Take a look at these - no need to be gentle!

[olz]

Hi all...

Just bought the 20D and have started practising. Love the camera, it's so responsive. Well. The pictures:

1) Bird (http://olz.dk/bird.jpg)
Took the picture on the pavement. Think something was wrong with this poor little bord? It was near some large glass walls, so mabey it hit those, and got a little shocked? Anyhow. After watching it for a while it flew. Came pretty close with the EF-S 18-55mm.

2) Inhale (http://olz.dk/inhale.jpg)
Well... Just a rather disgusting picture some would say. Just took it to play with DOF

3) Green (http://olz.dk/green.jpg)
Up close on a spruce-tree.

All taken with the EOS 20D + EF-S 18-55mm. Used MikesFramer for the..... frames :D Very nice tool - good going Mike!!!

[LOLOBR]

All have great color, just curious though, did you use any type of filter or did you do all in editing?

[MCB]

Great pictures. For me, the third one is the best. The bird is interesting, but looks a little flat somehow. It's an amazing shot though, catching him looking right at you. Very good work on that. Maybe he was just a bit dusty or has naturally dull feathers?

I think the second and third one are very good. For both, I would also try something copped a bit less tight. "Inhale" really would make a great poster for emphasima or the American Lung Associate or something. Maybe some pithy, demotivator-type slogan across the top would be cute. ( dispair.com kind of thing)

"Green" is so... green! The color are really spectacular. It's so crisp and sharp. If it had any other color, some kind of berry or a bug (lady bug, caterpillar... dragonfly... anything) it would be perfect. It's great as is. But I think a small dab of a complementary color would really seal the deal. Maybe even a red ribbon. Too sappy?

I wish I could be more critical, but I just like them. :)
Great work.

[Meerkat17]

I too have to agree with MBC and cannot really say any more, other than great DOF on the last image.
Regards

[Hellashot]

#1 - lighten the shadows on the birds face.
#2 - isn't worth commenting on.
#3 - is that a fake tree?

[olz]

Thank you very much for commenting!!! To answer the questions. I did not use filters. I currently have none, and do not plan to buy any for the 18-55mm. I did adjust levels and applied som USM, but im not at all good at photoshop yet, so i almost think it's hard to tell the difference.

MCB and Meerkat17: Very uplifting comments! :) I Will try crop the bird picture a little less tight, and post it again.

Hellashot: 1) How do i lighten a particular spot in a picture? 2) Even though a picture shows something that you don't like / find disgusting which i think is the case here, you culd comment it :) 3) No. Its a real spruce tree! :) I find it a bit artificial looking too - almost looking like a cucumber tree. Heres a higher resolution version of the same picture (Warning - 3mb file): [spruce tree] (http://olz.dk/eos20defs1855.jpg)

[Hellashot]

Hellashot: 1) How do i lighten a particular spot in a picture?

I don't know how, but I'm sure others do. What I do is lighten the shadows of the entire image until I'm happy with the darkest areas, then darken highlights accordingly, then throw in more contrast that was lost as a result of the 1st 2 items. Possibly add saturation if it was lost during the 1st 2 too. Here's my result. Sorry for not cropping out your frame.

http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/ViewPhoto?u=4298510&a=31744488&p=71995083

[LisaMarie]

Hi olz :)

To edit a particular spot( and not over all ) of a photo you use one of the selection tools in a photo editing program . Which program do you like to use ?

I like the "green" also. It's got great texture.

FYI your smaller image actually is higher resolution it's 96dpi while the larger sized file is 72dpi.

Resolution and file size are often interchanged as being the same thing but they are not.

[olz]

dpi... oh. :o I really have to get a hold on that. Thanks LisaMarie for the hint! I always forget to check that parameter.

Cheers
Kristian

[MCB]

If you want to have an effect apply to one particular part of an image, but not the whole thing, you can use a layer mask. Once you read a tutorial or two, it's really pretty simple. And it's a very powerful technique to have in your bag of tricks. Definitely worth reading up on it.

You can apply your unsharp mask to just certain parts (2 layers, one sharpend but partially masked), or have different curves adjustment layers for different areas of your image (sky vs ocean vs people, etc), different hue/saturation settings for different areas and lots more. Very, very handy when you have less than ideal shooting conditions. :)

[MCB]

Hellashot: 1) How do i lighten a particular spot in a picture?

I know you said you aren't so good with Photoshop yet, but you should play with the Dodge and Burn tools. They let you lighten/darken areas by painting over them with a brush. Quick and easy. So if you just need to lighted one small spot, like a bird's face, that might be the easiest way to go about it.

[olz]

MCB: Thanks. I never really took the time to figure out the difference between a mask and a layer in photoshop. Now, it's starting to become clearer. I Just found a bunch of links in the post processing section. I will also try use those dodge and burn tools. Thanks! What a heap of usefull information this forum contains! Thanks again!!!

[Hellashot]

I know you said you aren't so good with Photoshop yet, but you should play with the Dodge and Burn tools. They let you lighten/darken areas by painting over them with a brush. Quick and easy. So if you just need to lighted one small spot, like a bird's face, that might be the easiest way to go about it.

I'm only into adjusting exposure, color, and contrast of the entire image. I don't believe in doctoring images to pick and choose which part of the image to apply something to. And I especially don't believe in removing objects from images. That isn't what photography is to me.

[olz]

I'm only into adjusting exposure, color, and contrast of the entire image. I don't believe in doctoring images to pick and choose which part of the image to apply something to. And I especially don't believe in removing objects from images. That isn't what photography is to me.

Well. To me a picture is just something visual inside a frame. How you present it, dosn't matter. A picture will never be able to present reality anyway. Painters compose their pictures aswell. It the picture composition gets better by removing items, darkening, what so ever, thats just fine with me.

[MCB]

Well. To me a picture is just something visual inside a frame. How you present it, dosn't matter. A picture will never be able to present reality anyway. Painters compose their pictures aswell. It the picture composition gets better by removing items, darkening, what so ever, thats just fine with me.

I agree. To me the purpose of photography is not to try to document reality so much as to convey to others your own subjective interpretation of reality. We all see things differently, and seeing the way others see it can be very interesting. One set of adjustments to the sky can make it really create the mood you want, the mood that existed at the moment you took the picture. But that same set of curves may ruin the faces of the people in the image. Why limit yourself? I guess if you're taking a picture for a newspaper, you should leave it alone. If you're trying to create art, do whatever you need to do to make the image say what you want it to say.

But I bet if you asked 1000 people you'd get 1000 different answers. :D They're all just opinions. Some people would say digital is some sort of sin and none of us are "real" photographers.