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04/29/2006 04:06:01 PM · #51 |
 original  my tweaks
Since kirsty brought this up. I was going through some past entries for everyone and as I was commenting I thought of some tweaks on this one. Did some quick PS-E2.0 work and came up with this. Comments? |
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04/29/2006 05:13:36 PM · #52 |
Well, I think I have commented on everyone's pictures. Nards, I have to complement you on the idea...I spent a lot more time contemplating the photos (not to mention creating comments) than I would usually when voting.
I decided to make my comments before reading those of others and discovered an added bonus. After leaving a comment I would read the other comments from the group and found them illuminating; sometimes others see things that I didn't notice myself, which makes my learning process better (it's not just my photo, but also photos from others in the group that lead to useful ideas.)
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04/29/2006 08:05:23 PM · #53 |
| I'm commenting before reading comments too... I'm just as surprised by the similarities between all our comments as I am by the differences. It's interesting to me that for some images, we "see" almost exactly the same positives and negatives, and yet, we all take very different kinds of pictures, and our various strengths seem to be in different areas. |
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04/29/2006 09:15:40 PM · #54 |
Originally posted by nards656:
You can edit my pics for illustration either in this thread or in the comment itself all that you would like. I would just ask that such edits not be "republished" anywhere else. Not a problem. |
same for me...edit away. |
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04/29/2006 11:59:21 PM · #55 |
Originally posted by Louis:
I'm commenting before reading comments too... I'm just as surprised by the similarities between all our comments as I am by the differences. It's interesting to me that for some images, we "see" almost exactly the same positives and negatives, and yet, we all take very different kinds of pictures, and our various strengths seem to be in different areas. |
no kidding. i commented prior to reading and read the commments of everyone afterward to see ifn i was a bit off. lol.
what i became upset about is how i seem to know what to do, just cannot seem to do it. seeing people agree with my vision on others photos is great. i just wonder why when i do mine i dont seem to see these things.
i guess that is what practice is all about.
and btw,
this is a great idea, i am so very excited about this whole thing. reading the comments on my photo was excellent. first time i got this kind of real feedback.
one other thing. yall can be brutal with me and i will not get upset. i really wanna hear the truth (even ifn i may not really wannna hear the truth). lol.
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04/30/2006 12:18:27 AM · #56 |
| Quick off-topic question for James (tngrndream) - do you also listen to Spock's Beard at all? |
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04/30/2006 12:40:17 AM · #57 |
you mean the guy from star trek???? lol
actually no, i have never heard of spocks beard. should i be listening to them?
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04/30/2006 10:23:27 AM · #58 |
Originally posted by tngrndream:
what i became upset about is how i seem to know what to do, just cannot seem to do it. seeing people agree with my vision on others photos is great. i just wonder why when i do mine i dont seem to see these things. |
Yeah.. that bothers me too. Almost as though it's obvious what elements a great picture has, but reproducing those elements in my own stuff.... pfffff.
Another problem I personally have is finding new things to shoot. I find myself going for the comfortable stuff that I always take pictures of. I've got thousands of photographs in my portfolio, but my portfolio here is tiny because of the duplication, and the resulting lack of interest. There's another thread that says that half of good photography is travelling to find your subject, either in a great location, or simply by coming across something on your travels. I really believe that, but I don't know... what's holding me back from taking better shots I wonder? (I mean aside from lack of talent.) ;) |
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04/30/2006 04:14:22 PM · #59 |
The criticism most often mentioned about my photos is (1) fuzzy focus and (2) color issues. Now, the first one should be easy to fix. Just spend a bit more time examining my aperture/speed selection...and use a tripod more often. The second one may be a problem of color calibration of my monitor (I use a laptop and photoshop actually discourages calibration with their software when a laptop is used). Any suggestions other than these?
...And yes, I agree (wistfully) with group members who say that it is harder to find the flaws in one's own work than in that of others (which makes this thread that much more useful). In real estate it's "location, location, location" - in photograpy it's "details, details, details".
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04/30/2006 04:41:23 PM · #60 |
I feel fortunate in recent challenges that ideas have come fairly quickly and I have had some success in shooting and processing what I had in mind. This week has been a bit more rough as the challenges have been a bit more open ended and could have a wide interpretation. I too feel I understand what it takes to have a good shot, but translating that into my own pictures can be a challenge. Overall I guess finding the appropriate subject to shoot is my biggest hurdle. I am a stay at home dad of two - the candid/photojournalist type shots are tough when you have 2 kids under four hanging on to your leg (unless I take a picture of them which will undoubtedly do bad here). I also do not have an indoor studio with lights and refelctors, or a wide range of lenses. I just need to do the best with what I have and be creative.
