Winter Water Garden

[connellj]

Is this too busy for you. Any comments and suggestions would be appreciated.

[gahspidy]

Connellj,
Looks like a great place to be. Yes , the pic does come off as being busy. The reflection in the water must have been great to have seen, but is coming off in this shot as too busyIMO. Also wondering if you are using unsharp mask or sharpness enhancer of some sort, might be a bit too much,

[gahspidy]

Is this too busy for you. Any comments and suggestions would be appreciated.

Connellj,
I thought by just selecting the reflective area in the photo and bringing it down a bit in intensity and softening it up some might help bring out the subject more and cut down on the busy feeling of the shot. Here is an example of what I mean. I think it helps some, but just my opinion . . .

[stew]

gahspidy,

wow what a cool tool! not to mention i like what it did for the photo. imho, it improved the look and feel a lot by uncluttering the main subject which is the actual building. i have so much to learn about photoshop....

thanks for posting this!

[PuckJunkey]

...and you've captured the essence of it well. I think what causes it to look "busy" is actually the grass and its reflections in the water (foreground), and maybe little things like the bird statue amid the columns (and its refelction). Technically it's "cheating" but you could probably photoshop quite a bit of the grass out and the other "trinkets" that distract from the composition of the building and its reflection (and the water itself).

[gahspidy]

gahspidy,

wow what a cool tool! not to mention i like what it did for the photo. imho, it improved the look and feel a lot by uncluttering the main subject which is the actual building. i have so much to learn about photoshop....

thanks for posting this!

Sure Stew,
Actually, I am using Paint Shop Pro 8 "psp" which is very similiar to photoshop. Just a matter of selecting the area which you wish to edit with the appropriate selection tool for the task. Then, once you have selected it, you can adjust whatever you like to just that selected area. I am just learning to use the program as well and am learning as I go. What I feel is important is that it is very easy to get carried away with all the editing abilities so try to keep things as subtle and simple to keep the photo looking natural.

Photoshop is such a well supported program that if you go to a bookstore, you can find many books and magazines that give you good step by step approaches to doing lots of different tasks in Photoshop.

[connellj]

Thanks for taking the trouble to show me what you had in mind. I'll rework this and find out if it is too much sharpening or too much contrast and then follow your suggestions on the reflections.

-john

[gahspidy]

Thanks for taking the trouble to show me what you had in mind. I'll rework this and find out if it is too much sharpening or too much contrast and then follow your suggestions on the reflections.

-john

Sure,
I like this photo,and it sure looks like a great place to spend some quiet time.

[natatbeach]

the suggestions given are very good (especially reducing the sharpness of the reflection...have you tried it as a BW as well...I bet the feel of it would change even more...It's a beautiful shot in color and very peaceful...but toning down the reflection may be the trick...