Constructive Criticism please!

[Angrypenguin]

Hey everyone!

I've decided to take the plunge and post pictures for some constructive criticism. I've been shooting for around 6 months now, but I've finally summoned up the courage to post for critique, in my vain attempt to get better.

I sometimes feel that I post-process too much, but what do you guys think? What should I work on, and what (if anything) am I doing well? I'd love to hear your thoughts on lighting, composition, technique, etc.

Thanks!

1. A random surfer along the beach Friday evening.

2. Waves hitting the breaker:

3. Pineapple tree silhouette

4. Pancake molds!

5. Disneyland Monorail. I suppose it would've been more interesting had the monorail actually been running...

6. Fisherman at sea

7. Mission Space

8. Space Mickey

 

[Frantasmic]

As far as appeal and composition, I think 2 and 6 are your best shots.

2 seems a little dark overall. It would be nice to see some definition in the rocks at the end of the seawall, but the water is a nice and different shade of blue. I like the perspective of the wall and the wave action.

The fisherman is a good shot, but I question the shadeing on the sides of the picture. The face being lit is good, I think having some more light on the whole body would have been good, if possible.

 

[tiggr33]

Image #1
Very moody and tells a story. When I judge one of the first question I ask myself is; does the photo tell me something (either about the scene or the maker). This image does. The scene is pleasing. Good composition. OK, here comes my critique. Watch your horizons. When post processing, adjust your horizon if it is not level. You have a slight tilt. In this photo, the sky doesn't work the way you intended it too. Could some of it be adjusted in PP yes, but I believe the KISS principal can work too. In this scene, I would crop out most of the sky. The surfer is the focus, so it really won't really harm the story. Or if you are so inclined you can spend hours on cleaning up the sky. Especially the hot spot (bright) in clouds. The surf is also hot and that could be toned down. I took the liberty, to make some of these changes so that you can see what I mean. This is my version, cropped and horizon adjusted. I'll look over your other images as I have time today.

 

[webshark3]

Tiggr33: excellent edit. That's a great photo. I liked the sky, but it was blown out and drew me away from the "real stroy" with the board and girl. Great crop. I even remove the remaining bit of sky so it's just the land and water.

 

[Gdad]

Image #6 is the photo that really stands out to my eye. I love the energy it captures- the composition- the high contrast lighting- the kind of off colors- the vignetting- all good. Not sure if you cropped this or not but if you had some more real estate in the original image I would make the horizon straight (or maybe way more crooked- just not almost straight ) so recrop but keep the whole net in the frame if possible- that would be my only comment.

6. Fisherman at sea

 

[GrillMouster]

I'd say some are overprocessed -- oversaturated, oversharpened, overly contrasty, dark, and losing shadow detail. You have a creative eye, just keep working on getting as much of the image right at capture then using post to enhance, not overpower the image. I think in some images you're trying to make every inch eye-catching. A pleasing image needs heirarchy. Throughtout your workflow, from image capture to post processing you should emphasize what's important and simplify the rest. When everything's important, nothing's important. Keep it simple.

I like the storytelling in the image of the surfer girl and the fisherman. My eyes want to be drawn to them in the composition, which is good, but the processing doesn't make it comfortable for the eyes to linger. Ditto coments others made about horizon lines.

 

[Angrypenguin]

As far as appeal and composition, I think 2 and 6 are your best shots.

2 seems a little dark overall. It would be nice to see some definition in the rocks at the end of the seawall, but the water is a nice and different shade of blue. I like the perspective of the wall and the wave action.

The fisherman is a good shot, but I question the shadeing on the sides of the picture. The face being lit is good, I think having some more light on the whole body would have been good, if possible.

Thanks Frantasmic. I agree with you on the darkness on his back; it was dark to begin with and with the vignetting is pretty much just blacks it out.

Image #1
Very moody and tells a story. When I judge one of the first question I ask myself is; does the photo tell me something (either about the scene or the maker). This image does. The scene is pleasing. Good composition. OK, here comes my critique. Watch your horizons. When post processing, adjust your horizon if it is not level. You have a slight tilt. In this photo, the sky doesn't work the way you intended it too. Could some of it be adjusted in PP yes, but I believe the KISS principal can work too. In this scene, I would crop out most of the sky. The surfer is the focus, so it really won't really harm the story. Or if you are so inclined you can spend hours on cleaning up the sky. Especially the hot spot (bright) in clouds. The surf is also hot and that could be toned down. I took the liberty, to make some of these changes so that you can see what I mean. This is my version, cropped and horizon adjusted. I'll look over your other images as I have time today.

