Time to improve.....

Hello all. I've seen a few posts about photography sites and people posting just to make themselves feel good with "likes" and nice comments. I must admit, I do monitor them as well, but use them as a gauge as to whether or not my shots are worthy or up to par. I mostly shoot landscape as I was born and raised in WV and have a great love of the outdoors. However, I love the architecture shots and the BW Stills and hope to contribute to that soon.

Please provide some honest feedback on my shots. I'd love to learn and grow as a photographer.

I like the shots I'm posting and I know that's the most important thing, but I'd love some feedback on the technical merits..... over processed, bad composition, or whatever..

IMAGE LINK: https://jamescullop.sm​ugmug.com/Babcock-WV/i-rDbQNbq/A

IMAGE LINK: https://jamescullop.sm​ugmug.com/Babcock-WV/i-KcWrzCM/A

IMAGE LINK: https://jamescullop.sm​ugmug.com …and-Landscape/i-ZmKRktG/A

Hi 308!

These are very nice! I like what you've done, but you're asking for critiques.

1. Very nice. It's too bad water isn't going over the water wheel, but you have no control over that. What I'd like to see is a bit more action with the water in the stream. Did you try different exposure times? I went to Smugmug for the photo. 95.8s is long. If you have shorter exposures or if you'll be returning, you might try different exposure times - 1s, 2.5s, 5s, 10s, 15s, and 30s. A little more action with the water could make it more visually interesting.

2. This is my favorite of the group! Here are some points, based on using Lightroom.

a. Straighten it. It's tilted significantly counterclockwise, around 2 2/3 degrees (Lightroom correction is +2.68°).

b. Crop it a bit. Come up from the lower left corner, not much, but a little.

c. Bring up saturation for yellow and green, 21 and 86, respectively. As I was doing a bit of work visually, aqua came up 1.

Do that and you'll have a stunning image.

Fwiw, I processed this on my computer. If you'd like to see how it looks, I can post it. Your profile doesn't indicate edits from others are permitted, so I won't post for now. And should I post it, know these are my edits from your jpeg, not from a raw photo. They're also what looks good to me, which isn't necessarily what looks good to you.

3. Technically this is a good photo. As with the prior photo, it is crooked, but probably off by less than half a degree. No matter, it's noticeable and should be corrected. What's more important to me on this is that it is a plain piece of rope. There may be rope that is interesting and perhaps even fascinating, but this isn't it. Would you print this, frame it, and put it on your wall? You did all of the right things. You isolated the subject, the rope, with a very shallow DoF. You also gave it a context as it is by a river or a lake, suggesting a nautical use. But it doesn't work in its current form. Hmmm... if you were to brighten the rope itself, whether through Lightroom or Photoshop (or equivalent), that could make the photo better, but for me it probably wouldn't have made it through the initial pass. It's a cool shot, but your second photo is superior in comparison.

In closing, I hope this helps! As you know from your post, it's really up to you. I prefer to always defer to the artist as to what they've created. I know what I like and what I'd do, but this is YOUR photography, not mine.

Hope this helps!

In the top photo there are 3 leaves encroaching in the frame. I would have cropped them or removed them in post.

mathogre wrote in post #18893773
Hi 308!

These are very nice! I like what you've done, but you're asking for critiques.

1. Very nice. It's too bad water isn't going over the water wheel, but you have no control over that. What I'd like to see is a bit more action with the water in the stream. Did you try different exposure times? I went to Smugmug for the photo. 95.8s is long. If you have shorter exposures or if you'll be returning, you might try different exposure times - 1s, 2.5s, 5s, 10s, 15s, and 30s. A little more action with the water could make it more visually interesting.

2. This is my favorite of the group! Here are some points, based on using Lightroom.

a. Straighten it. It's tilted significantly counterclockwise, around 2 2/3 degrees (Lightroom correction is +2.68°).

b. Crop it a bit. Come up from the lower left corner, not much, but a little.

c. Bring up saturation for yellow and green, 21 and 86, respectively. As I was doing a bit of work visually, aqua came up 1.

