Please critique my photos

ToddB

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Hey all,

I'm still new to the site and haven't shared any pictures with any of you. Today I break that. I need some CC on what would make this shots better. I took this using the macro setting on my FinePix A350 P&S. (I haven't bought my D80 yet!:()

This is unedited as I don't have Photoshop. Please feel free to edit to your hearts content.

Thanks

Todd

DSCF1653.jpg


Sorry, should have read the forum rules before I posted. I removed 3 of the pics to stay within the rules. :oops:
 
not bad i guess. how long have u been shooting for. i mean looks like ur hand was shakin a bit during the snap but i mean photoshop could def make it better its alright though.
 
There are a lot of things that take away from this shot. You should do some reading up on composition and exposure. The brightest part of the photo normally draws our attention first. You have some overexposed areas that really pull my eyes away from the subject. And that leads me to the subject, which is dead center in the frame. It leaves the shot feeling very stagnent.

Have a look at your local library for some photography books. John Hedgecoe writes really nice instructional books on photography. Once you start to understand the basics, it will open up your creativity.
 
lizard.jpg


Here is my rework of the image. Cropped it way down to get the lizard as the main element in the scene using a rule-of-thirds placement of the eye. Selected the background area, blurred it more and darkened it to emphasize the foreground. Some enhancement layers (remove blue cast, more saturation in green, highlight in eye) and overall sharpening. I flipped it horizontally so it would scan better. It still has some warts though. Could put some time into anti-aliasing along the top of the head. Could also work on the background area behind the lizards snout. Most of that just depends on how much more time to put into it.

BTW if you can't afford Photoshop right now, google for a program called Gimp. It's free and lets you do a lot of the image enhancement stuff you can do in PS.
 
Thanks guys.

KalmKidd, you are right about my hand shaking. How did you know that?? Were you watching me take the pic??

Matt, I'll definitely stop by the library for his book. Thanks for the suggestion.

CPayton, That looks much better. I'll check out Gimp and give it a try. BTW, what do you mean by "anti-aliasing" I haven't heard that before.

Thanks for all the advice. I will be posting other pics later. This site is full of people who know what they are doing and I hope to learn a little from them.
 
@ToddB - Aliasing is that jaggy effect you'll see in images sometimes. If you look at the lizard's head in the rework, you'll notice an area along the outline just behind the eyes that look like a little stair-step. That's aliasing. Anti-aliasing refers to techniques for smoothing out those areas. In this case, since the area is so small, I'd probably use a color halfway between the colors on the edge of the head and the background colors. Then, using a one-pixel brush, I'd paint in individual pixels along the edge where the jaggies are located. That tricks the eye into seeing a smooth transition from the light areas to the dark areas and effectively eliminates the stair-steps.
 

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