|
| Group |
Round |
C/R |
Comment |
Date |
Image |
| 3 |
Sep 20 |
Reply |
Mary Ann and LuAnn. I'm sorry for thinking you had added the birds to the image. It was your description at the top that mentions the 2nd photograph that made me think that. So you added them via a multiple exposure or you put the birds on another layer and merged? I handle the authenticity a little different than LuAnn as there are hundreds of scenarios. When I enter a PSA contest or camera club competition that goes by PSA rules, I follow them. If I were to sell an image, which I have not done in many years, especially for advertising, I would note that the image is a composite. To some people that might matter and to others they could care less where the sky came from, unless it was so unique as it came from another part of the world. To my knowledge the Digital Dialogue, DD, groups do not require that the rules be followed. In fact, the purpose of the DD groups is to foster dialogue,creativeness and what generates positive comments from fellow photogs. Many a professional photographer believe there are no rules because all rules can or should be broken for certain images. If I was still working as a freelancer for newspaper, I would be following the PSA PJ Rules or the papers rules. It has only begun in the last couple of years where the post processing software has evolved where its easy to make edits. If you were to look at PSA Nature and PJ rules from 10-15 years ago, you would see more leeway today to editing.
I made a determination that your pelicans were natural to the locale, West Coast?, of your image, and it's okay to use a second image. If they were birds that came from another part of the world then it wouldn't be okay to sell without a note about authenticity.
Clouds enhance the subject of the image, they don't generally change the subject. Hope this helps you. |
Sep 14th |
| 3 |
Sep 20 |
Comment |
Mary Ann and LuAnn. I like the idea of adding the pelicans to the image. The scene was almost perfect, but the plain blue sky is a killer and a panorama results unless you add something to the sky. Mary Ann you added the birds and did very well at that, what's different with adding clouds? I'm not a photoshop user but understand birds and clouds can be added using layers. I use Luminar which has been perfecting how skies can be changed. Blue skies and plain gray skies are most commonly replaced. LuAnn has seem how they can improve my images, but like you she is reluctant to make such changes. LuAnn's edit of your image was a decision based on your 3 lower birds merging with the buildings. The upper triangle of birds makes for a much improved composition. I believe the birds could be moved up by using the transposing feature, but not sure if Elements has it. The clouds are another enhancement to remove dead space at the top of the frame. Luminar 4.3 has a haze filter in the sky replacement tool for just an image where some haze would add to the reality of the birds or if a sky had been added that did not have a hazy appearance. Not sure how LuAnn added the clouds but I know she has an underused version of Luminar and that would take much less time than adding the 3rd layer in Photoshop. I encourage folk to take cloudscapes or cloud images and build a library for every occasion. Luminar is not expensive and would be a whole lot easier to edit than your Elements. If you have any questions, I'm happy to help you all. Keep up the good work. |
Sep 13th |
1 comment - 1 reply for Group 3
|
| 15 |
Sep 20 |
Reply |
Thanks Jeri. Glad I was able to bring you fresh memories of this beautiful place. |
Sep 21st |
| 15 |
Sep 20 |
Reply |
Thanks Joan. With all the texture lines, my alignment grid lines were too faint for me to notice. I used the grid on the original and found that the chimney was fine, but the vertical orientation was off slightly causing the tipping to the right. Corrected it on the original and then used that correction on the final. Then I needed to crop top and upper part of both sides. It was caused by my slanting the camera down to include the reflection in the water. Good learning experience. |
Sep 19th |
 |
| 15 |
Sep 20 |
Reply |
1400 long side x 1050 .jpg and I let the dpi fall wherever it lands.
