In-Depth Critique Thread

[Morbid]

In-Depth Critique Thread

This thread is meant to be used to both improve your photographs and to increase your skill at giving critique.

Rules________________________________________
• Make an in-depth review and critique of the current image.

• Every photo will be critiqued for one day, but longer if there are no critiques.

• After one day the author of the image will choose who of the critics made the best critique and is allowed to post an image of theirs for in-depth critique.

• If the chosen person does not post a new picture in 3 days time, the author can choose someone else, or anyone may post a picture.
____________________________________________



Guidelines____________________________________
• Feel free to use images and links to make your point. Do not give praise or for the sake of it, always explain what is good/bad and why, and how it could be better.

• Refrain from posting over processed photos or manipulations, to focus on the photographic aspect and not the editing.

• Give a reasonable amount of information about the technical setup, reason for taking the photo and the goals you wanted to achieve both artistically and technically.
____________________________________________

[Gentile]

:O

Yay I'm so excited! Hehe.

Here's mine :] (digital)
http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs22/i/2008/022/a/f/A_Few_Flakes_by_xgentilex.jpg

[Morbid]

That's a hard picture for me to critique. I kind of like it but I'm not sure for what reasons. Its intruiging, I wonder what she's smiling at, she seems to be looking at the sign. Maybe she's just turning away out of shyness when she saw her picture was about to be taken.

Technically I think the contrast is pretty extreme, and so are the colors. If you would either lower the contrast a bit or lower the saturation I think it would be more pleasing to look at. I personally like contrast and vivid colors, but not so much both at once. Also I would like to see the face clearer, it blends in with the sky. The framing is unusual but nice, original choice to cut the upper part of her head. That sign to the left is bright red and serves as a sort of background and a counter weight.

I might add more later if I think of anything...

[Mr. Mu]

Morbid,

I would like to very much encourage the addition of another rule where the one who posts a photo has to give a reasonable amount of information about the technical setup, reason for taking the photo and the goals he/she wanted to achieve both artistically and technically.

Otherwise we'd be fishing in the dark, mostly, in my opinion.

[Morbid]

Thats a good idea, will do. I'll steal your wording if you don't mind. :)

I will leave Gentiles pic open for critique for a bit longer, if anyone else wants to add anything.

[purplerose]

I think you covered everything. :)

Hmm, not so much of a critique, but just an observation:

- This would look pretty cool in a photo essay about a day out or first snow or something.

[Morbid]

Ok then, since I was the only critic this time I will post an image. Hit me! :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/morbid30/IMG_8539_hund_vid_pool_20p.jpg

Tamron 17-50 2.8 @ 29mm, 1/640s, f/4.
Taken in Thailand. I wanted to use the curve of the edge of the pool as a leading line to give it some depth. The building in the back has been edited, it was bright purple and stood out too much. Thats my brother in the pool and the dogs name is Lisa.

[Gentile]

I like this picture a lot.
I like the contrast a lot.
The color of the dogs fur and the pool blue look really nice together.
It looks like your brother and the dog are looking in the same direction too, like they're both intrigued with something. Awesome. And it's pretty chill. Man and dog resting together :]

The leaves in the background are kind of distracting though. I keep looking at them. I wonder how it would look if they were photoshopped out?

[klips]

This photo is unbalanced for me, the two of them looking off to the right with no space to look into. It's kinda like having someone walking out of frame in a shot. Zoom out, move back, whatever, just get some more of the panorama in.

The leading line doesn't realy work, it actually led me out initially. The reflection of the pool ladder does, however, so that's kinda cool.

Finally, the background is too dark, it's almost distracting in the way that it's substantially different to the rest of the frame.

[Morbid]

Thanks Gentile and klips!

Klips: I see what your saying, I actually cropped out some space on the right so I could give it some more space there.
I can't say I agree with you on the background though, looking at the original it looks like I've darkened it a bit, and to me it's less distracting. Maybe it looks a bit unnatural though?

Here's a new crop. Tried to put the dog about a third in, made the crop a bit more panoramic to get rid of some plants and distracting stuff back there as Gentile mentioned.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/morbid30/IMG_8539_hund_vid_pool_crop2_20p.jpg

Thanks

[klips]

Digging it heaps more mate, the changed aspect ratio works really well! Also, the leading line now works, as it doesn't go out at the middle, it's more up the top by which time you're really into the pic.

[Morbid]

Yea me too, I think it works better this way.
Well, I guess your up for the next crit!

[klips]

Thanks mate.

For this shot I was really just aiming for an isolated model staring off into the distance, trying to make her look thoughtful/contemplative.

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g80/alphatoros/goldenupload-5.jpg

[someone]

I'm so horrible at critiquing :P

The first thing I noticed though, was that line right through the middle of the picture... it looks to me like it's coming out of her mouth and going to nowhere :-/

I do like though, how she's pretty much the only thing that has any colour... it really makes her pop out. (since the background is all mostly shades of black and grey and white...) I don't know if you did that on purpose or not, but I like it a lot

[Rhynome]

I agree with someone, who, I won't say, just... someone.

The colour aspect of it is brilliant, one's attention really is focused on the lady.

The line, however, is a shame, it may be remedied ever so slightly by cropping some off the bottom of the photo, that would put the line lower down in the picture and so less central and less prominent. Alas that if there were to be croppage then it would ruin the image of the lady almost entirely.

So I believe this is just a case of empirical learning; look, then look again! Hopefully the same thing won't happen in the future.

[Morbid]

I like the framing, and the fact that she is facing and looking into the light. The composition is nice aswell with lots of space. She doesnt look exactly like shes contemplating, she has a slight smile instead of that totally expression-less face you have when deep in thought.

I somewhat agree with someone and Rob about the line, but I also think it converges with the line at the bottom and the direction in which shes looking. Like so:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/morbid30/temp/goldenupload-5_lines.jpg


The image has a calm atmosphere. I think that mood is ruined a bit by the busy bokeh, I dont know if you used your biggest aperture or not, but if you would have opened up a stop it wouldve been less busy. It can be fixed in photoshop with a little work, here I made an example for you.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/morbid30/temp/goldenupload-5_bokeh.jpg

I used the quick selection tool to select her head, inverted the selection and contracted a few pixels, 3 px I think. I then made the selection into an alpha channel and used the lens blur filter on the alpha channel, masking out her head.

