Photo Critique Thread

[drdrew]

what reefrunner is referring to is not changing the composition, but rather taking 3 or 4 of the exact same pictures at different exposures to that you can catch the sky colors, not blown out...keep the sand black, get detail on the turtle...etc.

but i agree with him this is a fantastic composition. good work, but an impossible shot to get exposed correctly in one shot.

 

[ReefLady]

Shots like this are what gruaduated neutral density filters are made for. Of course, that would require you to have a lot of stuff on hand... point kinda' was, no shot is impossible. With a graduated ND over the top 2/3 of the photo, the highlights would not have been overexposed and you could have exposed the turtle perfectly.

Technical mumbo jumbop aside, I think it's an excellent photo. To me, some things are very OK overexposed. The sun reflecting off ripples of water is one of them. After all, that's how I would have seen it through my eyes.

Nike work jeeps!

T

 

[DuhJeepster]

I can use one those graduated filters in Photoshop right Travis, using channels or layers I think?

Thanks for the compliments guys. I was fishing for constructive comments, and you guys provided . . . thank you! I want to do more work to it technically before I blow it up gigantor size. The composition I feel is nailed, I did do some cropping to it after I made the initial scan, tried making the harsh lighting drop into the background, and made the volcanic rock and turtle details pop more.

Like I said, this pic I posted here has way less detail and sharpness. The big file has been relegated to my Mac's hard drive as a PSD file. BTW, initially I felt there was no need to scan any higher than 300 dpi because when I do get it blown up it will more than likely be printed on some form of thermal imaging, dye sub or inkjet printer, which uses PPI instead of DPI. Having been out of the graphics business for almost 7 years it's hard to say what media large format printing devices use nowadays. I may re-scan at a higher rez just in-case. Any ideas or thoughts?

 

[drdrew]

oh, i'd go for the highest res possible for a large image...i don't know if it will make a difference, but it certainly won't hurt.

the ND filter goes on the lense before you take the shot. travis is right again. smarty pants.

 

[ReefLady]

There are probably many ways to achieve the effect you're looking for in Photoshop, my strategy would be to try many different methods. If you have Photoshop CS, Kevin is dead on that the shadow/highlight feature will probably be your best friend. Other methods will lighten or darken the under/overexposed areas, but the details is more than likely lost on the overexposed parts. I would certainly apply treatments to selected areas pasted onto a new layer versus the whole thing. Other than that, it's tough to say without seeing the pic at full res.

In the future, if you're looking for the equivalent of a graduated ND filter in Photoshop, the best way I know of is to shoot RAW and bracket the photo from +1 to -1 exposure in 1/2 stop increments. You'll be compositing two of the exposures in Photoshop.

T

 

[livingreef2004]

here is a shot i took with my sony f717 this cam is a little dated and not the best but it was the best i could afford i think the shot came out descent but i am having trouble getting everything in focus on tight shots like this one

 

[livingreef2004]

here is another shot i took with the f717

 

[polymorphus]

please Critique

thanks!

- g

 

[drdrew]

poly...that is a neat shot, i like the composition and angle. it is either a little over exposed or you went a little heavy on the contrast adjustment?

 

[BigReepher]

I can appreciate that shot polymorphus. I've tried to get a shot of my peppermints clutch of eggs for the longest time now.

 

[Witfull]

poly, try this trick with your shots, Coffee filter white balance

it works great!

 

[reefrunner]

Have at em

Or

I like the color better on the first one, but the composition of the second, although I might just be a little wierd there. Funny thing about the color is that no settings were changed, and the pictures were taken within a few seconds of each other. I was playing with the external flash and a VERY cheap homemade bounce card, and this is what I got. Flash fired on both pics, macro, f/8, shutter at some ungodly number like 1/1200 or 1/2500.

 

[Witfull]

i like the color of the first also, but in the water droplets on the right the second photo has less of a hot spot.

 

[DuhJeepster]

Do a tight crop on an interesting area in either one of those and you have yourself some kind of abstract piece of art. Love the gradated color in the first shot, but I'm thinking the 2nd is more close to accurate?

Great shot of the Skunk Shrimp! Looks a little contrasty though.

 

[Cougra]

With the second shot, I think it would have been better if you didn't cut off that last little bit of the leaf on the left hand side.

I really like the colour of the first photo.