|
Sep 17th |
| 15 |
Sep 20 |
Reply |
Hi Dave. It had started to rain, so I thought I should not swap out the sky. I used the filter on the building water and stones. I used the Topaz HSL color to make the Motif a brighter red. I believe I masked out the sky. So you checked out Rockport on a nice fall day? We have been staying close to home. No fun walking around with mask on warm/hot days. |
Sep 17th |
| 15 |
Sep 20 |
Comment |
Very nice Flower portrait Jeri. Sharp focus and well composed. I was looking for the pollen collector, but I don't see it. Perhaps your title should be Pollen Producer and save that title for when you catch the insect collecting the pollen. I think it's possible with that nice camera phone. |
Sep 14th |
| 15 |
Sep 20 |
Comment |
Well done David. Great to see you and Kirsti using Luminar. It definitely increases your creativity. Dave, I do not think your road is too red, but then I'm a saturated/visual impact type. I do like Kirsti's crop, but probably would of left the image in original aspect if it was mine. I do see that the image is not as sharp as hoped. Two potentials are that there was a breeze and your tripod wasn't quite sturdy enough. OR, as you might know, this road was built on soft soil that was originally part of the sea, and that the traffic going by causes vibrations. I do not remember seeing this view before and those that I have seen do not have the nice traffic flowing lights but do have a view more from the side and showing the colors of the bridge supports. Good job visualizing. |
Sep 10th |
| 15 |
Sep 20 |
Comment |
Very well done Joan. I do not remember seeing this lighthouse before but I really like it. The lighter grass of the cliff leads my eye around to the lighthouse. The white of the water is perfect, because I can see that a lower tide or in between waves, that leading line might be gone. I love the clouds also. Just my process thoughts, but I would of tried to have more contrast in the sky to make the clouds really pop. Maybe you tried that and it didn't work or you didn't prefer it. Just a nit, the dust spots in the left sky popped out when you increased the contrast. Thanks for sharing. |
Sep 10th |
| 15 |
Sep 20 |
Comment |
Thanks Kirsti. My wife also thought the red was too bright, its normal color is a darker red. I thought the brighter red was better in the reflection, the darker color would get lost in the dark water. I also wanted to convince regular photographers of this scene that I intended to make a photo painting and not have someone say that the hue was wrong on my building. I've you might not of viewed the original in Rockport Massachusetts, here is the .jpeg of my Raw with no edits. |
Sep 10th |
 |
| 15 |
Sep 20 |
Comment |
Kirsti, I like your composition. It's sharp and will serve as a point in time historical record to when you could actually see the tracks. I had to go into Topaz as I don't remember every seeing "BuzSim" and sure enough it was there. I generally just go to my favorites. I just added BuzSim to my favorites. It uses quite a mix of filters and looks, most that I have not experimented with. Back to your image, I have conflicting views. The light path next to the tracks on the left leads my eye to nowhere and the tracks lead my eye to these dancing pine trees that do not give me enough depth. Your vignette and sepia tone add to the old historical nature of your subject. |
Sep 5th |
| 15 |
Sep 20 |
Comment |
I finally got it. Yes, you showed the versatility of having iPhone with 2 lenses. Nice lilies and seeing to find that hopper. The hopper and surrounding flower are acceptably sharp. Rick, I'm wondering if you brushed in small and med. details using mask to the hopper? I thought there might be more details in the head area, but have to admit to never looking at hopper from NewMexico high country. |
Sep 5th |
6 comments - 4 replies for Group 15
|
| 29 |
Sep 20 |
Reply |
Keep on living the good life Stephan. Sorry, I can't help you with pano either. |
Sep 17th |
| 29 |
Sep 20 |
Reply |
Whew...I now understand better...You toned it down, and you only had 1 lens, and I'm a poor judge on Instagram because I haven't gotten more than 10 likes on a image and I've posed 15 images over the last 5 years. My marketing days are obviously over. Sorry, I'm of no use to explain anything on Instagram. Okay, you've restored my confidence, now if I could do the same for you. So maybe your clientele are not 70+ photographers, but rather young rich kids who don't know anything about photography? I think some of the images showing your mountain and the beautiful water colors etc might be what would attract me. Take care and taken at least a short tele when leaving home. |
Sep 16th |
| 29 |
Sep 20 |
Comment |
Stephan, this image seems to be lacking your consistent Wow factor. Maybe you were running out the door to head on vacation? If one didn't know that Bora Bora is under that cloud in the distance, I think, then this image would not represent a winning view. Even the sunset is lacking color that I would expect from such a beautiful location during my week vacation there. Maybe, I'm just way off base and Bora Bora doesn't have colorful sunsets or that you don't get the chance to leave at sunset. I apologize if I have offended you, but I'm disappointed with this snapshot of your work. Admirer of your work. Bob |
Sep 16th |
| 29 |
Sep 20 |
Comment |
It is a Nice Dolphin photo, Tam. It has good color and exposure. The overhead lights of the arena make an intriguing pattern in the water. The nose is getting awful close to the edge of the frame.
