moon.jpg
by noth1021

Comment by RulerZigzag:
detail is ok, I think bassbone got ya beat though!..keep trying, I like your tones better.Use a tripod.

moon.jpg
by noth1021

Comment by bassbone:
nice moon pic - check out mine too!

rose.jpg
by noth1021

Comment by TCGuru:
I like this one better :D

If you want to take a look at some wonderful processing techniques, check out the portfolio of sherpet, she shoots a lot of flowers. ursula is also an AMAZING flower shooter.

Your composition is good. The only flaw I see is that tiny little bit of something on the petal of the flower that is distracting my eye... I don't know if you are aware that the eye generally begins at the top right corner of a photograph and goes clockwise from there.

Keep it up!! You are doing a great job :)

spider.jpg
by noth1021

Comment by TCGuru:
Is this using an on-board flash?? It's kinda bright... your camera flash can be toned down... go to your menu and check out flash compensation :) If it were a hair darker, it would be a bit more dramatic IMHO. Also, if you use a tripod, it will give you a clearer image because you can slow down the shutter and use a lower ISO :) It is well composed though, and that means you have a good eye. I would like to see this little guy again :)

playing with fire
by noth1021

Comment by TCGuru:
I hope you don't mind, I took a stab at editing this so I could give you an idea of what I am talking about :)

Here's my edit:


I used the smudge tool set at 12% strength and went over the flame, then I increased the contrast a bit, applied a warming filter, low NI, and sharpened it once.

Fire is very hard to photograph because you are trying to balance between really really bright light and darkness. It is tough to expose for one or the other in the same photograph :) You did a good job!

beeeeee.jpg
by noth1021

Comment by TCGuru:
This is pretty good!! :) If you jazzed the contrast just a hair, it would help that bee stand out just a little more... also, the OOF police would say your focus is a little soft (they are sticklers LOL) try applying Neat Image (very very low setting) USM at 100, 2.0, 0 then history brush everything but the bee. You are getting much better in a very short time! Keep em coming! :)

fluff.jpg
by noth1021

Comment by bassbone:
This is much better - excellent composition and great soft lighting. The light is a little dark but this is SOOOO much better.

You have a great shot here - I took the liberty of doing just a little post processing to show you how a shot can be taken. Please note that I am not very good at this PP myself, but you can get the idea of what photoshop elements can even do in the hands of a hack!

Levels adjustment - brightened image in mid range
Brighness/contrast - increased brightness and contrast slightly
Hue/Saturation - individual channels - increased reds a little, decreased yellow, increased cyan to +50 to bring out eyes.
Sharpened image using Filters--Sharpen --unsharp mask - 85, 0.5,0



Message edited by author 2007-08-31 20:50:19.

fluff.jpg
by noth1021

Comment by TCGuru:
MUCH better!! You can see the kitty's eye colour (beautiful). Do you have any kind of editing software? The kitty is a hair dark and could use a slight levels (light) adjustment. Also, your shot would not suffer with a crop out of that brightly lit spot on the left. It would pull more focus to the kitty and its pose. For a cat that docile, I would also drop my ISO as low as I could get it and shoot with a slower shutter speed (1/40s?) for less noise, if you open your aperture to f4 or 5, it should get you wide open enough to have some room to play with the settings a bit :)

Improvement already? What ARE they going to do with you around here?? ;)

Start of the Eclipse
by noth1021

Comment by bassbone:
Looks like a pretty decent moon image - but it is a bit small with a lot of blank space. From a compositional standpoint, having a single object dead center is often very static looking. Using the rule of thirds to compose your image can really help.

For the moon shot, do as srdanz suggested and crop it down so that we can see the detail of the moons surface. The moon itself seems a bit soft of focus. Did you use a tripod for the shot? If so, how long is the exposure?

WHen you upload photos, you may want to try and put the stats about the image with it (exposure time, ISO, f-stop) so that we can give you a hand.

Cheers!
Peter

you staring at something.jpg
by noth1021

Comment by bassbone:
Will - welcome to the party. Like the two other comments before - you have a great cat - very expressive face - but the onboard flash will have to go. You will get killed around here entering photos with harsh flash - even if it is the cutest kid, prettiest woman, or sweetest cat in the world. Natural light, diffuse light, good light is what does well around here....