Favorite photo from first tumble

[mobydickulous]

Just getting back into tumbling after 30 years, inspired by my 5 year old’s love of rocks. I’ve unexpectedly gotten excited about capturing photos of our finished pieces. This is my favorite photo of our favorite rock from our first batch.

I’ve been experimenting with post-processing adjustments and can’t decide if I like it or not. Would be interested to hear what you all prefer.

Raw photo



With a little post-processing

[pebblesky]

Different lights change how a rock looks drastically and both of your photos are legit representations, maybe the latter a bit oversaturated. I would really appreciate higher resolution pictures that are not severely compressed by cloudinary though.

[vegasjames]

The post processing does bring out the color more, but so can proper lighting during the photo. I learned a trick from a professional photographer a long time ago. He old me when taking a photo that was backlit, such as people with the sun behind them, to use the flash even though it is daylight. This way the flash filled the shadowing in, from the backlighting, with light.

In your photo, I can see the front is somewhat well lit over most the face, but you can see clear shadowing near the top of the stone. So, maybe work more on proper lighting on the face of the stone.

Also experiment with the camera settings to make sure the lighting source selection (sunlight, cloudy, fluorescent, etc) is the best choice for the lighting available. We generally just point and shoot and don't bother with making camera adjustments for different situations.

[iamchris]

I'm more of a fan of the more natural looking one. I also agree that either would also shine more if not heavily compressed. Flickr and Imgur are good free options. Either way, thanks for sharing and I look forward to your future shots!

[mobydickulous]

Thanks for the input! Here they are on Flickr (with the progression of the rest of the batch) - www.flickr.com/gp/200832473@N02/hJuxxH7q01

[rockjunquie]

I downloaded the pic and tweaked it. I removed the heavy color cast and lightened some of the shadowy areas. Then I just barely bumped up the white balance. I know that post production often needs to be done, but the less the better. I use Adobe Elements.

[pebblesky]

Jun 9, 2024 16:39:13 GMT -5 mobydickulous said:

Thanks for the input! Here they are on Flickr (with the progression of the rest of the batch) - www.flickr.com/gp/200832473@N02/hJuxxH7q01

They look so much better in resolution and saved my eyes. You can always directly post photos from flickr:

[iamchris]

I'm seriously impressed you did this for your first tumble. Making me feel lazy! I love seeing the progression. Thank you!