My only question is "Did you take any other photos that might of showed action or have personality"? It just doesn't have a Wow factor that was probably expressed in other seconds of the show. |
Sep 16th |
| 29 |
Sep 20 |
Comment |
I think that improves it Bill. Not sure what Judy thinks, but we'll know if she thought they were necessary. |
Sep 14th |
| 29 |
Sep 20 |
Comment |
Yes, the lightning came as a distraction to the nice cloud colors by leading the eye out of the image. Yes, by flipping it leads your eyes into the composition. |
Sep 14th |
| 29 |
Sep 20 |
Comment |
Nice composition Judy. I think the man and dog are just fine where they are. I do like Bill's editing to open up the shadows and go for the bluer sky. I like the haze coming off the water. I'm not sure what is making the vertical lines against the cliff on the right side of the image. Maybe streams or dead trees, but I think I would use my eraser on them. |
Sep 14th |
| 29 |
Sep 20 |
Reply |
Thanks for stopping in Lance. Yes, I had about taken quite a few, but have trashed many of them. Yes during the early part of storm development there was less movement in the clouds. But those also had less color and no lightning inside of the cloud. I have some with much smaller lightning (cloud to cloud type) but this was the only bolt that came to the ground. These were taken from the concrete portion of the deck so definitely no motion. I don't have an issue with the cloud movement. That's what clouds do and more so at night because of longer exposures. Stop by another month as I'll be putting up another image taken after this one that shows a positive result of more but less blur. |
Sep 6th |
| 29 |
Sep 20 |
Reply |
That's pretty good Stephen. I wouldn't of thought about doing this for lightning. I've just tried it a couple times but I'll have to give it a try. Thanks |
Sep 6th |
| 29 |
Sep 20 |
Comment |
Bill, you certainly caught the moment of action for this guy. I don't have a problem with the white background but I do agree that the rooster is not as sharp as it could of been. I owned a 300s for a little over 40000 clicks and was always happy with it. It was stolen (from my locked vehicle in 2015) and I used the insurance money to move up to full frame. I always walked around with the camera in iso 400 just in case something not planned happens. I think that is what happened to you, you saw the action and were quick to capture it, but the movement of the camera, auto focus lag and movement of the rooster left you with a image that is not perfect. Great job of seeing the image. |
Sep 5th |
| 29 |
Sep 20 |
Comment |
Kathleen. You've captured a detail that I have never seen before. Good seeing and getting your camera and body into position. The snails and mushroom are sharp and well exposed. I do find the foreground and background to be distracting. The out of focus foreground should of been cleaned up before the exposure. I would of also cropped the left side to include the out of focus green leaf from top to bottom and made the image more vertical. No need to include that left part of the mushroom. Also erasing or cloning out the bug and crud from the mushroom will improve the presentation of your image.
Best regards
Bob |
Sep 4th |
| 29 |
Sep 20 |
Comment |
Hi Kathleen. Welcome to our group. We appreciate the ideas you will bring.
In regard to this image I framed for the cloud to be the focus of the image and to shoot between two groups of trees to the right and left. I've tossed many images but was shooting this developing storm cloud for 15 min before as it headed towards me and another 21 after the lightening struck. There was no reason to include the trees or non interesting clouds/sky. I disagree with your idea of cropping the lightening bolt where it goes thru the lower cloud. Per the attached the image yes, the lightening leads your eye into the image but the tails of the cloud on the upper right still leads your eye out. At least my version brings your eye out at the bottom corner. If I cropped the lightning as you described the image has a deminished impact, people saying too bad you didn't get the rest of the lightning and to include the interesting cloud as the lightning goes thru it, you are left with a cropped fork coming back into the frame. I can agree with you idea of the flip and lightening coming in from the bottom left, but definitely not to cropping the lightning. |
Sep 4th |
 |
8 comments - 4 replies for Group 29
|
| 62 |
Sep 20 |
Comment |
A great story Gary about your family and family pet. A very nice pose. I've never shot 645 or processed 35mm negs after my college course in 1966. Keep the art alive Gary. |
Sep 13th |
| 62 |
Sep 20 |
Comment |
Leah, I apologize, but I thought I had commented earlier in the month. At this point I lost for words. Being a country bumpkin I don't have cityscapes in my collection and if I saw this I would not of thought of shooting it. Just me, nothing wrong with telling a story about an empty alley and since you do/did that type of photography I can understand you were looking for something different. I think you already did the edits I might of suggested. Increase the detail to various degrees in the buildings and sky. |
Sep 13th |
| 62 |
Sep 20 |
Reply |
Thanks for the positive words LuAnn. Regarding the blurs. The foliage colors are different and perhaps the glow filter "glowed" them more or less. I had not noted and still have difficulty in being able to pickup those blurs. Based on words from a NH friend I had also used graduated ND filters on the top and in the water grass area, but I doubt that made the blurs stand out more, but maybe. |
Sep 12th |
| 62 |
Sep 20 |
Comment |
Israel, this is a wonderful sports image. Yes the spray is beautiful. I couldn't understand the focus issue until your reply to Leah and now I understand.n If you were in the boat the focus would be consistent, by being on the shore, the boat and skier would not always be consistent to your position. Absolutely no problems with your edited image, I'm trying to help with your keeper percentage. With your quality camera and lens I wonder why you were shooting at iso 100? Would iso 400 or 800 and a higher f-stop & faster shutter increased your keepers? An image with noise is better than a blurry image in my mind. Love your variety of shooting venues. |
Sep 5th |
| 62 |
Sep 20 |
Reply |
LuAnn, a huge difference if you were using Luminar 3. I'm using Luminar 4.3
Does your husband want the color or the mono? And please try to look at the date and recreate where it was that you took this. My guess was Juneau and from a location that I didn't go, but heck it could of been many other places. Good luck with fixing it up.