Tiggr33: excellent edit. That's a great photo. I liked the sky, but it was blown out and drew me away from the "real stroy" with the board and girl. Great crop. I even remove the remaining bit of sky so it's just the land and water.

Thanks, great advice! I agree with you on the horizons. I sometime don't catch it and it ends up just slightly tilted. Additionally, I spent I think a half hour trying to get the sky right, and just gave up. It didn't even occur to me to cut it out entirely

Image #6 is the photo that really stands out to my eye. I love the energy it captures- the composition- the high contrast lighting- the kind of off colors- the vignetting- all good. Not sure if you cropped this or not but if you had some more real estate in the original image I would make the horizon straight (or maybe way more crooked- just not almost straight ) so recrop but keep the whole net in the frame if possible- that would be my only comment.

Thanks, Gdad!

I'd say some are overprocessed -- oversaturated, oversharpened, overly contrasty, dark, and losing shadow detail. You have a creative eye, just keep working on getting as much of the image right at capture then using post to enhance, not overpower the image. I think in some images you're trying to make every inch eye-catching. A pleasing image needs heirarchy. Throughtout your workflow, from image capture to post processing you should emphasize what's important and simplify the rest. When everything's important, nothing's important. Keep it simple.

I like the storytelling in the image of the surfer girl and the fisherman. My eyes want to be drawn to them in the composition, which is good, but the processing doesn't make it comfortable for the eyes to linger. Ditto coments others made about horizon lines.

Good criticism! LOL I think I needed to hear that. I find it interesting regarding the pp, everyone has an opinion on what's too much or too little. I think you might be right though, I'm going to start backing off it a little bit. And fix my horizons.

 

[Angrypenguin]

Okay, dumb question, but what should I look for when a picture is oversharpened? I usually edit on a small 13" screen (and then it's even smaller withing lightroom), so it's hard to see the fine detail.

 

[dalt01]

nice, just remember, dont try to make everything a pulitzer prize winner. the best just "happen" when you least expect them.

 

[GrillMouster]

Okay, dumb question, but what should I look for when a picture is oversharpened? I usually edit on a small 13" screen (and then it's even smaller withing lightroom), so it's hard to see the fine detail.

Not at all a dumb question.

The term "sharpening" in Photoshop and Lightroom is misleading. The software doesn't sharpen. The image won't be any sharper than it was when you captured in-camera. It seems funny to say that sharpening in PS/LR degrades the image, but that's exactly what it does. It degrades the image in such away that we find pleasing, because it gives the appearance that the image is sharper. It does that by increasing the contrast along edges with different colors or tonalites. It makes the dark side of the edge darker and the light side of the edge lighter. When you've oversharpened, the darkening and/or lightening along the edge has gotten really noticeable, almost like someone went in with a crayon or colored pencil and made an outline, like a cartoon.

Tell you what, someone has probably already posted a good explanation with images on the web. A quick Google search for "oversharpening", aaaaand... here we go. I'm not sure whether it's appropriate to post links to other bulletin boards (hint: SmugMug) here, so I'll PM you the link.

 

[Angrypenguin]

Not at all a dumb question.

The term "sharpening" in Photoshop and Lightroom is misleading. The software doesn't sharpen. The image won't be any sharper than it was when you captured in-camera. It seems funny to say that sharpening in PS/LR degrades the image, but that's exactly what it does. It degrades the image in such away that we find pleasing, because it gives the appearance that the image is sharper. It does that by increasing the contrast along edges with different colors or tonalites. It makes the dark side of the edge darker and the light side of the edge lighter. When you've oversharpened, the darkening and/or lightening along the edge has gotten really noticeable, almost like someone went in with a crayon or colored pencil and made an outline, like a cartoon.

Tell you what, someone has probably already posted a good explanation with images on the web. A quick Google search for "oversharpening", aaaaand... here we go. I'm not sure whether it's appropriate to post links to other bulletin boards (hint: SmugMug) here, so I'll PM you the link.

Great explanation, Grillmouster. Thanks!

 

[tiggr33]

Image #3.
Nice concept. But the time of day worked against you. The sun is too harsh, as is the reflection. Horizon, I realize this was part of the artistic set up, but for me it doesn't work. Could you have stepped to the left to get a beach background, or something else that doesn't have a horizon line? I would like to have seen detail in the palm.