On that note - my rythm entry will be less than spectacular and probably get me back into the middling masses group. Thanks again all for the great comments and i look forward to giving out more. |
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04/30/2006 05:29:35 PM · #61 |
I, too, suffer from a "what in the world can I shoot for this?" problem. I don't have a studio, and I have a day job that takes a lot of daylight hours. Now that it's getting to summer, though, I can shoot a bit in the evenings as long as I don't have to fight traffic to do so.
I'll see you in Rhythm, Tim! I have one that I really like for that, but I suspect it's either a) not DPC friendly, or b) not a very good picture. I'll find out after the challenge, I'm sure!
Oh, and I had an "opportunity" for a really good photojournalism shot - car wreck on the way out of my neighborhood this afternoon. Two fire trucks, three police cars, two ambulances. I just couldn't see getting out of my car and shooting pictures, as I fear the injuries weren't minor and I didn't feel it would be appropriate to intrude at that point. |
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04/30/2006 06:27:35 PM · #62 |
Originally posted by Melethia:
Oh, and I had an "opportunity" for a really good photojournalism shot - car wreck on the way out of my neighborhood this afternoon. Two fire trucks, three police cars, two ambulances. I just couldn't see getting out of my car and shooting pictures, as I fear the injuries weren't minor and I didn't feel it would be appropriate to intrude at that point. |
Always intrude, just be respectful. I have been a paramedic for 14 years, and I never mind people shooting as long as they leave the flash off and they stay back out of the way. Just be smart, stay out the responders' way and keep yourself safe, then its never an intrusion.
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04/30/2006 06:48:19 PM · #63 |
| Good advice, Eric. Had I been shooting for a reason other than an online challenge, maybe I'd have stopped. But it just seemed so trivial at the time when they were wheeling out folks on stretchers and still trying to get one person out of a car, it looked like. I will say that the civil engineers and construction workers did their part - the guardrail held and it appears both cars hit it with some force. |
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04/30/2006 09:58:11 PM · #64 |
I'd like to say thanks to Kirsty for the edits. That was awesome. My biggest downfall is Photoshop. I still haven't even figured out layers. I keep trying to get to the bookstore to buy a "Photoshop for Dummies" book, but something always seems to prevent it. It really helps when you show me what steps you take. BTW - how do you rotate in PS7?
As an aside - for some reason I cannot receive PM's through this site. I've put in help tickets, but it's never been fixed. So if you want to contact me use my email address that's in my profile. |
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04/30/2006 10:26:58 PM · #65 |
Originally posted by chalice:
The criticism most often mentioned about my photos is (1) fuzzy focus and (2) color issues...Any suggestions other than these?
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Assuming you use unsharp mask in Photoshop, the issue may lie in your composition, in addition to how you use your camera's autofocus areas (without knowing how your particular camera works). For example, your color studio portrait entry seems to have soft focus on the subject's face, and sharper focus toward the bottom of the frame (specifically the thing he's resting on). I'm sure you know this, but I believe that in general, a portrait is acceptable to a viewer as long as the eyes are a focal point and have razor-sharp focus.
Your selected aperature may hurt your focus too... in the aforementioned photo, it seems kinda wide to me. This seems to have resulted in elements being in focus that aren't important at the expense of important areas being slightly out of focus. For example, his arms are nicely focused, but parts of his face, teeth in particular, are not. Just overall seems a little soft where it should be sharper. I'd try paying careful attention to technical details when focus is an issue, and see how that works.
I think colour really comes down to your medium. You probably need to get off the laptop onto a calibrated monitor if you think that may be the issue. |
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04/30/2006 11:26:29 PM · #66 |
Okay, I believe I've commented everyone's most recent shot, as promised. If I missed anyone, please let me know and I'll try to catch it tomorrow.
GREAT START, GANG! This is already encouraging and helping me a lot. |
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05/01/2006 02:50:16 AM · #67 |
Thanks Louis. Actually as to the soft portrait I did something that probably makes no sense - I tried to soften the picture intentionally, not remembering that the eyes need to be sharp. I was "playing with" photoshop and trying to soften the complexion without keeping the eyes clear. A rookie mistake that eveyone saw instantly. Your observations are helpful.
