PP Help

[cvjarrod]

Coming from a film background, the part I'm just not confident in is post processing. I've been playing around with all the settings and wanted some constructive criticism on how to improve the final product.

Both pictures shot with D200 and 17-55 2.8 and ISO 800

1/80 5.6
SB800 TTL - (Bounced off wall to the left)
In the original image, none of his hair was blown out. What pp adjustment did I overdo it on that caused this?

http://www.freshie.net/022607/bb-rhf.jpg
http://www.freshie.net/022607/bb-rhf.nef


1/350 16

For BW, I'm even more clueless. What adjustments should I be concentrating on for BW pictures? For this picture I want to really bring out the movement of him spinning around the pole.

http://www.freshie.net/022607/bb-park-bw.jpg
http://www.freshie.net/022607/bb-park-bw.nef

 

[The_Traveler]

in the first, these may be oversharpening halos.

in the second, the shutter speed is way too fast to capture any movement. (image is a also little flat)

you needn't post the huge NEF file, just save it as a jpg and post that.

 

[shingfan]

1/350 is too fast for motion capture....try something slower....like 1/15 or even slower.....that is the beautiful with digital....you can do trial and error.....

just out of curisoity.....why you shoot at ISO800 when you are using flash?.....

i can see that you have super nice equipment......a dream set to me....but you should spend more time learning the basics of photograph like how the different settings affect exposure.....that would be really beneficial to you......learn how the followings affect your picture

ISO, aperture, shutter speed, focal length

 

[cvjarrod]

The color on the face would've been washed away if too much flash had been used. Went ISO 800 on that shot to minimize the amount of flash. The flash ended up filling the picture while not washing away the weaker colored lighting. At lower ISO, the color on the face is completely washed away from the strength of the strobe. Lighting was horrible in that building with black ceilings and TTL BL was yielding shutter speeds too low to hand hold.

Went ISO 800 on the second shot to get a faster shutter speed. I should've gone up to at least F4 to try and get a 1/500 or higher shutter speed to eliminate all blur. I was worried with him spinning around the pole F4 would've made getting good focus across the whole body a problem.

If I was to redo the second shot, I would've shot at 1/500 or higher to freeze the motion, not 1/15. That pole rotates and he's moving pretty fast there. That's why the farther from the pole he is, the more motion blur there is. 1/15 would've made the picture one big blur. I kind of liked the little bit of blur in the face to convey the motion and was playing with motion blur that day. No post processing was done on this, and the whole point was to get suggestions on how to make the picture not look "flat".

Thanks for the tip on the sharpening tool.

Picture 1 was chosen to learn about PP for a poor lighting situation with bright colors.

Picture 2 was chosen to learn about PP when incorporating motion blur.

The good shots are a no-brainer to make look good, that's why I chose these.

Any experienced photogs with C&C?