Are these overdone?

[vansnxtweek]

Hello folks, 2nd thread in a day...I know...I'm hooked on this site. I took some fun pictures of my girlfriend and her pooch this evening and I tried my hand at some editing to help with the colors. I had a lot of fun taking these, as well as having to really get my ducks in a row to be able to keep up and get some good shots. Now please go easy on me as far as the backgrounds go and random objects. This was just her yard so I knew my backgrounds would suffer, but like I said it was just for fun and I wanted to give portraits a shot...no pun intented

I really like how these colors turned out with just minor adjustments, please let me know though if these look over done. I hate it when it looks like someone tried to make a beauty out of crap by going haywire with all the adjustments.

Thanks!

1.

2.

3.

4.

And my personal favorite...
5.

Thanks again, I hope 5 is not too many. I appreciate all the help as always.

 

[MohaimenK]

looks a bit warm to be honest but very good shots!

 

[Dieselboy]

I'm a fan of vivid colors and I like the way these came out, think they'd look better if they were sharper.

 

[LCARSx32]

I like them, all and all.

#1: Her face is a bit pinkish. The water also has a redish-pink tone as well. Good composition and focus.

#2: She has radioactive grass, lol. I'm guessing you increased the color saturation? It's not an overly interesting picture. The houses in the back a bit over exposed.

#3: "My dog ate my girlfriend's head!" I would have move to the right a little so you could see more of her face. The grass is a little over saturated, but not as bad as #2.

#4: RULE OF THIRDS! Google it. Plus the house is going to fall off the left side of the picture because your horizon is tilted.

#5: My favorite as well! It would have been perfect if the dog was in focus as well. Maybe a stop or two on the aperture. It looks like the dog is protecting her from you, lol. Good composition.

 

[vansnxtweek]

looks a bit warm to be honest but very good shots!

Thank you!

I'm a fan of vivid colors and I like the way these came out, think they'd look better if they were sharper.

Thank you man. Ya know the focus is the one thing I was a bit disappointed with. I with they were all very sharp. I had the aperture value set pretty open so I could try to get a faster shutter speed. I was having a bit of a problem with shake.

#1: Her face is a bit pinkish. The water also has a redish-pink tone as well. Good composition and focus.

Should I change the tint some to correct this? I didn't mess with it much but I will agree it looks a bit pinkish.

#2: She has radioactive grass, lol. I'm guessing you increased the color saturation? It's not an overly interesting picture. The houses in the back a bit over exposed.

hahahahah you are very right on the grass. I'm gonna back off the saturation a little and see what I have then. As far as the picture I know its not the most interesting one..I just can't get enough of her expression. Ginger(the dog) sure isn't doing much though. Maybe I'm the only one who sees the light in this one lol.

#3: "My dog ate my girlfriend's head!" I would have move to the right a little so you could see more of her face. The grass is a little over saturated, but not as bad as #2.

lol once again you are right! This prob. isn't the best one either. I guess I just see a sentimental value haha.

#4: RULE OF THIRDS! Google it. Plus the house is going to fall off the left side of the picture because your horizon is tilted.

Oh believe me I know I know haha. I have read and seen enough of that to know its credibility. I actually cropped this one in from kind of far. Shame on me! I'll retry.

#5: My favorite as well! It would have been perfect if the dog was in focus as well. Maybe a stop or two on the aperture. It looks like the dog is protecting her from you, lol. Good composition.

Yup I thought the same thing! Maybe f/8 would have done it. I just had a lot of problem with getting enough light without getting some shake. I had the ISO at 800..I didn't wanna push it.

Thanks so much for the critique!! That is exactly what I hope for.
I'm gonna retry a few of these and see if they are better.

 

[vansnxtweek]

Okay lets give this another go. I rotated and cropped #4 to show rule of thirds and to get rid of the wizard of oz effect. The quality has seemed to of gone down in the process. I guess a book that I have been reading wasn't lying when it said the quality of a JPEG goes down each time it is altered.

Here is #1 again with a touch of reduced hue to get rid of some of the pink.

And lastly here is #2 with a little less nuclear grass/saturation.

Any better?

 

[SecondShot]

#1 and #5 are your strongest pictures, but the dog is cramping her style. Either give the dog a treat to get him off-camera, or get him to lay down with her.

Edit: I meant for #5, the picture would benefit if the dog were laying down, or at least sitting with her, instead of mad-dogging you.

 

[MrBarney]

. I just had a lot of problem with getting enough light without getting some shake. I had the ISO at 800..I didn't wanna push it.

ISOs for the above range between 100 and 200. Shutter speeds are around 1/100 to 1/200 which should have been ok. You could have traded some ISo noise for a bit more DoF.

I like #1 a lot. They are both looking at something out of frame, but there's plenty of space in front of them. #2 isn't bad either.

If you aren't aready, I would suggest shooting RAW. If you want to make further edits, go back to the original RAW rather than modifying the JPEG and you'll not loose the quality.