What do you think about photos and/or PP?

linpelk · Feb 2, 2009

Any feedback thoroughly appreciated. Thanks

Jaszek · Feb 2, 2009

Good PP, my only comment is that the sunlight is too harsh on her face in the second one.

Samanax · Feb 2, 2009

Straighten the first image...it's tilting to the right.

I like that the child isn't centered in the second image, but you normally want the subject to walk into the frame, not out of it.

Don't care for the color work, but I'm not a fan of mono-tone, B&W or desaturated pictures.

linpelk · Feb 2, 2009

Thanks for the comments.

Samanax- I went back and pulled up the straighten tool for the first picture and that front post was ALMOST dead on. I can't believe that you noticed it was SLIGHTLY off. I would have never seen it.

Photo #2: I don't usually do Sepia too often, but I felt like I had caught such a sweet moment with her but the lighting was terrible (we got to the park a little too early for the "sweet light") but I wanted to save the photo. I was just messing with it to see if the sepia toned down the harshness a bit. I guess it doesn't work.

The second one just feel kind of "old-timey" with the porch and flowing dress I just thought a desaturation might look nice. As I've said many times, I don't know anything about PP so advice is always welcomed. I don't want to make a good (or OK) picture worse.

Samanax · Feb 2, 2009

linpelk said:
Samanax- I went back and pulled up the straighten tool for the first picture and that front post was ALMOST dead on. I can't believe that you noticed it was SLIGHTLY off. I would have never seen it.

First thing I noticed was all the vertical lines in the pictures were leaning over to the left...the girl looks nice and straight though.

linpelk said:
Photo #2: I don't usually do Sepia too often, but I felt like I had caught such a sweet moment with her but the lighting was terrible (we got to the park a little too early for the "sweet light") but I wanted to save the photo. I was just messing with it to see if the sepia toned down the harshness a bit. I guess it doesn't work.

The second one just feel kind of "old-timey" with the porch and flowing dress I just thought a desaturation might look nice. As I've said many times, I don't know anything about PP so advice is always welcomed. I don't want to make a good (or OK) picture worse.

I can't offer any PP advice for this type of color work since I don't do it myself. My friends play around with it but I think they just use the pre-sets in Lightroom 2 most of the time.

Just out of curiosity, what did these look like in color? Did you try to just take the colors down to give them a soft pastel kind of look?

linpelk · Feb 2, 2009

I went back and was playing around with toning down the blues and purples for the porch picture and it DID give a softer/pastel-like look. It looks pretty similar though to the desaturation except the whites stay vivid. So I think it looks nice that way.

Here they are in their original form:

Chairman7w · Feb 2, 2009

Dude, I love number 2. Great, great shot. And I think it looks way better sepia-toned like that, nice work.

And yes, normally, walking (or looking) "into" a shot is better.

mrodgers · Feb 2, 2009

I love shot 2 as well. I think it works great sepia toned (of which I'm a fan of sepia and of desaturation but not to the point of B&W.) Both versions are great. The original color shot is great as well.

Samanax · Feb 2, 2009

linpelk said:
Here they are in their original form:

Thanks for posting them...I do like these pictures a lot more than the ones in the first post. I'm a color-kind-of-guy (BFA Fine Arts - Drawing & Painting).

Bigpopa · Feb 2, 2009

I definatly like those I love the old time down home look to these nice work......

rufus5150 · Feb 2, 2009

I will concur on #2. In general, you leave leading room to allow movement within the frame, but playing against type here works. Adults would walk into a frame, kids... they wander off and do whatever they want. Both sepia and color could use a bit of tone work and both could do with some de-hazing, but technical bits aside, it's a really nice capture.

linpelk · Feb 2, 2009

rufus5150 said:
I will concur on #2. In general, you leave leading room to allow movement within the frame, but playing against type here works. Adults would walk into a frame, kids... they wander off and do whatever they want. Both sepia and color could use a bit of tone work and both could do with some de-hazing, but technical bits aside, it's a really nice capture.

Thanks for the input. I had the picture framed with room to the right because she was initially heading in that direction, but turned suddenly to the left (thus the dress swing) and I lost my framing. It is SO challenging to anticipate where kids are heading :er:.

Also, thank you for the technical advice. I am just trying to make the switch from Aperture to Photoshop so I can have more options on PP. I don't really know how to use either, but at least there is a TON of info out there on PS (not to mention all of YOU experts) and not so much for Aperture.

mrodgers · Feb 3, 2009

linpelk said:
Thanks for the input. I had the picture framed with room to the right because she was initially heading in that direction, but turned suddenly to the left (thus the dress swing) and I lost my framing. It is SO challenging to anticipate where kids are heading :er:.

Well, you did good. Our 5 year old's nickname is Zipper. Probably 90% of the shots I have of her is from about her ear back because she is alway running out of my framing, LOL. I definitely need to work on my up close panning to capture her, or work on my sneaking so I can sneak up on her without her noticing :mrgreen:.