Help. Ugh. Please Help...

[cgipson1]

I will have to say that Glow-In-The-Dark Saturation on the first one.. is way over the top.

 

[Carlos_Gouveia]

I would say the first thing I notice is the heavy handed processing-it reminds me of myself when I first started out with Photoshop 7 about 10 years ago. The extremely high contrast sort of kills it for me. Plus there is a selectively colored photo in the mix. Again, something I did when I started out, but generally not a good look.
I'm not seeing the sharpness issue you note, but I would suggest really working at getting better light. You have some great sunsets, but the rest of the photos you have seem to have been shot under overcast skies or at mid day, and the light is pretty flat and boring. Searching for better, more contrasty light will also help your sharpness issue and make you less likely to want to crank the contrast up to 11 in post.
Hope this helps.

as mentioned above you are trying to hard in post production, don't boost your contrast, go easy on your saturation adjust your camera to your WB to the feel you want to have, if you use AV mode try to use exposure compensation to your taste, open your aperture a little more max down or max up is like music max volume will cause distortion and max low you wont hear anything so find that sweet spot on the glass, preview your picture on site before going for that final shot, take your time with your camera, know it and make that post production minimal and I'm sure you will be fine! Nice shots by the way!

 

[essentials]

ok so I took your suggestions to heart and went out and took some more pictures.

Here are two I've released with your suggestions to heart. I definitely need to learn a lot more about filters though.

 

[ceejtank]

ok so I took your suggestions to heart and went out and took some more pictures.

Here are two I've released with your suggestions to heart. I definitely need to learn a lot more about filters though.

View attachment 34988View attachment 34987

I wouldn't shoot with a filter unless it has a specific purpose.

 

[essentials]

I wouldn't shoot with a filter unless it has a specific purpose.

I don't even understand when and when not to shoot with a filter.

 

[Pallycow]

I'm aiming for that SOOC professional quality.

Everything else aside, this is what caught my attention.

How do you intend to get a sooc pro quality, as you put it, when processing so heavily...or at all.

I'm conflicted on how to even answer (aside from what others have) since you are asking for one thing but doing something completely different.

 

[Dikkie]

Nikon D3200, Nikon 12-24mm - No Filters.

again, F22.. not the best choice... Diffraction softness! These are also way oversaturated...

Try an aperture of F 5.6, that's the sweet spot of this lens, where you can have the sharpest image. (not the longest depth of field of that lens)
And try some tests in between F5.6 and F22 and than see what differences it gives you.

I once took a panorama at F16 and F8, and F8 was the sharpest coming out that time. I used F16 aswel for the same reason as I read somewhere it was the best for landscapes.

 

[pgriz]

You know, processing an image is a bit like adding spice or salt to a dish in cooking. None, and it's bland. Too much, and it's ruined. The trick is to get just the right amount to give it a bit of "zing" while still preserving the flavors and identity of the dish. The same idea works for makeup as well - too much and we barely recognize the person underneath, whereas done in the right amount, it emphasizes all the positives and minimizes the negatives without making it obvious.

As for knowing which filters to use... they are a technical solution to a technical problem. The technical problem is too much light in certain parts of the image, and you use ND filters (either graduated or whole) to reduce the brightness in those areas so that the tonality fits into what the camera can record. The first challenge is to know how to meter a scene to understand its dynamic range, and then to decide how you will adjust the light to achieve a good, harmonious result. Using appropriate light modifiers (filters, fill flash, reflectors) to get the right amount of tonality is the first step (giving you the best possible image SOOC), and the post-processing will complete the result by adding the "zing". But if the composition (or technique) is poor, no amount of technical wizardry will be enough to overcome this.

 

[essentials]

Thank you all very much for your feedback once again. I need to spend some time reading each reply before responding directly. Some good stuff in here.