Too much editing?? Looks Fake?

[mjh]

So trying to learn more about editing software, still have no clue about “layers”. Went w/Jasc Paint Shop Pro9. So here is a before and after shot. The first straight from the camera. Does the second shot look realistic? What would you do different?

 

[baitedstorm]

Hey, coming from someone who know barely anything about photo shopping a pic, looks real to me..

 

[Chris Bangs]

Hey, coming from someone who know barely anything about photo shopping a pic, looks real to me..

just a bit over saturated, back off on that a bit, not a biggie, I just try to make the shots look as natural as possible. the most common overediting problem I see is over sharpening and this is not the case with your shot.

a side note for printing I have found that pumping up the saturation helps a bit, looks too saturated on the screen but prints more like the real thing

chris

 

[Jetwrench]

mjh, I like the pic and by all means it looks real. Like Chris said, just a little less might actually be more. M2C. I'll beat you to Bonaire by 40 days

Good advice, Chris. I am probably guilty of both, trying to make a shot what it is not. Filed for future reference.

Jet

 

[Charlie99]

I'm often guilty of overcorrecting. A good test for this is to stack the two versions on top of each other and fade back and forth between them. In this case, it looked best to me about 40% new, 60% original.

Too a large extent, it just personal preference.

 

[mjh]

"Stack them on top of each other and fade back and forth"!???? Ok, I am waaaay out of my league here; have no idea how to do that. As I look at it the color is to saturated, also don't like the color of the background. Have to learn how to tweak subject and background separately

 

[Chris Bangs]

"Stack them on top of each other and fade back and forth"!???? Ok, I am waaaay out of my league here; have no idea how to do that. As I look at it the color is to saturated, also don't like the color of the background. Have to learn how to tweak subject and background separately

tweaking stuff separately, is more advanced and time consuming, and if done incorrectly will really make the shot look over edited

 

[fpoole]

I find on saturation and contrast, I usually slide the adjustment over and then back off 50%... if I see the difference at 10, I'll reduce it to 5 and that seems to be "My Sweet Spot"....
It's a matter of taste, but that usually puts it there. It's easy to over due. happens all the time and I'm guilty as the rest of them..

 

[DesertEagle]

This example isn't bad. I'm not as happy when I see water that looks gray because someone wanted to take all the blue out.

 

[dbg40]

I dont know nothin about art. I just know what I like, It's awesome! I wish that I had learned photography. I enjoy looking at the pix I find here. Keep it up!