[someone]

That blurring also reduces that pesky line so that it's not noticeable too! wahoo :D

[Mr. Mu]

excellent demonstration, Morbid!

[klips]

Thankyou everyone for your crits, it's something that was unsettling me but I didn't know it until it was pointed out. Morbid, I think I'm going to have to give it you again, stop being such a good/consistent/awesome critter!

[Morbid]

Smoking hot, right out of Photoshop!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/morbid30/IMG_8455_munkgrotta_20p.jpg

Another one from Thailand.
Dark cave, iso800, 19mm, f/2.8, 1/13s, handheld.

[purplerose]

Hah, I made it on time this time... :p You guys are too fast for me.

-Really nice color in this image that's not overwhelming.
-You made a seemingly "touristy" shot a step above and somewhat interesting.

-It has a nice composition. I only wish the bookshelf/cabinet thingy wasn't there (which is totally unavoidable). You could crop it out, but that would mean cutting off the table even further.
-Referring to the last bit, the cut off table edge is distracting to me. Was it possible to step back a little?

-Very nice tonal range, if I may add so again. :)

-Just a little nit-picky, but I would heal the small area of white powder on the floor near the mat.

-Attached a somewhat reasonable crop:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/dazzgeist/New%20CA/cahelpmorbid.jpg


Edit: Hmm, I wonder how this would have looked like as a panorama to add more space to the right, making the cabinet thing fit in with the picture more.

[Rhynome]

I think the sideboard adds something to the photo, something somewhat surreal. The problem is, however, that it's almost impossible to look at, every time I try and look over to it I get distracted by the Buddha via the table.

I understand what the Rose means by she wishes it weren't there. In my opinion it's a really interesting thing and if it could be included in the photo then all the better, but it seems like the outcast of the photo, unnatural to look at (in terms of composition) and so unfairly dismissed.

A shame really, because the colours truly are fantastic.
This is my little crop of it, I cropped out the red a little, which could be seen as a bit of a shame, but I'm going to be stubborn and say that the Green and the Blue mats complement each other better without the red! [Or not]

http://www.robert.cometblue.com/images/conceptart/challenge%20others/munkgrotta-c.jpg

[Morbid]

Hah, I made it on time this time... :p You guys are too fast for me.

-Really nice color in this image that's not overwhelming.
-You made a seemingly "touristy" shot a step above and somewhat interesting.

-It has a nice composition. I only wish the bookshelf/cabinet thingy wasn't there (which is totally unavoidable). You could crop it out, but that would mean cutting off the table even further.
-Referring to the last bit, the cut off table edge is distracting to me. Was it possible to step back a little?

-Very nice tonal range, if I may add so again. :)

-Just a little nit-picky, but I would heal the small area of white powder on the floor near the mat.

-Attached a somewhat reasonable crop:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/dazzgeist/New%20CA/cahelpmorbid.jpg


Edit: Hmm, I wonder how this would have looked like as a panorama to add more space to the right, making the cabinet thing fit in with the picture more.

Thank you rose!
I agree on most of your critique, but I feel that I must explain a little more about my intention with the photo.

The clutteredness of the photo, showing the powder on the floor, candles and books is intentional, because I wanted to show that this is a place that is used for prayers and meditation, rather than an old abandoned cave. I think it would look better at a larger size, because then you would be able to see the items more closely, and study them.

I agree that the cabinet is a little distracting, though I have a version without it and I somehow prefered this version. Again, the bookshelf is a sign of the activity and study that is going on here at times.

I also think your right about the cut of table, should have zoomed out a few mm to include it.

Good crit, thanks!

[Morbid]

I think the sideboard adds something to the photo, something somewhat surreal. The problem is, however, that it's almost impossible to look at, every time I try and look over to it I get distracted by the Buddha via the table.


Yes, I think so too. It feels like something out of a game like Morrowind: Oblivion.


I understand what the Rose means by she wishes it weren't there. In my opinion it's a really interesting thing and if it could be included in the photo then all the better, but it seems like the outcast of the photo, unnatural to look at (in terms of composition) and so unfairly dismissed.


Yes... maybe if I burned it a bit to make it more a part of the background. I wish I would have included a bit more to the right as Purplerose said to give it some space and make the placement feel less akward.


A shame really, because the colours truly are fantastic.
This is my little crop of it, I cropped out the red a little, which could be seen as a bit of a shame, but I'm going to be stubborn and say that the Green and the Blue mats complement each other better without the red! [Or not]

http://www.robert.cometblue.com/images/conceptart/challenge%20others/munkgrotta-c.jpg

I like that crop. Maybe sacrificing the red mat has to be done for the good of the photograph. But the more I look at it the more I wish I had left some more room to the right. Though now the red cabinet stands out more because its so red, with no counter weight to the left. Maybe that makes it more distracting?

Thanks for the crit Rob. I will make a new version based on your crits!

[Rhynome]

That point about the colour counterweight seems really interesting; it would make sense, though there were obviously other factors pushing the cabinet out of the way [the fact that the red at the front of the table is just very prominent, that the table is large itself, that it's weighted more towards the Buddha (especially considering the V shape of it), etc.]

Maybe it's something we should test?

[Morbid]

Yes, the table looks very big. By cropping away the edge it will be less prominent. But I want to keep as much of the surface as possible, beacuse it helps with the perspective and gives some of the wide-angle lens feeling.

I decided to keep some of the red mat. I have also darkened the cabinet a little and I give it a slightly warmer whitebalance.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/morbid30/IMG_8455_munkgrotta_20p_2.jpg

[Morbid]

It's hard to choose one of you, you both gave valuable critique, but I think I'll choose Purplerose this time, because she gave critique that Rob built upon.

