De-Construction along a new Super Highway in South India

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780_6508 | 2024-09-15.nef (32.9 MB)
780_6508 | 2024-09-15.nef.dop (18.3 KB)

India is going through the kind of construction that changed America not that long ago, with road construction, much of it for divided highways, expanding all over the country. Once the routes are decided, the work is ruthless - in this photo you can see where the highway is going to eventually be, but with a structure that was encroaching onto the land needed for the highway. The practice in India is not to demolish these old buildings, but just to “lop off” the part of the buildings that encroaches onto the needed land. I’ve been aware of this for years, and always found it sad to see the “front part” of a structure just ripped away, leaving the rest of the structure in place.

This also brings up a question - is the photograph “artistic” in any way, or just a useless photo that shows a lot of junk, without any redeeming qualities. To me, it’s part of life, transforming “the old” into “the new”, for better or worse - and I’ve been struggling for years to capture a photo that shows this in a way that I consider interesting. This is the first image that satisfied that desire, for me.

Sad, maybe, but part of the cost of “progress”.

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When I looked at this image again in the following morning, I thought that all the color goes against the theme of the image, “doom and gloom”. So, I recreated it with a small change in B&W.

Pretty blue sky, and pastel colors on the walls don’t “fit”, something that I never considered last night.

Anyway, the B&W image does a better job of showing what was in my mind, even if I didn’t realize it at the time.

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Are you getting version 8 Mike?

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I haven’t yet figured out what Version 8 will give me that Version 6 doesn’t already do. I suspect I’ll wait for the “Black Friday Sale”, if I decide to buy it. On the other hand, I don’t yet know much about Version 8 yet.

I think I need to improve “mike” the most, not the software.

I’m also concerned what will be “Brocken” if I upgrade from V6 to V8.
To answer your question, I don’t yet know the “if” or the “when”.

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You should at least download trial.
Sort of thought you would have being the most active poster on here and biggest user of PL by sheer number of photos you edit.

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Well, my thoughts are “if something ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

It’s a shame that I’m the most active poster on here - I’m always capturing images, and sending them out by email, and now I also post here. Why are other people being so… quiet? Posting here, and getting good feedback, is invaluable, as I see things. Maybe other are so good they don’t need or want feedback, or maybe they’re worried that others won’t like their images? I dunno. I’d like to capture one image every day, that I like.

To me, the way to get better is to take a lot of photos, and get feedback (good or bad) on what I’ve done - or like the image above, the next morning I decided the color version was too “pretty” for what is a horrible scene.

I don’t think one photo a day is too much - probably too little, but why others are so quiet is beyond me.

I was just reading up on Lee Miller - here’s one of many web pages about her photography:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK1KUYTluTU

Of course, she was doing photography as a job, while many of us are doing photography as a hobby. But constantly working at it, and improving, and finding new things to photograph - fascinating to me. The closest I can come is to wear my camera as if it was part of my clothing, and to always be on the lookout for a suitable photograph just begging to be taken.

This forum - it’s a huge melting pot, as PhotoLab is one of, if not THE, best photo processing software available. DxO provided this forum so we can post our work, using their products. The “Share your images and Chat” forum should be exploding with new images every day… IMHO.

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Can’t say I agree about the incongruity of the colours in your colour version. Indian colours don’t fit our (predominantly European) sensitivity, but you go into any Indian or Pakistani restaurant in London and they will jar just as much as they do in India. The colours are stronger and more contrasty than we are used to - at least, than I am, having visited India only once.
While your mono version tells the story of the partly demolished home (one hopes the owner was properly compensated) you can’t see how freshly the earth has been ploughed up; and it isn’t as clearly in India.
My $0.02
On the upgrade question, FWIW, I have reprocessed all my 2024 BIF keepers in PL8 and found nothing broken in comparison with PL7. I remove all the previous versions as I upgrade, so can’t give an answer about upgrade from PL6.

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I’ve been traveling to/from India since 1984, and while I’m mostly used to the colors by now, I’m still puzzled as to which is better, the color version or the B&W.

