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Hi everyone

Been playing and continuing my playing in Photoshop.... any thoughts on this streetcar in San Fran? I'm trying to convey the feeling of movement....

You've certainly got movement but I think it is a bit too stylised for me - however thats just my opinion and I'm sure there are people who prefer it this way.

I think you have several points of movment which makes it a little hard to look at unless you concentrate on the car rider who is in focus. You have captured a real arty pastel feel with your processing, it has made for an interesting image.

There is movement there, but It doesn't really suit this image. It looks like the tram is jumping the rails. Unless there has been a recent earthquake I don't know about.

I think it conveys movement, and I like it.

Looks like a drawing - very colourful.

It's obviously not the sort of PP you would use every day, but it works pretty well here.

You get a good feeling of movement for the background and it is good that the two people at the front of the tram are in focus and that the front of the tram is somewhat in focus. If you cropped just to the left of the woman it would work well for movement though not as a composition.

The problem with the back of the tram is that it seems to be undergoing a rapid molecular decomposition in the form of a little bang and that doesn't make sense in terms of the horizontal pan motion effect. It's OK that the people are blurred because that is like a depth of field effect but I think you need to stuff back into the tram the little bits of them that are flying out into the lunches of nearby people off the edge of the frame.

Probably requires combining with another image.

It certainly is different, and colourful.

Do I like it? The jury is still out.

<pedantic footnote> This is actually a cable car. San Francisco certainly has streetcars as well - there's a line that runs from near Fisherman's Wharf down to The Castro - but they're a totally different means of transport. </pedantic footnote>

I think it conveys movement, and I like it.
Looks like a drawing - very colourful.
It's obviously not the sort of PP you would use every day, but it works pretty well here.

The same here! The problem with the effects is that
they can be overdone. It has a very impressionistic style.

This should be printed on canvas LARGE! I am usually not a fan of this over the top processing, but this has a very painted feel to it. You have certainly captured the movement (and some) and produced an interesting and captivating image!

Hi everyone.....

Ive had a bit more of a play.... any thoughts?

I prefer the original image, the colours seem muted in comparison and it seems to have lost the dramatic impact that the first image has.

Hi Cameron.... think I agree.... and think I need to stop making 3 versions of each page in this photobook!!! Hope you are well. Cathy

I prefer the original as well. I wasn't suggesting you crop to the left, I was just using that as an illustration to point to different aspects of the image that might change or stay the same.

If you want to perservere, what I think might be worth trying is:

(1) Get the "motion blur" to go down the road in the direction of the tram, if you can vary that. Then it would look more like real motion blur (because that's the direction you would be panning in).

(2) In Photoshop, put the original image on a lower layer and adjust it to match the saturation and contrast of the surreal image. Align the two and also blur the original image to correspond with the rear passengers in the TRAM. Use a layer mask (on the top image) to paint in the rear figures in the tram from the original image as well as the bottom rail of the TRAM. You probably wouldn't do this to 100% but sufficiently to reduce the streaking going out from the tram. I think this would make it sufficiently realistic to be something of a puzzle, and thereby a more powerful image.

If you don't have Photoshop, the options will be different. I understand the current version of Elements has layers too, so you can probably do this there.

Lots of people have suggested I adjust the blur in the background of this image.... think lots of people think I put it in manually.... but its avtually just part of the photo.... Ive just adjusted the tone / saturation/ HDR effects.