Processing

Also off-piste to the point where I am at in the course, I had a dabble with some processing using the ViewNX software provided by Nikon.

In the first picture of the Kew Gardens Palm House, I changed the white balance from its recorded value of cloudy to shade; this improved the lighting immediately.  I then enhanced the contrast to create a greater distinction between the clouds and light.  I then swapped the colour booster to nature (it was set to people) and increased the intenstiy, so that the raw sienna shining through on the left hand side was brighter.  I really like the effect now and the contrast between the sallow tones of the scene and the warmth of the sunlight shining through.  I didn't realise until I'd done this that the original was so blue!

Processed

Original

With the next picture, the same thing happened: when I changed the white balance from cloudy to shade, the colours immediately became warmer.  So, lesson learnt here, when the sky is truly overcast, the shade white balance will work better.  I then found that by changing the contrast to about 3/4 of the way towards the max, the colours improved again, and the picture became more abstract as the background branches lost their density.  Finally, as above, I switched the colour scheme to nature and increased the colour booster.  I then converted the file to a JPEG and sharpened the image to the maximum and enhanced the green to the maximum, left the red where it was and brought the blue right down (this is the image I prefer of the four).  Finally, I saved a fourth version and applied the oil painting effect; although this is an application to be used sparingly!  This would have been a good subject to have got up close with a macro lens to, but the weather was so awful this was just a quick point and shoot image before I left.  The dark branch in the centre of the image is a bit problematic - although it adds dimension to the photo, it looks as if it is poking out towards the viewer; I should have taken more time with the shot and found a better view; the bark is so pretty!

Original

NX edit

JPEG edit

JPEG oil painting