Do that and you'll have a stunning image.

Fwiw, I processed this on my computer. If you'd like to see how it looks, I can post it. Your profile doesn't indicate edits from others are permitted, so I won't post for now. And should I post it, know these are my edits from your jpeg, not from a raw photo. They're also what looks good to me, which isn't necessarily what looks good to you.

3. Technically this is a good photo. As with the prior photo, it is crooked, but probably off by less than half a degree. No matter, it's noticeable and should be corrected. What's more important to me on this is that it is a plain piece of rope. There may be rope that is interesting and perhaps even fascinating, but this isn't it. Would you print this, frame it, and put it on your wall? You did all of the right things. You isolated the subject, the rope, with a very shallow DoF. You also gave it a context as it is by a river or a lake, suggesting a nautical use. But it doesn't work in its current form. Hmmm... if you were to brighten the rope itself, whether through Lightroom or Photoshop (or equivalent), that could make the photo better, but for me it probably wouldn't have made it through the initial pass. It's a cool shot, but your second photo is superior in comparison.

In closing, I hope this helps! As you know from your post, it's really up to you. I prefer to always defer to the artist as to what they've created. I know what I like and what I'd do, but this is YOUR photography, not mine.

Hope this helps!

Thanks.. I appreciate the feed back.
Your comment in number 1: I was extremely disappointed the water wasn't running over the wheel as well. I believe they run it occasionally, but as luck would have it, not this time around. I actually do have different shots with varying exposure times, but to me, I thought this was the best. It was a very crowded area and it seems every time I'd shoot, someone would pop out of the door or around the corner.

2: I agree, I could have/ should have straightened it a bit. Funny thing, on some of my other shots, I'd straighten them and it still seemed off.. finally got to looking and the building itself isn't straight. I don't think I tried that with this photo, but others.

3. Your comments were humorous to me. I also say " it's just a rope". I agree with the straightening aspect, but overall, this is my fave. Yes, I actually printed it at 20x30 on aluminum, and have it hanging in my office. It actually turned out amazing. I like the background being out of focus, it just had a dreaminess feeling to me.

I guess subject matter is subjective, but I do appreciate your comments.

I will work on improving my "leveling " skills as that seems to be a common thread.

Thanks again.

Jamey

rwmson wrote in post #18893907
In the top photo there are 3 leaves encroaching in the frame. I would have cropped them or removed them in post.

Thanks.. I actually tried that after the shot, but I like to keep the same crop ratio as the original image and I thought it took too much image away from other areas. I'll have to be more conscious of my surroundings when shooting. A slight shift of camera placement could have avoided that.
Thanks for the feedback.

Number one - composition looks fine, not sure what the 3 leaves thing is unless the bottom right corner, that's ok to me, I've had that experience of just being unable to exclude something without re-framing everything. The sky in the corner looks odd, looks like some signs of editing with the darker blue streak, maybe it's just a cloud, but it doesn't look quite right. Ditto for the leaves in the second, might be a result of photo compression in uploading, but seems a bit off, too contrasty maybe, or over sharpened. Maybe a bit more saturation, a little bit warmer would help. Does look a little better on your smugmug page.

patrick j wrote in post #18893975
Number one - composition looks fine, not sure what the 3 leaves thing is unless the bottom right corner, that's ok to me, I've had that experience of just being unable to exclude something without re-framing everything.

When someone mentioned the three leaves, they were referring to the three partial leaves that encroach into the image from the left edge. . They are a bit distracting, and could be edited out in, like, four seconds. . No need to take the shot from a different position - they are so small and minor that you can just clone 'em out afterwards.

As for the green vegetation in the lower right corner, I love the fact that it is there. . I think it would look better if it were blurred out more, but the composition is a lot better with it there than it would be if there were no vegetation there.

.

patrick j wrote in post #18893975
The sky in the corner looks odd, looks like some signs of editing with the darker blue streak, maybe it's just a cloud, but it doesn't look quite right.

