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LargeHadron posted:
No real critique really, just wanted to say this loving rocks. This is great apart from it feels like it's tilting slightly to the right. Dr. Garbanzo posted:
rio posted:
The second one I had to look at fullscreen to really get. I think it would be awesome printed out huge. Bobsledboy posted:
Speaking of which, I've just been roughly following that tutorial for the past few hours on some wildlife pics I took when I was back in the UK the other week. How did I do?  DSCF1561.jpg by fuglsnef, on Flickr  DSCF1656.jpg by fuglsnef, on Flickr  DSCF1553.jpg by fuglsnef, on Flickr
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Apr 29, 2013 23:08
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David Pratt posted:Speaking of which, I've just been roughly following that tutorial for the past few hours on some wildlife pics I took when I was back in the UK the other week. How did I do? The first one made me double check your username wasn't William T Hornaday. Nicely done, though I feel a tighter crop would work better. The others are good as well. I've been meaning to follow that same tutorial ever since I picked up CS6. Might do that tonight, thanks for the inspiration 
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Apr 30, 2013 02:27
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I like them a lot. EDIT: Now that I'm sober. I'll expand on that a bit (in a fairly incoherent and rambling way.) The first one is the best. The composition is great, and the opportunity to capture a shot like that arises very, very rarely at a zoo. I like the crop, the framing of the leopard in the bushes is perfect, and the lighting is great. Now, if it were me (which is unfortunately not the case, because I don't have a shot like this in my collection,) this would probably be one where I'd really push the processing and do a lot to it; the scene seems appropriate. Not saying that you necessarily should do this, but I think it could work well for this image. If possible, get rid of the mesh in the background; blur it out, replace it with something else. It's slightly distracting and ruins the illusion. I might try bringing down the brightness a bit (or maybe even a lot) on it too (and maybe the drop the vibrancy a bunch,) it'd probably allow the the leopard to stand out a lot more. I really like the foreground and think that you could rely on it a bit more. The bare dirt is a nice little pathway leading up to the doorway in the bushes; maybe dodge it up a bit, add some warmth, and kinda make it look like the light is pouring in through the opening. The bushes could probably benefit from a slight vignette to help pull the attention back towards the middle since there's a lot still going on at the edges of the frame. And maybe creatively play around with some field blur in the leaves to help with that too. And I'd probably drop down the exposure on the leaves as well, though maybe boost the contrast a bit to give it all a shadowy look (and dodge in some brighter patches, like that spot at the right just above the trunk.) The leopard is in pretty good shape, though I might do a little dodging and burning to emphasize the lighting that's already there. If you want me to, I can throw together a mockup of what I'm talking about. The ruffed lemur is good. Black and white animals are a pain in the rear end, as it's often difficult to expose the whole thing properly without getting any clipping at either end; but not seeing any of that. It's looking out of the frame and there's little to draw the eye to the right half of the image, which is too bad, but there's not really anything to do about it at this point. The black look good, though I might dodge up the more well-lit areas of white to where it's almost over exposed and maybe little bits in other areas to emphasize the fur texture. The hands get a little bit lost, maybe dodge up the front edge to give a little bit more defined and visible shape. The tail gets a little bit lost, I think because the bottom left corner it too dark. It seems too uniform, and dodge up the top edge of the little pieces of wood would probably rectify that. The greens down there would add a nice balance to the stuff at the top, so maybe lighten those up too. Ruffed lemurs are cute. But they're also loud, obnoxious, incredibly dense, and often a pain in the rear end to work with and be around. The orangutan is a tough shot to make work well. Mesh just sucks and does a great job of utterly killing any sort of decent shot; it just makes a photo scream, "I shot this in a zoo" and thus distracts a lot from the rest of the photo. Orange is always a bit difficult, as I have a lot trouble telling what looks 'normal' and figuring out whether it's been pushed it too far; but I think it looks decent and not too garish. The eye contact is clearly the main focus in the photo, and it looks like you made an effort to emphasize that. The front eye looks very flat though. Always got to be careful to maintain an appropriate amount of contrast. Though shouldn't be anything a little tone curve fiddling can't fix. Once that's fixed, give the white of the eye a little dodge attention and bring it closer to where the other eye is at. I'm not sure what it looked like out fo the camera, but there does appear to be a little bit of a glow around the edges in some places, particularly at the top edge of the right arm and head; poo poo like that tends to happen when doing it my way. Either get in there and try to run it it right up to the edge of the fur, or just back off the darkness a bit and make the transition more gradual. Some of this may have made sense, a lot of it probably not. And I'm incredibly flattered. William T. Hornaday fucked around with this message at 15:23 on May 1, 2013 |
