Critique Me Please!

[DigitalFreak]

I have been hoping to get some comments on my work so far. Anyone care to give some advice?

http://thephotostation.net/photopost/showgallery.php/ppuser/2108/cat/500

[oostermeijer]

Well as you can see you had some views and I have to say all of your photographs are lovely. maybe you could do with some cropping here and there and perhaps adjustments in the exposure of some wich you still can do in Photoshop if you got it.Iwould say continue what you are doing, I can see you are thinking about composition so that's good. Practice makes perfect!To finnish of with , its all in the eye of the beholder!

[DigitalFreak]

Thaks for the advice. I did just get PS a few weeks ago, it is so daunting to sit down and try and figure everything out. Any suggestions on a good PS book?

[oostermeijer]

Yes there are several for sale, just go to www.adobe.com and look for their offers. I had a look at your last contribution in your gallery and I am very impressed . Like the way you see things , I can feel the mood in your photographs. Only critique I have is the finnish of your photographs in particular the focus,sharpness of your images. I have taken the liberty to sharpen some up, see if you like it.

[DigitalFreak]

Thanks for the site tip - guess I should have checked there first :D .

Also, I do like the touch ups. I am always a bit hesitant to sharpen for fear of over-sharpening. But

[DigitalFreak]

Thanks for the site tip - guess I should have checked there first :D .

Also, I do like the touch ups. I am always a bit hesitant to sharpen for fear of over-sharpening. But

[DigitalFreak]

Thanks for the site tip - guess I should have checked there first :D .

Also, I do like the touch ups. I am always a bit hesitant to sharpen for fear of over-sharpening. But I do like what you have done especially to this one:

http://www.thephotostation.net/photopost/data/500/21081er6.jpg (Original - not yours - yours is much better).

Maybe I should experiment with sharpening a bit. Do you Unsharp mask in PS and if so, what settings seem to work best for you?

[oostermeijer]

all depends what you are trying to achieve. What ps version are you using. In cs I use a lot of lens blur to achieve dof . At the end of the day its all personal preference. Just go and experiment, make sure you keep the originals in case you did not like the desired effect.

[DigitalFreak]

I am using CS. How do you use Lens blur? Again, I am just starting so excuse my ignorance.

[oostermeijer]

Hi Dave, well it goes like this. Open a photo of wich you want to achieve DOF (depth of field) In your tools on the left hand side use the 2nd row left magnetic lasso tool and by surrounding the object you want to keep in focus by leftclicking with the tool as you go round it you see it will follow the object . Once you have returned where you started it forms a "lasso". Then right click and select; select inverse. Then open your filter and select blur/ lensblur and you will see the effect you will have. By adjusting the various options you will see the effect altering. When you start to lasso, do this on real pixel size to get a good as possible lasso around your object. Again Dave it is just playing with it , trying out. Hope you can follow this , good luck , have a look at Anna

[DigitalFreak]

Cool. Thanks for the tip. I will try it out this week.

[Jack M]

Nice pics DF, and great tips Aad. I agree that some were a bit soft...other than that they were great pics.

[davephoto]

Thanks for the site tip - guess I should have checked there first :D .

Also, I do like the touch ups. I am always a bit hesitant to sharpen for fear of over-sharpening. But I do like what you have done especially to this one:

http://www.thephotostation.net/photopost/data/500/21081er6.jpg (Original - not yours - yours is much better).

Maybe I should experiment with sharpening a bit. Do you Unsharp mask in PS and if so, what settings seem to work best for you?
this photo is nicely cropped with good use of existing lighting against a dark background. i like it. personally, i subscribe to the view of taking more time to properly compose the picture from the outset. adjusting your lens aperature to create a more shallow DOF for portraits is preferrable to relying on post processing which, when overdone or done poorly, looks artificial. i normally only rely a bit on level adjustment and slight sharpening, if necessary. you have talent. experience comes from taking more pictures, so push yourself away from your computer and spend more time outside taking pictures. ;) -- dave

[mark589]

I concur with the previous comment - the beauty of digital is the immediate feedback you can get to see the effect of changes you make.

In the case of the photo that is posted..
It is well composed, a good natural look.
However it has a "snapshot" feel more than a "portrait" feel. The main thing driving this (IMHO) is the high contrast and shadows. The subjects are squinting into the light, and their eyes are hidden in shadows.

The shadows of their chins are prominent on their necks as well.

Some judicial use of fill flash can go a long way here.. something that post-processing may, or may not, be able to fix after the fact. (It depends on how much information actually got captured in the shadows. Post processing can't bring out something that isn't there.)

That would bring their eyes out of the darkness and add a little "sparkle" while softening the overall image.

I'd work on getting the overall look before worrying about retouching the details.

Just my opinion.

[Martin]

You have some very nice shots!

I agree with Mark589 with regards to the areas you might improve on, but I'm not much of a portrait photographer so I can't really comment.

I wanted to add; when sharpening in PS, it is important to use "Unsharp Mask", and not the other sharpening options. Despite the name, unsharp mask is the best way to sharpen photos. It is important too - even if you have a very sharp image to work from - to always sharpen after resizing images to upload to the Web. I usually run unsharp mask at about 0.8, but if the original is a little soft, I run it up to 1.4 or so.

If you have something that is almost there but just a little too soft, you might want to consider something like Fred Miranda's Intellisharpen II (https://www.fredmiranda.com/shopping/affiliate.php?id=41) digital filter plugin for PhotoShop. This can be a life saver if you have no alternative image or chance of a re-shoot.

And, it is important to get things as close as possible in the camera, rather than during post processing. Relying on PhotoShop too much will not improve your photography at all.

[oostermeijer]

Wise words written here, could not agree more, mind you for snapshots it is always handy to do some additional tweeking in PS .