Winter flight: Nirvana SUL & Ozone

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[chilese]

Darren,

I did not correct anyone. I merely presented information on how a photo would look using a different approach and suggested he check it out.

If he is aware of it already, he can ignore my suggestion. Many people do.

If he is not aware of it, he will have found an additional way to look at a photo in the future.

In either case, he will end up with the photo being the way he wants it to.

I'm not claiming to be the greatest post-processing guru on the planet or even this Forum. There are several professional photographers (past and present), yourself included who frequent this Forum.

But one of the reasons this Forum exists is to exchange ideas and options on how we do things, whether it's perfecting a trick, playing with a photo or movie, or figuring out which Apple product is good or bad.

If I have been offensive on this subject at any point to Svolazzo, please show me where. Did I come across as all high'n'mighty with a Level Adjust suggestion with example?

I'm done. Interesting though. Love the veils on Lisa. She looks hot. Maybe subtle is good. 

[mikenchico]

I can see where John saw the photo as a little flat, it is. That may have been the artist's intention, or it may have been a product of the overcast day. An automatic histogram stretch places it somewhere between the original post and John's retouch and brings out some detail in the clouds and adds a little contrast by bringing out the full range of shades and is independant of the platform your working on since you are making no interpretations or decisions other then that the photo contains 1 pure white pixel and 1 pure black pixel somewhere so you don't muss things up.

For those who may not know the function of a histogram stretch it finds the whitest pixel in a photo and makes it a pure white and the blackest pixel in the photo and makes it a pure black then adjusts all the shades between up or down from a neutral point thus giving the photo a full range of shades rather then a flat feeling like it was shot in the fog.

I often play with other peoples pictures, for my own use, many times it's to take out overdone adjustments if I see them detracting from what I imagine the original was, or to balance pictures possibly adjusted on an unbalanced monitor and now having an unatural color cast, or to correct photo's done on an Apple to balance them correctly to my PC's. Unless I've been asked to they never see it.

I'll also confess if it was my picture I probably would've taken some of the same steps as John did before publishing it, I like them to "Pop" too. Overcast days or fog often recieve that histogram stretch treatment. The artist may have had a different interpretation as suggested.

Remember too John works on an older Apple and they often render .jpgs darker then PC's hence the washed out sky, loss of any detail in the clouds, and glare off the pilot in his version, might look fine on his screen.

[Svolazzo]

First of all, thanks everybody for al your kind comments, and about the great option to vote my pic for the next calendar.....you would make me extremely happy and proud 
About Photoshop optimization, maybe I used a slightly improper word (maybe my not optimized english    )
however, I didn't made any level or whatever else correction on it, but I posted just as my camera (nikon d70s with 70/300 zoom on) shot it. The only work I did was to correct the tilt, indeed the original one featured the sea on the background very tilted so I rotated the picture and cloned the sand, the sea and the sky to have the sea perfectly orizontal.
The pic was shoot in the evening of a cloudy and grey day, so I can understand that somebody may want to give it more light and life to the colours.
What Chilese did was simply an option to have a different light on the pic and I don't feel any offense in this, you may like the "leveled" one or the original (untouched) one: it's only your choice 
I did't thought to adjust level but now I'm going to play with them, even though I'm not a Photoshop expert, just to see what I will pull out.

[fidelio]

obi, nah, john and i fly together every week, always having a fun time. he knows i have great reverence and respect for he and his collection of photos. this doesn't mean i'll always agree with him though. i'm sure next time we fly we'll have a chuckle about my preposterous rendition.

in this particular case, to me, there's message which is washed away when you brighten the image up, and it moves from being a great photograph, to being a great kite photo. the way svolazzo presented the image, it has more substance.

to each his own.

john, why so serious? didn't mean to bug you pal, seriously.
svolazzo, i'm sorry your thread was hijacked, and i love your picture.

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