[Rhynome]

Oh, playing us off against each other is it, eh? Divide and conquer is it? I see!

And yes, I just read Jerrica's and adapted it to my own personal tastes; a bit like a translation into Robzish.

[Morbid]

Oh, playing us off against each other is it, eh? Divide and conquer is it? I see!

And yes, I just read Jerrica's and adapted it to my own personal tastes; a bit like a translation into Robzish.

...:D

But really it was a toss up between you.

[purplerose]

lol Rob.

Hmmm.... Here's a photo that I really liked, just couldn't figure out a reasonable crop. I may have to retake it.. any input would be really helpful. I have done a square format on it, but I felt it was missing something, however I could be wrong. :p

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/dazzgeist/New%20CA/cahelprose.jpg

Here's the square format crop:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/dazzgeist/New%20CA/4_purplerose.jpg


No real aim for this, just a typical still-life macro.

[Gentile]

Very pretty. I love the bright blue :]
Ok I don't really know how to critic but here goes XD
I actually like the original better than the crop. I might be biased though, cause I don't usually like square crops. Hope you don't mind but I thought I would try a crop out myself :]
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg119/XgentileX/PhotographyMob/purplerose.jpg

[purplerose]

You just gave me an idea. :)

You're up next!

[Gentile]

Sweet! :]

Ok here goes. So I live in Tokyo and it NEVER snows here. Course I'm not a big fan of snow unless I'm snowboarding haha but anyway, It was snowing pretty much all day so I saran wrapped my camera and went out to the park across the street from my church. So I walked around looking for photo ops and I came across this little stream. It looked like it was on the verge of freezing...and it had a lot of snow around it so here it is. Snow, slush and all :]
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg119/XgentileX/snowandstream.jpg

[Nike]

I like the atmosphere you've captured here and the colors are nice, too... :) oh, Japan, I'd love go there once.

But since your description says that what you wanted to show was the stream on the verge of freezing, my suggestion would be to try the shoot again and focus on the stream. Make the stream sharper than the background and show a bit more of it - make it the center of attention.
You can create more depth by playing with the aperture, if your camera allows that.
I'd also try a bit with the crops - and by that I mean try already while you are shooting and not only afterwards - I'm still having m troubles with that myself, but I think it's a good practice.

Well, I hope you don't mind to quickly illustrate my ideas - of course I don't know if that's exactly what you were going for and there might be lots of different and/or better approaches, too.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v684/artofnike/snowandstream.jpg

[Gentile]

I see what you mean, but I wanted to get the snowy, winter land effect into it as well.

Suggestion: I think we should have it so that each photo is up for a week unless the photographer suggests that someone else goes. That way there's plent of time for people to think and critic.

[purplerose]

Nice photo. :) To add, I think a low angle would be worth trying as well.

[Mr. Mu]

not much of a critique from me, just a (partly gear-oriented) suggestion:

- very short shutter times to literally freeze the water! You had an idea of what you wanted to get across and the camera offers a parameter for this idea...

- of course, for streams it's always an option to attach a grey filter (not a grey gradient...!) and thus artificially lenghten shutter times, going the other/opposite direction. That would even out all of the movement of the water surface and result in a seemingly unmoved or foggy stream of vapour. The snowflakes would probably show up as fog, though, too I guess.

My main gripe with what you have now is that I am missing a clear focus.

[Gentile]

I would make my shutter speed faster but I'm always fussing over there being so much grain in my pictures. I'm always really irritated with it.
I think I might have a grey filter though...

[scientuslatens]

I like this photo as well. The focus is ok, although the fact that the literal focal point is dead center. I can see what you were you were trying to do her, and I like it. I agree with purplerose, I'd like to see a different, lower angle perhaps more to the left so that the stream is moving across the frame. Nice job. I wish it would snow like that here :)

P.S. Virgin Post, howdy all!

[Gentile]

Hey so..I wanna see a Mr. Mu picture! :]

[Mr. Mu]

oops,

I haven't been shooting anything in weeks... Choose somebody else for now, I guess I'll have the chance to post a pic for consideration later on.

Thanks for your appreciation.

[purplerose]

I haven't been shooting anything in weeks...

We need our dose of film Mr. Mu. :)

[Mr. Mu]

lol... so do I.

But for now, I don't think you'll want to wait til I shot and developed and scanned a photo that way.
I'll get my chance in here for sure. Til then, someone else is free to post.

:)

[Gentile]

Nike go!

[Nike]

ok, here I go. Gentile, I'm sorry I couldn't really help though.

Since I'm insecure with my compositions I'm just posting one of which I'm not sure if it's working.

vigilant
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v684/artofnike/watchful.jpg

Why I took that photo: Stray cats in the village in Greece where I've taken that photo are often very different from how I've been used from "pet-cats". They are shy, watchful, somewhat wild, and their rough life is leaving scarves. They're not friendly and enjoy to be stroked, and if you try to feed them they'll always check if you're in good distance.
I wanted to portrait this kind of cats and not the "pet cats". But also the curiosity cats - exspecially kittens, are known for should show. The kitten is safe, but it's lurking.
I'd be very thankful for your opinions if that aspects are showing or not.

I'm also not sure if the composition is working - any suggestions welcome.


Technical aspects:
This was a color foto originally, turned to b/w with capture.nx.
Details: D 200, f 4,5, 1/125, 70 mm, ISO 200.

Thanks in advance :)

[someone]

I like it in B&W... good choice.

I tried a different crop out. The background seemed too busy to me and it got a bit distracting. I'm not sure if I like my crop or not... I couldn't decide where to chop off the ground. What do you think? (I also rotated it a little)

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h149/someone345squared/watchful.jpg

Also, I was going to say that you succeeded in capturing the curious nature of the cat :P well done!

[Gentile]

ok, here I go. Gentile, I'm sorry I couldn't really help though.
Don't say that! All inputs are useful :]

I'm going to have to disagree with someone on the cropping. Although I think it could use a cropping, this is centering it way too much. The surrounding adds to the cat.
You did get a really good shot of the cat though.
Might want to work on your parallel lines as well (something I have trouble with). The ground that the cat is on isn't parallel so it looks like he might topple over.

