Bath

[jessea]

Elbeardoropose your shots about the first one for a challenge and you'll see what people can do about this grey sky(if there is anything to do with it...)
I like your pictures but they seem kind of "muddy":if you have uploaded directly to PHOTOCAMEL with that size,there is a loss of resolution.So,compare it to your original picture to check that.
It's better to upload your pictures to www.upl.co and give the link in your post:they'll appear really as they are.

[ElBeardo]

What a difference a day makes, today has been quite a learning experience and I am very grateful to the people who have been helping especially Martin. I have to admit to being quite sceptical about the Preset Martin sent me but I gave it a go. The result I obtained from that when I just used it straight was quite dark and grey but I could see the possibilities. I then had another go and all I had to do was tweak a couple of sliders, mainly the Gamma and Shadows, to get the result attached. Now I have to agree that it is more than 100% better than my first attempt. In this one I didn't have any problems with the sky it is as came out of Photomatix with a few tweaks in Photoshop.

For other novices some of the things I have picked up today include:-

1. All of the sliders in Photomatix have an effect on your image, when I first started I read somewhere only to bother with about 6 of the sliders. So don't believe all you read
2. There is a set of Presets provided by this group which I have now downloaded and will look and see whether or not I like any of them.
3. As a by-product of 2 I learnt that OS Lion has hidden the library file into which the Presets go and spent some time on the net before I found how to reveal it.
4. Another tip from Martin make noise removal / sharpening your last step, not first as I was doing.
5. Get somebody else to check that your images are straight!!
6. This is a very helpful group.

Although the new image is tons better are there any further improvements I can make?

Again many thanks for the help, I had now better go and do what I was suppose to be doing today.

Elbeardo

[Stiga]

Originally Posted by ElBeardo

What a difference a day makes,
.........................
Again many thanks for the help, I had now better go and do what I was suppose to be doing today.

..........

Progress! Hurrah

Martin

P.S. Have you calibrated your monitor? I suspect that all your images are a bit pale but let's see what other people think

[ElBeardo]

Thanks for that Martin will check calibration

ElBeardo