Hi Linda and welcome to EPZ.

This is a terrific shot, - full of character that any pro would be proud to have shot.

It can benefit by adding some space to the left for a more balanced appearance, but the basics are all excellent, - the pose, eyes contact and cigarette.

It works well in this toned monotone, - it accentuates the grittiness of the character.

I have loaded a couple of mods, - the last one has the space added for comparison, - easily done in Photoshop.

All I have done is added some more contrast using curves, and sharpened a little, The second and third mods have a different toning that you might like also.


Lovely work, - hope this critique is useful,

Regards


Willie

Hi JOhn,

This is a better crop than the original shot.

I feel the flower is over saturated, which makes it look soft, and loses some detail. The background is fine, but its worth trying something different. In this shot, its fairly easy to do as you can select the white background with a magic wand tool in Photoshop and use anything you want to replace it.

The position of the flower in the frame can be altered a little by making the frame slightly taller and narrower, - more like an 10X8 format.

Ive uploaded a mod with the flower desaturated (-18!), frame size changed as above, and a gradient background with complementing colours, and vertical text. all just to show the possibilities with a simple image.

I hope you find this useful,

Regards


Willie

Hi Attas,

This is a very nice shot. It captures a very thoughtful moment, - the subject is lost in his own world, and the world he lives in passes by.

The composition and framing are very good, - I especially like how the arch of the bridge frames his hands.

Its a little tight in the frame, - that is it may look even better with some more space in front of him, - as if hes looking into empty space, and would make it more balanced.

In a mod, I have added some space in front, and flipped the image horizontally so he looking left to right. To add the space, I increased the canvas size in front of him by 70 pixels, then copied part of the background into it. Some cloning afterward to make it more realistic. I have also lightened the dark suit slightly.

It may also look good as a B&W shot, - as in the second mod.


I hope you find this useful. I notice from your portfolio you like to take candid "street" shots, - you have a good eye for it, - keep doing it!

Regards


Willie

Hi Andy, - panned shots of trees and forests have a terrific dreamy look, - reminiscent of old masters paintigs.

It works best if you are sqaure to the line of trees, - so you have avoid having the rising line thats at the bottom of this shot. It looks fine, but I think it would look better with this technique.


regards


Willie

It certainly doesnt seem like you havent portrait experience, - this is a very nice shot!

Theres a couple of suggestions I have loaded in two mods:

Mod1:

Crop a little off the top to get the eys on thirds (not a big deal, - it looked good as is). and cropped a little off the rhs to remove the black material.

Used a threshold and curves adjustment, and then reduced red using colour balance by -18, and increased yellow by +2. I find theres too much red in the skin, - but left it alone on her lips.

Used the shadow/highlight tool in CS3 to lift the sahdow on the right eye, and sharpened the eyes and hair, - 24% in Smart Sharpen.

Burned the blue background areas to darken.

In mod 2, I applied a skin softening, - used Kodak Digital Gem Airbrish set at the default setting (light smoothing). You can also use the surface blur tool, - or Portrait Professional to do this.

Removed any softening from eyes, mouth and hair.

Then applied a diffuse glow, - set to grain = 0, clear = 13, amount = 10, and reduced the layer opacity to 9%

Thats it. Hope you both like the mods.

The lighting set up doesnt seem too bad, - would suggest a little more power for the front fill, - or a reflector under the face to lift shadows.

Hope you find this helpful,


Regards


Willie

Its a fun shot with that poster, - I hope Australian mothers dont actually look like that.

There was a suggestion about a coloured door which Ive done, - I would suggest just a closer crop, and moving one of the signs over as in the mod.


regards


Willie

This is a very well observed street shot indeed.

You have the generations, but you also have the concept of one being beneath another and being looked down upon. The older lady appears not to even want to look, while the younger pair are completely oblivious to everyone.

I love the bright red hair of the younger woman too.

With such a bright background you did well to get detail in the darker areas, and you can do even better with retrieving shadow detail in Photoshop. I used the shadow/highlight tool in CS3 to do this in a mod, - you can also do it by applying a curves adjustment selectively. It can be a little sharper, - as in the mod, - did you remeber to sharpen after you re sized for uploading, - its easy to forget, - but re sizing does cause loss of sharpness.
I also flipped the image horizontally, - perhaps a personal thing, as I think it might look even better read from left to right.

