Making the best of difficult conditions - C&C Requested

[Jeff D. Welker]

It is a rainy overcast Saturday morning, so I decided to work on a photo. Yesterday afternoon I took some photos of the C-130's at Willie. Conditions were overcast and the high winds had some serious dust in the air that added to the haze. In the photo below, I tried to capture a tight image of one of the Herc's parking.



EXIF DATA
Camera: Sony A350
Lens: Minolta 75-300mm F4.5-56
Shutter Speed: 1/125
Aperture: f/9.0
ISO: 100
Exposure Bias: +1 EV
Processing Software: LR3, CS5, PSK2

PROCESSING STEPS
LR3: I cropped a little out of the foreground and sky to focus attention on the Herc and crew member. I also did some minor Tone Curve and HSL adjustments. Because I sharpen in CS5, I turn the Detail Sharpening Amount to 0 and set the Noise Reduction Luminance to 15 and left the Detail, Contrast, Color and Color Detail sliders to their default setting of 50, 0, 25, 50.

CS5: I use PSK2 as a plug-in within CS5 for all my Capture and Creative sharpening work. About the only other work I did in CS-5 involved adding a Vibrance layer to enhance the colors on the crew members' vest and in the Herc itself. I also added a Gradient layer in an attempt to improve the overcast/haze sky - I'm not sure I like the outcome.

MY VISION
I did not want an image of the entire Herc. With conditions as they were, I decided to frame a tight shot that clearly conveys the 130 interacting with this crew member. I like the mirage in the background because it avoids drawing attention away from the primary composition (IMO).

I would very much appreciate some serious C&C on this image. I tired to make lemonade out of lemons (so to speak); however, conditions were not conducive to high IQ. Nevertheless, I always try to make the best of what I've got. Your help is sincerely appreciated.

Thanks;

[CJPalmer]

I like your composition, but I find the gradient too distracting for me.

[Jeff D. Welker]

Thanks for the comment CJ. I'm still figuring-out the gradient tool in both LR3 and CS5. Here is a revised version where I changed the opacity on the gradient filter to 45% to (hopefully) crete a more subtle effect. I also "warmed-up" the foreground slightly.

[John B.]

I actually like the shot as you composed it a lot.  The gradient adjustment you made helps it tremendously as the banding on the first version is a bit much.  The second version is much smoother and quite an improvement.

[Lynn Evans]

I like the second photo, reduction on gradient is good and with the warmer tone, the dust is just apparent looking at the treeline.

[Joe Copalman]

I like the tones in the first one better than the second.  Enhancing the color on the ground guy's vest is a fantastic touch too.  One change I would make would be to clone out some of the signs in the background - yes they're part of the "scene," but the black sign-backs have some mass that distracts a bit from the tension between man and machine that this image conveys. 

I agree with you in your initial comment regarding the gradient - not sure I like it.  I get what the purpose of the gradient tool on skies is, but too often it's applied far too heavily and it just comes off looking like heavy pollution.  (Not to say there's not a time and a place for heavy gradient use, this shot just doesn't seem to call for it). 

Overall I dig the shot though.  Framing is fantastic, exposure is good, prop blur is solid, and it definitely tells a story.  Nice work.

[Jeff D. Welker]

John & Lynn - Thanks for your comments.

Al-righty then Joe - interesting suggestions. I love the Content Aware tool in CS-5, you can really clean an image up quickly. I also agree that the tone in the 2nd version was a little too warm/saturated. Over saturation is a bad habit of mine and I've always got to be on the guard to avoid putting too much "punch" in the colors. I've made some additional revisions (removed some "stuff" and lowered the saturation) that I hope will help.

[Jay Beckman]

Just as a comparison of "vision" .. This is what I made out of the same scene...


Pretty obvious that I saw this as being much darker and more somber in nature.

[Jeff D. Welker]

When we were both shooting this Herc parking, I was wondering what composition you had envisioned. While the overall scene is definitely darker and more somber in your image, the crew member still stands out in both color and exposure. Is this a result of you lens rendering sharper detail or did you intentionally PP the crew member differently than the rest of the image?