Hi,
I'm pretty new to photography (around 7 months).
I post regularly on Instagram and I don't get much in the way of constructive criticism. I was hoping I could get some input from Photogs who do this for a living?
Thanks you guys in advance,
Justin
I'm also not doing it for living, but as a full-time hobby that hopefully ends up one day in a business.
Anyway. About your pictures:
1) This picture is nothing special to me, as the light is just harsh. You have a nice spot light on the mountains though. The shadows in the grass are too dark. The overall picture is quite flat and needs more contrast.
2) That picture is a loooot better! You have beautiful colors, a nicer composition and more different colors in it. The sky looks amazing, the water adds a nice colorful contrast to the surroundings. The mist or smoke around the trees is also very nice! Well done! I would still extract much more detail and give it all in all more dynamic contrast and punch!
3) Basically also a nice shot, but too many trees in the foreground for my taste. It's great that you could capture the stars. I love the toning as it really represents dawn and a blue hour. Still a bit more detail extraction and dynamic contrast.
All in all I think the pictures 2 and 3 are pretty, just need a bit more separation, structure, clarity and punch. But the scenery itself in the second picture is beautiful.
Hope it was helpful and other people will agree with me.
Cheers and happy shooting! :)
Matthias
Thank you! I appreciate your honesty and taking time to critique my shots.
If I could take up a bit more of your time, how would you go about adding more separation and clarity? Currently, I'm using a bit of Nik Collection, luminosity Masks and Levels.
And again Thank You Matthias!
I love people who ask for constructive feedback and want to improve. That's also how I improve :)
Basically you use all the tools I use. ;)
Search a bit in the contrast category of you NIK collection!
The middle shot seems the most accomplished, and there's really nothing to complain about - it's quite nice. I asked on another thread if posting on Fstoppers seems to "soften" images, and a couple of replies agreed that it does, so I don't want to be too critical of sharpness or "snap."
What's the haze rising from the evergreen trees in the middle foreground? Was that fog, or is it a processing artifact? Could you boost this image even more? Maybe, but it's a fine line before it starts turning into self-parody. When I process, I deliberately go over that line, and then back off ... otherwise you're never sure.
The first shot definitely shows a nice moment - the setting sun highlighting the 3 peaks in the background. There's definitely a successful picture lurking in there. I would've cropped a lot tighter ... there's just too much foreground and too much on the left and right that isn't adding anything.
The third one is the least successful, IMO. Overall the colors are too cold and too flat. There are way too many evergreens on the left foreground. You would've done better by moving to the right and trying to get more of the river in the foreground. Looks like it curves, and would've helped guide our eye into the mountains in the background.
I had the trial version of Nik, but didn't really care for it; so far I've been able to do what I need with Lightroom. (This is clearly a matter of personal taste; I'm not saying one is better than the other) The clarity and dehaze controls must be used sparingly, but are powerful. The Hue, Saturation, and Luminance controls let you fine tune colors in a way that used to require making 3-color separations. The adjutment brush and graduated filters let you make adjustments to small areas of the shots.
Do you have a personal website or Fickr page? I'd be curious to see high res versions of these, especially the middle one.
And I admire your willingness to put your work out there and take some lumps!
Thanks for your feedback Stephen!
I agree about the Sharpness loss too. The Haze is actually just fog coming off the river (it was early in the Morning). I'm mostly using Instagram right now, but I made a Flickr page for Resolutions sake. https://www.flickr.com/photos/140263619@N08/28875836255/in/dateposted-public/
I don't do much in the way of sharpening with Lightroom... I just can't understand what to set (e.g. Radius, Detail) would you be willing to elaborate more on this? or Possibly guide me to a resource you've learned from in the past?
And again Thank you of taking your time to look at my Photos!
For some reason I can't reply directly to your comment.
The default Lightroom sharpness is usually in the ballpark; TBH, I'm not sure how to use the radius and detail sliders to best effect, either.
For my work, which is mostly night shots, the important control for sharpness is "masking." When you need to reduce noise, you also want to mask your sharpness, so that it's just affecting the edges of shapes. Do this by holding down the "alt" key while adjusting the marking slider. Otherwise noise reduction and sharpness controls cancel each other. (This is a gross oversimplification, but good enough)
ETA: until I reread the comments and looked at the Flickr page, I didn't even realize the 3rd shot was night exposure capturing the stars. My bad.
That said, I'd darken the shot overall, and up the contrast in the sky, so that it looks darker. Adding some violet/purple (a little goes a long way) might help with that, too.
I have TONS of night shots on my Flickr, albeit most are in industrial settings or the swampy area in North Jersey just outside of NYC called The Meadowlands:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevefretz/
While skies can have a lot of drama, night shots should probably have very dark "land" sections in order to look nocturnal. That said, when you expose them, they should look unnaturally bright and washed out (w/o burning out your highlights, of course) - you get the night look by playing with the levels in Lightroom. (Or in the analog days, by exposing your print longer under then enlarger)