Wisconsin State Capitol Dome

[CMBessette]

Hi! This is my first picture ever for comment & critique (I'm a complete and utter newbie). These are two pictures from the capitol building in Madison, WI. I went there with my wife two weeks ago. The building recently went through a complete restoration. Anyway, I thought the one I took zoomed in at the top of the dome turned out well (the one I'm asking for C&C on) -- you can see the painting rather clearly, at least in the full-size image. It was rather dark in the building, and I'm suprised it turned out considering I was using the kit lens that came with the camera. I've posted another image to give you a broader idea of the dome. I suppose it would have helped if the lighting were better to bring out the color more. All I did was resize the images (no cropping). Please let me know what you think! Thanks

[drg]

Looks like you may have enough detail to improve these with some post processing. The first image may not need much more than some minor color work with white balance/color cast.

Some selective lightening on the mural might bring it out and improve the details.

If you shot RAW on the second image, it seems at this small scale to have possibilities.

The time of day appears to have been in your favor with the light as well. Fairly even and balanced lighting that you acheived in the first is in your favor to greatly enhance the image.

Symmetry or balance is often the best key to getting a 'memorable' shot with these types of images. The top photo doesn't quite balance top to bottom but the mural could be cropped out square. It looks like a potentially good keeper.

Welcome to PR and look forward to seeing more of you photographs!

[CMBessette]

Thanks for your comments -- they're appreciated. Could you edit my close-up photo (or even the other one, too) to demonstrate what you mean? I'm new to post-processing, besides cropping and sharpening.

[Coastal Flyer]

These are always interesting shots to take. At least for me. Every state has a capital building and nearly all have a rotunda with glorious scenes within. It is such a challenge to make the shot interesting and notable. I like this, uses of light and the ceiling lines leading to the center painting.

Nice job.

CF

[drg]

Could you edit my close-up photo (or even the other one, too) to demonstrate what you mean? :

I'll see what I can come up with this pm.

[drg]

Adobe Photoshop adjustments made:

Both adjusted for levels to bring the dynamic range into a viewable area.

The closeup has had the center mural individually adjusted with a simple magic lasso selection and -

brightness ~ +1
color cast adjustment to whiten the white.
two kinds of sharpening. De-hazing (reversing radius to 40 and amount %15) and regular USM ~ .45 radius and %65 to the whole image as well.

The whole dome also was USM in a similar way. Radius .6 and %90.

I played with color cast on both, but they seemed better than I thought originally.

There was some additional Brightness and Contrast tweaking. Just quickly making it "look" better.

Then saved for web at %70 quality and Standard Windows color profile (a RGB variant)

Hope this gives you some ideas. It is not perfect certainly, but makes the images brighter in a cleaner way. You might want to check to see if your monitor is set too bright or what color temp parameter is selected. Save your images with a RGB color space for the web. If you print your own pictures, please be sure NOT to post them with the optimized color space for your printer, or who knows what may happen

With bigger originals, it gets easier. I often start with a very large file and do my adjustments and then reduce to the size I need, do a final USM application and sometimes a little additional Noise Reduction or Saturation tweaking and then post.

Good luck, there are lots of people who are happy to help (including editing though some of us certainly wait to be asked!) and Welcome to Photography Review.

[CMBessette]

dr g,

Thanks so much for taking the time to demonstrate that for me -- and thanks for giving me all those steps! I don't have PhotoShop, but I have the GIMP . . I'll have to play around to see if I can mimick what you've done. :thumbsup: