Early Morning Hunters

[photoguy6405]

C&C needed. Thanks.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a291/photoguy6405/Misc/CRW_2259-Edit1-800x629.jpg

[chauncey]

Would suggest some levels/curves and some midtone contrast work,
but even with that it still doesn't grab me like some of your others on your website

[chappie]

Might be because prophoto profile was embedded in the image.
Converted to srgb looks fine

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm23/photocoffeebuzz/CRW_2259-Edit1-800x629.jpg

[photoguy6405]

Might be because prophoto profile was embedded in the image.
Converted to srgb looks fine

Yes, thank you. This is closer to what it looked like when I printed it. I looked at the profile before I posted and I thought it said sRGB, but I must have been mistaken.

For anyone else who may look at this, please C&C per the sRGB profile as posted by Chappie. Thanks.

[chauncey]

Whoa, that do make a big difference.

I did not realize that it would make that big of a difference.

[tonydee]

Doesn't really work for me. I feel the picture lacks depth: the trees in the background appear effectively equi-distant and featureless grey, the front-left grass lacks much sense of depth, the people look very flat colourwise with almost no detail or lighting suggesting rounding in the clothes. As they must be the subject, their detail-less leaves the viewer unsatisfied and unsettled. The sky is very flat and featureless too. Only the road and grass field on the right works well, with some noticeable shadow areas supporting the DOF. Regards, Tony

[cowboylife]

Looks underexposed to my eyes. The blaze orange in real life is BRIGHT. It could be a nice focal point of image but you can barely tell the orange in the photo. Good composition thought. Shallower depth of field maybe?

[photoguy6405]

Hmmmm. Ok. I thought it was kind of thought-provoking, but apparently I'm the only one who thinks so. I'm not saying that in a whining sort of way, just matter-of-factly.

I'll give a little background as to why I was asking. I entered this in a contest at my local photo club. I chose this based on who the judge was going to be for the contest. The judge had to cancel at the last minute, so we came up with an emergency alternate judging system based on how our state fair does it. First round the members voted 'up' or 'down' based on a "wow!" factor. This photo got ZERO VOTES (except from my SO and myself). Now, I agree it doesn't have a "wow!" factor to it, and I had chosen it based on other expected judging criteria, but I didn't think it was that bad.

So, anyway, I chose to seek some feedback here, and got pretty much the same results. Truth be told, I'm kind of glad y'all did say pretty much the same thing, as I feel I learned something from the whole scenario. Sure, I'd like to be great and right all the time... who wouldn't?... but I also know I'm not great and right all the time and I want to get better. So, thank you all for your honest input. It does help and I very much appreciate it.

On a side note, I might play with it a bit. I still feel it's a good photo with possibilities, albeit it's appeal would be narrowly focused... i.e. for a den or hunting-type decor. I think I might try and bump up the saturation of the orange vests, especially, and see what happens. But, it's late and I have to work in the morning, so maybe this weekend.

[bill boehme]

I dropped in several times to check out the comments. The picture raised my interest because it evoked some memories of hunting experiences, yet it seemed to be lacking something. I think that the colors, even after correcting the web version still were not quite right. But, mainly I think that the image is trying to include too much background into the scene and that you should have moved much closer to the two hunters. I also think that the angle on the hunters would have been better if their faces were visible at least in a partial profile and they need to be doing something to help create a story about what they are doing besides staring across the field (even though I know that in an actual hunt, that is what they would be doing).

[photoguy6405]

Thanks for the comments, Bill. Reinforces my thoughts that it would be narrowly-focused, interest-wise, to hunters, etc.

[LeuceDeuce]

Hope this is better for the hunters.

[bill boehme]

Hope this is better for the hunters.

Wow, Chris, your edit is remarkably similar to one that I did (mainly for my own curiosity).

[LeuceDeuce]

Wow, Chris, your edit is remarkably similar to one that I did (mainly for my own curiosity).

Great minds think alike eh? :D

[photoguy6405]

Ok, very nice. Can you clue me in what you did? Thanks.

[LeuceDeuce]

Ok, very nice. Can you clue me in what you did? Thanks.

Curves in LAB to drive colors apart.
White balance.
Three seperate sets of luminosity curves to the highlights, midtones, and shadows.
Channel blending with limits set using Blend If options.
GND to darken the sky (Soft Light blend of a black to white gradient layer).