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May 1, 2013 02:29
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David Pratt posted:I love the colours on the first one, and the not-quite-black blacks work really nicely. I wish there was more depth of field though, it feels like there's too much of the frame out of focus. Thanks for the words; always insightful. For that tree shot, I had a few others taken with varying dof's but ultimately went with this. I made the choice because the texture on the tree was so interesting but I felt like keeping too much in focus would have almost been an overload and wanted to draw attention to just a part of it with the rest implied. Thinking about it, though, I probably could have stopped down just a bit and achieved it without quite so much out of focus. Regarding your pictures, great work. Framing and composition are good, great colors and tones...vivid and lively without seeming fake (which is a hard line to walk). I think the second one is the only one that seems a little too burned around the edges and if it were let up just a bit would be right where it needs to be. Then again, my monitor's blacks are always a bit exaggerated so it might just be me.
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May 1, 2013 02:43
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thetzar posted:
I love where you're going with the set, I just really wish that the woman in these two particular photos was better exposed. The way she contrasts to her surroundings in the other photos makes her the center of attention, and almost like she's gracing the surroundings with her presence. In these two she's getting somewhat sucked into the environment, and is less of a feature. In the first one is works better because she takes up a lot of the frame, the second one is really where the effect happens though. 2 shots from a trip a couple of days ago to NY  Guantanamo Protest by Ebola Cereal, on Flickr  New York Skyline by Ebola Cereal, on Flickr Tyorik fucked around with this message at 04:02 on May 3, 2013 |
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May 1, 2013 04:59
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Tyorik posted:I love where you're going with the set, I just really wish that the woman in these two particular photos was better exposed. The way she contrasts to her surroundings in the other photos makes her the center of attention, and almost like she's gracing the surroundings with her presence. In these two she's getting somewhat sucked into the environment, and is less of a feature. In the first one is works better because she takes up a lot of the frame, the second one is really where the effect happens though. I looked through your flickr and enjoyed looking through your New York shots. The main overall thing that would apply to most is that they seem like pictures taken by someone who is not an amateur while on a trip, giving a snapshot-ish feel to everything. Like, if there were *just* a bit more time or thought or consideration of when to hit that shutter that some of them could really be pulled together nicely. I know that all of those shots are not submitted for critique here but wanted to mention it because I think that it applies to these two images as well. 1) Obviously not something you see everyday. You definitely captured a moment. As a statement, and in terms of total impact of the picture, a few things do not help. The guy smiling and the lady with the cell phone on the right are out of place (and not in a good way that provokes any thought), and the arm on the left makes me want to see more to the left. You might be able to crop and get something better, or while there waited just a little bit to frame it slightly differently or let those distractions pass. 2) My first thought was "why not wider and why is the camera raised up to show that much unremarkable sky". When I looked at it full screen, I enjoyed the detail of the landscape and it was very nice to look through - my initial thought about not going wider wasn't really an isssue at that point, but still - why so much sky? Given how interesting the city is to look at and it is the meat of this shot, it seems like you could have gone down some. -----  DSCF2689 by Paul Hofreiter, on Flickr  DSCF2700-2 by Paul Hofreiter, on Flickr
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May 1, 2013 19:54
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Might as well take advantage of that wall of text from earlier and get some critique on stuff I haven't yet posted in this thread... Lion by William T Hornaday, on Flickr  Coquerel's Sifaka by William T Hornaday, on Flickr  Flowers by William T Hornaday, on Flickr
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May 1, 2013 20:37
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Tyorik posted:2 shots from a trip a couple of days ago to NY The composition as-is is making the buildings above important, but there's nothing really going on there to warrant them being important. I'd like it more if the crop focused down to just the protesters, with the signs smack dab in the middle. The arm on the left is really unfortunate, looks like he's touching the guy's shoulder. Captured! By Robots was definitely interesting. Not sure how else to describe it.   
