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Archive 2012 · Sunday afternoons

  
 
Alpi07
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Sunday afternoons


Hi!

In the past months I've been reading and reading and reading in several sessions but I know that's not enough and I should start to get some advise and criticism in order to improve.
I really like this (or these) forum, and I admire the capacity of many to help others to improve where improving is still possible.
So here is my first post, it is a picture I actually like enough, but still I see there is something wrong and I cannot grasp what it is.

Thank you to every one willing to help and comment.

I'm unsure about the size of the file, i hope it is not too small...


Canon 5D II - 24-70mm at 24mm - ISO 160 - 1/4000s - f 3.2




© Alpi07 2012


Sunday afternoons



Edited on Aug 16, 2012 at 03:18 PM · View previous versions



Aug 16, 2012 at 05:53 AM
Bob Jarman
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Sunday afternoons


Welcome to FM and Photo Critique in particular.

Can't really judge processing well on this display or do any re-works but several quick observations:

1. fun photo, I am sure there is an associated story-line but that information is lacking.

2. on this monitor it looks a little flat and soft. The histogram (sort of bi-modal) suggests brighter range of mid tones is lacking.

3. the clouds at right lack detail which is probably there and might be extracted in further post-processing. What did you use for conversion? Straight grayscale in CS5? Conversion through ACR? Plugin? Did you apply any filters?

4. The exif suggests plenty of room to stop down (~f 6, ~f 8) for greater DOF and retain sufficient shutter-speed. I am not familiar with that lens - is it a bit soft wide-open?

5. I think too often we, myself included, strive to seek approval of others - it is your photo and vision. Your being pleased is all that really matters

Looks like a crew that keeps someone very busy

Please share more with us.

Regards,

Bob



Aug 16, 2012 at 07:06 AM
oldrattler
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Sunday afternoons


Welcome... I suspect that this image is some form of family outing... I totally agree with Bob... I added some detail, & contrast to the sky... Lightened around the children, and added a blur vignette... I used Nik Silver Efex Pro... I do not know your goal / story when shooting this so I went for contrasty... Keep posting there are great people here willing to help...






Edited on Aug 16, 2012 at 05:48 PM · View previous versions



Aug 16, 2012 at 04:58 PM
ben egbert
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Sunday afternoons


I can't help much on B&W, but welcome and I can assure you that this is a friendly and helpful forum.


Aug 16, 2012 at 05:01 PM
Bob Jarman
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Sunday afternoons


another alternative, SEPro, sharpened, with a touch of toning and some burning-in...

Regards,

Bob







Aug 16, 2012 at 05:22 PM
Alpi07
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Sunday afternoons


Thank you all for the answers.

Yes, it was a family outing, but I have to say that not all the kids are in our family, two are more than enough for my lazy self.
You can recognize mine from the aura of beauty surrounding them. Everyone can see it right? Not only me (The two on the left).
We were having a walk and they saw few cows in the field.

Here I add the colour version. I used a alienskin filter on my taste.




© Alpi07 2012



Edited on Aug 17, 2012 at 04:48 AM · View previous versions



Aug 17, 2012 at 04:39 AM
Alpi07
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Sunday afternoons


And here is the bw version done trying to follow your comments.

I should correct also the colour version because I can see now more flaws and I thank you all for that.

Anyway, I know that I should follow my taste, but the problem is that I (especially in bw) see that often my pictures are not even a question of taste, they are seriously lacking in technique and vision, so I'm really working hard in order to see the defects and try to correct them.

I don't have any addition to PS except for alienskin, thus all the bw are done with the adjustment and then I add layer over layer masking where needed. I will buy silverefex eventually, but first I would like to learn the basic.

I sharpen using the high pass filter.

The kids in this picture are sharp, but I agree that the threes are not because of the aperture

Well, thanks again, I try to post a better picture describing a story and with the right contrast






Edited on Aug 17, 2012 at 07:54 AM · View previous versions



Aug 17, 2012 at 04:47 AM
Bob Jarman
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Sunday afternoons


Alpi07 wrote:
And here is the bw version done trying to follow your comment.

I should correct also the colour version because I can see now more flaws and I thank you all for that.

Anyway, I know that I should follow my taste, but the problem is that I (especially in bw) see that often my pictures are not even a question of taste, they are seriously lacking in technique and vision, so I'm really working hard in order to see the defects and try to correct them.

I don't have any addition to PS except for alienskin, thus all the bw are done
...Show more

Much improved - before leaping to SEPro, try the demo. Also, you might explore George DeWolfe's Black and White Printing, excerpts from which are available on the web. ACR has many of the necessary tools for excellent BW conversion. DeWolfe discusses these within the LightRoom framework but the engine is the same. Silver Efex Pro allows much finer granularity for micro-adjustments. And, there are probably other equally effective solutions.

Look forward to seeing more...

Bob



Aug 17, 2012 at 07:18 AM
ben egbert
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Sunday afternoons


The color version is much better to me. B&W always comes off to me as incomplete.


Aug 17, 2012 at 09:48 AM
AuntiPode
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Sunday afternoons


Ideally the children ought to be sharper than the background, enough to place more visual emphasis on the children.

Also, for other FM forums 640 pixels on the longest side is preferred or sometimes required. However, for this forum 800 pixels or sometimes up to 1024 is often necessary to properly view the detail needed to critique.



Aug 17, 2012 at 07:12 PM
ben egbert
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Sunday afternoons


1024, wow I never knew this, I am going to change my FM action right away.



Aug 17, 2012 at 07:58 PM
AuntiPode
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Sunday afternoons


I'd avoid 1024 for a a vertical dimension because too many screens would need to be scrolled to see the whole vertical image, but some images really need at least that much horizontal space to appreciate how they are intended to be viewed. Panos also typically need more horizontal space.

For example, the following image is intended to make the figure seem lost in the vast emptiness of the sea and sky. Any smaller and the figure might also be lost to the viewer. This is an image intended to be printed large and viewed somewhat closely.





Down to the Sea, Exhibition Bay




Aug 17, 2012 at 11:35 PM
ben egbert
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Sunday afternoons


That's a great shot AuntiPode.

For years I posted at 1600 wide in another forum. I have a large monitor so it was never a problem. and it makes a big difference for some images. I also view images close even prints where I normally view at 10 inches because of my nearsightedness. I take my glasses of and get up close. I want to see the sand grains.



Aug 18, 2012 at 09:22 AM
AuntiPode
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Sunday afternoons


Thanks, Ben. Some people may view forums on netbooks or very old PCs that have small displays. For those viewers wide images can be a problem. Also, bigger images mean more data to transfer and more bandwidth and storage on the forum servers. If an image can be reasonably critiqued at 800 pixels, then that's the preferred size for this forum and ought to work from most viewers without scrolling back and forth, but a subset of images need to be a little larger. They shouldn't be so large that too many viewers have to scroll their screens. That makes images over about 1024 problematic for many viewers. It's hard to evaluate an image that has to be scrolled to view. Trade-offs and compromises. A limit of 640 is still applied in some of the FM forums, but I find it usually hard to properly critique an image that small.


Aug 18, 2012 at 04:03 PM





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