GR Building: Did I over do it?

[mikehulsebus]

Original and edited versions. Overdone? Missing something?

[villenadecorte]

Original and edited versions. Overdone? Missing something?

Great PS job! (you did use PS right?) That is such a clean job. Impressive.
Get rid of the rest of the cars ;)

-VillenaDeCorte

[mjm]

Looks a little cartoony too me. The colors pop too much IMO. Nice job removing that white car.

[mikehulsebus]

Yeah, cartoony was one of the things I was worried about, though moreso in the texture of things than in the colors...hmm...I do like the sky color, sorta slide-film in my opinion but wasn't really sure on the rest. I guess the watercolor painting is its own look too. I dunno, side by side the original just looks so grey color cast. I dunno, I'm still figuring out if I like the colors so poppy or not.
Did these in Paint Shop Pro by the way
Thanks for the opinions thus far, keep 'em coming please.

[bjtindle]

Original and edited versions. Overdone? Missing something?

I like the second photo better. Were you really able to remove the white car totally using PSP?? I am still new to using PSP. That is awesome. I like how the colors pop myself.

Betty

[another view]

I think it's a little "cartooney" too. You did a good job with removing the car, but the other stairway on the right side was taken out too. Can you clone in the rest of it (what was behind the car) from the one on the left?

You've obviously spent some time on this. With PSP, do you have a way to correct perspective? You could benefit from stretching the top a little to correct the perspective of the vertical lines.

[Yoyo Szeto]

Hi,
I think the photo is much better with PS. However, I am a bit uncomfortable with the left tilt of the building.
All the best.
yoyo

[Sebastian]

WHY?

The colors I understand, but why remove something that has so little impact on the image?

IMO, if you want to remove something, it should be impossible to tell it was removed. In this shot it's pretty easy to see where an area was cloned, so it's not good enough. Though it's not bad.

Colors look overexposed now, a little darker would be better IMO.

The way I look at it, manipulation for the sake of manipulation is pointless. If removing something adds to the ability of the image to communicate, or to meet your creative vision, then I understand. I just don;t understand why you chose to do it here though.

I think correcting the perspective would have been a much better investment of time for this particular shot.

[ACArmstrong]

It does look a bit cartoony - but it's still a nice photo. Nice job with the car removal - you could also stick the stairs back in there like this.

[Elysian]

Here's the challenge for you mikehulsebus; next time don't post the original and ask people to figure out which area you cloned. I can tell you by looking at this image (without looking at the original) that people won't figure out "pretty easy" what you cloned, trust me. You did a fine cloning job, room for improvement, but still quite good. ;)

[Elysian]

Why do you guys call this image cartoony? Little vage in my opinion. Can you all be more specific. Do you mean it's just too saturated?

[mikehulsebus]

Wow great comments everyone, thanks a lot. Really. Yoyo Szeto confirmed what I was suspecting, so I rotated the image 1 degree more ro the right. The other staircase is an interesting idea (I really appreciate that you went right ahead and did it too), but messing a bit too much with the photo for me. In response to Sebastians comments, the reason I went ahead and took out the car was because the first thing I thought was "ah, too bad the car's parked there." To me the car sorta detracts from the building--as if it has ownership of the building if that makes sense. It makes it a building&car photo more than i woulda have liked. Below is how the image looks with the 1degree more rotation and some perspective correct. I'll leave it at this before I start messing with colors. Did I change the perspective correctly? Oh, and where is my cloning job most evident? I'd like to lessen that as much as possible

[another view]

Why do you guys call this image cartoony? Little vage in my opinion. Can you all be more specific. Do you mean it's just too saturated?

It's a new word to me too. I see the colors - the brick of the building especially - as oversaturated. To the point that it looks like it's glowing, but also looks a little flat. To my eye, the original seems to have a little more depth with it. Personally, I'd probably do perspective correction and a little adjustment with levels and call it good. Maybe re-shoot it better light?

[Elysian]

Oh, and where is my cloning job most evident? I'd like to lessen that as much as possible

The most common cloning mistake is introducing patterns. Look at the example. Try to use more than one source for the cloning. Sometimes it's even better to copy/paste a large area first and then to use the clone tool to make both areas slightly different. There is no right way to clone, every image asks for a different approach. Also make sure that lines are straight and don't have what I call "steps" in it.

But with some practice you can make it impossible for a viewer to find out which area was cloned. I always clone "non-destructive", which means I can always go back (at any moment in time) and correct my mistakes. I also combine cloning with blending modes, opacity, smudge, healing brush, sponge, burn, dodge and filters like noise, blur and so many other tools. All of these corrections are as much as possible non-destructive.
Sometimes even corrections are needed with a levels, curves or saturation adjustment in combination with masks.
Most people just use the cloning tool at 100 opacity with a hard edge and that's it; don't expect optimum results with this approach.