New Site

[eldar]

I'm new here, but I love the site!! I'm not sure if this belongs here or not, but I couldn't find an area that looked any better. :D

I have a new site, and I'm looking for critiques on it. Any feedback (positive or negative) is welcome.

Thanks in advance!

[eland]

Hello and Welcome

Yes you are in the right place.
If you want to show your work and not have people
give you a critique, you can show your work on
Shared Photos.

Your site looks good. The little boy about the hit the
baseball is a brilliantly times shot.
Aside from that, his action could be used in a text book.
Everything is right.
Head still, eyes on the ball, hips turned, weight through. Spot on.

If he's your boy, I'd buy him a set of golf clubs and let him try that too. He looks like a natural.
.................
You don't seem to be using a photo program to any extent. I think you should.
Taking out electric wires as in the church shot is easy.
So is brightening up the image and giving it more zip.

These little actions can make a huge difference to you
finished photo.
There are many programs that do the job. Some are
expensive others may cost 1/10th the price and still
provide the same basic functions.
I'll give you names and tips if want some.

Kind regards
eland


You

[eldar]

I actually have and use Photoshop.
I just haven't had a chance to edit all of my photos. The portraits of the girls in dresses are actually heavily edited. People removed, etc...
I haven't figured out exactly how much to sharpen, brighten etc...


Thanks for the comments!

P.S. The boy is my son...he's an animal with a bat! :D

[eland]

Thanks for your comments.
I thought you must have Adobe. Just about everyone
seems to have it.

Overall sharpening is best done with Unsharp Mask.
Go Filter...Sharpen... Unsharp mask.

Set the Pixel slider to about 0.5 and play with the
Sharpen slider and watch the effect on your image.
You'll see the effect very quickly.

Too much causes the image to break down and it looks
artificial.

If you overdo it, on a test image, enlarge a part of the
image and you'll see that it breaks down into horizontal
and vertical lines.

Brightness and Contrast again is a matter of trying it.

Often a picture looks great and when you add Brightness and/or contrast
it is amazing how the image comes to life.
Like turning on the lights.

I thought this when I looked at your image of the girl
leaning against the tree trunk.
Make a copy of that one and play with it using the
Brightness and Contrast sliders.

You'll soon know when you have reached the optimum.

The next trick is to get your printer to print exactly what
you see on the screen. Called Calibration.

About your son. He's a natural. You may have another
Tiger Woods there.

eland
.

[eldar]

Haha...thanks again!