Constructive photographic criticism required.

randomhandclaps

 

Hertz32 said:

I loathe sharpening images... It lowers the quality if they are blown up, and gives it an almost oil painting like look it also brings the yellow in the grass out and makes it a bit more jarring to the eye...

Then you are doing it wrong or are sharpening an already in camera sharpened JPEG.  Sharpening isn't a bonus of digital photography, it's a necessity if you shoot in RAW.  If you shoot in JPEG your images are still being sharpened, just in camera and out of your control.  

 

It's a skill in itself but one worth persevering with.

stickyfiddle

randomhandclaps said:

 

Hertz32 said:

I loathe sharpening images... It lowers the quality if they are blown up, and gives it an almost oil painting like look it also brings the yellow in the grass out and makes it a bit more jarring to the eye...

Then you are doing it wrong or are sharpening an already in camera sharpened JPEG.  Sharpening isn't a bonus of digital photography, it's a necessity if you shoot in RAW.  If you shoot in JPEG your images are still being sharpened, just in camera and out of your control.  

 

It's a skill in itself but one worth persevering with.

True dat, but you need a decent program to do it. Sharpening iPhone pics with apps generally doesn't help- I certainly haven't found one that improves things!

hungrymark

Yeah, sharpening is essential. To my eyes it makes this a better image, but would admittedly have been done with a bit more finesse had I spent more time on it. 12MP is plenty resolution to blow up to A4 size or slightly bigger. If you're printing an image for display you should sharpen them more than you think looks reasonable on the screen anyway, as the printing process fuzzes things up.

Hertz32

Yeah, it was in camera sharpened JPEG. I took it using the HDR setting of the camera, sadly no RAW option so I had to stick to JPEG.

I use Pixlr Editor on my chromebook, free and it's basically an in browser Pshop. brilliant little app, run by Autodesk I believe. 
I have a desktop PC that I use occasionally, I'll probably just keep using Pixlr on that though.
This is the original image: 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/loli832/11193091323/

I also cropped a bit of hedge out and removed the extra stuff at the 3rd fence post:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/loli832/11192987356/in/photostream/

chillidoggy

viz said:

chillidoggy;96664" said:

Is that the gate to Viz's country estate?

Could be one of them, I'm not sure. Don't get around to all of them as often as I should any more. Looks like it could be a path to one of the groundsmens' cottages in one of the northern estates.

I can understand why you don't get around to them if they're in the north.

Hertz32

hungrymark said:

Looking back on this with a fresh eye it actually looks pretty bloody good. I shall get into the habit of sharpening more often!

hywelg

Hertz32 said:

Looking back on this with a fresh eye it actually looks pretty bloody good. I shall get into the habit of sharpening more often!

No, that looks way oversharpened for screen display. You need to be very careful with sharpening when you are working with limited pixels and chroma noise in the shadows. Would you care to share the original image rather than a downsampled one?

ToneControl

viz said:

chillidoggy;96664" said:

Is that the gate to Viz's country estate?

Could be one of them, I'm not sure. Don't get around to all of them as often as I should any more. Looks like it could be a path to one of the groundsmens' cottages in one of the northern estates.

watch out for the gamekeeper if you stay at one with your wife and servants 

Hertz32

hywelg said:

Hertz32 said:

Looking back on this with a fresh eye it actually looks pretty bloody good. I shall get into the habit of sharpening more often!

No, that looks way oversharpened for screen display. You need to be very careful with sharpening when you are working with limited pixels and chroma noise in the shadows. Would you care to share the original image rather than a downsampled one?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2lcO4Ee4IByMFk2VkhNWkVqUkE/edit?usp=sharing

hungrymark

Sharpening controversy! This is like a photographer's forum. I'm guessing it depends on the screen that you're viewing it on, but that might be bollards. It's a personal taste thing - to me it looks alright. Maybe I need glasses though ;-)

Looking at my edit of the picture again, could do with some noise reduction in the sky, which would soften the image a little bit and hopefully make everybody happy.

OilCityPickups

From an aesthetic perspective it lacks any point of interest. It's pleasant in composition with lead lines etc etc .. but there's is no real central point so ones eyes flicker around the frame and don't rest on anything for long.
It needs to tell a story ... a figure wandering off into the sunset ... anything to give the eye something to fix on.
Landscapes have to be REALLY dramatic to stand up on their own without human or animal interest ... ask Ansel Adams  ... or don't ... cos e's dead

chillidoggy

A peasant being flogged in the field would be a point of interest.

viz

chillidoggy said:

A pheasant being flogged in the field would be a point of interest.

Nice alliteration.

randomhandclaps

 

viz said:

chillidoggy said:

A pheasant being flogged in the field would be a point of interest.

Nice alliteration.

  It was very much like a line from my sons speech therapist.

hungrymark

Please tell me the therapist doesn't flog your son in a field to make him speak properly

randomhandclaps

I'm not sure what she's got planned for next term to be honest.