[purplerose]

I came up with a similar crop, the only thing is that you're cutting off the kitty in the background.

I echo that B&W is a good choice because of the numerous objects in the scene.

Did a bit of dodging on the kitten to make it stand out more.

Increased contrast a bit.

Not a critique on the photo, but I would change the title to make the viewer aware of something hidden (the kitten). Like Little Secrets or the Secret Keeper or something. I didn't see the kitten until I read your description.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/dazzgeist/New%20CA/cahelpnike.jpg

[Nike]

Thank you all very much for your crits and the crops - much appreciated! :) Your input is reallying helping me in how to continue working on the picture. I'll show the result in my scrapbook as soon as I'm finished.
This thread is a great thing, really.

Well, now to the more difficult question, who is next. All of you have helped me a lot, and it' really hard to decide.

someone, yes, you have missed the kitten in the background - my mistake, I should have tried to make it stand out a bit more clearly.

Gentile, I went for not parallel on purpose, but since all the three of you went for parallel, I can see it doesn't really work here.

purplerose, you're right about the title. Titles really aren't my strengh and it's getting even worse in English. I've got to work on that, too.
The contrast thing - I'm having some trouble with using my software here. They look fine as long as I work on the original file and even after I have transfered the to a jpeg, but as soon as I save them for web, even with highest quality option, they're getting a bit paler. I'll have to look deeper into that soon.

So, err, with bonus point for the title suggestion I think I say go, purplerose! :)

[purplerose]

Erg...

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/dazzgeist/New%20CA/cahelprose2.jpg

This was originally done for an HDR that didn't work. :( Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't.

Should I just wait to reshoot a different angle? Or, can this be saved to make it more interesting with very limited post processing?

B/W looks dull to me, but as I'm typing this Sepia looked a bit interesting, but I dunno. :(

Help??

[someone]

I'm going to have to disagree with someone on the cropping. Although I think it could use a cropping, this is centering it way too much.

Really? I was going for the bottom of where the cat's laying on a third, and his/her head at a third etc... I can see how it would sort of be centered too though.

And my bad, I did miss the kitty in the background :eek:

Ah well, a new picture now anyway

[scientuslatens]

I did a few little tweaks but there really wasn't much to do. The one thing I saw was when the contrast was increased slightly with a usual s-curve, that sunlight in the foreground on the building really came out at you and warmed the whole pic up. But trying to tweak the curves to get just the sun to pop out, you usually end up blowing out the sky and killing the branch sharpness. I guess you can chalk that up to your sensor being efficient (like thats a bad thing.) Next time, try either a circular polarizer (my choice) or a grad density filter. Also, if you still have the RAW, open in up in Camera RAW CS3, use the curve tool in there, and then use the aberration tool to get the resulting blue from the contrast increase to clean up those branches. Thanks for the shot. Simple, but interesting.... :)

[Morbid]

Ok, maybe not very limited processing. I did a lot of dogde and burn, some curves and a gradient map for the sepia. Mostly stuff you can do in the darkroom. There is a lot of distracting grass and stuff that I wanted to tone down. The sky was all blown out so I used a flat curve to bring it in and the some dodge and burning on a layer to give it some variation. I know its not a proper crit but I hope you can get some ideas.

[purplerose]

Thanx guys, I can't remember if I had my polarizer with me.


I am practically drooling over your edit Morbid!!!!! :) :) I wish I could give you more thanks. I think it was the clutter of the grass with the trees that was irking me.

Dodge and burn with sepia is A-Ok with me. Thanks so very much. You post the next photo. :)

*faints*

[Morbid]

Glad you liked it. :D
I did a few not so successful edits before this one, and I got blind to the photo so at first I didnt like this edit either, but when I burned in the sky it looked alright. Now that I look at it afterwards I like it much more... wierd.

I'll have to find something then, hmm.

[Morbid]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/morbid30/IMG_8641_tempelhund_20p.jpg

Another one from Thailand. (and another dog, they have a lot of dogs)


Model = Canon EOS 350D DIGITAL
Exposure Time = 1/1000"
F Number = F3.2
Exposure Program = Aperture priority
ISO Speed Ratings = 200
Date Time Original = 2008-01-07 06:14:59
Focal Length = 50mm

[scientuslatens]

That left side is searing my eyes. I'll throw it through PS when I get a chance. Your composition is good, though the focus is a hair off ( the dog's shoulder and forward is out of focus) I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you know how to fix that ;)

[Morbid]

Yea your right, the head is a bit out of focus. Could try sharpening it...

[Morbid]

It this any better?

[scientuslatens]

The more I worked with this image and looked at it, the more I liked it. I tried a little USM (100% 0.8 rad, maybe a thresh of 2) masked off some of the pic. I also couldn't resist cranking up the contrast (subconsciously boosts the sharpness of this pic too...) and lastly i decided to address the somewhat distracting left side white blowout by making a darkening layer set to multiply. What do you think?

[Morbid]

Thanks, definately looks better on the gold paint and the ornaments. I dont know about the darkening in the bg though, it looks a bit unnatural, but it gave me this idea that I should lighten it instead to make it less contrasty:

Edited to add a new version. I played around with some new LAB techniques.

[Morbid]

Scientuslatens, your up next!

[purplerose]

Hmm, missing in action...

Open to the next poster I suppose?

[Morbid]

Yes, anyone want to post a pic?

I'll add a rule about what happens in case the next person doesn't post a new pic.

[Mr. Mu]

okay,

I'll take the bait (thereby using up my formerly granted invitation by Gentile...:D )

F5.6
1/125
135mm fixed focal length

This is a cross processed color slide I took on a walk through our nearby cemetary. I did not plan or create too much around the shot. I just bumped into the gardening/caretaker's car.

I was looking forward to the colour contrast of the car and the plants. Also the emotional contrast between gloomy graves and the "sweets and candy" colour of the car.

