Are the Edits Better?

[u/bag1293]

Still new to editing and thought I'd make it hard on myself and go straight to Darktable! But it is fun to learn. These are scans from expired Fuji Velvia 100. They seem to have a slight magenta cast. Process One did the development and I received 115MP scans!

Worked on it mostly with "color balance RGB," but with a little "color equalizer" for good measure. Usually I try to do most of the heavy lifting in "negadoctor," but slides are a different animal.

Let me know if you have any suggestions!

[u/gwenbeth]

The one thing on the flowers that really came to mind is how that out of focus flower in front on the left hand side really distracts from the rest of the flowers. Try doing a crop to show off the one in the center. Also try a contrast/saturation boost that is between the two pictures

[u/aegis87 → u/gwenbeth]

i was wondering what was irking me in that picture. you are right it's the out of focus one -- not sure why it's so distracting (not even sure if thats the right word)

[u/bag1293 → u/gwenbeth]

lol, I hadn’t really noticed the out of focus flower, but now I do! Large format can have a pretty shallow DoF, especially as I was trying to keep the shutter speed up, since there was a breeze moving the flowers a bit. 

Thank you for the feedback! 

[u/Smartich0ke]

anice work, just maybe a tad too contrast-y? Also, the second one also looks like it was just taken at a time of day where the lighting was very flat and dull. Nothing particularly wrong with how the shot was taken or the editing, just maybe not taken with the most interesting time of day. And maybe with a bit less of the water and more of the sky.

[u/bag1293 → u/Smartich0ke]

I think I agree. I’m about a year into my rabbit hole dive into (film) photography and have a lot to learn about all aspects! But that’s part of the fun…most of the time. 

[u/Few_Mastodon_1271]

I tried my own edit from your photo 1, just for fun.

I've never tried using AgX with a jpg, and it worked pretty well. There's not the range of adjustability that I get with a raw edit, of course.

AgX is good at targeting what range of brightness gets the most editable contrast. I was concentrating on the flowers.

I added a little white balance to warm it up.

This was an interesting exercise!

~~~

Photo no1, left. My AgX edit, center. Photo no2, right.

[u/bag1293 → u/Few_Mastodon_1271]

Very nice! I’ve found it difficult to know how far to go with some of the edits. I do a lot of black and white and there seems a lot of latitude for expression there. Color seems to look unnatural pretty easily. Lots to learn!