Photocritique

[NicholasPetrilli]

This will be my first post on TPF so I thought I'd give you a little background (Strictly related to Photography)

I KNOW NOTHING! Haha, I work in the I.T. Industry and I've always admired photography and never really had the time or funds to pursue it as a hobby until now. I went and bought myself a 5D Mark III and two lenses. (My boss told me it was good equipment to purchase) And now I'm taking pictures of everything I can find attempting to gain some understanding of what appeals to the eye. Being technically minded and utilizing this fantastic resource called the internet I've caught on pretty quickly to most of my cameras features, what the settings do, F/stop, shutter time, focal range, ISO etc... I have no real GOAL with Photography, except to enjoy myself, maybe get outside more, gain knowledge and a fantastic hobby.

TLDR: I'm a n00b.


I've been posting my stills on reddit.com/r/photocritique in hopes of getting some honest feedback, considering I know nothing and have nobody to advise me. Sadly, on Reddit I've found nothing but snide remarks and short useless critiques that are about as helpful as an Asian driving instructor.

I've taken approximately 1100 pictures in the past 3 weeks and this is a small collection of the photos I consider half decent. I used Lightroom to edit them (something else I know nothing about) and I would appreciate any and all advise on post processing.
And I'm only using Flickr because I can't upload large images on here... Boo.

Flickr: Nicholas Petrilli's Photostream

 

[HL45]

On Flick, choose share, copy the BB code and paste here to show your photo!


Shadow Lake Ranch - Prosser Washington by Nicholas Petrilli, on Flickr

 

[Overread40]

Nicholas welcome to the site, you'll find that you'll get more reactions if you post one or two examples of your work for critique - also give the critique thread in my signature below a read; the concepts presented will not only help you make posts to encourage critique, but the methods will also serve to help yourself learn and develop as well.

 

[Derrel]

I went and looked. My advice on the processing is to strive for a lower degree of saturation.Some of the images, particularly the landscape with all the greens, and the purple flower are heavily over-saturated. SOmetimes this can be due to working on a laptop, or with one's screen brightness set fairly high, or on a screen that has a low gamma. ANyway, that's my take. On the small beige dog...the highlights in that shot appear too bright, almost "blown". Perhaps you have Lightroom, and can adjust the shadows with "Highlight Recovery", or in newer versions of various apps, something called "Highlight/Shadows".

Keep at it. It's a life-long endeavor.

 

[NicholasPetrilli]

I went and looked. My advice on the processing is to strive for a lower degree of saturation.Some of the images, particularly the landscape with all the greens, and the purple flower are heavily over-saturated. SOmetimes this can be due to working on a laptop, or with one's screen brightness set fairly high, or on a screen that has a low gamma. ANyway, that's my take. On the small beige dog...the highlights in that shot appear too bright, almost "blown". Perhaps you have Lightroom, and can adjust the shadows with "Highlight Recovery", or in newer versions of various apps, something called "Highlight/Shadows".

Keep at it. It's a life-long endeavor.

Thanks for the tip! I'll make sure to lower the color saturation.
I've found the editing process somewhat difficult given I am colorblind. VERY Colorblind.
I'm an extreme case Blue/Yellow deficiency and a Pretty average Red/Green Deficiency. It's rare for people to have both, but I guess I drew the short end.

I'll make sure to lower the saturation on the photos I've edited, thus far I've been adjusting color saturation based on what looks good to me. So, I'll have to develop some rules for editing considering the colors look boring and really bland until I turn up the saturation. (At least from my eyes)

The photo of Bozzini (Little beige Dog) was really overexposed when I took it. Lots of sun outside and I had the shutter set incorrectly. I try to keep my ISO at 100 to avoid overexposure. But he was standing in that pose for a couple milliseconds and I just got lucky with the timing.

P.S. I'm liking this website already.

 

[Designer]

I've found the editing process somewhat difficult given I am colorblind. VERY Colorblind.

In that case, and I'm not trying to be funny, but I will recommend that you try some monochrome. Just let the camera do the color stuff, because your camera can at least produce acceptable color, even if it is not up to the standards of the grizzled veterans on here.

It is fairly easy to do B&W (or any monochrome). Make your pictures in color, and transfer them to your computer. If you have anyone who would like to help, have them check the colors before the conversion process. Then convert some select photographs to monochrome using your editing software.

Try to select photographs with a wide range of value, and some textural interest or artistic form that you wish to convey. Look at the several editing options for B&W processing to see which ones strike your fancy, and give them a try. Print up your very most favorite photographs, frame them and hang them in your home. You will like it all much more.