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May 2, 2013 03:28
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    I'm conflicted with these shots. I felt that they all had potential, but it seems that I've developed some squaring issues. First picture was hard to square because the head was still settling and sloshing around. The second one I'm not sure about the filter, but I felt that adding a blue filter in post added some more contrast by taking most of the opacity from the bottles. The other two, probably could have used a shallower DOF on third but f4 was all I had to work with.  Open to critique. SeaborneClink fucked around with this message at 08:10 on May 2, 2013 |
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May 2, 2013 08:08
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SeaborneClink posted:
I think they all need to be rotated slightly, assuming you wanted things to look straight. Take a closer look and see what you think.
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May 2, 2013 18:19
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LargeHadron posted:I think they all need to be rotated slightly, assuming you wanted things to look straight. Take a closer look and see what you think. I've tried. Gone both ways, bringing one line plumb screws another. Take for example the first picture. I squared the glass but the head is crooked, squaring the head, then just looks like the photographer was drunk because the glass and the table are completely off. Which I suppose may just be a compositional choice, I'm not under any illusion that these are fantastic photos, I'm just going to have to be more mindful in the future of composition I suppose.
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May 2, 2013 21:00
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It's because they need perspective correction, not rotation.
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May 2, 2013 21:01
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fivre posted:The composition as-is is making the buildings above important, but there's nothing really going on there to warrant them being important. I'd like it more if the crop focused down to just the protesters, with the signs smack dab in the middle. The arm on the left is really unfortunate, looks like he's touching the guy's shoulder. Between the two critiques, is this better or worse: Guantanamo Protest by Ebola Cereal, on Flickr rio posted:2) On the skyline shot, the top of the Empire State Building doesn't allow tripods and it surrounded by steel bars. I had to try to prop the camera up on the neckstrap by folding it several times and doing a 2sec delay. Basically, I was at the mercy of how I could compose the shot with no way to angle the camera down, since it was almost hanging off the ledge already. Granted, none of that really matters when it comes to the final product, but that's what I was working with and why I couldn't compose much differently. I'll try cropping it and see what I can come up with. Tyorik fucked around with this message at 04:01 on May 3, 2013 |
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May 3, 2013 01:13
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Better.
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May 3, 2013 01:18
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Better, but Detainee #167 ruins it for me. Since cropping it was easier than describing the change I'd like to see, here it is. No offense meant editing your poo poo. When I see this shot, I imagine there's a huuuuuge line of these guys protesting, instead of the 6-8 that were there.
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May 3, 2013 21:54
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Sunset and flowers at the same time
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May 5, 2013 06:23
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single-mode fiber posted:Sunset and flowers at the same time Perfect timing with the colors from the sunset. Maybe a slightly tighter crop, the blur on the bottom right corner tries to grab my eye for some reason, may be my laptop screen though. I now have a new camera so I'm going to try and get back into photography, I have a lot to learn about composition, please don't be gentle. Lake next to my office  Spring's finally here.  Small farm, about to be torn down. 
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May 5, 2013 19:58
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Doccers posted:
The graduation from green fields to snow-capped mountains just does my head in. It looks lovely. This was me faffing around in the City this morning.  Photo One - Hickson Road Sydney with Opera House - Eric Berry by efcso1, on Flickr
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May 8, 2013 00:52
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Here's a sampling of my first real attempt at photography, during a trip to western South Dakota last summer. It's just an older digital P&S, but I was pretty happy with what came out of it and I might pick up a better camera for this summer. This was from a drive-through safari we went to - I've got a few more of various animals, but this was one of the few that looks more natural.  This came from Custer State Park, there's a wildlife loop with some burros that are descendants of the miners' burros. Since they came form domesticated animals, the park allows you to feed them which means if you have a window down, you're going to get some sort of head sticking in your car.
