Big Ben from Buckingham Palace, a photo from London, England

Photographer's Note

I took this shot from Buckingham Palace. I just happened to glance up and see Big Ben in the distance. It was a very nice day, a little more blue in the sky would have been nice. However, for everyone that knows anything about my photo taking. I don't do post-processing. A friend of mine called me a purist, I simply shoot the photo and post it, but today I did a little work on this one.
Brightness 25
Contrast 30
Autofix for the levels
I am a newbie at post-processing and you probably won't see much of it from me, but here is an attempt.
What do you think?

singuanti, UlfE, Rushabh has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

ahudgins (139) 2005-10-28 20:48

Hey Katie -

i have done some work with some of my photos and sometimes they turn out alright, and sometimes it ruins them. This one turned out great. Well done.

Alex

utamaputranto (186) 2005-10-28 21:18 [Comment]

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rosiegirl (1596) 2005-10-29 2:32

Hey you newbie! I can't really tell what you did- so thats a good thing. I like your composition very much- the flower colors are lovely. Its not your typical view of Big Ben; I like it. Good work!

Rosie Walter

timmiles (0) 2005-10-29 5:23

I think this has benefitted greatly from post processing (without seeing the original). I don't think digital camras are really designed to produce images without at least SOME processing, especially in sharpening. Sharpening is an integral part of digital photography, and the amount depends on the purpose that you are using it for - for instance to get a good quality print you need to sharpen a bit more than looks good on the screen, and for displaying on the web, you need to sharpen a little less. It doesn't make you less of a 'purist', it isjust what is required. Likewise with the colours, brightness, etc - very few digital cameras will produce what you see with your eyes in these terms, so there is nothing 'impure' about doing say a levels adjustment to make sure the distribution of light and dark is right across the spectrum, and then it is more likely to represent what you saw anyway.

Any, hope you enjoy the post processing, it is fun and it's a great part of digital photography. It opens up skills to people that were only available for people with a lot of money and a dark room in the past. I'd recommend keep practising, who knows where you will get with it - you did a good job with this one!

singuanti (15250) 2005-10-29 11:51

Hi Katie. First off thanks for all of the critiques today as it is appreciated. I'd say your post-processing is pretty good. If you have a newer Photoshop version it will have the invaluable shadow/highlights tool. You didn't say anything about sharpening and it does look a little soft. You always want to run some level of USM after re-sizing for TE because it will lose detail. At any rate the exposure is balanced and I love how shy Big Ben is here. Well done.

UlfE (14641) 2005-10-29 13:07

Hi Katie,

First of all I think that your note is very interesting. I really respect purists. I was one myself in the beginning, but the more you look at photos in this site, you realize that moderate editing is often necessary. Especially for pictures taken with cheaper cameras. The photos tend to be somewhat overexposed. Nevertheless, if it is not a good photo from the outset you will have big difficulties to correct it. Even if you hade done some postprocessing I could still see that it was a very good photo even before your processing. Very nice with the fences and the flower and Big Ben behind the trees. Great job both with the photo and the post-processing.

Greetings,

Ulf

tamoy (177) 2005-10-29 16:59

Excellent POV, also the colors are realistically shown.

capthaddock (28790) 2005-11-09 10:12

Hi Katie - really nice colors and composition, with the diagonal above and horizontals below, and I concur with others re:post-processing, it helps bring out the potential.

Rushabh (389) 2005-11-15 1:07