Photo in the "park"

[jwbker]

Hi all, I spent last weekend in my girlfriend's parents' place and took a trip to the skate park with her brother. Here's a product of my efforts scramlbing around in this faux-urban environment and capturing it's (fast-moving) inhabitants. Critiques welcome!

[Issac Brock]

Awesome shot!

[bikerider]

Great action shot but it looks little flat to me and there's not much detail in the boarder. It looks like you've dodged in PS to lighten him....it also looks like you used neat image to smooth out the image. I did an edit to my taste, a slight curves adj' and some burning in. What do you think?
Roger.

[condyk]

Yes, agreed, it's weird how the guy looks so flat while the rest look fine. He lacks a bit of 'motion' like one of those autosport shots you see where the car seems to be parked on the race track.

[jwbker]

Thanks for the tip Roger. I did dodge him a bit, but there was no neat image on this one. I'll keep that in mind on some of the others from this session. Thanks!

[bikerider]

That's cool James, look forward to seeing some others.
Roger.

[jwbker]

Roger, et al, here's another try with a different frame. I have some thoughts but I'll save them for later. I appreciate the insight.

[BillsBayou]

these are great shots. Your timing is on the money.

[bikerider]

That's a great shot James, I like that very much. Much better in terms of contrast and tonal range, nice work.
Roger.

[jwbker]

Thanks, I'm glad you guys like it. I used desaturate to convert this and then played with curves. I also burned in the bystanders in the background in so they blend better. Any suggestions?

[bikerider]

Hi James, when doing your conversions try channel mixer after you grayscale. Click the monochrome box and try 60% red, 30% green, 10% blue then fine tune with curves for contrast you can vary the percentages of course but they should add up to 100%. You may still need to do a bit of burning in here and there. This process seems to get a better tonal range. You can also check out the digital monochrome tutorial on the forum.
Roger.

[BottomBracket]

Very nice, James, glad to see your pics once more. I have to say that these pics would like nice in duotone too.

[condyk]

Second one I likee much more ;-)

[jwbker]

Thanks guys, I need to be less complacent and take more pictures. Thanks for the encouragement.