Critique please-- Need massive help

[MikkiStreak]

Please critique on composition and post processing, as harshly as you wish as long as it's constructive. :) I'm not a person who likes passive 'good job' type comments, so don't worry about offending me.

I am rusty from 10 years of a non-photographic life, and am doubly challenged by Photoshop. The second image at the end is out of the camera. The first image is with some PP. I am struggling with Photoshop techniques, as well as developing my eye again for color and composition. Please feel free to edit as you wish, just tell me what you did so I can understand (and by tell me, I mean bring down to the 'dummy' level conversation-- that's how basic my Photoshop is...).

[Ahh!]

I would play with cropping, starting with the cart-thing in screen right. Second, I used to center the image on my main subject, but find I am off-center and high or low (rule of thirds) now. Seems to please me and my critics...

There's probly more to say, but thats where I would start and then look things over again.

You have a great subject and a great setting with lots of color.

[kenmyers70]

Welcome back!
I understand your "thick skin" all two often people say "nice pic" but don't offer any insight. So here is my two cents:
I think the first thing I would do is increase the importance of the bird by cropping the left and bottom third from the image. Its hard to tell from this small picture if it is slightly out of focus or just needs some sharpening. The trailer on the pier is a little distracting. Ideally (to me, at least), the best picture would have been with a longer lens with a smaller depth of field showing just bird grass and water. The shed on the pier is too modern to me to contribute to the scene.
Keep up the work and keep posting here!

[MikkiStreak]

Peter,
yep in general I use the law of thirds- definitely makes an image easier on a viewer's eyes. On this one, I was scrambling to get a picture taken because the damn bird moved. Funny how they do that. :) I agree about the cart thingy. I had tried cropping it out at the beginning, but it seemed to make the image unbalanced/awkward to me, so I wound up leaving it in for awhile. I think I need to play around some more with overall cropping and see if I can come up with something more focused on the bird.

Ken,
I like the suggestion about cropping the left and bottom. I honestly hadn't thought to change those portions because I like the green/blue combination. I seem to bounce back and forth on whether the shed competes visually with the bird or whether the shed provides a nice contract to the greens/blues to make it more interesting overall. I wondered about the sharpness too--- hard to tell if it's my eyes going batty at times, so I'm glad to hear someone else is seeing this too.


I appreciate both of your comments. I figure I can't grow without it--- if I wanted the 'ooohhh, that's pretty' stuff, I'd hang it up at work where people are distracted by 'bright pretty things' easily. :)



Any improvements on PP? That's my other issue--- In college (film days), the emphasis was always on realistic images and making colors true to life. Now everything seems geared toward vitalizing colors and I have a hard time reconciling these two things with each other.

[kenmyers70]

oooohh shiny things... You must work with engineers. Where I work ADD is a prerequisite!

I think the best place I found to learn postprocessing (and I still have MUCH to learn) is:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/

[Ahh!]

If I may, this is more like I might start on...as far as the cropping is concerned...kinda follows the rule of thirrds, get rid of the modern stuff frame right, and places the bird in a third-low to emphasize the nearness to earth and it's vulnerability...

[Ahh!]

Originally Posted by phorn45

If I may, this is more like I might start on...as far as the cropping is concerned...kinda follows the rule of thirrds, get rid of the modern stuff frame right, and places the bird in a third-low to emphasize the nearness to earth and it's vulnerability...

As I see it up on the board, it is way too sharp now...just a hazard with editing a web image I think.

[kenmyers70]

Peter, I like yours better. Looks like you added some brightness and a large amount of sharpening too. Is the bird a little blown out?

[Ahh!]

yas...blown out due to the size of the image left over to play with...

[mjdmike]

All a matter of opinion, but I'd go with something close to Peter's crop, but with more of the boathouse in the frame. I agree that the trailer is distracting. The entire image needs a tad of horizontal adjustment, but I like it.

Although some don't agree with this approach, you could always clone out the trailer, as in my quick (and a little sloppy) attempt.

[MikkiStreak]

Originally Posted by kenmyers70

oooohh shiny things... You must work with engineers.

hehe- Half our company is made up of software developers (wonderful people, despite behavior that borders on autism), and the other half are implementation & account managers (they are the ADD type)...

I like all the suggestions so far about sharpness, cloning and cropping. I need to trust my instincts more, I guess because you guys are pointing out things that had crossed my mind too. Thank you all for the edits and advise. I appreciate it! :)

[barP]

hey, mikkistreak!

you've been very generous with your time on some things for me, so the least i can do is give some in return. of course, my opinion is worth exactly what you paid for it! with that in mind, the first thing i saw was the tilt, and a 1.5 degree cw rotation fixed that. i know it's the first thing you'd get harshed on if you posted this image on the fred.

the next thing is....well....your composition is tough because for me, the only way to make a better image out of this is to crop it. as shot, there's no distinct subject, and therefore no definitive story. i can't decide what it's about, but that may be just because i'm slow...

so, i decided it was about the bird taking off. at that point, should it be about where he came from, where he's going, or where he is? i sort of compromised on the whereto/whereis because the boards on the shack lend some nice texture and location reference to the image.

your histogram was good - exposure was spot on, so all i did from that point was tweak the black and white points a tiny bit and saturate a little with a curve.



wp.

[CBass]

First things first im the same as you are with Photoshop or aleast i was till about a month ago when i bought Scott Kelby's Photoshop Elements 5 book. You might be using a different photoshop but what im getting at is there are so great books out there for around 35- 55 bucks that show you a lot of tips. I'm still learning and i will be honest i cheat sometimes on my editing.

Case in point on this i cheated and used auto levels and auto color correction. I then went back and played around with saturation and the color curve. I then made a new doc. set my ROT grid (based on what the book says) and then places your bird on one of the interseting points. Next i cloned the grass (did it fast just to show what can be done) and some of the leafs in the background to get rid of the shed and trailer. Then just cropped off the corners and did a little burning and dodging. There is a lot more and to be honest im still learning and i hate sitting down editing a shot if its going to take me more than 30min. I don't know how some can edit one photo for an hour, but when they get done most times its an amazing shot.

[CBass]

humm doesnt look to good on here .. looked better on my monitor sorry.