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May 8, 2013 05:16
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Drunk Badger posted:
Drunk Badger posted:
I like the idea of this shot, but I think the blue car in the background is massively distracting from your subject, both as a splotch of dark color, and as a bulge in the clean lines of the car/road/horizon, which otherwise make a nice contrast to the more organic shape of the burro's head --- Some photos from my trip to Japan, a few years ago  Canal alongside the Philospher's walk, in eastern Kyoto  Ground zero in Hiroshima  Kyoto again, Kinkakuji grounds
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May 8, 2013 12:15
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Drop Database posted:
Drop Database posted:
Drop Database posted:
 The Shard by fuglsnef, on Flickr  DSCF1875.jpg by fuglsnef, on Flickr  DSCF1867.jpg by fuglsnef, on Flickr
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May 8, 2013 17:45
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David Pratt posted:This is very flat tone-wise. You should try adjusting the levels to get some real blacks in there. The centred subject isn't working for this picture and makes the composition look rushed and ill-considered. A good general rule with moving subjects is to give them some space to move into. The lighting on the first picture is absolutely phenomenal, IMHO. The second: I love the shadowing you captured, but the entire bottom half of the picture is just... empty, to me. For the third one: great lighting, great exposure, great composition. Three more from this weekend: Classic rover,  Eagle  50% - I tried several different crops of this, but none of them seemed to just "Get it", would like some feedback/help with this one because I think the concept is there, I just can't quite seem to get the framing "Just right". 
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May 8, 2013 18:31
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David Pratt posted:
I absolutely love the mood and atmosphere in this one. Really gives it that Orwellian "ministry of truth" feeling people joke about that building. William T. Hornaday posted:
Tyorik posted:
And here's a few recent shots.  IMG_7472 by Opals25, on Flickr  IMG_7670 by Opals25, on Flickr  IMG_7591 by Opals25, on Flickr
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May 8, 2013 19:55
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I've been getting into photography over the last year and finally made it into the Dorkroom. First post so I'm going to do a self critique. This was for my younger sister's prom recently and I shot this from the audience during the grand march. I brought up the shadows a bit in Lightroom to get her date to stand out from the background, black on black on black, etc. It made the Eiffel Tower stand out a bit more which was nice but it also showed the lights were cheap Christmas lights. I wanted the tower in there for her since that was the theme but would have liked it if they stood on the other side so I could have put her in the center of the photo. I think it would have been nice to have some sort of separation light to break up the black, or is there something I could have done in post?  Edit: also not a cropping issue, he does only have one arm.
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May 8, 2013 20:37
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rio posted:I looked through your flickr and enjoyed looking through your New York shots. The main overall thing that would apply to most is that they seem like pictures taken by someone who is not an amateur while on a trip, giving a snapshot-ish feel to everything. Like, if there were *just* a bit more time or thought or consideration of when to hit that shutter that some of them could really be pulled together nicely. I know that all of those shots are not submitted for critique here but wanted to mention it because I think that it applies to these two images as well. First picture seems a bit underexposed, especially when matched with the second picture (which is stunning by the way). My favorite is the second picture which really pops the subject and what you're trying to capture on that shot. It seems like something you'd see published, pretty neat! Here are a few of mine  IMG_0499 by avoyer, on Flickr  IMG_1020 by avoyer, on Flickr  IMG_1058 by avoyer, on Flickr
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May 10, 2013 19:00
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xenilk posted:First picture seems a bit underexposed, especially when matched with the second picture (which is stunning by the way). My favorite is the second picture which really pops the subject and what you're trying to capture on that shot. It seems like something you'd see published, pretty neat! May have moved to the left just a bit on the second one so the wall wasn't almost cropping her face. Liked the lighting and feel on all of them.
