Enjoying My Camera & Photoshop!!! C&C please

[Evoman]

1.
I did another retirement ceremony and decided to try something different. Tell me what you think? Does it suck? What could I improve on? C&C please.
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[tirediron]

Ease up on the selective colour. Ease way up on it.

 

[Vince.1551]

Looks fun. I recommend to watch out on the tones. A little more contrast will make a difference.

 

[IzzieK]

I like #1 very much...the selective colouring on the little girl separates it from the background. #2 background on the the couple is a tad overblown. #3 --- well, what can I say? I either like it or don't. I'd choose yes I like the selective colouring on this one a little bit.

 

[williams]

Nice...Pics..I like it.

 

[Evoman]

Well thank you for your comments. I'm just trying new things out and trying to improve.

 

[keyseddie]

Ease up on the selective colour. Ease way up on it.

What he said.
Semper Fi.

 

[runnah]

Well thank you for your comments. I'm just trying new things out and trying to improve.

Selective coloring, while not as popular as it once was, is a fantastic way to learn about layers and masking. So keep learning.

The processing is contrasty. What this means is that the whites and black are at 100% values. If you look around with your eyes, nothing is 100% black or white, there are subtle tones within each color. Try to preserve those subtle tones to really show detail.

 

[chanda95]

My personal favorite of your batch is #1 the little girl...in terms of your use of selective color, I think that one turned out very nice (and she's so cute you can't help but love the picture). #2 I see where you are going with that..to emphasize the flag and his service but (for me) it just doesn't work all that great. It almost looks like that beautiful couple was superimposed into the picture you know? #3 I would have loved just as a black and white. No added color at all.

I get that you are practicing and trying things out though. You gotta practice to get better. I have learned the most from my works that have received the harshest critiques. Not that I enjoy hearing less than stellar things about what I do..but I certainly take something away from it every single time.

 

[Derrel]

1) little girl is fine, buuuut the people behind are cropped off awkwardly; SO, watch the backgrounds....a TALL framing on the girls would have made an entirely different type of shot. On grab shots an unposed stuff like this, backgrounds need to be decided upon usually before taking the shot. That means looking behind the subject and seeing what problems there are, then figuring out how to get a clean, simple background. Now, the older woman seated: her skirt has stripes on it, and I wonder if it's sort of flag-inspired, for a welcoming ceremony. Just wondering. The headless men? Not a good background.

2)A posed shot in from of a beautiful, large American flag. A background that MAKES the shot!!!! Their head overlap on the flag is superb!!! A bit too much top space, which caused the hands to be cut off by the bottom of the frame. Takes a 10 and pulls it down to a 7.

3)A little bit of what I call, "too much top space". The 3:2 aspect of modern d-slr cameras makes the frame "very wide, but not very tall" when shooting in horizontal capture mode; this shot needs to have the mens' heads higher up in the frame. Not by a lot, but by a bit. Too much salt, and the eggs are ruined; not enough, and they suck. You know what I mean. Three aces and a pair of kings is a full house...take away one ace and put in a 10 and you have a measly two pair. You seen to have a 4:3 camera, but still, the issues are similar. Gotta see how the "people" fit "the periphery".

My overrall advice is super simple: WATCH the EDGES of the frame like a hawk while shooting the shots. Do an all-over-the-frame eye scan on every single shot, for two weeks. You will move wayyyyy up in results in two weeks.

 

[Light Guru]

Selective color is used to add additional attention to a subject. In photo 3 your use of selective color actually draws attention away from the subject. Why do you want propel to be drawn to the red folder?

 

[Evoman]

Well this the reason I joined this site. I absolutely love the honesty. No matter if it's brutal or not. I will try to pay attention to my environment a little more and work on the composition. I just started using photoshop for about a week now. This was just me learning and enjoying the program. This is a lesson learned. Thank you.