Lavender Bee + others.

[Tight Knot]

Hi all,
Just a few photos that I am looking for C&C.
Hope there are not too many at one time.


1.

2. HDR, as close to real colours as possible.

3. HDR. Colours as close to real as possible

4. HDR. Colours as close to real as possible

5.

6. Not HDR. Taken just before sunset.

7. Not HDR,

 

[robb01]

Really love 2 & 4. Would make a nice print

 

[twoboysnmygirl]

Really like 2&3, the sky in 4 doesn't look right through the trees. Was it blown out and you tried to fix it?

I would crop the last two more. You have a cutie there!

 

[flyingember]

#1 is flat and slightly blurry. I bet you used a large aperture. try using a flash and smaller aperture

2-4 are under exposed and blurry
they also appear to be HDR in situations that don't work for HDR.

#2 the branches front and center majorly take away from the scene. next time walk forward and take them out of the scene

#5 is blurry and there's no apparent subject. is it the bee or the flowers? you might try a lower angle on this one to remove the dark ground from the shot

#6-7. get closer and fill the frame. your subject is dead center and tiny. my eyes are always leaving it and the background is nothing special

 

[Abby Rose]

1. a little soft, and it would be much better without the woman looking away since the little girl is looking at the camera.

2. A nice scene, but the greens are still a bit out there in my opinion. An obvious HDR, but maybe that's your thing. The brush on the right side distracts, and while the foreground is beautiful, I also find myself interested in the waterfall in the background. It takes away from the foreground, because it is too pretty.

3. Another nice scene, but I'm not a fan of all the brush in the foreground.

4. I really like how this is composed! However, the HDR is a little over the top in my opinion. I mention this because you said it is as close to real colors as possible, but to me it is still obviously HDR and looks a little fake. I don't like the sky on the top. Crop it out. Unfortunately, the would put your horizon smack in the middle, so maybe you could experiment with cropping a little off the bottom as well. Also, I think in the future I would (if possible) shoot from the left of where you shot this so that the rock isn't right in the middle and isn't "touching" the waterfall. Alternatively, you could crop the right side a tad, but this would still leave the rock and waterfall to appear to "touch".

5. I had to search for the bee, for a second.

6. and 7. You could crop out some of the water, that would help both pictures a lot. Straighten the horizon. The shadows are a little harsh, though I understand this was at sunset. I wonder how a fill flash would have affected the shadows?

 

[lildlege1]

very nice!!! What was your shutter speed in the waterfall photos?

 

[Tight Knot]

Thanks Robb. Appreciate it.

Thanks twoboysnmygirl. The sky in number 4 was that colour becuae of clouds and sunset, if I remember correctly. I'll play with the cropping of 6 - 7 and see how that looks.

Thanks flyingember. When you say #1 is too flat, what do you mean? If I remember correctly, I had the camera on 100 ISO, and around a 5.6 f. stop. By flash do you mean a fill flash? Where do you see the bluriness?
#2 - 4 appear under exposed? how would you have exposed them? And why do you feel HDR was not a good choice for those images?
In #2, Unfortunately, I could not get closer to get the branches hanging in, out of the way, or I would have been swimming. I'll have to wait until I get a waterproof case for my camera:mrgreen:.
#5 is blurry, but I guess that's because it is a severely cropped photo, but I agree with you on all you said about the photo.
#6-7, I agree.

Thanks Abby Rose.
#1. Please excuse my ignorance, but what do you mean by "soft"? I'm not familiar with the term photographically.
#2. I hear what you are saying about the greens, I'll play with the colors abit and see what happens.
#3. I hear what you are saying, but without cutting out the shrubbery, it's a natural shot. I personally like them that way.
#4. I specifically framed the rock in the center, to center the stream, with the waterfall in the 1/3 left. I also couldn't get closer to the left without having a bridge on the left enter the picture. I could be wrong about the colours, but unless I remember things to be more vibrant than they are (which is very possible, the glass is half full type of thing) I think those were the natural colors.
#5. Yup.
# 6-7, as mentioned earlier in this post, I'll play with cropping and see what happens.

Thank you everyone for your input, I appreciate it.

 

[Tight Knot]

very nice!!! What was your shutter speed in the waterfall photos?

Thank you very much.
I used 1/4 second and 1/2 second, but I don't remember which one was which.

 

[starcluster]

#1 i think it would be better if both the subjects were to look in to one direction either looking in or out.
like the #2 and the #4 images

the last one, i like the light and also the reaction, but with better if you were closer.

keep it up

 

[Tight Knot]

#1 i think it would be better if both the subjects were to look in to one direction either looking in or out.
like the #2 and the #4 images

the last one, i like the light and also the reaction, but with better if you were closer.

keep it up

Thanks starcluster.

I agree about #1.

The last one definitely would have been better if I was closer and I think maybe if I had the camera a little lower.

 

[Tight Knot]

This is the cropped and horizon-straightened photo. Let me know what you think please.
Thanks again all.

 

[Biggs88]

This is the cropped and horizon-straightened photo. Let me know what you think please.
Thanks again all.

I think it looks GREAT!!

The odd rock/log coming out of the water kinda messes up the "clean flow" of the shot for me, but I love the shot still. Killer sun light aswell!

 

[flyingember]

This is the cropped and horizon-straightened photo. Let me know what you think please.
Thanks again all.

much better.

 

[Tight Knot]

Thanks Biggs88 and flying ember:thumbup:/
I personally feel that the rock in the water breaks up the photo just right. I like that look for some reason.

 

[flyingember]

Thanks Robb. Appreciate it.

Thanks twoboysnmygirl. The sky in number 4 was that colour becuae of clouds and sunset, if I remember correctly. I'll play with the cropping of 6 - 7 and see how that looks.

Thanks flyingember. When you say #1 is too flat, what do you mean? If I remember correctly, I had the camera on 100 ISO, and around a 5.6 f. stop. By flash do you mean a fill flash? Where do you see the bluriness?
#2 - 4 appear under exposed? how would you have exposed them? And why do you feel HDR was not a good choice for those images?
In #2, Unfortunately, I could not get closer to get the branches hanging in, out of the way, or I would have been swimming. I'll have to wait until I get a waterproof case for my camera:mrgreen:.
#5 is blurry, but I guess that's because it is a severely cropped photo, but I agree with you on all you said about the photo.
#6-7, I agree.

Thank you everyone for your input, I appreciate it.

#1
photos start out flat because they are. they're 2D. the most common way to add depth is to add shadows somehow. when you add shadows you know there's something in 3D in the photo because shadows bring out detail. (like with side lighting half the nose is lit and half isn't so it must be 3D) on the focus it may just be the lens is slightly soft. sometimes a photo is soft because it's seen bigger than the quality allows for, sometimes it's on purpose. I had some photos recently which at 4x6 were fine but larger than 8x10 appeared partially out of focus.

#2-4
In these scenes I would have picked your focus item and exposed for it. You want people to focus on that item and your exposure helps for this. With this HDR you ended up with nothing well exposed. your subject, the creek and waterfall, is under exposed

HDR isn't appropriate because it's for times when you have portions of your subject under very different lighting such part in hard shadows and part under bright sunlight to where you'll lose detail in the shadows or highlights. notice I said subject is lit differently. the background being different is fine. in this case your subject is all the same forest lighting with few true variants.