Somehow the shot is not as strong as I imagined or as I saw it when I pressed the shutter. Don't know why though. That's why I am posting.

http://muratkayi.de/cpg/albums/userpics/10001/CROSS_200802_5_LOFI.jpg

[Morbid]

Hi Mu,

The image has a strong green cast. That might be why the colors look dull.

I did a color correction with the curves adjustment and this is what I got. Maybe it's lost a bit of the cross processed look though.

[Mr. Mu]

hi Morbid,

thanks for the informative post. Indeed, all of the shots I took that day had this strong green cast. I normally expect some kind of colour cast with cross processed slides and so I did not work too much on it (I normally use the levels dialogue to change the channels individually. Thanks a lot for the screenshots of your work in the curves dialog! That is something new to try. Until now, in the curves dialog I only worked on the combined values instead of each channel separately...)

I think it loses a bit of its cross processed trashy character, but there's a great hint in there, because I think I will try to colour correct the car only!
That might give the car the desired pop while maintaining the eerie cross processed atmosphere.

Thanks a lot!
Will re-post when done...

[Mr. Mu]

hi,

a bit in a hurry, so I am asking you to not mind the spot where the tree and the crane intersect and the masking is too obvious, but I think it nicely shows that Morbid gave me a really nice idea.

Selectively colour corrected image:

http://muratkayi.de/cpg/albums/userpics/10001/CROSS_200802_5_LOFI%7E0.jpg

[Morbid]

The car definately stands out more and gives the image a point of focus. However, I feel like it stands out a bit too much and looks a bit out of place. The hues in the truck are not found anyware else in the picture and to me it looks odd.

I think if you first corrected the whole image to get a wider range of colors to work with, and more color variation, you can make a better cross-processed effect on top of that.

I used an additional curves layer on top of my forst pic to get this:
(mind you I'm taking a digital image processing course at the moment so I'm crazy about curves if you couldn't tell :P)

[scientuslatens]

Sorry guys, I was near death most of last week (or at least it felt like it...) Well, here is a more convential stab at the pic. Yeah, sometimes crossprocessing doent give you a groovy yellow, it gives you annoying green. Here, I used 2 adj. layers (since it seems you are PS friendly). One Color Balance -60 to the magenta side and +30 to the blue. Then I added some curves to the red to boosts its highlights and midtones, and brought down the green again, and finally just added a gentle contrast curve to the main channel...whatdya think?

[Mr. Mu]

hi there,

Morbid, you curvecrazed lunatic...:D
There's indeed room for more colour variation. I will try that and post the finished image in here, so people can follow what has become of this...
I think I want to keep the contrast rather low, though, because it kind of goes with the overall silent mood I was hoping to achieve.

scientuslatens - it's fascinating how far you can actually bend the colours. I wasn't really aware of that. As concerns adj. layers - I am working with the GIMP...argh! ^^ Which basically means I have to work around that most of the time.


Guys, that was a nice demonstration by the two of you. I say Morbid gets to post next as he posted twice. I'll post a corrected shot later on.

thanks a lot!

[Morbid]

I think Scientuslatens can have the next pic, since he didn't get it the last time. Plus I don't know what pic I should post.

[Mr. Mu]

for the sake of completeness...:

[Morbid]

Much better imo.

[scientuslatens]

@ Morbid: yeah I sharpened on the Lightness channel as well to avoid the haloing effect. I like it lighter! I wonder how this compares with what you saw....
OK Guys, here goes. I can't find anything as of late worth fixing, since I only have a few shots. Here's one from last April, starting with the time I tried to focus on something other than still live and macro... It has always caught my eye, and mainly I used it in a farfetched bench-basketball-final four reference in my photoblog. It's just missing something. Go at it!

[MLlanes]

needed a crop.

and i played with the levels a bit

[Mr. Mu]

I don't really know if it is actually missing something. It's a nice littel peaceful street scene. The stairs point out your main subject in a nice little curve.

The weird triangular shape on the right hand side is a bit disturbing - but I am not too fond of cropping this.

Does it really need fixing?

[Gentile]

You could always just photoshop the triangle thing out.

[scientuslatens]

I agree with you both, heres how it looks after a quick clone and a little more contrast (I had stopped down 0.7 to make sure I got some detail when took this...) Anything else? (Man that light post is getting on my nerves, but it would be too obvious if I cloned the whole thing out...)

Oh and @purplerose: Name that building...

[Morbid]

I like the light post. :)

[scientuslatens]

@ Morbid. Yeah I like it too but good old psychology, that sucker is right on the third and it just grabs my eye there first.
Thanks guys and I shall pass the torch to Gentile then. Thanks guys for all the help! *insert final edit here*

[purplerose]

looks like Kirkland.

[eazym]

nothing wrong with the picture really. It is, like Mr M says, a peaceful street scene. The pole is a bit bothersome. But overall, the one thing lacking is strong interest. I don't mean focal interest (because you even have 2!), but rather overall interest. The question to ask is (usually of any picture when you can't figure out what exactly is off): Ok, I saw all the elements of the photo, Now why should I care?

PS. All post-processing attempts on the last photo so far have seemed a little overkill to my eye.

Cheers

[scientuslatens]

Guess my lack of confidence and usually illogical way of thinking has shown through this capture. Thanks for the crit eazym. Well since gentile doesn't seem to be around now, you can take the next...

[Mr. Mu]

Guess my lack of confidence and usually illogical way of thinking has shown through this capture

no need to chastise yourself... I still think it's a nice shot. Just follow that approach and look for readymade scenes for your camera.
If you want to get a grip on street photography check eazym's stuff out and recklessly copy all his virtues...:D

[eazym]

Thank you Mr Mu, the check is in the mail :)
I'll take your invitation and post one here. Obviously the technical sides to this one aren't very strong. They tell you not to shoot into the sun and not to put objects in the center, both are broken here.

[MLlanes]

deffinetly needs more contrast.

[scientuslatens]

I really can't see anything that could change this. Perhaps a lower angle?

