How can my work improve?:

[iHTCHBK]

Im not trying to be a photographer just better myself and make my point and shoot do it's best.

 

[iHTCHBK]

Yea I know the focusing is not on point and the photo could use more editing but this is just something to give an idea.The original photo I was told does not "speak"?.

Original:

So I made this [but told too much open sky]: version2

So I cropped the item and posted it in my thread.I honestly think the second version was the best.But then again I am not a photographer.

Thanks for any insight and constructive criticism.

 

[arkuro]

nice one dude.. cute dog..

 

[iHTCHBK]

nice one dude.. cute dog..

hhaha thanks which one is nice?. hahahahahha

 

[KmH]

The background is fairly busy for a portrait. The bush right next to the dogs face, camera left, is distracting with all those vertical lines.

The black dog gets somewhat lost in the selective color rendition and the colored harness draws the eye away from the dogs face.

I would suggest selecting the dog, inverting the selection and doing a gaussian blur to better separate the dog from the background and leave it in color.

 

[Samanax]

How To Improve Your Photography - 5 Easy Tricks. Be sure to click on the link at the bottom of the page to go to the rest of the article.

Digital Photography Tips For Beginners

Digital Photography Composition Tips

Improve Your Photos 60 Seconds At At Time

You might want to try this...look for Flickr groups that are about your P&S camera and see what kind of pictures other people are getting with it. When you see any that really catch your eye, take a look at it and see if you can understand why it caught your eye and figure out how the shooter created the shot. Try to replicate the shot.

 

[iHTCHBK]

Thanks everyone I'll give all the tips a shot.

 

[nickisonfire]

hm selective coloring doesn't really work when more than one color is left saturated, or when a group of similar things are left colored.

 

[iHTCHBK]

So I gave it a shot.. is this what you guy's meant?:

 

[seward93]

I like that version MUCH better.

By blurring the background, you really make the focal point stand out.

Nice looking dog too!

 

[iHTCHBK]

I like that version MUCH better.

By blurring the background, you really make the focal point stand out.

Nice looking dog too!

Thanks,do you or anyone else have tips on how to make it not so fake looking where the focused meets the blurred area?.

 

[Sherman Banks]

Well it looks fake because there is no transition in the DOF blur. There has to be some point where the out of focus starts becoming in focus, and that is not going to be easy to acheive with a computer. You could just do a layers of masks and fade them out, but I wouldn't think it would be worth it. Just keep taking shots and working on composition until you get a camera that will allow you to use things like DOF to your advantage.

 

[iHTCHBK]

Well it looks fake because there is no transition in the DOF blur. There has to be some point where the out of focus starts becoming in focus, and that is not going to be easy to acheive with a computer. You could just do a layers of masks and fade them out, but I wouldn't think it would be worth it. Just keep taking shots and working on composition until you get a camera that will allow you to use things like DOF to your advantage.

I can understand that,I do hope to pickup a new camera soon.I was looking at a Canon Rebel xs just so I can fork all my $ into the Canon hx a1 for what I really enjoy doing.

 

[Samanax]

So I gave it a shot.. is this what you guy's meant?:

That looks pretty good. I would crop it in tighter to the dog and desaturate the background a bit.

 

[mrodgers]

I think you did excellent on the re-edit. Sure I agree that maybe a little gradient mask on the blurring would help, but your selection looks great to me. I am still having a very difficult time making selections in Photoshop. I always end up with too much overlap with my selections. I've tried just brushing the selection, using the wand thing, and creating an alpha channel and nothing helps me.

Good job.