Second C&C, tell me what you think!

[SNBniko]

These were all shot in manual mode. Let me know what you think, you won't hurt my feelings. =) Thank you!

#1, budding flower outside my apartment:

#2, Series of three flowers that lined up just so... I don't like the background in this one.

Thanks so much in advance!

 

[KmH]

It's a lot of work for people to C&C that many photos, and you're likely to only get general C&C.

I recommend you keep it down to no more than 2 at a time, but asking for C&C on just a single photo will get you the most pertinent and detailed C&C.

They all look under exposed to varing degrees on my display, and all have poor separation of the subject from the background lighting wise.

 

[SNBniko]

Okay, I'll narrow it down to 2. =) Thanks!

 

[tenthumbs]

Was it cloudy outside? Both of these appear to be kind of cold to me.

 

[SNBniko]

Yes it was. How do you fix that?

 

[jritz]

Yes it was. How do you fix that?

Your going to have to change your white balance, basically it adjusts to the temp of the light you are using, so cloudy would be different than sunny, and fluorescent would be different from open shade. Googling white balance will give you a much more technical answer than mine, which might be good

 

[Boutte]

Yes it was. How do you fix that?

You can do a lot in PP with pics like this. The first thing I usually do is adjust the levels. Of course you always want to try to get the picture right in the camera first but very rarely does one come out of the camera with some processing needed.

Just playing around with it for ten minutes I came up with this. Not saying it's better or worse but just giving an example.

 

[SNBniko]

I did set the white balance to cloudy, I'm not sure what went wrong. Maybe my ISO was too low?

Boutte, can you explain what you did to the picture? I would really appreciate it! Thanks!

One more thing... does my focus look okay? For whatever reason my AF was hunting a lot, so I said screw it and manually focused all of the pictures.

 

[Boutte]

I did set the white balance to cloudy, I'm not sure what went wrong. Maybe my ISO was too low?

Boutte, can you explain what you did to the picture? I would really appreciate it! Thanks!

One more thing... does my focus look okay? For whatever reason my AF was hunting a lot, so I said screw it and manually focused all of the pictures.

The focus looks pretty good, you can see the veins in flower.

The main thing I did was to adjust the levels. (Which software do you use for post processing?) In PS Elements you find it under Ehance-Ajust Lighting- Levels. Just make small small adjustments with slider bars. I mostly use the use the sliders on the ends. (Lighten and darken) This gives flat pics more "pop".

Just be careful because it's real easy to over do it.

Then I selected the flower and stem and then reversed the selection and used gaussian blur. Again be careful not to over do it.

I don't know how experienced you are with photo editing software so if none of this made since let me know and I'll try to be more detailed.

 

[SNBniko]

I have CS4 and a book coming in the mail to help me figure it out... I'm not catching on well with the program (odd because I can program in C, C++, matlab, fortran, html and java, no problem... I can whip up a chem model in no time with a program I've never used. Photoshop has me confused though, haha). I've been watching tutorials and reading articles and trying to figure out one thing at a time. I'll see if I can find a tutorial on selective gaussian blur. Thanks!!

 

[Boutte]

Start with Levels. Almost every pic needs adjustments to levels. And sharpening.

 

[SNBniko]

Levels being saturation, contrast, etc etc, correct?

 

[Boutte]

No saturation is different. I try to avoid using saturation except as a last resort. You can lose data a lot easier with saturation. In a lot of cases dull colors are actually a levels issue. Contrast is similar but not as precise. You'll find saturation under color adjustments and levels and contrast under adjust lighting. ( I have the budget PS but I assume it's the same in CS4)

 

[thebutler4]

(odd because I can program in C, C++, matlab, fortran, html and java, no problem... I can whip up a chem model in no time with a program I've never used. Photoshop has me confused though, haha).

I am the same way .. don't feel bad .. lol .. I can build a corporate network from the ground up .. but PhotoShop is just crazy for me to learn .. lol .. Keep at it though .. I learn something new in it every day ..

 

[Boutte]

No saturation is different. I try to avoid using saturation except as a last resort. You can lose data a lot easier with saturation. In a lot of cases dull colors are actually a levels issue. Contrast is similar but not as precise. You'll find levels under color adjustments and levels and contrast under adjust lighting. ( I have the budget PS but I assume it's the same in CS4)

That should be saturation