Yellow House in Pulau Ubin

[Occellatus]

This 'yellow house' was taken in Pulau Ubin. Was cycling my way to Chek Jawa when I passed by this colourful single storey house which immediately drew my attention to. Everything about it contained colours. The plastic water bottles, the windmill etc. I wanted to potray the strong colours, especially the yellow at the frontage of the home. Ive included the 2 zinc hoardings at the sides of the photo to show how the 'dull' path eventually leads to the bright 'yellow' home.

This photo was taken while I was still on my bicycle. Cam was hanging by my neck. Was sweating and did not have a drop of water left in my water bottle. It was also warm and humid but this home just made me forgot about the high slopes and weather for a moment.

I did a saturation for the different colours, emphasizing on the yellow. I also did a levels and curves adjustment to bring out the contrast. Some unsharp mask was also done to sharpen the image. I like the final product but I feel that it is alittle noisy, perhaps due to the USM and also levels and curves adjustment.

Would like to know if:

1) Composition is ok?
2) Photo is too noisy?
3) Some degree of cropping necessary to bring out the yellow home?
4) Ways to improve the photo

Any C&C will be greatly appreciated.

[wxwayne]

I find the colours overly saturated.

[coolin]

i think i would have preferred a slightly tighter crop to exclude the trees in the background.
USM makes pictures noisy?

[ShyanL]

I am confused too.

USM is a hardware thingy should do anything about noise.
unless there is another meaning for USM..

Composition I thought the was not bad.
I thought maybe a bit of dodging and burning might helps a little bit.

My 2 cents

[Occellatus]

Thks bros wayne and coolin.....

Ive lowered the saturation so that the colours dont appear that strong. Also developed a tighter crop by removing the trees. Agree that it looks slightly better after the crop.



Bro Shyan...from what I've read up, doing unsharp masks increases the amount of grains. Texture becomes rougher and so the increase in noise level. At least thats what Ive read on the net. I also found that after doing the USM, it does look a little rougher on the texture, although sharper. Am I being led the wrong way?

Able to share a general what dodging and burning is bro?

[coolin]

oh i thought you ment ultrasonic motor when you said USM.
i think thats what Shyanl thought too.
why dont you try this method of sharpening?
http://www.nyfalls.com/article-photo...harpening.html
i read somewhere that it produces less or no noise.
i use it all the time

[coolin]

oh yeah, forgot to add that i prefer your cropped version

[zaren]

i prefer the original composition, as the zinc fences provide nice leading lines to your main subject, the yellow house. however, i find the colours way too saturated, so would suggest reducing the gamma and saturation to highlight the yellow house and to give the background colours more muted and deeper hues.

e.g.

[cheguthamrin]

I've posted a similar picture in Off to Ubin
See if you can spot the differences.

Anyway, while I dont think mine's perfect, I would have preferred you to get lower for the shot; never mind if you couldnt get the right fence into the frame like in the 2nd cropped version, which could have been cropped further, leaving the house more to the left and the fence on the right. The colours a bit tricky here, since the strong sunlight brings out the yellow house and the mudpath, but to darken it in crop #3 has only resulted in losing more details. Thats why I had gone lower for my shot so I cancelled out the brown mudpath leading towards the house.

Oh in fact I had done a little HDR for my pic.

[ShyanL]

Ah... okies..

I always assume USM as in USM for the lens =)
Ultra-Sonic Motor =P sorry

I was reading on magazine, some dodging and burning helps a few ways.

1. To improve the exposure of your photo and bring out detail
2. To direct your viewers attention through creative use of highlights and shadows
3. To create impact by adding dramatic highlights and shadows

just my 2 cents

[Occellatus]

Originally Posted by coolin oh i thought you ment ultrasonic motor when you said USM. i think thats what Shyanl thought too. why dont you try this method of sharpening? http://www.nyfalls.com/article-photo...harpening.html i read somewhere that it produces less or no noise. i use it all the time

Many thanks for the link bro. Will read up and try it!

Feel so ashamed that I mentioned Unsharp Mask as USM, which instead the short form means something else.

Originally Posted by zaren i prefer the original composition, as the zinc fences provide nice leading lines to your main subject, the yellow house. however, i find the colours way too saturated, so would suggest reducing the gamma and saturation to highlight the yellow house and to give the background colours more muted and deeper hues.

Thanks bro Zaren on the comments.

Originally Posted by cheguthamrin 13 - Yellow house

Bro Chegu, was surprised at how much it differed! You gave the house a 'low' look, as if you need to travel down to the house while mine is perfectly level without any depth! Your version definitely creates more attention! Now I understand the importance of composition! Thanks bro Chegu.

Originally Posted by ShyanL I was reading on magazine, some dodging and burning helps a few ways. 1. To improve the exposure of your photo and bring out detail 2. To direct your viewers attention through creative use of highlights and shadows 3. To create impact by adding dramatic highlights and shadows

I will experiment with doging and burning bro. Thanks so much for the explanation.

[Occellatus]

Originally Posted by coolin oh i thought you ment ultrasonic motor when you said USM. i think thats what Shyanl thought too. why dont you try this method of sharpening? http://www.nyfalls.com/article-photo...harpening.html i read somewhere that it produces less or no noise. i use it all the time

Did some reading up on high pass sharpening. Thought I would note it here to remind myself.

Unsharp Mask
Light pixels gets lighter, dark pixels get darker.
The greater the radius, the greater the halo effect that results from over-sharpening.
Works best on detailed areas of an image.
Increase graininess of smooth tones.

High Pass Filter
Suitable for images that contain a combination of both detail and smooth tones.
Avoids the problem of graininess on smooth tones.
Suitable for images such as landscapes with large areas of clouds