6 Month Assessment? Photo Critique Request.

elementgs

No longer a newbie, moving up!
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Sooo I've been at this now for a year and a half and I personally feel like I've grown tremendously as a photographer but I would really like to hear your thoughts.

I am hoping a few of you could critique a few photos of mine (harshly if necessary, Derrel I can count on you right?) so I can see where I stand currently.

A few I'm proud of are:

Point Sur Lighthouse

Morry Bay in May

A Simple Daisy

Grand Central

Splash of Color

A lot of mistakes have been made over the past year but I would nevertheless love the feedback. I truly wish to make a career out of this and the only way I see that happening is if I break free of my family and friends and have the harsh truth set down upon me by some professionals.

Thank you for all your support and guidance. Appreciated as always.

-John
 
good shots. I want to say the first and last are a bit over saturated.


Cool shot of the lighthouse. I drove by that on the 31st. I wanted to stop for pics, but i just passed a REALLLLLLLLLLLY slow driver on CA-1 and didn't want to have to pass him again in my little econ car.
 
Am I really that harsh, or do I just state my opinions with conviction???????????????????????

http://500px.com/photo/58139564/point-sur-lighthouse-by-john-gannon
I would dial back the blues a bit. LOVE that open door! Not bad!


http://500px.com/photo/70315603/morro-sunset-in-may-by-john-ga
Not bad, but the fill-light shadowed areas look a bit grayish. This needs more SNAP! in the lower tonal values. This scene has a lot of shadow values and those are very tricky to get looking optimal. Learning how to process this type of shot is tricky. With today's tools like shadow/highlights, or "digital fill light", and so on, it's never been easier to "lift the shadows", but that also leads to a loss of contrast in those shadows, and I think this shot needs a bit more "black point" work, to make the wet beach sand and the whole shadowed areas have more, well, more SNAP!


http://500px.com/photo/71891697/a-simple-daisy-by-john-gannon
I would cut about 75% of the entire right hand side of the frame off, and make this a "tall", with the dual flowers competing for the eye…dueling banjos style!


http://500px.com/photo/70069509/grand-central-by-john-gannon
Looks like it needs a very minor rotation CCW, and maybe a bit of vignette to contain the scene.


http://500px.com/photo/69610267/splash-of-color-by-john-gannon
Beautiful, very saturated color indeed. I might lower the green saturation and luminosity just a tad though.
 
Being at this a year and a half would mean to me that you have a long ways to go, I don't know if it's possible to be an expert at much of anything in that amount of time.

For my tastes most of the pictures have good compositions and seem to show that you have an eye for this, but the processing is way overdone. The sunsets look like someone cracked an egg in the sky, it just has that color to it and it's too much. The one of the water I think in Central Park looks to me like the exposure was off and that made me wonder if that's something to work on, so you get good colors and won't have a need to process so much (not seeing the originals I don't know for sure).

I've started getting some of my photos accepted into juried exhibits so I know I'm doing something right, but that doesn't mean they sell. What's popular now (much of which to me is not my style to say the least) may be what sells but I imagine it will run its course and tastes may change so I guess it's a matter of whether someone just want to make some money in the short term or become a good photographer over the long haul.

If you haven't already you might think about some courses where you could develop technical skills and get feedback from instructors, and study works of famous photographers to train your eyes as to what good quality photography looks like (I think what was good in any era is still good and stands the test of time). I think I would really like many of your photos but I found it hard to get past the processing, I saw that more than the photo itself.
 
Really, I think the sunset look desaturated if anything...needs a touch of curves adjustment maybe.
 
Is it just me, or does the lighthouse look tilted to frame right a bit?

Maybe it's just a little distortion from the lens.

Other than that and pulling the blues back a bit I think it's a fantastic shot.
 
Is it just me, or does the lighthouse look tilted to frame right a bit?

Maybe it's just a little distortion from the lens.

Other than that and pulling the blues back a bit I think it's a fantastic shot.

It does have that feel, but I think that the horizon is straight.
 
Is it just me, or does the lighthouse look tilted to frame right a bit?

Maybe it's just a little distortion from the lens.

Other than that and pulling the blues back a bit I think it's a fantastic shot.

It does have that feel, but I think that the horizon is straight.

Makes sense, I was looking at the side of the lighthouse itself. Just a little distortion maybe then.
 
Is it just me, or does the lighthouse look tilted to frame right a bit?

Maybe it's just a little distortion from the lens.

Other than that and pulling the blues back a bit I think it's a fantastic shot.

It does have that feel, but I think that the horizon is straight.

Makes sense, I was looking at the side of the lighthouse itself. Just a little distortion maybe then.

Maybe so, or just maybe it is an excellent photograph because is gives us a sense of motion??? Just throwing that out there.
 
Nice work, esp for just 1.5 years.

Better test the waters about a career though. Have you tried making a living with your pix? If you can, more power to you!
 
Sooo I've been at this now for a year and a half and I personally feel like I've grown tremendously as a photographer but I would really like to hear your thoughts.

I am hoping a few of you could critique a few photos of mine (harshly if necessary, Derrel I can count on you right?) so I can see where I stand currently.

A few I'm proud of are:

Point Sur Lighthouse

Morry Bay in May

A Simple Daisy

Grand Central

Splash of Color

A lot of mistakes have been made over the past year but I would nevertheless love the feedback. I truly wish to make a career out of this and the only way I see that happening is if I break free of my family and friends and have the harsh truth set down upon me by some professionals.

Thank you for all your support and guidance. Appreciated as always.

-John

did you use any filters?
 

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