[someone]

But at a lower angle, you wouldn't get the whole feel of the "I'm taking a break and resting in a quiet place outside the bustle of the city"

More contrast might be good. I really don't know how to help to make this one much better though :-/

[Mr. Mu]

I think the whole crop is actually great. The exploration from the sleeper over to the bushes and trees in the background to eventually the city and the loud glare of the sun are really captivating.

Contrast is poor, though, and you pay for shooting into the sun. If you didn't want to go HDR on this one you should have probably gone all the way and really overexpose the cityscape while getting a full range of values on the foreground.

Or, of course, use a grey gradient filter.

All of this means a re-shoot, I am afraid. You can't really mend this satisfyingly in PS. If you had shot this digitally in RAW you could have tried making three "developments" from the one file and try exposure blending.
But IIRC you are one of the film-users around, so you're screwed!

But to emphasize this again: better to have this shot under your belt than to let it pass you by. Great storytelling.

Buy a grey gradient.

^^

[Morbid]

The image is in Nikon Adobe RGB colorspace, you should convert it to sRGB or the colors will not be displayed correctly on the web.

This is how it looks converted:

[Mr. Mu]

what.a.difference!

°.0

[Morbid]

what.a.difference!

°.0

Gotcha! :P

Actually I did some editing... :)
There is a difference but it's not this apperent.

Was going to add a "just kidding" post just after but my father wanted to use the computer for a while.

As for the editing, the lens flare was bugging me but instead of removing it I made it bigger and added a color cast to the top portion of the image. I also did some CURVES. :)

[Mr. Mu]

*Mu slaps Morbid around a bit with a large trout*

[Gentile]

That is SO much better than the first one.
The contrast makes a big difference, and the colors are more vibrant. Good stuff. :D

[eazym]

thanks all.
@Mr Mu: agreed. a gradient filter would be nice, unfortunately they are not very practical for street photos (excepting this case of course) :)

@Morbid: thank for the suggestion, I'm going to have to double-check that color space. Thanks for taking the time with PS on this one. But personally, that's a little too much contrast for me. The top portion just makes my eyes hurt. Nice PS skillz though.

So who's taking the next one? I've got a number of good suggestions here. Either of the above two can have a go at it. Morbid, didn't you skip your last one?

[scientuslatens]

Darn ye beat me to the punch eazym. Despite breaking zee rules, I like the flare...
A little warmth goes a long way

[Morbid]

*Mu slaps Morbid around a bit with a large trout*

:p


@Morbid: thank for the suggestion, I'm going to have to double-check that color space. Thanks for taking the time with PS on this one. But personally, that's a little too much contrast for me. The top portion just makes my eyes hurt. Nice PS skillz though.

Your welcome. I understand you feel it's too much editing. I just couldn't find any real crits on it so I thought Id give it a round in ps.

So who's taking the next one? I've got a number of good suggestions here. Either of the above two can have a go at it. Morbid, didn't you skip your last one?

I've taken too many already, and I didn't even give a proper crit this time. :P

[Morbid]

Darn ye beat me to the punch eazym. Despite breaking zee rules, I like the flare...
A little warmth goes a long way

I like your version, the small tree stands out more from the background. But I would darken the person a bit less.

[Morbid]

Another one, a bit more true to the original. Just doding and burning and a slight warming.

I'll shut up and let the next person post his/her pic now. :p

[eazym]

thanks again everyone. This just goes to reaffirm the old photographer saying: "If you want a pretty picture, give me a pretty face." I suppose the same goes for photoshop: "If you want a pretty edit..." :)

But who's next? Scientuslatens?

[scientuslatens]

thought morbid or mu were up...I'll go if no one wants too

[Morbid]

thought morbid or mu were up...I'll go if no one wants too

Go ahead :)

[scientuslatens]

I'll upload something real soon. It's been a crazy week, and my madre is in the hospital currently...

[Valadilene]

Wow, great thread,.. i just discovered it tonight. ill have to pay good attention to it so i can beat you guys to the punch so I can post some stuff ;) looking forward to seeing what ya got scien! and welcome!

[MLlanes]

idk how we do this. do i just upload a pic and get critique? if so, then
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2374/2311609598_3ff5ea66a5_b.jpg

[Valadilene]

MLlanes- the way it works, is the person who's turn it is posts an image, the image is open for critique for 1 day I believe (correct me if I'm wrong guys.) and whoever gives the best critique gets to post the new image. Right now Scient is up, though he's got some stuff going on so is a bit behind in posting.

[MLlanes]

alright. sorry about that.

[Valadilene]

Ill critique yers though, and when scient gets back we can let him go. everyone okay with that?

Overall i think the photo is too dark. This would have a great contrasty/ bar scene look if the brightness were raised I think. If you want to keep the darker feel, raise the brightness some, without getting to 'correct' exposure. I think that theres a bit to much negative space above his head, its a bit distracting to me, since its a rather attention grabbing color (red).

the eyes look a bit dead, though I know its hard to get catch lights in eyes when its a candid shot, though its always possible to photoshop them in later, if you're okay with that kind of manipulation.

I would like to see the rest of his elbow, and the rest/more of his hand thats fretting, but the composition is nice. I like how you came in from the side, getting a more interesting angle. the nose ring really adds to it as well. Its a great candid shot. I ike it alot.

[scientuslatens]

Here you go guys, like chum to the sharks here's a very snapshot-ish shot from this weekend. Can anything save this?

[eazym]

when you say save, what do you mean exactly? what is your intention with this picture?

[MLlanes]

it would look better at a lower angle, and if you could see the dogs face more

[Morbid]

It's not a bad picture just not very interesting. I want to see what he's looking at, so yea, a lower angle would be better. That or if he was turned towards the camera so you could see his face.

[scientuslatens]

@eazym:intention was just to show how bravo my little dog is. he stands less than a foot tall, but he took on the 6 inches of snow like it was nothing. Note that the snow comes a little past his chest. The shadow was kinda interesting, but there wasn't much to this one.
@MLlanes: I agree. I think this could have worked with a better angle, but my dog didnt want to cooperate (I wanted a pic of him, 'cause I only see him about once a month)

@Morbid: Thanks. My dog knows how to give the cold shoulder. lol.

