Hi all, I've been shooting as an amateur for some time and REALLY enjoy shooting sports - especially Downhill MTB, Ultimate, Motorsport and kiteboarding - extreme sports if you will...

I've usually had a very good response to my photos, but every so often I get someone that suggests perhaps I overprocess a little.

Now I do shoot raw all the time, and I have been known to see how far the contrast slider will go on occasion, but sometimes I think perhaps these people have a point. Sometimes I also happily blow out the sky, the background, ANYTHING, if it means that the face of the subject is nicely exposed...

Here are a few of my more processed photos - have I overdone it? How do others deal with getting that "pop" without leaning on the ol' contrastometer?













Sorry some are a bit tightly cropped - they are taken from the slideshow gallery on my site so there it no watermark.

Cheers
Neil G
www.nzsnaps.com

Neil: For what it's worth, I think these look great (aside from the last one looking a touch too hot).

I have the same problem Neil. My "eye" prefers the pushed picture, so it's a constant struggle for me as well. FTR, I like your pics. Like Russ said, I'd have tried to rein in the last one a little...

Same here Neil, they look good to me, just the last one is a little hot! Sharp and got a good bit of punch to them.

I think your shots look good. The exposure is a littler toward the bright side and the saturation is also just a little toward the vivid side. But not nearly so much as to be beyond the range that is correct within a personal taste or a personal style of shooting and/or processing. Don't sweat it if a few people have tastes different than your own. Keep up the great work.

sexy

Wow... thanks for the nice words guys...

As for the last photo - I admit I threw that in there as one I knew I overprocessed a lot... It was shot from the tow boat and the background was always going to be a challenge... For reference, here is the same picture with contrast, exposure and saturation left as they were SOOC.



I really couldn't think of any way to rescue it without going crazy high key like I did...

Thanks again guys - I'd still be keen to hear about the strategies of others to recue bland shots, specifically with respect to exposure or contrast out of the camera... I'm using Capture 1 and really only playing with exp and contrast... If there's a better less sledgehammer approach I'd love to give it a go. (If it doesn't slow down the workflow too much :-)

Cheers - N

Fantastic shots. I think saturation suits your subject well, especially the more extreme sports side of things. I think though that you can be selective in exposing faces without blowing out a whole image. Takes more time though.

imho #1's saturation a bit warm, but, man I love that racing car shot, that's just awesome shooting angle

I think your processing is fine. The hallmarks of overprocessing are inappropriate/blown skin tones and posterization in smooth color gradients - i.e. the sky. You have neither (as far as I can tell in these small images).

That said, go clean your sensor.

Jonathan H wrote:
That said, go clean your sensor.

+1
especially on that bike shot

I think the extreme processing looks fine for extreme sports like these... definitely more punchy than my style, but it works here and keeps your stuff from looking like a snapshot

I have seen threads with images pushed WAY more than this. You are well within what I would consider a reasonable amount of post levels. Your shots are punchy and vibrant, but in no way overblown or too extreme for my tastes. Nice series actually.

I think they're nice and punchy. As long as you like them, who cares what others say ?

Hi
I think they good, certainly not over cooked at all,(except last one maybe :-)

Great set

Howard

Not at all - very well done.