Critique Original shots and edits - join in

pooley

pooley

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Name
Mike
Edit My Images
Yes
I find one of the difficult parts of offering crit is sometimes not knowing how the original shot was framed and exposed. So, I thought I'd try and start a thread whereby we show the straight out of camera shots and your edited result. In my opinion it will enable us to offer a better opinion on things, so please feel free to post your own work.

So, that said, here's my starter for 10 -

I'm struggling getting time to go out and shoot right now, so I thought I'd practice a bit more PP work. I've gone back and picked a couple of old shots and posted both the originals and my edits. What I'd appreciate is thoughts on what I've done right and more importantly done wrong with the processing. All shots have been resized to 1024 px longest size with a max size of 200kb so I could upload them to the gallery here

Nutty original
Default Album by pooley on Talk Photography

Edited
Default Album by pooley on Talk Photography

Great tit original
Default Album by pooley on Talk Photography

Edited
Default Album by pooley on Talk Photography
 
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Big improvement in the processing.
 
I find your edited image for the first bird image is much better the lighter background helps the bird to stand out much better.

The edited picture for the second bird is good I assume you did a different crop there for bringing you closer to the subject, can see more detail in the bird which I like. Great work on enhancing your pp skills.
 
fracster said:
Big improvement in the processing.
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Thanks Ade. I know you're never shy of an opinion, please have a look at the lines below

I was just wondering if there was any mileage in getting a thread going showing the straight out of camera shots as well as the edits, as I've done here - it might help with crit a little bit, rather than just getting the 'nice shot' comments.

Anybody have an opinion?

If a few people think its worth it, I'll amend the thread title to try and get others to join in. If not I'll go and sit back in my little corner!

Donnie D. said:
Nice work.
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Cheers Don, I've noticed you've posted a few shots recently, would you prefer to just see the end result, or how it got there?

Pinkbikerbabe said:
I find your edited image for the first bird image is much better the lighter background helps the bird to stand out much better.

The edited picture for the second bird is good I assume you did a different crop there for bringing you closer to the subject, can see more detail in the bird which I like. Great work on enhancing your pp skills.
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Thanks Mandy, as above, do you think its a worthwhile idea?
 
Why not, could be worth a try.
 
Pinkbikerbabe said:
I find your edited image for the first bird image is much better the lighter background helps the bird to stand out much better.
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....That's exactly what I was going to say too. The first picture has far more moody atmosphere - It isn't always just about the bird but an image as a whole.

Regarding the second shot, the crop definitely improves it but the edit seems to have lost the fresher whiteness in the bird's cheek. If it was mine I would probably crop at 16 x 9 taking most off the top and only if it wouldn't chop the bird's foot of course. A 16 x 9 would emphasise the bird's attitude and spring in the legs as it is clearly about to fly off - You have captured that moment nicely.

On the second shot the branch seems a little on the pink side. I'm not sure that the colours are as fresh as they could be.
 
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Cheers Robin. That branch does look a little pink doesn't it!, I'll take a look at the crop ratio. I don't normally stick with specific sizes i.e. 16:9 but I'll give it a go
 
Yes, I tend to stick to established crop ratios, hence my 16 x 9 suggestion but of course it can be any slightly more panoramic crop than the standard 3 x 2 original. I haven't tried it myself on your image so I'll be interested to know if it works for you as an improvement or not. :)
 
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I had looked at Robin's Jackdaw shot earlier and thought I had commented - turns out I hadn't hit the Post Reply button! Done now.

Personally, I try to get the exposure right in camera but am less stringent about my framing. Most of my prints are at A4 or A3+ so need a little cropping to fit that format.

Always interesting to see originals compared to final edits, even if the edits aren't to the viewers' tastes!
 
A good idea Mike, this has been done a few times in the past and has proved valuable to some people. Is this thread open for our own edit and interpretation?
 
Nod said:
I had looked at Robin's Jackdaw shot earlier and thought I had commented - turns out I hadn't hit the Post Reply button! Done now.