Anyway, thanks guys, and since Morbid and MLlanes gave similar responses, I choose MLlanes so we can have a little variety in this thread....

[someone]

Hmmmmm nobody's posted anything here for a LONG time. Anyone mind if I put a photo up?

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h149/someone345squared/Virginia002Changed.jpg

I took this picture last year on vacation in Virginia... I've always sort of felt that something was missing but I can't put my finger on it. Any ideas?

[Mr. Mu]

I seem to remember this one... could it be I gave you a crit on this back then? Just curious.

[someone]

You might've come to think of it... It's in the old phorums archives if so. What are your thoughts again? wasn't there something wrong with the composition or something? Maybe the horizon line was too low? I don't remember to be honest :(

[Ment]

I think indeed that the angle of the horizon is too low, a more upwards shot would be better for the platform, it looks so small now, while these things are usually really big.

[carolupus]

well, you could still crop it a little at the top. there's a bit too much sky anyway imo.

[Gentile]

Did the thread die?

[purplerose]

Did the thread die?

Nah, someone just needs to pick the person who gave the best critique.

[someone]

well, I was waiting for a more "in-depth critique" :p

Since Mu had already done that more before though...

Mu, give us yer pix plx!

[Mr. Mu]

shit, haven't shot anything through March, new job and practising for a gig I had yesterday.

I am looking forward to shooting more again in April.

Anyone else?

In the meantime I would appreciate c&c on the songs in my myspace profile if you don't mind my suggestions something that far fetched...:)

I'll survive if you do mind, however...:D

[someone]

Oh sweet I'll check out your music (I never even saw that link before)

[Gentile]

So is this open to whoever posts next then?

[purplerose]

So is this open to whoever posts next then?


Yepp.

[Gentile]

I call it! I've got a picture I'll post asap :D

[Gentile]

Okay here we go! Help me make my picture amazing.

Lighting: A red flashlight
Editing: Cropped, blur

http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs29/i/2008/104/8/d/Discover_Yourself_by_xgentilex.jpg

[Ment]

The key and the lock don't stand out between the papers. I think the whole photo is too red, without much contrast.

[someone]

I agree with Ment. Once I get on my own computer (tonight) I'll do some work in photoshop and see if I can't fix it up a bit. But for now, more contrast, less "overall red" feel.

[someone]

OK here goes...

As I said before, I feel that the original lacks contrast, the lock and key don't pop out at me, and it just feels...... RED.

So first I desaturated it. Then I pushed the contrast a bit... next, I dodged around the lock and key, and really burned the crap out of the rest of the picture. Finally, I messed around with colour balance, to get the pinkish tone I was feeling (I think I added some red, a little bit of magenta, and a little yellow)

Here's the result:

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h149/someone345squared/Discover_Yourselffinished.jpg

I don't know how much photoshop you generally like to use. Depending on your "beliefs", this may be overkill lol :p what do you think?

[someone]

and actually there are a couple places I might burn a little more to make it even, after looking at it again... the right side of the far left circle, the bottom of the top middle circle, and there's a light line coming out from the right of the center of focus. But anyway you get the idea

[Gentile]

Thanks for the feedback =]
I'm all into photoshop really (my photo teachers all into me doing) but I'm trying to get to a place where I can take pictures without much editing. I'm going to try this again tonight, and see if I can get something with less red so I don't have to do as much in photoshop as you demonstrated.

[someone]

alright sure thing. I think you still might have to burn/dodge a litttle bit since the lock and key are the same type of material and colour as the foil. We'll see how the new pic turns out

[Gentile]

Ok I didn't have a chance to get to it and won't be able to till this weekend. Someone you can take over the next one =] I'll show progress in this in another thread.

[someone]

Alrighty I'll get a photo up soon (I might even use an old one that I've been trying to figure out what's wrong with if I can't come up with a new one)

[someone]

Well on second thought, I'm going to put this one up:

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h149/someone345squared/_DSC0665.jpg

Is it worth saving? And if so, how could it be saved?

I'll be out of town without access to the internet for 4 days, starting tomorrow (I'm heading out tomorrow afternoon) so I'll see what you guys can come up with when I get back. Cheers!

[Ment]

I must say I don't like the crop, it's much to narrow and you cut the edges of the entrance.
I would go for a wider crop, and less grid to the left.
If you don't mind, I made my own version of the photo with more contrast in the yellow and cropped the grid fully of.

I don't know if you like it better this way, but I would go for a reshoot.

[someone]

Yeah if I can get up there again I will reshoot... that's what I was afraid of :P I do like your version a lot better though. The problem is that it was taken on the roof of the local movie theatre, so I can't just get up there anytime I want haha (I know a guy who works there and he can get me wherever there)

So you've got the next one Ment... thanks heaps for the crit

[Ment]

I will post one as soon as possible, I got some photo's which I'm not completely sure of ;)

[Ment]

This photo misses something, I can't exactely say what. Any ideas for improvement or just a reshoot?

[klips]

Okay, let's start with what's right before we get into what's wrong:

Right:
Shadow detail. It is maintained, which appears difficult given the apparent contrast of the situation.
Colours. The restricted palette which gives it a 'soft' tone, which is what appears to be desired here.