Yes, the previous owners are compensated for the loss of the structures. Presumably the new owners get a greatly reduced cost for the remains of the structure. So for the rest of you, do you prefer color or b&w ?

One major “oops” in what I wrote since only the part of the structure intruding into the land for the new highway was removed, I thought the remaining part of the building would soon come down. Not so. People purchase what’s left of these buildings, and modify into a new structure that does not protrude into the land for the highway.

Thank you; now I’m no longer sure which is “more” appropriate, color, or b&w.

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For me, the “wrongness” of the colours in the colour version makes it my favourite.

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I’m constantly learning new things, almost every day. I “expected” most people to prefer the b&w version, but the “wrongness” apparently makes the color version more powerful.

Me? I don’t know what’s “right” or “wrong”, I just deal with what I see, and India splatters my brain with a never ending display of color, nothing like the sedated colors I’ve grown up with. To me, b&w is “safe”, and the image will sink or swim based on composition and interest, but the color in India forces itself onto my brain, like it or not.

I’m surprised, but I need to think on this some more. India puts steroids into the colors, and I’m forced to react. In b&w, that’s not the case. Thank you for getting my to start wondering more about all this color, and how to deal with it.

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Why?

I ought to make up a list of what it will give me that I don’t already have, and then evaluate how much I need/want those tools or improvements.

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You’ve overdone the editing. That’s why the colors are so strange. Blue is clipping awfully. And have your sensor cleaned.
Just some corrections with the Tone tool.

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George

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I double-clicked on the .nef image, which opened it for editing in Nikon NX Studio. Then I did a screen capture:

Screenshot 2024-09-23 at 07.54.53
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The deeper blue sky is nicer from the Nikon NX Studio software, some parts that I lightened are still too dark in Nikon NX version, along with other corrections. I prefer my edited version, as it looks on my screen. I’ll have to think about this some more.

Feeling frustrated, I went back to the original image in PhotoLab, and adjusted the settings so the “blown out” colors you noted were corrected. I added a bit of space at the top and bottom, simply to allow me to tell which version I was looking at.

Here’s the result, hopefully having made the corrections you pointed out.

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Regarding the sensor, the D780 is supposed to clean the sensor every time I turn the camera off or on (my choice). I’ll try that manually.

Regarding the colors, both the building colors and the sky color look “better” to me in the version I just edited, based on your suggestions. The sky is back to looking deeper blue, and the building looks more like what I (vaguely) remember.

Here’s my .dop file:
780_6508 | 2024-09-15.nef.dop (36.2 KB)

Not sure if it makes any difference, but I’m editing in PL6. You probably have a newer version. Thanks for the feedback - from now on I will try to remember to check my colors in PhotoLab before uploading. Hopefully this newer version will also look acceptable on your screen.

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Why not 30 days give it a go not obliged to purchase.

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Specifically, what will it do for me that I can’t already do right now?

If I install it on this MacBook Pro laptop, when I want to start PhotoLab, will I then have a choice as to which version to open?

If I decline to purchase it, and remove it, will my current version continue to work exactly like it does now?

I suspect the safest way to do this, would be to install PL8 on a different computer, for testing purposes only.

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Photo Joseph who you quote often has a myriad of DXO 8 instructional videos out already.

You often said he’s one of the best you should have a peek at them

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Will do! Thank you for the update.

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The “Image sensor cleaning” function causes the sensor to vibrate to shake off dust. (However, there is a risk that the dirt will get stuck somewhere else in the housing).

Real sensor cleaning goes much further. Here, sensor cleaning swabs and liquid are used. Thousands of explanations and videos can be found on the Internet.

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But the bottom line is, if you are not totally confident with poking around in your camera with the lens off, simply don’t. Take it to a repair shop.

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Yes, of course! I just wanted to explain the difference between the “sensor shaker” and real sensor cleaning.

In addition, specialist stores often offer free sensor cleaning on certain occasions, such as sales fairs, new product launches and the like.