CC on some pictures?

photog4life · Feb 15, 2012

#1

I think it was a pretty good picture... before transfer it was sharp so if it is soft its because of tinypic... umm i do not like that the wall was dark on one side and blown out on the other...
#2

is my favorite of all of them... my white balance was off which is why i changed it to B&W but other then that i like it... oh and the line of dust is kinda annoying :x
#3

again with the white balance... i also like this one because you can see his face... i think my white balance issue was because of his lights... i don't have flashes so we just used some lamps... anyway to make them "whiter"? Thanks for the c and c

SeaGreen · Feb 15, 2012

I like #2 the best. I like the composition on #1! Maybe experiment with some accent lighting on/around the subject? It could make it pop more and help with the shadows.

photog4life · Feb 15, 2012

SeaGreen said:
I like #2 the best. I like the composition on #1! Maybe experiment with some accent lighting on/around the subject? It could make it pop more and help with the shadows.

Thanks yeah the shadows are pretty harsh... it was a mix of the lamps over heads and on camera flash... =/

MLeeK · Feb 15, 2012

They;re extremely dark. The editing behind the subject is... visible? I definitely see nothing blown out, but a LOT of dark.
To avoid the harsh poor looking shadows you need to keep your subject a distance from the backdrop. You never want a subject to be on top of the backdrop. It causes more problems than I can count.
The conversion is very grayscale. you definitely have black but little if any true white. A good conversion will be black, white and everything in between. Usually when you convert you'll need to bump up the exposure or brightness a bit and then the contrast.

The second one is a great detail idea, but kind of falls short. You could have gotten in position so you are looking straight along the neck of the guitar and that would have eliminated all of his printed shirt that is a huge draw to the eye. Keep shooting that shot. You are on to something there. The flash or whatever lighting you are using here is extremely harsh on the hand and the guitar neck is extremely black making the hand and it's nearly blown spots REALLY draw your eye there.

Back up a bit and leave extra room. As it is the guitar feels like it's crammed into the image. YOu always have a crop factor when you print and you must learn to leave room for it.
I have a VERY similar shoot that turned out like total crap...

photog4life · Feb 15, 2012

MLeeK said:
They;re extremely dark. The editing behind the subject is... visible? I definitely see nothing blown out, but a LOT of dark.
To avoid the harsh poor looking shadows you need to keep your subject a distance from the backdrop. You never want a subject to be on top of the backdrop. It causes more problems than I can count.
The conversion is very grayscale. you definitely have black but little if any true white. A good conversion will be black, white and everything in between. Usually when you convert you'll need to bump up the exposure or brightness a bit and then the contrast.

The second one is a great detail idea, but kind of falls short. You could have gotten in position so you are looking straight along the neck of the guitar and that would have eliminated all of his printed shirt that is a huge draw to the eye. Keep shooting that shot. You are on to something there. The flash or whatever lighting you are using here is extremely harsh on the hand and the guitar neck is extremely black making the hand and it's nearly blown spots REALLY draw your eye there.

Back up a bit and leave extra room. As it is the guitar feels like it's crammed into the image. YOu always have a crop factor when you print and you must learn to leave room for it.
I have a VERY similar shoot that also turned out like total crap...

I will deffinittly take note of these things and will make sure i make the changes... i think im doing a re shoot tomorrow... problem was the back drop was a wall with a bunch of stuff... and nothing was true white in the original picture either... if i get a chance later i will upload the originals too show you my problem with WB... but of course i blame everything else but it was all my fault... thanks for taking the time to write that essay lol im thinking ill have him wear a plain shirt get some sort of back drop and diffuse the lights...

MLeeK · Feb 15, 2012

Things that are white in a black and white are usually not WHITE in real life. It's the tones from light to dark, not color. THat is all part of seeing the light.
Is your monitor calibrated? I am guessing you see these much brighter than we do.