Always interesting to see originals compared to final edits, even if the edits aren't to the viewers' tastes!
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....Thankyou, Nod - Helpful and much appreciated!

(y)
 
u8myufo said:
A good idea Mike, this has been done a few times in the past and has proved valuable to some people. Is this thread open for our own edit and interpretation?
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Rich,

Ideally I'd like this to be for people to put their own shots on and allow edits. It's not a case of me wanting to manage the thread in any way, more of a way of opening up discussions and ideas on how the final shot could look. on a personal note, feel free to edit anything I post, and I have very broad shoulders regarding receiving crit.

I've only posted the above shots to try and get the ball rolling and see if there was any interest, and because I know they are not the best I thought they might be able to provide a few points for people to pick up on
 
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Ah right I see Mike that`s fine, tbh I did not look at it as you wanting to manage it but more for the reasons explained. Ok well as I am here now my thoughts on your two. The Nutty, in most cases they hang out in shaded wooded areas, if I am right about this being the case with your shot then I prefer #1 perhaps a little bit more light on the subject if you felt that way inclined but if the subject is in shadows or dappled light I like to see that in the shot, it gives the viewer an idea of the environment. Whilst the edit of the Nutty is good I am not so keen on the BG being as bright as it is. The Gt, the crop works better losing some of the dead space, the Blacks have a Blue cast to them even in the edit and as mentioned the branch does look a bit Pink. I adjusted Cyan, levels, curves and a bit of dodge and burn on the eye. I also toned down the bg a little to try and put more emphasis on the subject, whether it works or not for you Mike is a different matter. Within reason to any shot there is no right or wrong, only when it comes to serious issues with a picture we could probably all agree that this that or the other needs changing to rectify it.

adfe9692-67c6-4580-8e42-5ccd8495e374_zps23f6903b.jpg
 
u8myufo said:
Ah right I see Mike that`s fine, tbh I did not look at it as you wanting to manage it but more for the reasons explained. Ok well as I am here now my thoughts on your two. The Nutty, in most cases they hang out in shaded wooded areas, if I am right about this being the case with your shot then I prefer #1 perhaps a little bit more light on the subject if you felt that way inclined but if the subject is in shadows or dappled light I like to see that in the shot, it gives the viewer an idea of the environment. Whilst the edit of the Nutty is good I am not so keen on the BG being as bright as it is. The Gt, the crop works better losing some of the dead space, the Blacks have a Blue cast to them even in the edit and as mentioned the branch does look a bit Pink. I adjusted Cyan, levels, curves and a bit of dodge and burn on the eye. I also toned down the bg a little to try and put more emphasis on the subject, whether it works or not for you Mike is a different matter. Within reason to any shot there is no right or wrong, only when it comes to serious issues with a picture we could probably all agree that this that or the other needs changing to rectify it.

adfe9692-67c6-4580-8e42-5ccd8495e374_zps23f6903b.jpg
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Great stuff Rich.

I couldn't agree more about a lot of aspects being about personal taste, that'll never change.

Regarding your edit, it is far better than mine, and, for me anyway, the important point of the crit is you've said what changes have been made - cyan, levels etc.

PP is (one of) my weak areas, so always good to learn.

Anybody else fancy posting a shot ?
 
I did try to work on second picture and I've got something like this
11984822765_55edabd04c_o.jpg


And what I've done:
Bridge: Highlights -8
Shadows +10
Blacks +25
Saturation -18
Luminescence: Red +12, Orange -12, Yellows -12, Greens -13,
Saturation: Reds -12, Oranges +8, Yellows +7, Greens +11, Blues -53, Purples -61
PS: bit darker, more contrast, little work on Curves and Color Balance: Blue -4, Red +3, Green +2
 
Thanks Maryla, like Rich's shot it's better than mine as far as the colours go. I'd like to keep the bird away from the centre, but as far as processing goes, it's very good.

Anybody else going to post some of their before and afters?
 
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