Another old farm equipment shot

[Dennis]

It was nicely overcast today so I spent a little time outback taking some pictures. Here is one I really liked, especially the color and texture of the metal. Please let me know your thoughts or criticisms. Focal length, 55mm, f/4, 1/160s, ISO-200.

http://mysite.verizon.net/dennisdietz/DennisWebAlbum63007/plowwheel.jpg

[chubasco]

Excellent shot, Dennis! I think this is your best comp to date. I took the
liberty of hitting it with levels and contrast adjustment to bring out that
rust color a bit more:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y156/Zardoz17/pw1.jpg

[paradise]

Dennis, this is a great image that can use a tad of work. I did not see Bil's reply, but it is very similar to what I thought you needed. I did the same thing, but ALSO, I think you need to really feel the rust, and you probably just did not sharpen the image after re-size, so I sharpened it to "feel" the rust on the wood. What do you think?

http://egfoto.com/pics/dennis.jpg

[chubasco]

Thanks Ed, yep, forgot the sharpening!;)

[Dennis]

Thanks for the kind words. And wow! to both of your edits. (Always feel free to take liberties with my photos;)) Could you share the approximate values for the level adjustments and sharpening. I have a bit of trouble with that, especially the unsharp mask. I've never been able to get something to pop like your editing Ed. Though, I make the excuse that my laptop screen makes editing hard.

Thanks!
Dennis

[chubasco]

Dennis,
Here's my edit with simply hitting "sharpen" in the filter section:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y156/Zardoz17/pw2.jpg

I would say Ed's and mine are very close. I didn't pay attention to how much
contrast (was working on some of my photos last night, too) but levels I like
the slider method: go to levels and you will see a horizontal line with 3 triangles
under it. Hold down the "ALT" key and left click on the right triangle
(you don't touch the middle triangle) and slide it to the left to where you just
see some yellow and stop. Still holding down the ALT key left click on the left
triangle and move it to the right till you see black appear in the picture and
stop. This is what I do to 99% of my pics adjusting levels. As to contrast, use
your eye to see when the colors and intensity look right, stop.

[Dennis]

Bill,

Thanks for the info and help. One thing that I found very useful was to open my image and, following your advice, make it look like yours (and Edward's). That worked very well and was also informative.

Two questions, why do you hold down the ALT key? Is that a photoshop thing because I use GIMP. Very similar but holding ALT did nothing that I could see. Second question, I though one was never supposed to use sharpen but rather the uber confusing unsharp mask? Sharpen seems to work well with this though.

[chubasco]

Sorry, Dennis, I forgot you don't use Photoshop. Use USM after all editing is done and use
Sharpening when you resize (downsize) the image. I resize in Irfanview that has boxes for
sharpening checked so I never forget to do it. Irfanview is a highly recommended free download.

[Dracofish]

I'd love to see this in a warm "antiqued" style!