Margaret Sprott, APSA
May 2021 - Buildings along Water in Strasburg, France
About the Image(s)
Equipment - Kodak instamatic camera with no tripod.
ISO 80; f/4; 1/90 second; 67 mm
Lighting - daylight
Post processed in Lightroom - decreased exposure; lowered highlights; increased shadows slightly; fixed black and white points; increased texture a little, clarity a lot, dehaze slightly, and vibrance a fair amount and then played with curves until the sky and colors were OK. I cropped it quite a bit to get rid of unnecessary water in the foreground after leveling it in Transform.
Taken in November, 2005 on a trip to Stasburg, France where my husband had meetings so I could walk around a lot and shoot many images.
This round’s discussion is now closed!
10 comments posted
Nice image. Like the beautiful colors of the buildings. The moving Van (from the right) across the dominant line creates a sense of movement. I would have cropped a little more from the left though, and also show a little less water if possible. Posted: 05/12/2021 09:29:39
I felt that your image would be enhanced if you cropped the van to put interest back on those buildings with the interesting facade. I also felt that if you raised the vibrance and decreased the highlights it would increase the impact and interest. Such interesting architecture there. And I love the varied colors of the exterior. I think the sky is mostly gray and not well exposed. But overall very nice! Posted: 05/14/2021 13:52:21
All good comments (from both of you). Now I have to try some of the suggestions. Thanks! Posted: 05/14/2021 16:14:10
Nice perspective! I would crop where there is a gap between buildings on the right. To me the van does not add much value. The clouds on the left look grainy and unnatural to me. Have you tried the Denoise AI software? It might take care of that. Another alternative if you want to enter this photo into competitions is to use the sky replacement feature in Photoshop (with one of your favorite skies from another of your photos) and enter it into PID color rather than photo travel. I think it is a worthwhile image for competitions with a bit more editing as suggested by others. Posted: 05/21/2021 10:35:40
Thanks - I knew I could not replace the sky for this study group but if you think it is worth using it in PID, I'll try it. Posted: 05/21/2021 10:40:03
Here's an edit of the image with one of my skies and cropped. But not for Photo Travel of course. I tried Topaz DeNoise on your sky but that didn't work. Posted: 05/21/2021 12:46:35
I love it and will try my own sky replacement. Given that this was an old photo taken with my Kodak, I'm not surprised that DeNoise did not work. Thanks! Posted: 05/21/2021 15:26:19
Nice image with some characteristic features that make it into a Photo Travel image. Cropping both on the left and the right would give this image more attention to the buildings and increase the impact. Posted: 05/21/2021 15:39:02
Thanks - everyone agrees to that. Posted: 05/21/2021 15:40:47
(Group 3)
Classic French architecture, well seen Margaret. Posted: 05/26/2021 05:24:20