I will c&c your work for you, beginners welcomed.

outdoorsms · Sep 3, 2009

i am very new to photography bout 2 month to be exact if you could show me some pointers on this pic i would greatly appreciate it thanks

avilamillar · Sep 3, 2009

Thanks

Yemme · Sep 3, 2009

Yes another one... This was really overexposed. Not sure what you can do.... Good luck

Stusmobile ... I love the castle... Didn't get to go this year... Me very sad...

robertwsimpson · Sep 3, 2009

I was also hoping you'd do another one of these!

sorry that the material isn't cityscape, but what do you have to say about this one?

512 · Sep 3, 2009

Dwayne Oakes's suggests are very good...also for me. thank you

Mohai · Sep 3, 2009

Hi, i'm quiet new, about 2-3 months, pointers would be great thanks!

Dwayne Oakes · Sep 3, 2009

F1addict said:
I was hoping you'd have another one of these threads up soon.

I took this about a week ago at Black Mountain Point on Lake George in NY. It was a great day for testing my new polarizing filter. And this was one of my favorites from the day

I tried a few things in photoshop to make it a little better like adjusting brightness/contrast and saturation, etc but I was wondering what you could come up with

good

-cool contrails
-good comp
-horizon is level
-no sensor dust (sky)
-contrast and colors look good
-good DOF

nit

-photo is underexposed (still room left on the right side of the histogram)
-stray branches in the top left and far right are a bit of a distraction
-CP filter making a light to dark effect, typical at wide angles (personal
choice)
-photo is tad soft

tweak

-cropped the photo a tad tigher to get rid of the stray branches
-healed out the remainder stray branch in the top left

-added a tad of global contrast boost
-moved the white point slider in (levels) to the left to take up the space
still left in the histogram to improve the overall exposure

-lightened (dodge) some of the land on the right
-lightened (dodge) the tree on the island on the left
-lightened (dodge) the white water reflection from the clouds
-lightened (dodge) the FG water and right side of the photo were
it is dark from the CP filter (personal choice)

-darkened (burn) the left side of the sky to match the right from the
effect due to the CP filter (personal choice)

-healed out the marker buoy right of the island
-healed out the rock on the left in the MG water

-added a tad of global USM (sharpening) to get over the AA filter

Hope this helps and thanks for posting.

Take care,

Dwayne Oakes

Dwayne Oakes · Sep 3, 2009

MikeBookPro said:
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

good

-great off center comp
-great portrait DOF
-exposure is right on
-colors, contrast and detail are all very good
-low noise

nit

-the background is a tad to bright
-black and white might work a bit better (personal choice)
-black spot on the table in the FG left is a bit of a distraction
-the two freckles could be healed out

tweak

-switched photo to black and white for a more artistic look (personal choice)

-added a tad of global contrast boost

-darkened (burn) the backdrop to tone down the brightness a tad

-darkened (burn) the bottom left corner to match the right, it makes
for a nice effect

-added a tad of selective (gaussian blur) soft-focus to the subject's face

-added a tad of selective USM (shapening) to just the subject's eyes,
hair and the first bolt closest to the subject

-healed out the dark spot on the table in the FG left
-healed out the two freckles

Hope this helps and thanks for posting.

Take care,

Dwayne Oakes

c.cloudwalker · Sep 3, 2009

Dwayne Oakes, stay away from my freckles!

What in h*ll is wrong with freckles? My brother and I both have large freckles (beauty marks) on our faces that photographers have been removing for years and... they have been re-printing their photos for years because we want our freckles. You may not like them but they are part of us.

With us, the problem started with passport photographers. Do you really want to spend 10 hrs at some border because the photographer didn't like you freckles?

I don't, he doesn't, we don't.

LEAVE THE FRECKLES ALONE!

c.cloudwalker · Sep 3, 2009

BTW I like 99% of your C&C. Just leave the freckles alone. lol

ZachH · Sep 3, 2009

I was wondering how i could make the subject in this picture pop out more.

robertwsimpson · Sep 4, 2009

lollllll I like freckles too!

SAVE THE FRECKLES!

Dwayne Oakes · Sep 4, 2009

AndrewK said:
You do great work Dwayne! Hope you can get to mine.
Thanks!

Thank you very much for the comments !

good

-good off center placement of the subject
-good detail
-good DOF
-low noise

nit

-the comp is good but just a tad to much negative space
-photo needs some light drama and a color tint to add interest
-stray DOF branch in the right FG is a bit of a distraction
-photo is tad underexposed (still room left in the histogram)

tweak

-cropped the photo a tad tighter to get rid of some negative space
-moved the white point slider in (levels) to the left to take up the
space still left in the histogram to improve overall exposure

-added a sepia tone tint to the photo to add some interest (personal
choice) most editing software programs have a one click sepia tone feature

-added a tad of Orton-effect to add to the interest (personal choice)

Orton-effect

1-move the midtone slider in (levels) so the photo goes lighter
2-move the radius slider in (gaussian blur) so photo goes very blurry
3-go into (blending mode) and select multiply
4-readjust sliders in (levels) to set final exposure

-lightened (dodge) some areas around the forest hillsides to add some
light drama

-added a tad of global contrast boost
-added a tad of selective USM (sharpening) to just the forest hillsides

-healed out the stray DOF branch in the FG right

Hope this helps and thanks for posting.

Take care,

Dwayne Oakes

Dwayne Oakes · Sep 4, 2009

outdoorsms said:
i am very new to photography bout 2 month to be exact if you could show me some pointers on this pic i would greatly appreciate it thanks

Well for 2 months you are doing great ! Keep at it and it is great to see
you capturing nature, awesome !

good

-great song bird
-colors, contrast and detail all very good
-good DOF effect
-low noise

nit

-comp (the bird is on center)
-to much background (negative space)
-green color is a tad over (green channel clipped in the histogram)
-bird is in a shadow (try fill flash or fix in pp by dodge)
-bird is a tad soft
-background is a tad bright

tweak

-cropped the photo tighter to reduce the negative space and placed the jay
to 1/3 rule

-desaturated the colors to tone down the green color
-darkened (burn) the background so it is not so bright

-lightened (dodge) the jay
-added selective color saturation to just the blue color of the jay
-added selective USM (sharpening) to just the jay and stump to get over
the AA filter

-healed out the sunflower seeds

PS If any of these terms are new to you just google them as there
is lots of info on them. Learn and practice one term (topic) at a time then
move on to the next to keep things simple.

Hope this helps and thanks for posting.

Take care,

Dwayne Oakes