Critique Fort St Catherines Island Tenby

DowntonMini

DowntonMini

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Mark Gameson
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Over the Christmas/ New Year Holiday I was in Tenby and got to go on to St Catherine's Island which is something I have been wanting to do since I first went to Tenby.

Here are a hew shots from there:

1)


DSC_0162_edit by MARKGAMESON1 (Downton Mini/Mini59), on Flickr

2)


DSC_0148_edit by MARKGAMESON1 (Downton Mini/Mini59), on Flickr

3)


DSC_0166_edit by MARKGAMESON1 (Downton Mini/Mini59), on Flickr

4)


DSC_0167_edit by MARKGAMESON1 (Downton Mini/Mini59), on Flickr

5)


DSC_0156_edit by MARKGAMESON1 (Downton Mini/Mini59), on Flickr

6)


DSC_0158_edit by MARKGAMESON1 (Downton Mini/Mini59), on Flickr

7)


DSC_0177_edit by MARKGAMESON1 (Downton Mini/Mini59), on Flickr

8) Lifeboat Houses


DSC_0465_edit by MARKGAMESON1 (Downton Mini/Mini59), on Flickr
 
I assume you've asked for critique as there's aspects of these you're not happy with, so please take this as me trying to be helpful rather than being 'nasty'.

No.1 - There's good lead in lines, but the shot is very flat and lacking atmosphere or interest, probably a bit over exposed and the sky is blown. The railings on the right are also distracting, and would benefit from being cropped out, ditto probably the foreground. If it were mine I'd try to recover sky details and reprocess it to have a dark, brooding feel, maybe even into B&W.

No.2 - You've missed focus and caught a twig in the foreground - there's no recovery for this one.

No.3 - Highlights seem blown, the people in there make it look like a snap and image is flat like no.1. Probably no recovery on this either.

No.4 - Potentially good composition, let down by blown highlights and flat image presentation. Furthest details may also be out of focus. Again might be recovered given similar treatment to No.1.

No.5 - As before, over exposed sky, dull, flat processing, the fort is a little out of focus because the the camera has been focussed on the plants at the front of the shot. If your camera has the possibility of spot-focusing then I strongly recommend using that to focus on the subject (in this case, the fort) locking focus by half-pressing the shutter button, then recomposing before taking the shot. Composition doesn't help because all that can be seen is a lump on a rock. Either moving in closer (to get the fort detail) or better still, backing away to show how it's precariously perched on top of a hill (as I presume it is) would make much more of it. And again reprocessing to get away from the flat tones would help.

No.6 - Like it! The exposure is basically good, with backlighting outlining the roof lines and yet there's still some detail in both sky and shadows. Composition is nice, with a natural progression from left to right and lines that lead the eye through. Critique - it's not really sharp, the horizon is tilted up on the left and it's also a little flat like the others in terms of colours etc.

Really hope that's useful, though there are probably others here with better eyes who can offer more help. Do you process your images after transferring to computer or are the straight out of camera apart from resizing, because if not then you should.
 
Thank you. I appreciate the time you've taken to look at the pictures. The only real processing I've done is to alter the change the exposure to Auto as I forgot to change the setting back to Auto form tuncsten! Some cropping but thats basically it.

I'm still learning photoshop and lightroom I will get there I also think I need to calibrate my screen.
 
Glad to help. :)

Probably lightroom is enough to begin with - I've recently started using it as a trial, and it's hugely powerful, yet still relatively easy to use for basic exposure stuff. If you've not seen any tutorials yet (or even if you have) then have a look at this one:
 
Last edited:
ancient_mariner said:
Glad to help. :)

Probably lightroom is enough to begin with - I've recently started using it as a trial, and it's hugely powerful, yet still relatively easy to use for basic exposure stuff. If you've not seen any tutorials yet (or even if you have) then have a look at this one:
Click to expand...
I can recommend this clip for beginners, its not done me or some of my shots any harm, and lightroom really can make a bad shot better.
 
I'd not used LR when I saw that video - I'd been using a free version of PhotoDirector which looks almost identical, but performs differently in subtle ways.It was enough to make me want to try it, and I'm likely to buy a copy at some stage soon.
 
Thank you for the link to the video I've watched it and it makes it look relativly easy will have a go over the weekend and see what I can do....
 
Be warned - there's a whole series of videos from him, and they're pretty much ALL good. I've watched about 10 so far, and there's a lot more. The danger is that one might start producing images just like his (he's slightly colour blind, and does like slightly OTT colours) but as providing a set of techniques to use in your own way his videos are really excellent.
 
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