novice looking for brutal critiquing

Keta · Jun 20, 2006

A while ago I asked for advice on framing / composition; I hope I have learned a thing or two from the responses!
This is an extension of the same question . . . I'm basically looking for all and any kind of critique / advice / suggestions. This is a pic of my town on a semi-cloudy afternoon; I was going for a certain effect of depth / space + keeping the stronger foreground of the soccer players.

But I really don't know what the hell I am doing! Minor tinkering in PhotoShop re: light-contrast values and colour saturation.

(if you think this sucks really bad, please forgive me. Generally I take pics of eagles flying by so I'm not used to actually being able to compose a shot!)

mysteryscribe · Jun 20, 2006

I like the bird. You dont see many with the wings in that position. Matter of fact thats the first picture like it I have ever seen.

Somethings about #1 bothers me personally, i"m not sure anyone else would feel the same.. The color of the city seems strange to me and the saturation of one part being so different from the other is a bit of a shock but maybe thats what you intended. If so it works.

terri · Jun 20, 2006

I like the eagle shot, as well. However, what I am seeing right away in both images is way too much magenta. Both images have an odd pinkish tone that doesn't seem to fit either one of them.

For your top image, I think, with the way you described the open feel you were after, that you succeeded overall. But I believe you'd get the same feel with a much tighter crop. You could crop out from both top and bottom and still have the nice cityscape in the background, but the soccer players would be more prominent. In fact, I had to look hard for the soccer ball; at first glance it just seemed like a group of people since this is an informal game (no uniforms to help define the action).

I'm no PS whiz so I can't explain color adjustment actions step by step. But you can lose some of that magenta just by nudging away from it, and more natural daylight tones should begin to appear.

Hope this helps!

Keta · Jun 20, 2006

Thanks you guys! It's just as I feared; I've found where my skill lies and probably shouldn't push beyond that for now.
Not that I don't enjoy a good challenge and learning something useful - it's just that I'm approaching it almost from a sense of obligation. I spend an awful lot of time taking pics so feel I should know more about it!

If my shots tend to turn out like this . . . shouldn't I already be satisfied with what I am doing?

danalec99 · Jun 20, 2006

Thread moved from the Critique Gallery, since it does not follow this portion of the Critique section http://thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51800 guidelines -

Q. Is there size limit on images I want to submit?
A. It is always preferable to keep your image at or under 150 kb. If you feel you must have a larger image to show certain detail, make a note of it in your subject, since a large number of members are still on dialup connections. In addition, only one image should be submitted at a time for critique, not a series. Multiple examples of the same image are allowed for comparison’s sake.