Beach photo.

[Tiller]

If you don't have time to set up OCF, I might at least handhold the flash to the right or left, and take the picture with the other hand. Or just go easy and buy a flash bracket.

Also a CPL filter may have helped with the color.

 

[AlexanderB]

It seems like it was processed in Lightroom with the default Adobe profile. It has a very unnatural contrast and weak colors, ruining in other ways good photo.

 

[Derrel]

Somebody forgot to take notice of the "winky face icon" in an earlier post.

I pulled a large version of the file into Lightroom...hmmm...f/5.6 at 1/160 second at ISO 1,000. The image has plenty of noise, and the lighting is on-camera flash fill, which lead to a pretty flat lighting pattern. The sky and sea, lacking the drama of an approaching high-country mountain summer rainstorm, are both pretty monochromatic. I looked at a few things...I modified the Blue's luminosity and saturation a tiny bit, but didn't want to make it look obviously faked.

The problem I saw in adjusting the file was that the whites seems overly-bright for the water and sand, and the degree of flash is very high, so the light has very little modeling on the faces...the catchlight is smack-dab in the middle of the eyeballs.



I modified it to make it look like an end-of-the-day kind of shot...I thought the original file I pulled off the Flickr page looked too bright.

 

[amolitor]

I tried to tone down the shadows cast on the beach, with limited success, and painted on a little bit of modeling shadow as if from some light source camera left (which seemed to be where the actual ambient might have been coming from):

 

[JoeLeBean]

My main critic would be the direct straight front flash, IMO it makes the image flat and there's a lack of shadows. Color tones can be corrected later on with a software.

 

[joshhuntnm]

Robin, that is some great work with the sky. is the horizon level?

 

[bunny99123]

A little flat. I am having the same problem. You captured wonderful emotion

 

[Robin_Usagani]

Hey derrel.. look.. cloud and beach.

 

[tirediron]

Good grief Charlie Brown... WHY is this such a big deal? JW posted what I thought was a nice, simple, informal capture of his happy family on the beach and asked about improving it. All of a sudden we're comparing it to formal wedding portraits? WTF?

 

[Starskream666]

I did this one for your pretty family.
View attachment 51052

That's just painful to look at right there.

I appreciate trying to warm them, but


Starskream666: Please note that the "Okay to edit" tag is there to allow people to produce helpful edits or to illustrate a point with respect to post-processing. It is NOT there so that people may make random, inappropriate edits to someone else's work.

Uploaded with

 

[jwbryson1]

I tried to tone down the shadows cast on the beach, with limited success, and painted on a little bit of modeling shadow as if from some light source camera left (which seemed to be where the actual ambient might have been coming from):

View attachment 51114

Thanks for the edit. I think this actually looks pretty damn good, considering what you had to start with. I realize OCF is best but under the circumstances I just didn't have the right equipment or the time to set it up.

 

[Robin_Usagani]

Cause derrel pmed me and said my first response was hillarious. He basically was saying my post was useless. And last I check, thats a portrait too. John, i dont think you realize how tired I am with how derrel treats me on this forum. He has no class. He surely knows how to push my button.

 

[jwbryson1]

Go hijack another thread. Jeez.

 

[Robin_Usagani]

ok dude.. I will never respond to your thread ever again. Thanks for having my back.

 

[jwbryson1]

Oh my God, man. Get a spine and act like a man. I HAVE your back, I thanked you for your post, I told you how great your photos looked and I told you I appreciated your comments. Did you read the thread? What else do you need to see?!

It's the back and forth fighting that I find silly and pointless. If you disagree with Derrel, okay, then ignore his post. Pissing on each other VIA internet forum is juvenile.

Everybody here respects your skills and appreciates your comments and feedback. I can't say the same for ad hominem posts directed at other members.