Critique My Image

spraynpray

Hi Ian,

I think the problem is more than the adjustment brush should be used for, it looks general to me. But anyway, whether this image is worth it or not, IMHO the learning experience you will get is definitely worth the effort.

Msmoto

Snow is try difficult to manage as the slight difference in monitors will change it considerably. Snow is white, so in low light it is gray. I might take the image and move slightly toward more green and lighten the snow slightly. (On my monitor)

And, calibrating is often quite subjective no matter what we use.

[Deleted User]

I know what you mean Dissent, You can try the HSL (Hue - Saturation - Luminance) section in LR, Click on the - Adjust - button, then you can work with the colors direct in the picture. The grey clouds gives you a reflection, but there is also a lot of blue reflection. With this method you can adjust that. Hope this is a tip.

dissent

@ spraynpray, @ Msmoto, @ Ton - Thanks for the food for thought. I'll try a couple of other things as you suggest.

elopez95

My first attempt at this type of photograph. I really can not stress how much I appreciate the feedback!

michael66

Snow is try difficult to manage as the slight difference in monitors will change it considerably. Snow is white, so in low light it is gray. I might take the image and move slightly toward more green and lighten the snow slightly. (On my monitor)

And, calibrating is often quite subjective no matter what we use.

No kidding. I have a cheap laptop and have not figured out how to calibrate the colors, etc. But I did take Msmoto's advice; use an ev of +1. That helps with the snow, but when tracking BIF, I seem to come across dark backgrounds ( tree stands ) that seem to be too dark.

Vipmediastar_JZ

@michael66 xrite has some tools for that. I strugggled at first but then I learned about xrite. Look into it and you will be glad.

adamz

@elopez95 - you should turn on flash, this will bring the main subject. at this moment it's way to chaotic. I don't know where should I look. the sun, the person, the bridge. if you were attempting silhouette than there's too much things going on over here.

elopez95

@adamz I was attempting a silhouette. I will remember that in the future.

proudgeek

First attempt at focus stacking. Thoughts?

heartyfisher

With focus staking you dont need to have the whole thing in focus .. the way you have done it flattens the image too much..

proudgeek

Interesting. Here I thought I'd left not enough in focus. To me, there's a certain "artificiality" to this image. That's not quite the right word, but it's best I can come up with. I can't quite put my finger on what I didn't like about this, but your word "flattening" does come close. If you notice there are some petals in the absolute foreground that are out of focus, as well the ones furthest to the back. Are you suggesting that I narrow that in-focus band further?

Msmoto

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The lighting can be a factor in how the final image works...

proudgeek

Very much looking forward to trying this outdoors in real light. Currently there's 2+ feet of snow on the ground, with temperatures in the single digits below zero.
Although I think I will try and do this with natural light through a window.

heartyfisher

I think MSMoto is right .. its probably a combination of the "mostly in focus" flower and the front on lighting that also helped flatten the image. also the symmetrical composition probably contributed somewhat to the "flattening" . also I must confess i did not click through to the bigger image at first ... its not as "flat" when viewed larger..

sattiganal

Greetings All,

I tried my very first HDR set this weekend. The process (planning the shots and post processing them) was very exciting. Please can you guys take a look and let me know how can I improvise? Lot of HDR shots I see look very surreal/artificial, so I tried my best not do that and keep the scene as close to the original as possible.



P.S: Only when I saw this on the computer at work I realized the red on the truck might be little over saturated. As my home monitor isn't calibrated (where it looked close to natural) for color (neither is my office one) I couldn't tell how it looks in real, on a calibrated monitor. Can someone suggest, is it too red...?

This one was shot through the window of the same truck. Though I used CPL I couldn't cut reflection/glare completely, even after making sure that the light source was at almost 90 degrees angle. Is there is better technique to do it?

Ade

You have a good eye, Shyam.

The truck is very red but to me still acceptable. The grass on the bottom left of the picture suffers from alignment problems which is distracting (common with HDR). Sometimes on windy days it's hard to eliminate alignment issues completely, but doing rapid auto bracketing (instead of bracketing manually) often helps. I assume you've already turned on the "auto align" feature of your HDR software?

On the second picture, to eliminate the reflections... roll down the window. :P Joking aside, reflections often add ambiance to the picture. I quite enjoy this version you have on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/96054917@N06/13362989844/in/photostream/

my $0.02.

sattiganal

You have a good eye, Shyam.

Thanx

The truck is very red but to me still acceptable.

I viewed the same image on many more screens (friends' and colleagues') and realized that whatever I do, its gonna look different on different screens. I've made my peace with the fact that even when I adjust it on a calibrated monitor, many more people will still see it as bright red. So I will worry when I get it printed, I'll make sure that color correction is applied.

doing rapid auto bracketing (instead of bracketing manually) often helps. I assume you've already turned on the "auto align" feature of your HDR software?

Yep, I did them both but these were hand held. May be I should have bumped up my ISO little more. I was @ ISO 640 and my slowest shutter was 1/80 I believe. I could have bumped up the ISO for a faster shutter. I'll keep that in mind next time.

On the second picture, to eliminate the reflections... roll down the window. :P Joking aside, reflections often add ambiance to the picture. I quite enjoy this version you have on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/96054917@N06/13362989844/in/photostream/

my $0.02.

LOL!!! you won't believe it, but thats the 1st thing I tried but I couldn't even open the door to do that. I hadn't thought about the reflections that way, but now when I look at the pic again, I must agree that the reflection adds to the overall feel. I had saved this other pic to post on PAD today

Thanx again, for all your inputs @Ade. I really appreciate them.

Vipmediastar_JZ

@sattiganal no more guess color calibrate your monitor with an X-Rite the Color Munki Display is one option

when I did HDR with the D300 I guessed until I found about the xrite. The oversaturated colors worked in my favor as one of those guessed photos keeps selling for wall prints.

Adjust to what you feel hits the spot. Subtle HDR is great but some people will appreciate the oversaturation possibly the instragram crowd but if it works for you is all that matters.

sattiganal

@Vipmediastar_JZ Thanx, this is interesting. I'll check this out.

ben_dmb

Another try at small birds. Please express your thoughts.

Msmoto

@ben_dmb

I might crop a bit tighter. And, in post, to bring the bird off the background, darken and desaturate the background, not easy with this one, and bring up the contrast and saturation of the bird. I like the image, almost an expression on the birds "face".

ben_dmb

Msmoto, thank you for the suggestions. I had already done all that except cropping a little closer. I will tray it too to see if I can isolate the background even more. Maybe I should dial the expose down more and lighten the bird as much as possible.

Oh and you photo is superb.

ben_dmb

Ok, how about this

spraynpray

Difficult to avoid, but those twigs spoil it for me a little.