Terrestrial Church

[Nick McC]

No, not a shot of Tom Cruise at church . Just the moon over the main entrance of mine.

Thank you for any critiques!










Ok, now that you have your opinion about the photo itself - time for you to rate my photoshopping.... please! No, the moon was not that low when I shot this I took a separate shot and photoshopped it in. I also lightened underneith the canopy and inside the window (much more difficult than I expected it to be), and did some general edits that caused tons of noise from clipping on the building above the canopy (camera at iso 200). Did you notice the edits, or was the time well spent?

[Frog]

I noticed that it appeared edited but I didn't know what the edits were except that the moon doesn't look naturarl.
I think if you could place the moon higher and tone down the lightening of the underneath of the canopy, then you might have something.

[.tony. .riot.]

The moon looks great but the church itself looks too dark for me.

Maybe its just me.

[gahspidy]

Nick, your photoshopping is not bad except the glare around the moon looks unnatural. I think getting rid of the halo or glare surrounding it would make it more believable. Also, tone it down a bit and perhaps add a very slight blur.

Your composition of the Church is excellent. It looks very tight and neat in a good way. I think also if your going to add the moon, you might try increasing the sky a bit to give the moon a little room in the composition. Just increase your canvas size and clone in some more sky, then add the moon a bit higher.
Really good job here.

[Sushigaijin]

The editing isn't bad. I think it needs more contrast.

As for the photo itself, there is nothing that tells me this is a church - It could be any old building. I also think that it would be better if more of the building was in view, and I don't understand what "terrestrial" has to do with this shot; this might have been taken on mars since there is nothing terrestrial to give it context. Aside from being neither a church nor terrestrial, the lines are nice and it balances well.

[Nick McC]

Thanks for the comments and compliments, tried to do all the suggestions I could.

Dropped the canopy/window lighting a bit more (sorry tony ), added more to the top and moved the moon up (may add even more and move the moon farther from the top), tried to make the fake moon less obvious through a couple blurs and by dropping the glow opacity (Although I have a feeling a non photographer would not catch that tell, since my parents did not... or maybe they just don't pay attention to detail.), and I upped the contrast (which made the top of the church darker... may lighten it).



There are more obvious tell outlines on this one since I merged some layers before that I needed individual to cover them up (Doh!).


Shushigaijin - It seems you have a problem with the title, not the photo itself (other than contrast). I used terrestrial because of the moon, not extraterrestrial like aliens on mars... but perhaps I am mistaken. Nobody would know it was a church passing by, or going inside actually. It has a cafe and bookstore inside, and there are basketball hoops in our sanctuary... sort of a modern take on church I suppose. But yes, I agree that a new title is necessary - will think on it... also open to suggestions.

[LeeIs]

I knew it was photoshoped right away ;) but that's only about the moon. it looks very defined with great detail which is kinda weird from this distance. I hadn't noticed your other edits though, u did a good job in those! I wish u pulled back a bit , somehow i feel like i'm missing out on the rest of the scene.

[Nick McC]

Thanks LeeIs... I completely missed the whole DoF issue with the focused moon and church until I saw the comments that the moon looked fake. I will probably blur it a bit more or do any other suggestions because I don't think I quite got it right yet.

There was a tree to the right that I didn't like so I framed it tight, I will definitely take a couple more shots with more in frame though and see if I can work the tree in or something.

[gahspidy]

Good re-edit. The moon looks alot more natural in there and the little bit of extra room has helped as well. For me, it's not important that I know this is a church or not. I am enjoying the shapes and lines of the structure as well as the soft tones and color.

[Nick McC]

Thanks! Yea, I like it much better than the first - thanks for the advice all. I'm bad with titles, but would like to change it, will do so when something better comes to me.