Bob |
Sep 5th |
| 62 |
Sep 20 |
Comment |
It wasn't the Luminar tool, it was me moving the slider to the extreme to demonstrate. I light your recent edit above. |
Sep 4th |
| 62 |
Sep 20 |
Comment |
Emil, I like your idea and the resulting BW you produced. Removing all the distracting lights was also a great idea. I like the color version also. Only suggestion would be to return and turn it into a setup where a distinctive/unique auto was facing out/forward at the pumps on the 2nd row from the right. A very nice image as it is. |
Sep 4th |
| 62 |
Sep 20 |
Reply |
And the history file. |
Sep 4th |
 |
| 62 |
Sep 20 |
Comment |
LuAnn. I did a quick edit of the color version in Luminar. History is also attached, in separate file, but I might not help you as I used Luminar Ai adjustments. I left the sun hi lights on the forest in the left foreground to increase the depth. I erased the bright dead tree/stick in the foreground. Nothing against your work, but as you know, editing a small pixel image, like we have to submit, on the 27" screen doesn't provide an accurate resolution. I recently learnt to increase my contrast to 100 and then back it down, and that's what I did to your image. I did nothing to the black and white conversion that Luminar made. I would normally make a .tiff and make the BW in Nik Silver Efex. Thanks for suggesting we provide our edits. |
Sep 4th |
 |
| 62 |
Sep 20 |
Comment |
I agree with the first crop Leah, but believe the 2nd one with the eye cropped is a crop too far. Oliver, another great shot from your drivers seat. I love the texture and contrast in the beard and the non distracting background that you created. Me, I would of tried to remove some of the highlightes from his forehead and face. In fact, I opened the original into Luminar, Yes Luminar again, Portrait editing and used a tool that I haven't used before, "Shine removal" and also whitened the eyes. Here it is for your review. I noticed that Leah had also reduced the "shine" on the models face. I did not do any other editing. |
Sep 4th |
 |
| 62 |
Sep 20 |
Reply |
Thanks Leah. I use BW whenever I can creat great great contrast in the scene. It wasn't until I had processed the color original in Topaz that I realized the potential for a good BW. |
Sep 4th |
| 62 |
Sep 20 |
Reply |
Thanks Emil |
Sep 3rd |
| 62 |
Sep 20 |
Reply |
Thanks Emil. But its much easier than you might think. Graduated, glow, and Empressionistic filters. The combination, I think, resulted into an infrared type of image, but yet I have a color image to also use. Does it have infrared qualities? I trust your experienced eye and hands in that regard. |
Sep 2nd |
| 62 |
Sep 20 |
Comment |
Branching out, LuAnn. And would you believe that I was also in Alaska 2018. But I arrived on Sept 8 in Juneau and then up the RR to Denali and onto cruise for 14 days. I did not see the scene you have photographed. Such wonderful clouds, and we didn't have clouds except some around Denali, but we saw it for 4 days in a row. I like the composition, and the trees on the right keep my eyes from wondering out of the frame. Good choice of using matrix metering. I would of used Aperture priority, but then I do 98% of the time. I would of also used a higher f-stop like f8 to make sure I had the foreground and distance all in focus. Yours looks in focus and even though you didn't mention, you were probably shooting at a wide mm. You mentioned noise removed, I'm thinking that might be because the shutter priority being 1/1000 caused underexposure as the lens mm was using the widest aperture, f4. Just a fyi, I generally use iso 400 unless on a tripod. Yes, I was virtually the only photog that took their tripod. And the only time I used it was at night when it was necessary for the Aurora. I know, I'm being wordy this evening, but you should be happy with your image. A great composition, exposure and memory. Bob |
Sep 1st |
8 comments - 6 replies for Group 62
|
23 comments - 15 replies Total
|
