Seeking opinions on post processing

[hdh]

I have uploaded the same picture twice, once just with marginal post processing and the second one with more local contrast, some sharpening. 

On my local PC I liked both of them and could not make a final decision on which to upload. 

Judging by the looks in Alamy zoom, I currently and personally prefer the more original one that has less local contrast and sharpening. 

 

I am German, so am more than happy to receive honest and blunt opinions - even if you think the image is sh.te ;). 

 

 

Original - just exposure, contrast and slight sharpening / local contrast. 

 

More sharpened/contrasty picture:  

[Halit Olmez]

I also prefer the less sharpened image. It looks more natural.

[NYCat]

I am not one of the knowledgable people here about post processing but I like the way I see the details in the feathers in the second one even though it looks too sharp to me. I don't know whether that came from sharpening or just the contrast. I almost never use anything but the clarity slider in Lightroom to increase the appearance of sharpness. I leave the sharpening at the default positions.

 

Paulette

[Matt Ashmore]

I prefer the original too.

[fotoDogue]

I'd say somewhere in between. The top one could be sharper but the bottom is possibly too sharp.

[Bill Brooks]

4 hours ago, fotoDogue said:

I'd say somewhere in between. The top one could be sharper but the bottom is possibly too sharp.

 

I agree with this for the natural bird subject, but if you had a high tech architecture shot, like this one, the higher contrast treatment would probably be better.

 

[hdh]

Thanks a lot for your opinions so far +1. 

 

Very good point with the high tech / artificial subject, where contrast may come in handy. 

I have a few pictures of the ECB in Frankfurt, that I am not so happy with. 

I should try these with that setting. 

[Southmind]

Nice pict. I would add sharpness only on some part of the image (head of the bird, eye). Just duplicate the layer, add sharpness, move the layer under the original.

Then add a layer mask to the original and with a soft brush remove the less sharpness part.

[Allan Bell]

There seems to be a difference in the red band between the two images also.

 

The red box in the top image appears deeper/brighter.

 

Allan

 

 

[hdh]

On 10/10/2017 at 11:22, Allan Bell said:

There seems to be a difference in the red band between the two images also.

 

The red box in the top image appears deeper/brighter.

 

Allan

 

 

Thanks Allan, and yes, I noted that also.

I used a filter set in Gimp  creating a few layers, some sharpened some blurred and as a result the colour changed sligthly. 

When I tried to adjust for that, I got the box overexposed, in turn loosing a lot of detail of the box. 

Have to admit, I am still a noob when it comes to advanced picture editing. 

Just became confident enough a few month ago, to process my raw files to jpg's with the linux equivalent of lightroom (called darktable). 

Now I am trying to learn the next step with the Photoshop equivalent and am not yet confident enough with how different layers interact with each other. 

 

 

[M.Chapman]

I'd probably only apply the extra local contrast/sharpening to the bird to highlight the main subject. If it was a global adjust I'd go for about 1/2 way between the two.

Mark

[Rick Lewis]

On 10/7/2017 at 08:30, hdh said:

 

I am German, so am more than happy to receive honest and blunt opinions - even if you think the image is sh.te ;). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

@hdh I actually laughed out loud when I read this.  Many years ago we lived in Germany for three years, and know exactly what you meant by this.  Three of the best years of our lives, by the way.

 

Cheers,

Rick