A Few Photos For C&C

ViceOfFire · Oct 20, 2008

Hi, these are just a few photos I took this morning that I was wondering if you would like to scrutinize and then proceed to criticize for me

. They are all HDR for the sole reason of keeping more tones/colour, but the last two I played around with a little. Taken with a Nikon D90 with an 18-200mm lens. Please be as honest/harsh as possible, as it's the best way to learn.

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tirediron · Oct 20, 2008

Good job; these are some of the nicer HDRs I've seen recently, almost totally without the cartoon look that affects so many. C&C per req:

1. Nice subject, but the point of focus appears to be on the branch image right and the birds themselves are slightly soft. With animals and people it's critical to get sharp focus on the eyes. Additionally, I think you've got just a little too much wasted space around the perimeter. Since you've got one bird looking one way, and one the other, I think centering them in the image is fine, but I'd suggest cropping off most of the sides; the space adds little.

2. Interesting take on the flowing water idea. I think this image might have been improved had you concentrated on the water and composed it to omit the shoreline. It might also be worth trying this with a longer exposure time, 2-3 seconds to get the fine, feathery appearance on the water. Good mono conversion.

3. Nice but a little over done; this one has a bit too much HDR effect for my taste, however that's totally subjective. The main problem I see with the image itself is the background. While it's very soft, there are bright elements and lines which detract from the main image. Nice work getting the bugs in there.

Just my $00.02 worth - your mileage may vary.

~John

ViceOfFire · Oct 21, 2008

Thankyou very much for your C&C, John, I appreciate it. You're tight about the birds, too much wasted space. When I had it printed today I cropped it. You are right also in saying that the focus is a little soft, as soon as I took this they flew to a different part of the tree sadly, so I didn't get another shot. I think the empty space makes the focus look softer though, here is a more close up view:

Also, about the water, thankyou for the compliment, it is my first proper mono conversion (going through the channels etc). I had limited room to take the photo, i guess the best I could do is a crop to get rid of the shoreline. I really wanted to do a longer exposure also, but it was a bright day and as I don't have ND filters (they're on their way), this was the very longest I could do at f/29. I really wanted the cloudy look, but couldn't 'cos of the brightness.

For the flower, I went a little overboard, especially with the colour balance haha. I understand why you dislike the HDR cartoonish look, and I try to avoid it myself also. With this flower I just found that it looked a little boring and flat, so I went a little extreme. I'll try and darken the background flower that's distracting also, thanks for pointing it out.

Thankyou very much for the C&C, it's greatly appreciated!

On a side note - I'm with you 100% about cartoonish HDRs, I'm a strong believer in using HDR for what the name implies: High Dynamic Range in the tones and colours. While I do go overboard myself a lot, most of the time I try and avoid it at all costs and just use it to clarify the image.

Thanks again, John!

Ptyler22 · Oct 21, 2008

NIIIICE

BTilson · Oct 21, 2008

Gotta love John's critiques. He's already said anything that can be said basically, but I'll share what popped into my mind with shot #2.

"Wow... that water is AWESOME."

ViceOfFire · Oct 21, 2008

Thanks so much guys, I appreciate it!

momofthing1and2 · Oct 21, 2008

great pictures!

johng25 · Oct 21, 2008

I don't know anything about photography, but I think the pictures are great. Good job!

John

ViceOfFire · Oct 21, 2008

Thankyou guys so much! And haha Johng I don't really know anything about photography either, I've been at it for like 3 weeks, I'm a total noob.

Ls3D · Oct 21, 2008

Really nice! May I ask what tool you used to tone map the HDR's? I agree that they are nicely done and natural looking.

-Shea

ViceOfFire · Oct 21, 2008

Most of the time I use a single raw, save it as a tif in AdobeRAW at the just right, 2 steps up and 2 steps down exposure, then I use Photomatix, then sometimes back to CS3 for a little colour balance. Thanks a lot for the kind words!

Ls3D · Oct 21, 2008

I thought this might be single exposure HDR,.. whatever your technique, results are nice.

-Shea

ViceOfFire · Oct 21, 2008

Thakyou

! Yeah The birds and the flower are single exposures, but the water was not, because to get that much motion on it's own blew the highlights. So I took 3 exposures.