.

Thank you for all your help and time you gave for helping me out!

Maggie

 

[Tom Mann]

Hi Margaret - Before I even look at your file, I would first like to know what you were trying to accomplish / your goals for this particular image. As an extreme example, you idea may be to turn it into a Goth Art image, whereas I may have in mind a postcard-pretty image to be sold on stock photography sites (with all the standard requirements of such sites). Other, less extreme examples would be that you want to emphasize the scenery in a photo (eg, for your "here's the latest place we hiked" blog), whereas I'm looking at it with a goal of emphasizing the people in the photo for an "over the fireplace canvas print". IMHO, any attempt at criticism without such background info can easily turn into a misunderstanding or just waste people's time.

Cheers,

Tom M

 

[Tom Mann]

I just looked at your file and now have one specific question: Were you intentionally trying to achieve a bright, low contrast, very flat version of the image, say, to use as a non-obtrusive background for dark text? If you were, IMHO, you were reasonably successful at this, although you could have reduced the contrast and saturation even further for such an application.

Tom

 

[Margaret Falk]

Hi Tom,

Yes, I just wanted to emphasize the scenery and kind of like you put it "here's the latest place I hiked". Was hoping to bring out the detail more. I also would like to know if it's too bright or too Photoshopped. I have included the layers and what the are. Hope this helps!

Thank you,
Maggie

 

[Margaret Falk]

Well Tom, I guess I accomplished one thing for the dark text and wasn't even trying! LOL! But certainly don't want it flat. Would like more of a pop to it. Hope I'm making sense. If you don't mind would you add to the contrast and saturation so that I could compare it to my original to help develop my eye better please?

Thank you very much!
Maggie

p.s. I guess I could say give the picture some dimension

 

[MrToM]

Forget I said anything.....I see what you've done.

Sorry....jumped the gun there.

Regards.
MrToM.

 

[hawkeye]

If it was me I'd crop it to use the diagonal lines to draw your eye down the river. Vignette to further draw the eye to that point. Cropping also eliminates the pole on the upper right corner.

But these things are all highly subjective and different people will have different ideas. It's really up to you.

 

[Tom Mann]

Hi Tom ...I also would like to know if it's too bright or too Photoshopped. ...

Hi Maggie (...easy to remember as that's my wife's name ) - Since this image is supposed to have a bright and cheery conventional landscape look, with no special effects or anything else unusual, I have to say that what you posted was much too low contrast / flat, and, the shadows were much too bright. In addition, the colors were too muted / uniformly saturated. To be honest, IMHO, the edited version actually looked worse than the original.

Of course, you certainly didn't intend to have this happen, and you aren't blind or devoid of artistic sensibilities, LOL, so obviously something beyond your control that you are unaware of obviously caused this. Fortunately, there's usually a very simple explanation. I see this happen a lot. Often, it happens because (a) the person worked on the image in an area that was too bright, so their natural tendency is to crank up the brightness and lower the contrast on the image so that they can at least see some detail in the image. The second equally common reason is that (b) their monitor is not even close to being in calibration and is simply misleading them in all the editing decisions they make. This is particularly common with the screens on laptops. If either of these might have happened, let me know and we can discuss it further.

... If you don't mind would you add to the contrast and saturation so that I could compare it to my original to help develop my eye better please? ...

Sure ... no problem. For easy comparison, I've attached below the various versions of this image. The first one is what the base layer in your PS file looked like. IMHO, it's not all that bad, even as is, without any adjustments. The 2nd attachment is your edit of the image. The 3rd attachment is a quickie edit that shows the direction I would have taken with that image had it been mine.

Cheers,

Tom M