I hope you find this useful,


Regards


Willie

This is a lovely shot, - very simple, and makes good use of the beautiful shapes of the flower.

I suggest a few minor tweaks:

Sharpen quite a bit, - lilies trend to look "soft" unless aggressively sharpened.

Move the flower down a ittle in the frame.

I have loaded 2 mods which have these changes applied, - and in the second mod I have applied a small amount of a burgindy/yellow toning.

Would make a nice print,

Hope this is helpful,


Rgeards


Willie

Welcome to EPZ.

You have managed to get a blurred water effect, and the idea to use the bridge as a frame works.

It looks a little soft overall, - did you remember to sharpen it after you re sized it for EPZ?

I sharpened it in a mod, and toned down some of the highlights using a curves adjustment.

One suggestion to keep in mind is that when youre keeping your shutter open for a relatively long exposure (more than 1 sec works well depending on the water speed), you need not only to use a solid tripod and a cable release (use the self timer if you dont have a cable) the amount of light reaching the sensor needs to be quite low (use ISO settings with a small aperture), and in this shot, you had some very bright light to contend with. So look for opportunities with shade, no direct shun, - and if youve still got too much light, use a Neutral Density filter to stop down the light entering through the lens. Thats how the pros end op with that great water effect.

I hope you find this helpful,

regards

Willie

Its a really attractive shot, - nice light, and the rays of light are captured well.

There is some evidence of either post processing or lens/sensor glare around the edges, but it doesnt detract from the image.

I would suggest cropping a little off the left, and if its your cup of tea, a slightly warmer treatment.

I have loaded a couple of mods with the crop, a little sharpening, and the second mod is warmer.

I found it also makes a very dramatic monotone image, and have loaded two versions, - first is a duo toned warm grey monotone, and the seocnd is an infra red conversion done in CS3 which I think works also.

I hope you find these suggestions useful, and once again, good work.

regards


Willie

Exposed well, - framing might work better with a landscape crop.

Loaded a mod with this crop, and blurred the background a little, curves, hope this is helpful.

regards


W

Its a nice shot, - lots of contrast, repeating shapes.

It looks like its toned, - you didnt mention it, - so I have loaded a mod with a little more graphic monotone, - and a second mod with a closer crop that might work, My eye was drawn to the dark pot so the crop emphasizes this more. A final crop with some luquify filter to look like theres liquid spilling from one of the pots.

Would make a nice large print I think.

regards


Willie

The extraction of the flower from the background is well done.

The stem/leaf on the left is best removed to isolate the flower completely.

The flower itself needs to be a little brighter, - sharpened quite a bit, and have a little more colour saturation.

I would also suggest a portrait crop rather than landscape to show the flower off to its full potential.

I have uploaded a mod with all of the above included, - hope you like it, and hope you find this feedback helpful and what you were looking for.

regards


Willie

Hi Helen,

Theres no way to use the camera to cope with mixed light sources for white balance.
You can do this in post processing though by separately correcting the different areas and using layers and masking to combine the fixed areas into one image. If you are concerned enough about white balance, take a shot in the same light of a white card for reference.

The image looks quite good as is. These type of shots are also especially ideal for making HDR shots, where you take multiple exposures on a tripod at different exposure values with a fixed focal point. I would imagine the chancel woodwork is brownish, - or close to the tone it looks on the screen? You can change this on its own using layers and a mask again in Photoshop.


Theres lots of detail in this also that you can extract from the shadows, - Ive done this in the mod using the shadow/highlight tool in Photoshop CS3, - and Ive also toned down the windows just a little.

Ive also done a mod with perspective correction, - but it loses a fair chunk of the original, so might not work for you.

I will upload a third mod with the orange reduced in the chancel also.


Hope this answers you question, and you find it helpful,


Regards


Willie

Nice attitude shot, - he does looked peeved!

You didnt mention the light set up, - and theres a tad too much on the left, and the arms also are blown out. So why not take advantage and blow the whole shot with a curves adj like the mod!