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May 10, 2013 20:23
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Cru Jones posted:I've been getting into photography over the last year and finally made it into the Dorkroom. First post so I'm going to do a self critique. This was for my younger sister's prom recently and I shot this from the audience during the grand march. You are analyzing what makes your photo good and what aspects detract from it. This is good. This means you are actively trying to get better so no one here is going to rip into you. Your attitude is right where it should be. With that said your composition could use a bit of work. I can get that you were trying to convey a theme with the Eiffel Tower in the shot, however it seems to get in the way more than to add to your photo. It sort of looks like you didn't know where to crop it. But that's fine. Prop photography ain't easy. You are in a rock and a hard place with that prop. It's way too large to tastefully put it entirely into the shot without making the central focus (the couple) too little of the frame. I would have personally gotten rid of the tower all together or shoved it way in the background, if there was enough room, and get some nice background lights off it. Posing is a bit of a touchy subject here. I have always treated people with disabilities like anyone else, as I'm sure that is the way they would want to be as well. So I, by default, do regular posing. I have had people with disabilities ask me to emphasize their disability as they believe it to be a defining aspect of their character. Then I'll go into posing with that as a partial focus, the main focus still being prom, in your instance. But I stay away from any special emphasis unless asked. With that said regular posing could be a challenge for obvious reasons. What you have is fine, it's just a little dull. You can change up posing by playing with body angle and tilt, head angle and tilt, as well as arm position with upper body alone. That corsage looks beautiful, I would have put her other hand resting on his wrist to bring the corsage more toward the center of the image to emphasize it a little. By doing so, it would also close a little distance between them, making the shot look a little more organic. From a lighting aspect, it looks like you used a sharp center based light like a popup flash, hotshoe flash or ceiling based lighting. That is going to do two things that you don't want. It's going to make flat lighting and burn spots on skin. I can see a little of both in your image. You want an off center light source. For example take a peek at another photo you like of a person in this thread. Now figure out the angle at which the light came in at. That's right. It's almost always from one side or another. It generally isn't very high or low either. The lighting is probably pretty soft too, meaning the lighted side is very even and fades into the darker side very smoothly. That comes from using umbrellas, reflectors, diffusers and other stuff. I'm assuming you may not have access to that sort of stuff just yet, which is fine. Just concentrate on the angle of the lighting, that will make your photos much better. In the off chance this photo was candid and not posed, forget the above and just turn down the temperature a little. Turn down highlights a tad to try to reduce burn spots and maybe add a touch of clarity/contrast to compensate. You are pretty aware of the black on black on black thing, so there isn't anything that needs to be said there.
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May 12, 2013 23:54
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Tyorik posted:I love where you're going with the set, I just really wish that the woman in these two particular photos was better exposed. The way she contrasts to her surroundings in the other photos makes her the center of attention, and almost like she's gracing the surroundings with her presence. In these two she's getting somewhat sucked into the environment, and is less of a feature. In the first one is works better because she takes up a lot of the frame, the second one is really where the effect happens though. Maybe I'm just a media-obsessed type but I can't help but look at the big empty TV screen first when I look at the image. Not sure what you could have done to fix that though... and also all the stuff about the girl with the sign on the end messing up the uniform line of gentlemen in coveralls. For the second one, these sorts of shots need to be very 'perfect' and you've almost got it but it's crooked. Also, the horizon cuts across the center of the photo, which isn't a flaw in and of itself but in this case I think it would have served you to compose a little differently. ... One from last fall:  I am interested in the contrast between the foreground and background but I'm not sure I did a sufficient job here to illustrate my point.
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May 14, 2013 22:09
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TsarAleksi posted:One from last fall: I like your idea here, and the colors of the execution. Minor compositional niggle - the rounded bit of the path sticking out on the left would be better cropped out of the shot. And is that the horizon that is slanted, or just the umbrella in the foreground? ----  Imperial Palace grounds, Tokyo
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May 15, 2013 15:54
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I would just clone stamp it out of the shot instead of cropping, the buildings on the left side of the image echo the shape of the umbrella and it's fun. I think taking the same shot from a lower angle would give more contrast but poo poo I dunno.
