Conversation in Mustard

tearoadtiger

New member
DSC_3984-2.jpg
Location: Ulaanbaatar, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Camera: NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D60
Focal Length: 70 mm
Shutter Speed: 1/80 sec
Aperture: f/7.1
ISO: 200
Copyright: © Alex Newby
My intent with this photo was to catch the contrast between nomadic life and technology use. Plus the colors were begging to be captured!

I am looking for suggestions on what to do in the future to make better images. What could I have done to make this a better photo?

Thank you, Alex
 

wud

Senior Member
I would have made the image so only the mustard house and the man was showing. Dont know if this can be done with cropping.
Great colors and amazing location :)
 

tearoadtiger

New member
Thanks for the comments! I look at cropping it. I think I have a similar image without the brown wall, or at least it will be easy to crop out.
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Unlike wud, I like the other house. Like him, I love the colors, and I love the bird in the street and the hole at the base of the other house. I think the photo is very good, but suffers from too many diverging lines in too many places. The trim across the top of the house is not straight with the frame and you lose just enough of it at the one spot that it becomes distracting. In fact, there are so many lines it's nearly impossible to get them to square up. That said, you need to pick one to make straight, and I'm thinking it should be the top of the door.

I took the liberty of showing you what I mean. My only edits are that I used the straightening tool in Elements to make the top of the door flat across the screen, and then used the crop tool to eliminate both the top trim and the corner and side of the mustard house on the right.

Mustard.jpg
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
And because sometimes I can't help myself, here's a second edit where I used the Correct Camera Distortion filter in Elements to remove just a little pinch distortion, and then I also used the horizontal perspective correction to alter the lines a bit, which I believe does a better job of straightening the lines than just simple rotational correction. In the original photo, the house is not flat across the frame, but the right side is closer than the left, making lines diverge. I "pushed" the right edge of the building back a few degrees and then cropped until I eliminated the empty background and part of the top molding. If I had Photoshop on the PC I'm typing on I might have tried to use content aware fill to fix the empty background left from the perspective correction, just to see what it looked like. Either way, I prefer this to my previous edit.

Mustard2.jpg
 

tearoadtiger

New member
Mr. Jake B. Hippy Sir, You have gone above and beyond the call of duty. Thanks for the critique. I am still green when it comes to recognizing lines I need to dispose of, so you comments were really helpful. I do all my editing in Light Room. I have several versions of this photo, so using your advice I have cropped accordingly, resulting in a simpler image. Simple is good. Thanks for the help!

Alex
Flickr: Newby Tiger's Photostream
 
And because sometimes I can't help myself, here's a second edit where I used the Correct Camera Distortion filter in Elements to remove just a little pinch distortion, and then I also used the horizontal perspective correction to alter the lines a bit, which I believe does a better job of straightening the lines than just simple rotational correction. In the original photo, the house is not flat across the frame, but the right side is closer than the left, making lines diverge. I "pushed" the right edge of the building back a few degrees and then cropped until I eliminated the empty background and part of the top molding. If I had Photoshop on the PC I'm typing on I might have tried to use content aware fill to fix the empty background left from the perspective correction, just to see what it looked like. Either way, I prefer this to my previous edit.

View attachment 48545

Your shot is a great shot and this version is very nice. It reminds me of some of the photos my son shot in some of the villages in Iraq.
 

Bill16

Senior Member
Great shot! I think it really fits your statement! I think Rick's version of it would be my choice the versions offered up for your consideration. :D
 

ohkphoto

Snow White
Hi, Alex, and thank you for letting all of us "play" with your photo, which is a fabulous capture.
I think in terms of technique, Jake is absolutely correct with his assessment of the lines and distortion. I took his version and went one step further: I would NOT crop anything out of the photo . . . I think they're all critical to the storytelling. I love the wall to the left but I think it is too bright, so I darkened it a tad with the gradient tool in LR. I then exported to PS and used Viveza to lighten the subject's face a little. Sometimes, when the lines in the photo don't take you where you want the viewer to go, you can "force" the lighting a little. Your lighting was already there (in between the buildings)

jakescrop-Edit.jpg
 

fotojack

Senior Member
While I like Helene's edit, I would have gone the same route as Rick. Sometimes less really is more. Great shot, by the way. :) And yes, thanks for letting us "play" with it. :) So many different view points, eh? :) That's the beauty of art and how we all see it differently.
 
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