 

[william4192]

I hope this is useful in some way, but as a novice photographer, but lover of art, here goes:

You may have intended for the pictures to look "fake", but that is what they look to me. A tad hard on the eyes, b/c too much is "quirky". I find them to be very beautiful (my favorite being the Mission Space), but overworked I would agree.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I enjoyed your pictures. You're brave to ask for criticism, but it is a good way to learn...

I liked #s 1, 2 and 6 but the first thing that came out at me is that there's too much contrast (and I'm a bugger about horizons). Would like to see them again with the contrast toned down (and straightened). Love the motion you captured in 6 and like lots of the elements of 1 (take a lot of back shots myself, especially of my children, they tell such a different story from the front shots). #6 reminded me of an old Polaroid somehow, not a sharp, clear photo of today.

I like tiggr's crop, but would also be interested to see what could be done with the sky as well as it was quite dramatic and does affect the mood of the picture. As in, what is the girl on the beach looking at? >> Sunset. Without the sky, it's not as clear. And while you could remove the sky and land altogether, it would dramatically change the mood of the picture as well. This is all JMO, of course, but shows how personal photography is in the eye of the beholder. I love having the ability to crop unnecessary stuff out, but in this case, the sky is part of what you were going for, I believe. (And if not, get rid of it. ) You get my drift.

I liked #s 4 and 7 also. I'm not sure the WB is correct on 4 (perhaps a tad yellow?) but that's something I'm learning about myself, too. I would want to play around with it a bit. Are these shot in JPEG, or RAW?

Thanks for posting, I'm sure lots of people are learning from this post.

 

[jann1033]

most of these i think the composition is really good. interesting shots but...
i agree with the rest, i'm all for offbeat colors but if you aren't intending that the saturation is to much, you can see the oversharpening around the surfer's face/legs etc....i've always read don't go above 17 in lightroom sat. sliders if that helps( and even that might be a little to fake looking sometimes). there is a camera ( think it might be sony ) that i think must make it really saturated though( at least the ones i see here ) so it may be even 17 would be to much( don't know what camera you use). just getting a picture style camera myself i can't really find one other than neutral that doesn't give me that "yikes what happened here" panic feeling before i rush to lightroom to adjust it so maybe the trend is toward more sat, sharpening etc in camera? which would mean less needed in pp. try to sharpen at 100% crop so you can get a good look at what is going on.

number 3 you could have moved just a little and placed the sun behind the palm and had some nice effects. i might make it less angled as well as i like the lifeguard station but it looks like it's slipping off the edge, a little more space around it would make it a nice part of the background

number 1 if you can fix the blown out sun i like it much better with the clouds and "inspirational" r a y s..if not i'd probably just leave the ocean as the backdrop and get rid of the whole sky but jmo

with the man casting the net i like his back shadowed . you can lighten it just a tad on his hand so you can see the back of his right hand so there is a little separation there between his hand and back...i love the outstretched fingers...i might crop just a little of the right off..that bump in the water annoys me
same with the rocks and wall, the rocks lose a lot of detail due to being to dark but i love the way the clouds/rocks/ sky reflect in the wall puddles

so imo the important stuff is there! you just need to adjust a little

edited cause for some reason the dis thinks "r a y s" is a dirty word

 

[Angrypenguin]

Thanks everyone for the comments. It's a humbling experience having folks critique your pictures, but I did ask for it.

These have been great suggestions! Regarding pic 1, I think I just need to work on the sky a bit more. I like the effect of the girl looking out at the sunset, I personally think it gives a sense of calmness to the picture. Well, it would give a sense of calmness if the sky wasn't so overbearing.

I'll take some of your comments and see what I can do to change up the pictures a bit. Thanks again! I'd like to hear more comments too if you have them.

 

[webshark3]

When dealing with Disney, you can never have colors too saturated.

Heck, when a camera oversaturates, most photo forums call it "Disney color".

 

[Pea-n-Me]

How are the re-do's coming along, Angrypenguin?

 

[Angrypenguin]

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't been around, it's been a crazy week of big decisions. We're trying to decide if we want to leave Los Angeles for Dallas, so that's been taking up a lot of our time . Additionally, I couldn't resist, and got myself a refurbed Macbook Pro (42% off!) So, I'll try to get around to edits this week.

I hope everyone's doing well!