Wrong:
Focus. It looks like the feet and the wall behind are more in focus than the nose. Either move the focus closer to the camera or use a smaller aperture to get a deeper field
Colours. Because of the restricted palette, colour management is everything. There is a distracting green shade to the shadow, it's only very faint but it looks strange.
Highlights. The reflection on the rabbit is blown, if you lower the exposure by half a stop you will still retain the shadow detail, but will pull back some of the highlights hopefully.
Composition. I guess this is the real question behind it. There's a few things about it that stick out to me. Firstly, it looks like you've gone for a double 'rule of thirds' which has missed on both sider. In addition to this, the wall's vertical isn't straight (meaning that the other thing is) which makes the image seem slanted. Secondly, the shelf just seems out of place. I know you need it because it's got to sit on something, but it's just a big brown blob at the bottom of the screen. Play around with it and see how you can best deal with it without losing too much of your original idea. Another thing to try is to give the rabbit more space to 'look in to' by framing it further to the right and showing more of the wall. This at least gives the impression of it gazing off into the distance somewhat. Finally, and this is going to sound harsh, it's just not that interesting a subject to photograph. It's a photo of a white rabbit sculpture between a white wall and a white (something) with the subject dead in the middle of the frame. Maybe in another context it would be great, but here's it's just not that much, more compositional exercise than an inspired photo. I'm sorry if this sounds really critical and nasty, but the point is that I'm sure (based on your other photos that I've seen) that you can take much more interesting photos of things, and take photos of much more interesting things.

If you need clarification of anything, please ask. Good luck, and I hope this helped.

[scientuslatens]

Pro: Nice Color Palette + Color Range

"Con": Again, the vert. on the left makes you turn your head clockwise. The windowsill at the bottom is more f a distraction than anything, perhaps a crop or a reshoot with a different angle could help this. While it is divided into three parts, since all the different elements are separated cleanly, there is no real interest, whereas the rule of thirds actually works off the intersection of the thirds. Center-itis (don't worry, we've all done it) in this case doesn't make it interesting. Add some angles to give us an idea of where the rabbit is looking (around a corner?, at the heavens?, etc.) Also, contrast isn't optimized here, which can be fixed inshoot by underexposing the shot, or pp-side with GIMP/PS. Thanks for the challenge, and keep up the shots....

[klips]

It's been a month with no photo, so I'm going to put this one up.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3142/2559721711_f08e3fb25d_b.jpg

[someone]

This is really dead, and that's really a shame.

I guess I've been trying to... comprehend this picture? :P I just haven't quite understood the meaning of there being 2 of the same picture side by side, with one of them blurred so much that you wouldn't be able to tell what it is if it didn't have the original beside it. That said, I (being the artsy person I am) enjoy looking at it whether or not I understand it. I guess the only crit I have would be that it seems to be too dark... or something. Maybe just not enough contrast in general? It would also be nice if the guy _and_ the cup of coffee had been in focus, but that's just a minor flaw to me. One last thing that you may not have even had power over, is that thing dangling outside the window... I don't know what it is, but it's a little jarring to me. I think it would enhance the quiet/serene atmosphere of the picture if all you could see out the window would be the blurred pretty blossoms on the bush and such.

[Muddy Gilespi]

Just what I was looking for! Heres the best shot I think I've taken in a while:

[purplerose]

OMG, thank you so much for posting here. This thread kinda died for a while.

I like the tones you have here, but I think the composition is suffering a bit. You have a lot of textures here, which can be a bit overwhelming without a simple composition. I would suggest to do a reshoot and try to focus on one aspect of the tree(s): the branches or the leaves, or anything else you can think of.

[Grumbledook]

It is really busy and there isn't much shape definition that a B&W pic needs

there also isn't an obvious focal point for the eye to be drawn too either

[klw1981]

Since no one has posted here in a while, I thought I'd try to get this thread going again.

I recently dusted off my camera, and started taking pictures again, and will take any advice I can get. Soo...here's my pic. Tell me what you think.

[purplerose]

Thank you so much for posting here! :)

You have great light and contrast here. Love the color as well. The only "problem" with the photo is your straight forward approach to the flower motif. Think about (and try!) different angles, crops and compositions to draw interest to the flower. Sometimes different toning edits will draw special interest to flowers as well.

[klw1981]

Thanks for the advice! Here's another go at it. I cropped the image, and made a couple adjustments to saturation and brightness/contrast. Of course, now it resembles a sea urchin, more than a flower. What do ya think?

[purplerose]

Yepp, definitely has more interest than the previous photo. I can even see the little water droplet better now. :)

[klw1981]

Thanks again for the advice! I'm definitely going to start playing more with camera angles, lighting, and different crops. Well...I guess that makes it your turn to post one of your pics, PurpleRose.

[purplerose]

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/dazzgeist/DSC_0401b.jpg

I feel there is something here, but I'm not sure if it is. Snapshot or potential?

[cAstAwAyLOVER]

Hi all! :)
I'm new on the forums and to photography in general. Currently learning photography as a hobby and looking forward to great advice and learning from my peers. I'm not too sure how this thread works, but its about providing critiques right and posting your photos for the chance to be critiqued. I would love to participated, even if I'm a total noob. ^^

purpleroseI gotta say, I like your photo quite a lot. Still, I feel that it would help us to give a good critique if we knew what you were going for on this shot. Somehow, I feel that it has a lot of potential for an abstract piece. The reflection of the stairs on either side are really great and the wall going through it is the only thing that breaks the illusion. I like that quite a lot but somehow I feel that it would work a lot better if the top part of the brick wall wasn't visible.
Very happy if any of this helps.. :3

[klw1981]

I'm going to agree with cAstAwAyLOVER on the brick wall being a bit distracting. My eye keeps moving straight to that corner. Other than that I really love the image. It gives the feeling of impending doom or mystery, because you're really not sure where you're going to end up if you go down the escalator. Nice work!

[purplerose]

I was going for either mood or abstract. I agree about the brick wall, just decided to post this full frame in case someone wanted to crop it. :)

Thanks a lot for your help guys! I'll get around to editing it either later tonight or tomorrow. :)

cAstAwAyLOVER, welcome to the phorums. Now it's your turn! :)

[cAstAwAyLOVER]

I'm glad I was of some service. :)

I'll say a little bit about this photo. Taken with Canon EOSXT, lens 18-55mm. Fish Market at Tokyo, Japan.
I was so enthralled by all the colors I couldn't stand still. This is one of my favorites from that day.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b159/look8Pwithin/n501327700_1235785_7220.jpg

A lot of my pictures I just follow my instinct and shoot...once I find the subject and composition that gives me the right feeling I stick with it. :D feel free to critique please!!

[guesswho]

how can i share with u guys ^_^