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05/01/2006 04:43:01 PM · #68 |
melethia and chalice the only ones that have a pic in the windows frame?
that was all i saw and i got them done.
cannot wait till i get mine critiqued. hope yall are very forward with me.
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05/01/2006 05:43:51 PM · #69 |
Originally posted by kdsprog:
It really helps when you show me what steps you take. BTW - how do you rotate in PS7?
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Glad it was useful. Sorry, can't help on that specifically - I'm just on PS elements 2.0. Jut guessing here, but try the crop tool - select a rectangle and hold the cursor just off a corner til it makes a "rotate-y" symbol, and click & drag. This is how I do it in Elements, maybe PS7 is similar.
Hoping someone else can help here...
Originally posted by tngrndream:
melethia and chalice the only ones that have a pic in the windows frame?
that was all i saw and i got them done.
cannot wait till i get mine critiqued. hope yall are very forward with me. |
Have to admit that was quite a relief after my late night commenting to catch up on everyones most recent shot before rollover. Should be able to manage 2 decent comments before the new open challenges.
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05/01/2006 05:51:37 PM · #70 |
Originally posted by kirsty_mcn:
Originally posted by kdsprog:
It really helps when you show me what steps you take. BTW - how do you rotate in PS7?
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Glad it was useful. Sorry, can't help on that specifically - I'm just on PS elements 2.0. Jut guessing here, but try the crop tool - select a rectangle and hold the cursor just off a corner til it makes a "rotate-y" symbol, and click & drag. This is how I do it in Elements, maybe PS7 is similar.
Hoping someone else can help here...
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Thanks, that worked. I never realized you could do that. |
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05/01/2006 05:57:45 PM · #71 |
Originally posted by kdsprog:
Originally posted by kirsty_mcn:
Originally posted by kdsprog:
It really helps when you show me what steps you take. BTW - how do you rotate in PS7?
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Glad it was useful. Sorry, can't help on that specifically - I'm just on PS elements 2.0. Jut guessing here, but try the crop tool - select a rectangle and hold the cursor just off a corner til it makes a "rotate-y" symbol, and click & drag. This is how I do it in Elements, maybe PS7 is similar.
Hoping someone else can help here...
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Thanks, that worked. I never realized you could do that. |
Glad to be of assistance :)
Only learnt that trick myself recently - much easier than rotating by x degrees and then cropping
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05/01/2006 09:17:35 PM · #72 |
Hey gang,
James (tngrndream) commented on my Window photo and said something like "I hope you don't mind if I don't really see much here" - of course not!! We all have different tastes and we all see different things. I'm tickled if just one person sees the same thing I saw in a picture - I certainly don't expect everyone to see the same thing. How boring a world it would be if that were so.
So please do be honest - if you don't like the subject or the composition, or the colors or lack thereof - feel free to say so. I think most of you who have commented have done just that - I just want to make sure you know I won't be offended or get all bent out of shape if you don't like my pictures. Hope that goes for the rest of us here, too!
As for some of the other comments, yes, I agree that it's busy. It's one of those, though, that the longer I looked at it (it was on my desktop at work) the better I liked it. For this site and judging purposes, I do realize that busy isn't particularly good and I realize it doesn't appeal to a lot of folks.
Great comments, by the way, about the framing, the separation, and the way it might have looked at a different time of day. Much appreciated!
If you want to see one that was well done as far as using the window to create a triptych type picture, check out Yanko's. That one worked VERY well in my opinion. (Hope he doesn't mind!)
Haven't had time to comment on other pics yet - did we decide chalice was the only other in the challenge? Who has pictures in the open challenges closing tomorrow? |
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05/01/2006 09:23:09 PM · #73 |
Originally posted by Melethia:
Who has pictures in the open challenges closing tomorrow? |
I'm in the Complementary Colors III. It's tanking very badly. Out of 14 comments, only a couple saw what I saw. After the challenge, I'd like to put up the picture I took out at the last second to see if you guys think it might have done better. |
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05/01/2006 09:41:00 PM · #74 |
By all means, post outtakes. I think that can only help us decide why we pick which pictures to enter and maybe help us improve those selection skills. I'm pretty sure I should have entered a different picture in Photojournalism, but what the heck...
I have one in Negative Image and I'm VERY pleased with the score on that one, so comment only if you feel the need. :-) I'll probably post a thumb to the positive in the photographer's comments after the challenge closes. It was just "OK" as a positive, but pretty cool as a negative. |
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05/01/2006 11:11:50 PM · #75 |
| I've got one in Negative. |
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