Critique Welcomed Laura's Tower

[Andrew Cotterill]

I realise this is the first I've posted here for months, so you've missed all my holiday snaps and everything! I took this with my new (digital) camera, a Fuji XF1.

Does anyone think I've over-processed this?

 

[Kev Pugh]

Id I'm honest may be a tad too much sharpening, a slight halo around the tower but hat maybe me viewing on a rablet but other than that no I dont think so, I like it and reminds me of a shor I took recenrly of a similar tower

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Looks suitably dramatic Andrew - a little Harry Potter perhaps?

 

[Andrew Cotterill]

Looks suitably dramatic Andrew - a little Harry Potter perhaps?

thanks - I was going for dramatic!

strangely it's not the first time this week a photo of mine has been compared to Harry Potter (which I've never even seen) - this is one of the town's xmas decorations...

 

[Andrew Cotterill]

Id I'm honest may be a tad too much sharpening, a slight halo around the tower but hat maybe me viewing on a rablet but other than that no I dont think so, I like it and reminds me of a shor I took recenrly of a similar tower

thanks Kev. I'm always worried about applying sharpening as it can quickly make something look artificial. Very easy to get carried away with the Nik toys...

This is what it was before I started tweaking it:

 

[Kev Pugh]

Yes I think it is easy to get carried away with it, I don't have NIK but can sharpening be selectively applied ie to an particular area of the image?

I do like the drama in the sky of the edited version and the haloing is only noticeable when zoomed in, I only did that because im viewing on my tablet, im not a pixel peeper honest

 

[Andrew Cotterill]

I can selectively sharpen (but rarely do).

I wasn't sure if haloing was artefact of jpegging/reduction, but it is there on the full-sized version... so I need to keep an eye out for that!

 

[Andy Boardman]

Is it the walls at Chester by any chance ?? Looks good anyway, nice shot.

 

[Andrew Cotterill]

Is it the walls at Chester by any chance ?? Looks good anyway, nice shot.

thank you! It's part of Shrewsbury Castle.

 

[Andy Boardman]

AAHH very similar to Chester & not to far out LOL

 

[Andrew Cotterill]

AAHH very similar to Chester & not to far out LOL

you were close! I'd love to shoot a few rolls around Chester castle, it looks very interesting, but it doesn't look like you can get into a lot of it

 

[Paul Lange]

I think the sky looks far more dramatic in your edited version but as Kev mentioned the processing has also brought out the slight halo that surrounds the tower. I think sometimes whether the PP is too much is a matter of taste. Some people love the HDR look, while others don't. I know if I have overdone it as a few months later I look back at the photo and think "yuck". Sometimes I still like it and tend to think that I got away wit it.

 

[Andrew Cotterill]

I think the sky looks far more dramatic in your edited version but as Kev mentioned the processing has also brought out the slight halo that surrounds the tower. I think sometimes whether the PP is too much is a matter of taste. Some people love the HDR look, while others don't. I know if I have overdone it as a few months later I look back at the photo and think "yuck". Sometimes I still like it and tend to think that I got away wit it.

Thanks Paul. Overdone HDR can easily look very plastic, I'd like to avoid that. I really liked my processing at the time, but the following day I was thinking I'd maybe overdone things a little, still not entirely sure. I think I'll leave it a few months and see how I feel about it.