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Archive 2014 · Please give suggestion

  
 
A Huynh
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Please give suggestion


How do I improve these on both composition and post processing?

1

2

3

Thanks for critics.



Apr 25, 2014 at 07:49 PM
Karl Witt
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Please give suggestion


These may be drastic but for me they just didn't have the right feel or the right punch. I was looking for the reason you took them and trying to expand or emphasize.
#1 I like the cliffs and the lone kayaker, the floating boat just didn't seem to help the comp or create any good vibes. So this is where I went..........if it helps you I am not sure?? More contrast and color added to the cliffs.

#2 Fun to fiddle, foreground was too much IMO, the boat against the bold rock was going to work so it needed more emphasis. Darkened the lighter water, blurred out the distant BG. Selected the kayak and used the Hue adjustment to play with color.........orange looked pretty cool too. Again just trying to shake something loose to get you going

#3 not much working for me here, just would crop off some of the water at the bottom but not sure where to take this one??

Hope this helps a bit??
Karl



























Apr 25, 2014 at 10:30 PM
sbeme
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Please give suggestion


The first image seems to be about the lone kayaker and sense of space. Karl's rework addresses that. Unfortunately, there isnt much interest in the negative space, such as more texture, color play in the water, and the hills are a framing element that doesnt do much justice the beauty of the actual scene.
Karl's second rework addresses isolating the primary subject and providing greater separation from the background with a clever choice of color swap and warm (eg close) against cool blues (eg far). I dont think the primary comp has enough interest.
Looking forward to seeing more. Scott



Apr 26, 2014 at 11:50 AM
A Huynh
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Please give suggestion


Thank you for input.
Well, after your suggestions, I know what I'm missing. And sadly, I know that I will never get that skill.



Apr 28, 2014 at 04:41 PM
sbeme
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Please give suggestion


I dont think you should be that discouraged.
In addition to reading critiques, being critiqued, look at images you like and see if you can analyze why they work for you.
Sign up for free at tmelive.com and view the many tutorials and Daily Critiques from Craig Tanner. Look for a book on composition. I came across one yesterday, 'though I cant recall the name. Had the 10 common compositional errors we all tend to make, and corrections.
Scott



Apr 28, 2014 at 05:53 PM
RustyBug
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Please give suggestion


+1 @ Scott ... we've all been there in one form or another.

That's the way I felt about Layers, CC & PP ... i.e. like I'd never get it. But stick with it and if your heart is to learn, you'll get there.



Apr 28, 2014 at 07:03 PM
lylejk
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Please give suggestion


A combination of Retinex (a GIMP plugin) and a few other tricks. Not for all tastes I have to admit.

http://imageshack.com/a/img838/40/bqnb.jpg



Apr 28, 2014 at 10:41 PM
DianeinCR
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Please give suggestion


Been stewing on what I might do with the third shot. Here's the results of my thoughts...

http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-u5ga3u7RyXM/U2MSYaVfTLI/AAAAAAAAAwY/XKD80oMO9rI/w288-h406-no/963788d.jpg

It's pretty rough but you can get the jest.



May 01, 2014 at 10:37 PM
wordfool
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Please give suggestion


The main problem with the images is the light IMO. This is why the more dedicated among us rise before dawn or linger until disk, to avoid that bright, flat, hazy light that can dominate the day in tropical climes and wash out all color and contrast, rendering even the most beautiful and colorful scenes dull and lifeless. When faced with this sort of light now I tend to give up on any idea of capturing grand vistas and instead focus on details in a scene or try to take advantage of the haze and make it an integral part of the image -- hazy mountains framing something interesting in the foreground, for example, or maybe some sort of abstract effect highlighting patterns or shapes using a tele. A polarizing filter can help a bit in this sort of light, but often not enough to save an image.

I can't tell you how many shots I've deleted over the years that suffered from the flat lighting syndrome with no subject of enough interest to save them from the scrap heap. Very often I also find my more uninspiring shots are the result of having no particular idea of what exactly I wanted to capture in a scene beyond simply the scene itself (if that makes sense).



May 03, 2014 at 04:51 PM
RustyBug
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Please give suggestion


Took a stab at this one with a variety of tweaks that include some color balance, contrast and USM. Essentially used masking for each attribute to craft this rendering. A bit of a crop to reduce the non-essential components of the image, shifting the weighting toward the boats a bit more.

The uber-soft light meant some additional contrast in PP to offset the washed out look a bit.
Contrast, gamma and black point might be a bit dark for some taste's ... but hopefully, you get the gist.

















May 03, 2014 at 06:15 PM
DianeinCR
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Please give suggestion


RustyBug, I'm in awe of your ability to pull detail and light out!!!


May 07, 2014 at 08:11 PM
RustyBug
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Please give suggestion




Thanks for the kind words.

The tricky part is keeping the halo's and crunchies at bay. Typically, I WB adjust first, contrast adjust for lighting offset (specular vs. diffuse @ trying to pretend what I might have seen while I'm standing in the scene), and sharpen last, with the sharpening often done on a layer (opacity adjustable) and maybe through a mask to help control the halo/crunchy when I overdo it too much.

Jeff Schewe for sharpening and Dan Margulis for color are the two I drew from the most ... then just plenty of trial & error / exploration 'til I settled in (somewhat) on how I approach things. Channel masks come in to play about 1/4 of the time (Channel Chops) for me as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Sharpening-Photoshop-Camera-Lightroom-Edition/dp/0321637550

http://www.amazon.com/Photoshop-LAB-Color-Adventures-Colorspace/dp/0321356780

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Margulis

http://www.amazon.com/Photoshop-Channel-Chops-David-Biedny/dp/1562057235



May 07, 2014 at 08:36 PM
SargentRay
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Please give suggestion


Hello A Huynh, I agree with pretty much all that has been said so far, but i'll add this in your own defence, man you had awful light to work with, if at least you would have had some thick fog or something to work with, but you didn't and it isn't your fault if the light was poor and the skies so hazy. But there is almost always something to do with a picture, at least when you shoot in raw. Here i picked the one with the kayak to show you there were still possibilities. I'll spare you the lengthy workflow description, suffice it to say i played with curves, details enhancement (for which i have a personal recipe) also played with saturation and blur filters. It might be quite overwhelming at first to deal with composition, exposure and most of all post processing but from what i see of the work you are showing us (and it takes courage to do so the first few times) i'd say you show promising aptitudes. Keep practicing and asking questions, there's always someone here ready to help :-)





May 07, 2014 at 10:45 PM





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