Dont know ho many lights youre using, - if 2, the fill light over the camera is set about half the power of the main light, which would be at 45 degrees, and just above the head level. Looks like there was a light directly to the kids right that might be a little high?

Works though, and I like the tone.


W

Hi Matthius,

You do need a macro to get really close to small objects like this ideally, - however you can still get some really nice shots using longer lenses.

You havent mentioned the camera settings, - but for a good detailed shot you need to close down the aperture to something at least in the f/11 range depending on distance from the subject, while maintaining enough shutter speed to handhold the camera. Use the Av aperture priority mode on the camera, not auto or P.This may force you to use a high ISO, (the camera display will flash the shutter speed until you set the ISO high enough for it to find the right exposure) - but if you manage to get this right, - focus on the subject, steady the camera by using a brace to place it on, - or lean against something, then click! You can remove excessive noise from a high ISO using something like Noise Ninja.

This shot would be difficult even with a macro, so youve done well.

One of the areas I suggest for improvement is the white balance. The shot is very red overall, and Ive changed this in a mod by using a curves adjustment.
Next is to crop it much closer on the insect.
Then sharpen to bring out detail.

I also lifted shadows a little in the mod.

I hope you find this useful, - and keep taking pics,

regards


Willie

Its a nice shot, - and I agree with you on the reds, - a little too much.

These are not easy to shoot as they have that very shiny hair which is hard to get right. The lighting looks a little harsh, - Im not familiar with this location so I dont know if this was natural light or not.

Theres a nice mod loaded already by MrsImander, - and in mone I focused on:

Tighter crop.

Curves to reduce red a little.

Toned down the highlights in the fur (they are not overdone, just very bright, - possibly due to aggressive sharpening?).

Darkened the surroundings a little, leaving some light towards the front.


Hope this is helpful,

regards


Willie

High key is meant not to have any shadows from what I understand.

I loaded a mod with:

Curves, - bent the curve up aggressively.

Used dodge too to lighten all shadows.

Sharpened a little.

Not certain if it looks like what youre after?

regards


W

Hi Chen,

I think its a good piece of work, - still prefer the pose on the "halo" shot though.

I dont think the b&w is too bright, - looks OK.

I think perhaps you can do a little work on the original colour, then do the conversion.

What I think can be improved:

Eyes are not sharp. This might only be that youre not sharpening after re sizing for EPZ, and you original shot could be fine.

The exposure is a little under, - needs to be a little brighter, can be looked after in Photoshop using levels or curves.

Its often desirable when shooting females (not a pun) that the skin could be softened a little to give a more flattering appearance. This can be done using various blurring techniques, - or as many togs do, use a plug-in software like Portrait Professional that makes it easy. I used Kodak Digital Gem Airbrush in my mod.

I would crop it as in the mod, removing the top left, - essenatilly places her eyes on a third, and removes some of the background.

Theres a shadow on the right, - try to avoid by moving her further away, - or, easiest thing to do, - buy a couple of yards of black velvet, pin it to the wall behind, - and you have a perfect non reflecting matt black background.

I find her skin is overly red. I have a friend with an E 410, and I always think it tends to accentuate red too much, - nice in many shots, but a little too much for the white skin tones. Use colour balance, reduce red.

Make sure you monitor is calibrated, - rule # 1! Use Adove Gamma in the Control Panel if you dont have a Spyder or the like.

I modified the colour version using these methods, - and then converted to a monotone.


Hope this helps,

Regards

Willie

Hi Kelly,

I like how youve got him to focus on something so he looks like hes thinking.

The very bright area to the left is a little distracting and draws the eye, and it looks like it reflected too much light. The composition has the eyes too high in the frame, and the placement tends to make the nose more of a focal point than the eyes as it coincides with a thirds intersection. I like the inclusion of the habit under the chin, but a composition with more spcae above would be more attractive.

The image needs a little sharpening, a tad more light in the eyes, and toning down of the left side of the hood.

I have loaded mods with this done, - and also a different crop which puts the eyes in a better position compositionally. Second mod is a toned version.


Hope you find this helpful,

Regards


Willie