Step back in time.

[whippet]

I suppose this may qualify, but not too sure.

Picture taken with my Canon. (I think I shall start using it again.)

Looks better enlarged.

[pontiac1940]

Horse and carriage nice and sharp. Think I'd prefer it without the white lines and just a sold frame border and possibly cropped a titch tighter.

Clive

[Bailey]

Hi whippet,

I really like the way you have split the scene into 3 distinct sections.

But 2 minor things I find a little distracting.

1.  The white border to the right of the horse and cart encroaches into the green border frame at the top.  It tends to pull my eyes away from the horse and cart which is the main element of the scene. Perhaps consider trimming the white border back to just meeting the green frame.

2.  Now this is just one of my "pet hates" - crooked images  .  I know you can slant images to create a visual effect, but your image is only slightly slanted and so if a visual effect was your intention, unfortunately it doesn't quite work for me. But that's just me  .  Perhaps also consider using PSE's Straightening Tool to make the flag/light/whatever pole on the right vertical which will then hopefully make the brick structures on the left of the image straight and vertical as well.  See if you prefer the straightened or current slanted version.

Finally, on my screen the sky looks a little washed out.  If it does on your screen as well, I suspect just lowering the highlights masking out everything except the sky (or maybe the gravel ground as well) will bring back some more detail to the sky since I can see a little bit of blue on my screen.

Anyway, a really nice scene and framing and just my 2c worth and food for thought 

[whippet]

Thank you both for your interesting comments.

This was another first. It is supposed to be 'Creating a Painted Triptych frame'.

Actually Bailey, I added that bit of white at the top later, but couldn't get the same effect that other parts have.

I agree about the sky, but I was only interested to see if I could do that painted effect.

Regarding the slant image. As far as I know, there was/is nothing I can do about that.

That is how it is in the original photo.

Also, with this particular tutorial, the photo is kept entire, and the paint effects done on top of it.

The white paint work was not meant to be straight, level, even.

The green pole on the right, supports the overhead tram lines.

I can't see how using the straightening tool would work, as the whole is one solid picture.

I will try your suggestion about the sky, bailey, I am sure it will improve the image.

Again, thanks to you both.

Forgot to mention. That is on a hill, maybe that is why it looks crooked.

[fotofrank]

Hi Whippet,

First of all your work is getting Better and Better and I am very glad you are attempting new takes on images.

If you open that image in Camera raw, you can use the level tool to adjust the image, While your still in camera raw you can adjust the highlights and shadow along with anything else that is available on the sliders. Just keep in mind that with elements camera raw is not a filter(at least in 14), so it's a one time shot.



I hope this helps, looking forward to see more of your work.

[whippet]

That is amazing Frank, I would not have believed it possible. This one makes my picture really look as if it is tilting.

[Major Major]

Whippet -

This was done with PSE 15's straighten tool (set to "remove background"):

[Bailey]

Jul 16, 2018 13:33:31 GMT whippet said:

Thank you both for your interesting comments.

This was another first. It is supposed to be 'Creating a Painted Triptych frame'.

Actually Bailey, I added that bit of white at the top later, but couldn't get the same effect that other parts have.

I agree about the sky, but I was only interested to see if I could do that painted effect.

Regarding the slant image. As far as I know, there was/is nothing I can do about that.

That is how it is in the original photo.

Also, with this particular tutorial, the photo is kept entire, and the paint effects done on top of it.

The white paint work was not meant to be straight, level, even.

The green pole on the right, supports the overhead tram lines.

I can't see how using the straightening tool would work, as the whole is one solid picture.

I will try your suggestion about the sky, bailey, I am sure it will improve the image.

Again, thanks to you both.

Forgot to mention. That is on a hill, maybe that is why it looks crooked.

No problem whippet

I see you have got plenty of other good advice and ideas in this thread.

The easiest way I know to check the straightness of an image is to turn on the grid display - View -> Grid in menu. You can adjust the grid spacing in Edit -> Preferences (I'm using PSE 14)

With grid display on, you can see the image is not straight.

Here I opened your original image in ACR and adjusted the exposure, highlights, blacks and clarity sliders to do some basic global edits. Then in PSE I used the Straighten Tool to straighten the image and lightened the shadows on the horse & cart, trees and brick pillars using a mask.

I would also normally use a Levels Adjustment layer to set the black, white and grey points which I haven't done here because I think they are pretty close to correct and the sky in the top right hand corner needs tidying up.

So hopefully this shows that you can first edit a photo to get it looking the way you want and then apply any frames or arty things you like to it.

Hope this helps

[whippet]

I am going to enjoy myself with this now.

Don't think I will play around with the colours so much though, bailey. Yours are too vivid for my taste. (Especially the yellow).

[Bailey]

No problem whippet 

Because everyone's screen settings are most probably different, the colours and saturation you see on your screen are probably a little different to what I see on my screen.