For how long?

Nothing to add... Regards.

An intriguing thumbnail made me think that I was looking at some kind of painted wall texture shot, but upon enlargement, I see raindrops in water.

Minimalist in nature, yet it has also made me think whether I would have taken much notice of this composition, if the dabs of yellow paint had not been there...

Cheers,

Thanks Peter; it had been just the same for me!

A nice section. Under the rain which adds so much to composition, a succesfull detail-tissue photo. Regards.

Excellent shot! Mnimalist composition, beautiful colors... and that raindrops make it really special!

I'm glad I followed Marco, one of the PN fellows whose portfolio I visit regularly, to discover this fine photo of yours.

 

Unfortunately I have to tell you what wonders/worries me about this photo. It must be the post-processing that has created those white pixels all over. It is like white chrystalls poured all over the wet scene. Maybe this photo is exactly what you wanted, to eliminate the wet feel of it. Then it's fully OK and I respect that but just want to mention that I would prefer more natural look of this lovely rainy scene.

 

I'm not any super-expert on editing, so I have no idea what you have done to get those distracting white spots. In order to have a discussion I would like to hear your thoughts and how you edited this photo before presenting us. You must understan, I'm here to learn too. They say "several roads lead to Rome" and threre are always alternative tools/methods to get similar editing results. I wonder how different is the original in terms of saturation and contrast etc...

 

Do you care to discuss, Bulent?

Of course I would be happy to learn how to make it better :).

I have revisited the original file and prepared a resized version from the first jpeg (after raw conversion). Apart from the white dots (sprinkled white paint, in fact) all the other whitish pixels are the result of my post processing; mostly due -but not limited- to unsharp masking. I was aware of it and I thought it could enhance the feel of the scene; hard and eroding like a sandpaper...

Now, after reading your comment and revisiting the original, I think keeping it "wet" might also be good idea... Your further comments are appreciated.

I am following your interesting discussion because I feel responsible for having carried Markku to your photo! :-)

 

I think that the best could be in the middle (in medio stat res): the raw file is sure too soft, but your final version is probably too hard, you should try to find a degree of unsharp mask that can give sharpness without those white pixels...

 

But let's wait for Markku's opinion!

I'm glad you want to have this dialog. And thanks for the piece of original.

 

What I did to your sample is what I have been applying to my own photos on regular basis. It's callede High Pass Sharpening, a technique I learned after founding a recommended reading link elsewhere.

 

In short it goes like this (using my PhotoShop Elements 5). I copied the original image layer (Background) and changed the layer mode from "Normal" to "Hard Light" in this case (while on my own files I use mainly "Soft Light"). Having this new layer active I selected from "Filter" menu "Other" > "High Pass" and adjusted the Radius to the customary 1.0 pixels. All this explained in detail in this online tutorial:

 

http://www.ronbigelow.com/articles/sharpen3/sharpen3.htm

 

I would recommend you to read the whole multi page article about sharpening. Very advanced techniques discussed in great detail.

 

There is also a software/plugin solution called FocalBlade, something I have played with a while back but not purchased because I'm still struggling with my old PC with limited resources.

 

http://thepluginsite.com/products/photowiz/focalblade/index.htm

 

So, here is my sample which is by no means meant to be a reference of optimal sharpening solution to this particular photo. It was interesting to hear about your intention with the editing and how the final work should be. I have to admit I didn't even think some of those white dots could be white paint. But my main concern was more on the water.

 

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I downsized the crop from your original to 52,2% to match the uploaded version before applying this sharpening method of mine (also rotation by 1,5 degrees counterclockwise was required).

Hello again,

Water (the sea) looks better this way.Many thanks for your comments and the effort.I remember reading about highpass filtering. I have to re-read and try applying it.I will be in touch again some time later.

There is tooo much to learn; and, that makes this journey all the more exciting!

I look forward to see your new version of this. Maybe you will apply different sharpening to various parts of the photo. It's all up to you to decide as your vision matures during the editing process. I wish you good spirit while doing this.

I have -at long last- reprocessed the original again. It sure looks different than the earlier one. I hope you also find it better. The edited one is below (within the same folder):http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8358860

Thank very much again for your comments and suggestions.

Regards,