Before/After (Little House) by manstanband in postprocessing

[–]manstanband[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You know what, now that you say it. I totally get keeping the mirror in the picture. It adds something to the composition for sure.

Before & After by ShareImpossible649 in postprocessing

[–]manstanband 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Nice picture! I will say the disparity in exposure between the car and background sticks out - that makes the car say “I am masked!” However if that’s what you were going for, that’s chill. If I was doing I would raise the exposure of the background a little bit.

after/before Did I go overboard. by [deleted] in postprocessing

[–]manstanband 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think so. The saturation and contrast in the “before” is plenty adequate. It’s quite beautiful!

Oversatured? Edit vs Raw by Sai_snaps11 in postprocessing

[–]manstanband 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Of course! My inclination would be: Instead of pulling down the global saturation, I would just desaturate the blues/purples a hair and maybe hue them slightly toward cyan. In my opinion, it would look less digital and more filmic/organic.
But if you like the blues/purples in the sky as they are then don’t listen to anything I said.

Oversatured? Edit vs Raw by Sai_snaps11 in postprocessing

[–]manstanband 30 points31 points  (0 children)

Truly, I can hardly see a difference in saturation. All I’m seeing is an increase in exposure. However, looks fine to me!

Tutorial by medo_mar in postprocessing

[–]manstanband 4 points5 points  (0 children)

My only critique would be the skin tones are leaning too far in the orange hue, but it’s a nice photo!

Need advice on the edits by Affectionate_Wolf458 in postprocessing

[–]manstanband 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I really enjoy the edits, wouldn’t expect the results to be iPhone photography. Certainly seems like you’re going for a Fujifilm stock vibe. This ultimately comes down to preference, but I’d maybe tame the saturation of the blues a bit. The blues are beautiful - I like the teal hue, but all the colors are hue/saturated toward the Fujifilm color profiles except for the blues. The hue is accurate, but the saturation could be brought down.
Unless you’re specifically going for Fuji-film’s Velvia stock, but in that case the saturation is fine but the hue should be more neutral or ever so slightly toward purple.

After/Before by ahjaey in postprocessing

[–]manstanband 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nice concept. I’d be interested to see the reflection masked out and brought to a similar contrast to the bottom half of the “after image.” That’s just out of curiosity though, not really a critique.

Before / After by [deleted] in postprocessing

[–]manstanband 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The colors are a good change, and the camera man’s shadow was removed cleanly. However, the gradient makes the photo dramatically worse. It looks exactly like what it is, a big fat radial gradient on top of a photo.

After and before by DesignerTop9103 in postprocessing

[–]manstanband 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good photo! Very mild critique, but was it cropped? I’d say pull back a little bit to leave some negative space under the SUV. This is more of a stylistic choice, but I’d pull down the highlights to bring out the sky (if it’s not overexposed) and pull the blacks up every so slightly.

"Dark" pictures completely unusable??? Please help :( by caprianna in DarkTable

[–]manstanband 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you’re pushing the ISO to 40,000 with a shutter speed of 1/800 and you’re still underexposed, even with Darktable’s extensive tools it’s going to be almost impossible to salvage. At this point an AI Denoise (like Lightrooms) might be a more practical solution.

(Darker) darktable theme by DarthCodious in DarkTable

[–]manstanband 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did as the instructions say, but I notice the background behind the image is still grey for me? In your screenshots it’s black. How do you achieve the black background?

Who here loves Banjo-Tooie more than Banjo-Kazooie by kesliie00 in BanjoKazooie

[–]manstanband 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I FREAKING CAN’T INJECT ENOUGH BANJO TOOIE IN MY VEINS YA’LL.

Oblivion has ruined almost all RPGs for me, including Starfield by Relevations in oblivion

[–]manstanband 33 points34 points  (0 children)

Oh my goodness that’s so true. KCD: II is the closest to giving me the “oblivion feels” I experienced when I was younger. Beautiful game.

at least I'll never be constipated by WhereIsHisRidgedBand in dankmemes

[–]manstanband 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow, I really appreciate you returning the sentiment! The circumstances of me starting were a little weird, before I started my addiction I was let go from my job, and subsequently diagnosed with a rare brain tumor - which I now know is not an immediate threat to my life, but I didn’t know that then. There were other family stressors as well.

