Hi everyone, my name is Joe. Just signed up over the weekend and start posting. I just started into digital photography(more seriously) in May. I'm still trying to learn all the basics. I started some work on PP and came up with thisshot i took in china last month)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3018/3076976581_6f16fcf208_b.jpg

hm... can't find the image button... but that's the link. i did overlay with gaussian blur at 80% on a duplicate layer... how is the composition? and is that too much blur?

thanks guys!

Why would you spoil a nice image with this processing? (not meant unkindly - welcome to the forum )

Hi, Joe... great candid, you composed well...love the diagonal lines, it draws my eyes to the action, but...

I am not so sure about the blur. It's whimsical but is this the right kind of image to apply it to? Maybe you let the candid speak for itself - would like to see the original and let's take it from there.

Best, Bee

hi, i really appreciate the feedback! I'm glad you guys are honest, only way for me to get better! well here's the original:



if it's too much blur, what can i do to make it pop more? without overdoing it? I may try B&W later today and see how it comes out

Welcome Joe.
I'm with the others: nice image and the blur is not necessary. I prefer the image above. Nice composition; you feel like there is a story captured. The diagonals are nice. Lighting was a bit of a challenge.
I'm on a work monitor so I'm not sure about adjustments.
You might sharpen up a bit, bump the contrast, use a bit of highlight recovery (blown out looking on the left-most girls extended arm).
Scott

Hello Joe and welcome to the forum,

I agree with the comments of Paul, Bee, and Scott, especially about the challenging lighting. Love the story of the kids - girls are focused on one thing, the boy is more interested on his food. My wife would say "Typical male"

I'm on the road with a laptop, uncalibrated, so I cannot judge the colors - all I can say is that what I am seeing could use a bit of saturation and bit more contrast. With all of the grays, I'm guessing you'll find the BW flat...

Regards,

Bob

EDIT: It is also helpful to us if you include Exif data with image

It is slightly over exposed - if shot in Raw you could sort that out.

Did a slight crop
I then used Shadow/Highlight (20%/10%) plus an increase in vibrance from CS4 - if you don't have that increase saturation.
I increased contrast with a USM setting of 10,200,0 on a duplicate layer set to luminosity and used a mask to prevent the highlights blowing out further
Sharpened slightly

Converted to sRGB for the web - essential

Also did a conversion using CS4 and one with an action giving it a slight tone

Hope this helps

Nice work, Paul!

Scott

Had to take a stab at it - not sure since I normally don't do this with a laptop...used NX 2 and lots of control points, looked to have a OD'd in the blue channel so I reduced that a good bit...plus other tweaks here and there

hey thanks a lot for the comments and critique, I really appreciate it! I'll try my hand at it. What are some examples that could use somehwat of blur? portraits?