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May 15, 2013 16:12
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TsarAleksi posted:Maybe I'm just a media-obsessed type but I can't help but look at the big empty TV screen first when I look at the image. Not sure what you could have done to fix that though... and also all the stuff about the girl with the sign on the end messing up the uniform line of gentlemen in coveralls. That's a pretty cool shot. I immediately got the contrast you were looking for so I guess that mean you did more than a sufficient job Here are a few from a natural light studio I brought to a hair salon over the past weekend:  IMG_2450 by avoyer, on Flickr  IMG_2425 by avoyer, on Flickr  IMG_2399 by avoyer, on Flickr
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May 16, 2013 04:58
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xenilk posted:
I really like the colors of this shot, but for some reason her limbs seem to be out of balance; like she has larger arms and legs than her body should allow. Something of the perspective looks off somehow. This one I really like. IMG_2425 by avoyer, on Flickr The colors combined with the tight facial features really seems to work for me...minus the look other have commented on. And to open myself up to come crit here is a photo I took last year with a P&S. I was walking through the pike place market for my work and I had a unique opportunity to take a very repeated photo from a completely different angle.  I still don't have access to any light room or Photoshop so there was nothing I could do about the photo through those means. But I have started taking all my photos in RAW if that is any consolation. I still could have cropped it if warranted. Dial M for MURDER fucked around with this message at 09:10 on May 16, 2013 |
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May 16, 2013 09:06
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  Ran across this bird today. Didn't have a long time to shoot, as it was aggressive and chirping loudly at all passerby on the well-frequented trail. Really didn't know what the deal was until I got home--and I noticed it was defending its nest. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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May 17, 2013 02:30
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Dial M for MURDER posted:
This is pretty, the exposure is bang on though I'd say the fishmarket sign is a little too central without really being anywhere at all. I'd crop it so that it was more in the leftmost third. But then you'd loose the trucks. Hmm.
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May 17, 2013 04:09
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Dial M for MURDER posted:I really like the colors of this shot, but for some reason her limbs seem to be out of balance; like she has larger arms and legs than her body should allow. Something of the perspective looks off somehow. Your horizon is super crooked. Nice otherwise though. Matlock posted:
Don't have too much to say about these, but they are quite nice. Any particular reason you chose to shoot in B/W for a wildlife shot? Also remember to add in some critique in the future! Here's one of mine. I feel like I have a bit too much open space (there was a chair just below what I cropped).  _5130338-Edit.jpg by MrDespair, on Flickr And this is a cliche macro shot that I liked.  _5100500.jpg by MrDespair, on Flickr Dr. Despair fucked around with this message at 04:20 on May 17, 2013 |
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May 17, 2013 04:16
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Mr. Despair posted:Don't have too much to say about these, but they are quite nice. Any particular reason you chose to shoot in B/W for a wildlife shot? Also remember to add in some critique in the future! I originally shot in color, but I wasn't quite happy with it. Did a bit of a contrasty filtered B&W, changed the white balance a bit, and cropped it to something more to my liking. Here's the original, straight-out-of-the-camera shots as converted to jpg.   Too bad I don't have a long lens to get the blue herons rookery properly. As for critique, I clicked on your Flickr link and absolutely love this shot. Such a weird, angry argument going on there.
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May 17, 2013 04:34
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 Killdeer are funny birds.Edit: My laptop's screen isn't great, but the color looks just fine on those two photos.
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May 17, 2013 04:42
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Mr. Despair posted:
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May 17, 2013 13:07
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Mr. Despair posted:Here's one of mine. I feel like I have a bit too much open space (there was a chair just below what I cropped). NoneMoreNegative posted:Looks like some bird gunslinger face-off, you should do a 2.66:1 crop for that Hollywood feel Sorry, couldn't resist. Went full Sergio Leone (2.35:1).  
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May 17, 2013 16:02
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Edmond Dantes posted:Sorry, couldn't resist. Went full Sergio Leone (2.35:1). I like (and stole) this idea   _5130338-Edit.jpg by MrDespair, on Flickr
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May 17, 2013 17:07
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