1st altered photos, opinions please

[ISI_Stang06]

these are my 1st photos that i have altered using light room. tell me what you guys think about them. tips on improving will be very much appreciated, hoping to improve :hail:

tried making the sunflower stand out and look sharp

my 11 year old nephew

thought the bridge would be cool

just trying to focus on a single image

thought the branches with the background looked cool

 

[WDodd]

The first one and the last one are my favorites. Composition wise the last one is good in my opinion. I would clone out the dark stems in the first one because they draw attention away from the flower.

The second one looks a little soft and I think it is shot from too low of an angle. I am drawn directly to the sleeve that is blocking his face.

Keep in mind that I am far from a pro and these are just my opinions. I can't really tell what you did to edit them. If you want tips or C&C on that you might include a before and after?

 

[ISI_Stang06]

The first one and the last one are my favorites. Composition wise the last one is good in my opinion. I would clone out the dark stems in the first one because they draw attention away from the flower.

The second one looks a little soft and I think it is shot from too low of an angle. I am drawn directly to the sleeve that is blocking his face.

Keep in mind that I am far from a pro and these are just my opinions. I can't really tell what you did to edit them. If you want tips or C&C on that you might include a before and after?

thanks man, opinions from any level of photogropher is welcomed. do you know how i would go by cloneing out the dark stems? and how would i go by making the pic of my nephew a little more sharper?

 

[ISI_Stang06]

ttt...any more info guys :hail:

 

[WDodd]

thanks man, opinions from any level of photogropher is welcomed. do you know how i would go by cloneing out the dark stems? and how would i go by making the pic of my nephew a little more sharper?

I use Lightroom to organize my photos and make exposure adjustments sometimes but my editing I do in CS3. I would probably use a combination of the clone tool and the heal tool on a new layer. You background is pretty uniform where the stems are so I think it wouldn't be terribly hard to make those pesky things go away.

As far as sharpening, I haven't really found a sharpening technique that I have fallen in love with so far. But you could try this: http://pentaxlife.com/benjamin-kanarek-post-processing-method it is quite a difference on color pictures but I have never tried it on black and white.

You had image editing OK so I tried it out:

On a second look I like your bridge picture more. And the single black just isn't very interesting choice of subject. Hope that helps.

 

[BoblyBill]

Well let's see...

#1. tried making the sunflower stand out and look sharp
I like this shot best out of all of them because of the composion, exposure, and over all sharpness, but it does need to loose the dark brown branches in the back. I was going to say that it has to much dead space on the right, but really... I like all that dead space. The unbalance of the flower on the left, IMHO, adds interest to the shot.

#2. my 11 year old nephew (11 years or weeks ).
The first I noticed in the picture is that lack of the child's face. The blanket is not helping this one. Instead it is distracting. His nose has some weird bluring effect that makes him look like he has a high pressure area around it causing water vapor to condense like in this picture: here. I would suggest getting a little bit higher with a tripod to shoot this one.

#3. thought the bridge would be cool
There is no real subject matter in this one to hold ones attention long. If there was a frog, bird, or even a cool bug in focus this shot would have a lot of potential.

#4 just trying to focus on a single image
I think you succeeded but the subject is dead center and loses it's interest because of it. This should be an easy one to fix with a crop making it off center and in one of the bottom thirds

#5 thought the branches with the background looked cool
Again nice use of dead space, however the sky is blown out leaving a rather unattractive background. This would be hard to fix unless you exposed for the sky and then lightened the branches and bottom part of the background or used a graduated ND filter to cut down on the exposure in the sky.