amateur photography criticism

KmH · May 20, 2010

A quote from Thom Hogan's 8 things you should do but don't :

Change the Light. Too many photographers just accept what they find. Instead use: Time of day, subject position, flash, reflectors, diffusers, scrim, flashlights, and anything else you can think of. But take control of the light.

mrpink · May 20, 2010

EricaRie said:
the baby's blurry hands were because she was waving them around, we tried by there was no way to hold her still, haha.

And the white shirts was my cousin's idea. She wanted these pictures for mother's day so she orchestrated the outfits. I wondered if something w/ color (i.e. blues and greens) might do better in that lighting (4:00 pm)

You are spot on about the color and time of day working against you. If people want to dress similar in anything I shoot, I always say; simple black top, tan/kaki bottoms... everyone has at least one of each and they work well in photos no matter the lighting.

I like the photo of them all on their backs, even with the small distractions it is still a great shot, frame it as is.

p!nK

divided · May 20, 2010

With a quick amateur edit they have potential.

mbcreate · May 20, 2010

I loved the the outfits idea. Was a great contrast with background and the location is very cool...
"L O L and you daughter is very pretty" what a great model!
You are right on target, maybe a few adjustments on PS and "parabéns" :thumbup:

EricaRie · May 21, 2010

divided said:
With a quick amateur edit they have potential.

What did you do exactly? You're right, it made a big difference, but I can't figure out what you did (other than the black frame)...

Infidel · May 21, 2010

Looks like increased saturation and some sharpening.

Sbuxo · May 21, 2010

I don't like that edit, I'm not feeling the blue shadows on their shirts, but everything else does look good.

However, I do like the picture of the circle of the kids because it shows genuine emotion, especially the baby. Of course, it would have been better if the little girl on the right had her eyes open, but she still looks very happy.

EricaRie · May 21, 2010

Sbuxo said:
I don't like that edit, I'm not feeling the blue shadows on their shirts, but everything else does look good.

However, I do like the picture of the circle of the kids because it shows genuine emotion, especially the baby. Of course, it would have been better if the little girl on the right had her eyes open, but she still looks very happy.

I thought about trying to crop her opened eyes from another shot in the same pose because I think I've been told you could do that.... but I really don't know how so I didn't bother messing up the picture to try.

divided · May 22, 2010

Sbuxo said:
I don't like that edit, I'm not feeling the blue shadows on their shirts, but everything else does look good.

However, I do like the picture of the circle of the kids because it shows genuine emotion, especially the baby. Of course, it would have been better if the little girl on the right had her eyes open, but she still looks very happy.

Like I said amateur edit. I'm not sure how to bring the white back out after my other adjustments?

OP Look into the shadow/highlight settings in photoshop. It does wonders. Other than that I just increased saturation, selective colors on the red to make it pop a bit, and used unsharpen mask.

Sbuxo · May 22, 2010

divided said:
Like I said amateur edit. I'm not sure how to bring the white back out after my other adjustments?

I would just clone in white or dodge it orrr paint it over if you get the right opacity. Haven't PSed in a while.

EricaRie · Jun 1, 2010

OK guys, I did another session this past weekend of a friend of mine and her bf. I read through the manual as best I could and practiced the day before but I'm still not quite there. I'm still having trouble making sure both sets of eyes are always sharply in focus... any suggestions there? I think I'm getting better with overexposure though.

Let me know what you think or what I'm still doing wrong! Thanks guys!

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(8 - same as 7 but different coloring - which looks better?)

(9 - the side of his face is sort of blown, but I don't know how to fix that)

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EricaRie · Jun 1, 2010

Here is an example of my post production coloring. The first one is "as is", the second one I decreased the saturation before adjusting the contrast to try to de-pink the skin. Which way looks best?

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