Tweaked vs SOOC

judipurple

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As I mentioned in my previous post, I have converted over to shooting raw, and getting my white balance under control. I am shooting in aperture mode as well, with a 35mm lens on my D3400. Here are a couple shots, SOOC and tweaked under photoshop. A general critique on my photoshop tweaks, as well as any other "Oh my, why on earth did you do THAT?!?" issues, s'il vous plait? Merci!
36110-1494204395-2b00b4634c04c2c47b115e7bbc4ba5d7.jpg

SOOC Maple

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Maple - tweaked

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Jack in the Pulpit, sooc

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Jack, tweaked
 
Very nice Jack in the Pulpit. When you take the photos do you ever consider making some adjustments to the subject? I have my camera in a little pouch and I probably would have use that pouch to weigh down the leaf behind the flower and bend it out of the way momentarily.

When you tweaked the photo you may have pushed a bit too hard on the shadow end and the black patch in the bottom of the photo transitions hard to black and the black area is pretty large.

Joe
 
Both shots have bright hot spots that draw the eye away from the subject. The first's blurry trunk on the left also detracts. Blurry foreground are often problematic. The second also has a very busy background that confuses the subject. Move around physically so you can get a more even and plain, bland background that will make the subject jump out and not confuse the viewer's eyes. The leaf on the right of the second shot disappears off the shot. That looks like you cut it off and it also draws the eye out of the photo. You want to draw the viewer's eyes into the photo.
 
AlanKlein's commentary rings tru to me as well: the hot spots in the background are drawing eye attention away from the foreground subjects, and the vertical-from-originally-horizontal cropping on the leaf shot does not quite create a trulyt harmonious composition. But, as far as the exposure and contrast adjustments, yes, the tweaks that you made make total sense to me.
 
Thank you all for taking the time to review and comment on the photos above. I went out today and took a few more shots...I'll be sharing on a new post. I took your comments regarding drawing the viewer's eye, the dark areas & hot spots, as well as trying to get better positioning (not always possible after the past 3 weeks of rain - getting elbow deep in muck does not thrill me). :) thanx guys!
 
You have a great attitude, Judi! Keep working at composing your photos.

A bit of advice from one of the GREAT photo teachers of all time, the late, great David Vestal: once you frame up a shot, use your eye to literally SCAN the outer area of the entire frame, moving your eye alllll the way around the entire viewfinder, and look for things that interfere with the composition. Only then, once you are satisfied, press the shutter release.

This simple, yet pragmatic bit of advice from David Vestal helped me more than ***anything*** when I was starting out in the late 1970's!
 
I opened the photo in Photoshop's Camera Raw.
I used 2 of the Basic panel Presence sliders - +40 on the Clarity , and +30 on the Vibrance.
I also used the Sharpening panel - Amount: 25, Radius: 1.0, Detail: 25, Threshold: 0.
I then opened to photo in Photoshop and I cropped some off the left side of the photo.
Back to Camera Raw I added a vignette (-40).
Back to Photoshop I added a narrow black border.

36108-1494204392-73c5dc50c4a028c1599e59569795b90dEditVignette.jpg
 

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