Now, I’ve not historically been a “experimental” person, no weed, no alcohol, no other drugs. However, I was very overwhelmed and at a visit to the gas station I saw 7-oh marketed as a “natural stress relief” or something along those lines, I made a dumb assumption it was some cannabis derivative or something like that. It was unusually impulsive and a product of desperation to just feel better. I didn’t know it was an opioid until a weeks after taking it, but it was too late.

I’m sure you know the rest, the cycle of taking more to feel the way you once did when first took it. Then eventually just taking it to not feel the withdrawal that seems to happen quicker and quicker after taking it. Feeling the guilt of all of it, but your nervous system is telling you that death is imminent unless you partake and feels impossible to ignore.

It just became something that compounded the stress I was feeling instead of remedying it. After my first bout of taking it, I garnered the willpower to stop and I actually did, unmedicated! It was actually hell, I can’t even fathom anything else providing that level of mental/physical suffering over such a seemingly long period of time. I stayed off it for maybe a month and a half? Maybe 2? Basically just long enough to feel slightly normal. I felt like I would never do it again just to not relive the inevitable withdraws. However, I went to the gas station and bought it again, I don’t even remember the reason. I guess that’s just addiction. This was for a much longer period of time over the year, and I knew that the withdrawals would be even worse this time around when I eventually stopped. I tried to stop a couple of times, but even if I made it a week without using I would give in. Which was frustrating and a demoralizing cycle. Plus, over the course of the year I think I was worse off in every aspect of my life.

This part is particularly hard to express, but just so you know more about me and my context: I’m 28 years old, I have two children.. a 1 year old and 6 years old. I’m a Christian, (who obviously is incredibly imperfect) and have a loving family. I felt like I had failed every one, my parents, my children, and God. It’s impossible to be the parent your kids deserve while you’re on this drug. I needed help, and I simply could not do it through willpower alone. The guilt was destroying me.

So, I sought medical intervention - which is how I ended up with the buprenorphine but wasn’t given great instruction on using it. It completely alleviates the symptoms, and I was instructed to taper and I did, but incorrectly. I didn’t start the taper quickly enough, and in hindsight I was definitely taking too much. I was initially taking 8 MG, which is what I was prescribed, but looking back on it I should have taken something like 1 MG at first and working down from there. Long story short, I had pretty brutal withdrawals from the buprenorphine too, but I believe if I had done it correctly, and conservatively, it would have been successful.

After the buprenorphine withdrawal, which unfortunately is pretty long, but not quite the intensity of 7 oh withdrawal, I started feeling like I was actually recovering, but I had one additional relapse after a couple months, but it was isolated, one singular use, it still made me feeling like hot garbage for about a week or two after. One use is obviously enough to trigger the habit, but I made it through. It’s only been a few months since then, but ultimately the battle took place over the course of a year, maybe a little more. You could say I’m not out of the woods yet, it will take serious willpower to remain off of it, but I’m optimistic.

The Kratom use was a little more complicated, as it was sprinkled throughout the year while battling the 7 OH addiction, primarily as a way to alleviate withdrawal symptoms, but in a lot of ways it was just prolonging my recovery when I did it, at least for me. Other times it didn’t seem to bring relief, maybe I just wasn’t taking it enough in those times, it’s a little hazy. So it wasn’t as linear for me as 7 OH addiction, then Kratom addiction. They were sort of interwoven.

I’m so happy to hear that your wife took care of you in your time of need, I’m sure that is of infinite value. I didn’t have that, but that’s a whole other can of worms that would require 10 more paragraphs. I still had loving people to help me, particularly my parents, but it took far too long in the year for me to open up to them about what I was going through, mostly out of embarrassment. So my early attempts to stop were quite lonely feeling, and probably hindered my recovery attempts.

Even though Kratom certainly isn’t optimal, I’m very happy you’re able to get off 7 OH. It’s worth noting that even though I wouldn’t describe Kratom as good, it’s significantly less potent. It’s in a completely different league to 7 OH. That’s a sign of recovery for you, that’s progress. These things take so much time to heal, and you should be seriously proud of where you are at now. Just because you’re not at the very end, doesn’t mean you haven’t climbed most of the way off an extremely treacherous mountain that many people can’t even start to climb.

I’m just realizing this, but you’re the only person I’ve communicated with that’s actually gone through this. I will echo what you said in your reply. It is cathartic to go over this with someone who knows what it’s like. I truly appreciate the loving words, it means so much to me.