Soccer Photos First time doing PP

[jhodges10]

I'm looking for some CC on my edits. I typically have never edited any of my work other than an occasional crop so any evaluation will be well received even if its to tell me they look like crap. Thanks in advance.

1) edit 1) original


2) Original 2) Edit

3) Edit 3) Original

 

[ceejtank]

The crops are better.. besides that I can't really distinguish anything else you did to them...

 

[jhodges10]

The crops are better.. besides that I can't really distinguish anything else you did to them...

Can't decide if that means I did a good job or not. I played with the saturation and dimmed down the highlights as well. I'm sure I did a few other tweaks but those were the major changes aside from the crops.

 

[jowensphoto]

The color in the second edit looks great; not too much, just enough to make the jersey pop.

The crop of the first is a little strange to me, with the limbs of all the people but no heads. I'd try to get rid of the arm/leg on the left hand side, and retain the head of the child in the right hand background.

 

[jhodges10]

The color in the second edit looks great; not too much, just enough to make the jersey pop.

The crop of the first is a little strange to me, with the limbs of all the people but no heads. I'd try to get rid of the arm/leg on the left hand side, and retain the head of the child in the right hand background.

Yeah that crop was a tough choice, I obviously wanted the focus on their son and I thought it looked better in landscape but it leaves some headless bodies. In portrait I was afraid the background might be a bit too busy with all the people. I'll give that a try though and see how it looks.

 

[Big Mike]

I like the crop on the first one. You took out a bunch of useless space and thus allowed the subjects to be much larger in the photo.

I don't like the color/saturation change in #3. Looking at the skin tone, it went from brown to red. I might be tempted to crop out the half kid right behind him...but that might make the remaining image a little weird. Might not be a shot worth saving.

#3. Looks pretty good, considering how small of an area it was on the original photo. It's too dark, and could stand to be a little brighter.

 

[jhodges10]

Thanks Big Mike, I'll take a look at the color and see how it looks toned down a bit and play with the third one some as well. Be on the lookout for edits of he edits later on and we'll see if the suggested changes look better.

 

[Big Mike]

Firstly, are you working with a properly calibrated monitor...using a calibration device? If not, then all of then fussing over color/tone edits...is just shooting blind.

 

[jhodges10]

No, I've got an LED monitor but none of the calibration tools I've looked at specified that they would work with LED. I just read an older thread about the IPS monitors and was debating whether or not to get one.

UPDATE: Just went to B&H and it looks like he Spyder 4 Pro works with LED so that may be my next upgrade.

 

[Big Mike]

X-Rite ColorMunki Display CMUNDIS B&H Photo Video
Datacolor Spyder4Express Display Calibration System S4X100 B&H

 

[jhodges10]

Thanks Mike, it's probably been a year since I looked at the calibration tools guess I should have kept a closer eye on them.

 

[DiskoJoe]

I noticed a lot of your angles are point downward. When I shoot my son playing soccer I try to get a level with the players, which is low.