Whatch think? C&C greatly appreciated.

[yaroldb]

Hello all,

I am finally getting to the point where I like a good portion of the pictures I take. I also find myself looking at different angles when I shoot and trying to get something I may like. Other times I just hit the trigger and do not think about it much. I take all critisium, good or bad. I just learning and love it so far. So any advise is good in my eyes.

check them out at here. This was from a trip to Monterey and San Francisco I took last week.

Thank you in advance.

 

[thr33face]

Hi,

It looks like you had a fun trip, and all I see is happy faces.

All I write down below is my personal opinion, if you disagree with anything I write you can safely disagree, call me names, or whatever you like.
If anything down below sounds rude or even insulting I can assure it wasn'T meant that way.
You may also encounter passages of text that seem unclear, or don't make sense; I apologize for those now.


Presentation:
I dislike the postcardviewer. All the photos pop out from the middle, and it takes some good 20sec until they are, where they belong.
Also it never displays the photos perfectly straight, they're always crooked. This sucks for seriously looking at photos, as the intended camera angel for the photos gets lost.
Another thing is that it does not give titles for photos and the photos end up in different places every time one reloads the page which makes it hard to reference one specific image in the context of a CC thread.

Now, let's look at the photos:
I'll simply write down what comes to mind here.

* All those whale watching photos are simply too much. They look way too similar and get boring after seeing the second one. While I am sure it was a fascinating experience to see those whales the photos need more drama. Maybe a tighter crop with the whale not dead center or an extremely symmetric composition directly behind the whale with the tail fin in dead center and fully erected above the water.

* Silhouette of sea lion on object: I think this one would benefit from a lover viewpoint and a portrait orientation.

* 2 women on rocks with rocks behind: I like this one. It has some uncanny look to it: The front part with the persons looks regular, but the background rocks, as they're slightly fading into out of focus zone look almost like a model. This visual discrepancy makes it interesting.

* Building with fire escape ladder and clothing: It has lot's of fine and interesting detail. I think a straight on perspective on the balcony side would work better. The framing would have to be so that it does only show that side of the building with no extraneous parts such as sky or street.

* Glass with citron: Refreshing, but needs sparkly water for added freshness and to get rid of the floating in mid air effect, which I don't like here. Colours are fine here, it's nice to see the yellow from the citron "return" in the table cloth.

* Black and White photos: Your conversion lacks a deep black point. That makes them appear rather flat. B/W photos live through contrast and rich tonal range. If you are unsure how to bring pop and all to them go wild with the sliders and see what gives the best effect.


happy shooting

 

[ChrisA]

the tighter your editing the better you will look. Out of every small group of similar images remove the worst 50% of them. Repeat as required.

One thing to remember, for you this is a record of your trip. For anyone else these are abstract images and we see only lines and color and mass not friends and family and places we remember. To keep the interest of someone like us who have no connection with the subject matter the abstract properties must be very good.

 

[termina3]

Postcard viewer is cute. But very distracting.

You've got some gems in there, but among many photos that the unrelated viewer doesn't care about. If you're posting for friends/family, the gallery is great. But for everyone else--as ChrisA noted--not so much.

 

[yaroldb]

Hello all,

I want to start by thanking all of you for your honest opinion. It is not easy putting your heart out there for the world and hope for the best. This is how I learn. I would not have thought about many of the points that were bought up. After reading it and going back to my gallery, it made sense. I am happy with the results of most of the pics I posted, but now have a better idea of what to look for as far as a final result. I’ll go back to the drawing board and see if I can fix them up or add a bit of life to the B&W.

And as for the post card viewer, it was an option on Lightroom 2 and I liked it, but now that I look at it, it does distract from the photos and can be cumbersome to load. I’ll choose a new template from now on.

Thanks again for the help. I’ll take it to heart and hopefully grow.

Yarold.