Detail

Technical: Nikon D90, 1/200 sec, f14, focal length 20

Susan sent me two shots. It was hard for her to choose. There’s something to like about both. It’s a matter of taste since only one will make the final cut. And the discarded one will languish on your hard drive never to brighten your monitor again, an orphan. Ahh… tugging on your heartstrings…(Susie, Kevin says, never throws out anything.) As to digital images, why throw out anything. Actually Susan does discard images to make room on her memory card. And, I actually don’t discard any images. So everything I shoot stays buried on the hard drive. My hard edits (everyone seems to have their own system) leaves me with about 10% of keepers. Try as I might I can’t whittle the number down much more than that. And at that number you are asking for boredom to settle in among your viewers. There are a few really outstanding shots. And then there are the collections of events. Of the two shots Susan sent, I like this one. We see the figure without an explanation. As to the plate, you still need someone to wonder what was going on. It’s a good thing to have too many good images. Keep in mind that the National Geographic guys edit thousands of shots to a single or two, which illustrate the article. Tough.

 

 

 

Lovey Dovey

Technical: Canon EOS 7D, 1/100 sec, f3.5, focal length 60

David sent this in, a portrait of his beloved birds. It’s an interesting composition. The upside down view is distinct. So why don’t I love this more? The colors could pop a little more. And I might try a different cropping. Since it’s the upside down pose that’s interesting, maybe a vertical crop with less of the bodies. Just concentrate on the eyes and head. It would be stronger graphically. Here’s an instance in which I would go ahead, edit, and enhance in Photoshop.

Image Framed

Technical: Canon DSLR

Jennifer has purchased her first DSLR and has taken some lessons. Her work will be presented over the next few days. She was concerned about mastering all the classroom information. Mostly, it’s about mileage. The more you use your camera, the more you will learn to use techniques that are important to getting the image you want. A DSLR doesn’t make you a better photographer but it helps to control the conditions in which you get the image you have visualized. So, good luck, kid. Obviously this was an image processed in a photo edit program. The flowers are well done. In each quadrant there is a center of interest, which binds the image. To me this is cutsey, but I don’t mind that Jennifer made this.

Bee

Technical: Nikon D200, 1/200 sec, f8, ISO 100, 170mm focal length

Otto was kind enough to make a suggestion on my other blog entry today in PhotoBackStory.

“I think it’s fun to see that you are experimenting with a new field of photography. I like your bee-picture and I like the tight crop. If I may come with a suggestion; a way to emphasize the bee a little more is to add contrast and colour saturation locally on the bee, and then take down (make darker) the surroundings. Keep up with the good work!” munchow
munchow.wordpress.com

Lately, the majority of my post processing is being done in Lightroom. While Amy might spend time getting her images perfect, in Photoshop, I’m more ‘come as you are.’ However, critical comments are always helpful. Otto’s comment hit the target. The image wasn’t quite right…

As long as we’re on the topic, consider cropping as part of post processing. The standard image crop from the camera is either horizontal or vertical but you are not limited. Here I cropped in a panoramic style. Consider a square crop. It’s also a good visual option sometimes.