Practice Practice Practice

[pisto1981]

Hey all,

As the title mentions, the more you practice the better you get. Still a long way to go though. Please feel free to C&C


Tarcus1 by Pisto1981, on Flickr


Tarcus by Pisto1981, on Flickr


Bird Resting Post by Pisto1981, on Flickr


Lucky Shot by Pisto1981, on Flickr

 

[KmH]

Practice is most useful when done with a specific goal in mind, like framing based on the rule-of-thirds or experimenting with metering modes.

The 2nd one (Tarcus) is maybe the most compelling, or strongest of the set, because of it's frame-in-a-frame composition and color contrast. It could be made even stronger with a crop, like some off the top so the cat's eyes are on the upper third RoT horizontal line.
In the first one the cat's eyes are near the upper third horizontal and the 2 upper RoT power points, making it a strong image too. If you can, edit out the light colored twigs.

 

[pisto1981]

Thanks KmH

How did you edit out the twigs? im not very good with photo editing sorftware as yet.

Did you increase the clarity? and how did you remove the reflection from his eyes?

 

[hayley.price]

Bird Resting Post by Pisto1981, on Flickr

this is a nice shot and really think it could do with a better composition another comment mentioned the rule of thirds if this was applied here this photo would be superb

 

[KmH]

Thanks KmH

How did you edit out the twigs? im not very good with photo editing sorftware as yet.

Did you increase the clarity? and how did you remove the reflection from his eyes?

I used CS 5's Spot Healing Brush and the Clone tool to get rid of the twigs, and just the Clone tool to remove the catch lights in the cat's eyes.
The Clone tool in Lightroom is not nearly as useful as the Clone tool in Photoshop. Photoshop has a Clone Source dialog that can be used to change the width, height, angle, and other aspects of up to 5 separate clone sources. (see below) There is also the Tool Options bar that offers several other controls.

The LR Clarity slider basically adjusts mid-tone contrast, but instead I used Topaz Adjust's Clarity preset. I selected just the cat's face, ears and upper chest using CS 5's Quick Selection tool. I then used the Refine Edge feature to, well, refine the edge of the selection. So Topaz Adjust only added Clarity locally (boosted mid-tone contrast) inside the selection I made. I then faded the Topaz Adjust edit by 50%.