It looks good to me. . Ideally, when you have a bit of sky showing, you want it to have both clear blue sky and a bit of cloud, so that there's some variation in the tones of the sky and it isn't just a patch of the same color. . The bit of sky in the OPs photo has both clear blue and a bit of a hazy cloud, which is perfect and exactly what most photographers and artists would want.

I really like that he included a bit of the sky in the corner of the image - the composition really benefits from that.

.

308Shooter wrote in post #18893731

IMAGE LINK: https://jamescullop.sm​ugmug.com/Babcock-WV/i-KcWrzCM/A

As Mathogre already mentioned, this image is really out of plumb. Over two degrees - holey moley! You really have to have the verticals perfectly plumb in this type of image. When they are not plumb, the crookedness is something that immediately "jumps out" at most viewers and is so distracting that it causes one to not be able to see, or appreciate, anything else about the image.

.

Tom Reichner wrote in post #18894010
When someone mentioned the three leaves, they were referring to the three partial leaves that encroach into the image from the left edge. . They are a bit distracting, and could be edited out in, like, four seconds. . No need to take the shot from a different position - they are so small and minor that you can just clone 'em out afterwards.

I see them now that you point them out, yes, I would clone them out, would be quick. The sky looks edited to me because the blue is so flat, the luminosity? maybe is off, seems as though it should be a brighter lighter blue. Could just be a thin high cloud too, can't tell with only a fraction of the sky showing.

I like the rope. The intensity of its texture, contrasted with the background, turns it into something I could just reach out and grab.

OhLook wrote in post #18894039
I like the rope. The intensity of its texture, contrasted with the background, turns it into something I could just reach out and grab.

Thanks.. I like it too. Actually one of my favorites.

I went back and straightened the two photographs, #2 & #3. I definitely like the straightened #2 better, but for whatever reason, I like the rope (#3) more with it actually skewed. Not sure why, but to me, it just works better. Funny though, even straightened (aligned with the grid) it still looks a little skewed - optical illusion I guess.

Corrected photos below...

IMAGE LINK: https://jamescullop.sm​ugmug.com/Test-corrections/i-CMFtjdC/A

IMAGE LINK: https://jamescullop.sm​ugmug.com/Test-corrections/i-QP4rTqB/A

308Shooter wrote in post #18894332
I went back and straightened . . .

IMAGE LINK: https://jamescullop.sm​ugmug.com/Test-corrections/i-CMFtjdC/A

The long, narrow drip that begins below the center of the mill wheel is the one element that must be vertical. It's visibly off plumb.

.

OhLook wrote in post #18894336
The long, narrow drip that begins below the center of the mill wheel is the one element that must be vertical. It's visibly off plumb.

.
Hmmmm. . I disagree.

I think that in real life, that drip is not vertical. . Water, when falling in a thin stream, is often not vertical if the distance it falls is not far enough to allow it to 'straighten out'. . Gravity is not the only force that is at work when it comes to the physics of falling water.

The vertical corners of the building are truly plumb, and he has straightened the image perfectly, as these verticals now appear to be plumb, as they should be.

If a short stream of plummeting water and building verticals are at odds with one another, I trust the architecture to be the thing that is truly plumb ..... especially in this case, as I have actually visited that mill many times, and it always appeared to be properly aligned in real life ..... at least to my eye.

.

308Shooter wrote in post #18894332
I went back and straightened the two photographs, #2 & #3. I definitely like the straightened #2 better, but for whatever reason, I like the rope (#3) more with it actually skewed. Not sure why, but to me, it just works better. Funny though, even straightened (aligned with the grid) it still looks a little skewed - optical illusion I guess.

Corrected photos below...

IMAGE LINK: https://jamescullop.sm​ugmug.com/Test-corrections/i-CMFtjdC/A

IMAGE LINK: https://jamescullop.sm​ugmug.com/Test-corrections/i-QP4rTqB/A

Thanks for everyone's comments. Much appreciated.

These are great!

The point was to give you a different perspective on your photos so you might see from others' eyes. I love your new interpretation of the mill. And while you might prefer the original version of the rope, you've at least explored the image straightened so you understand the options for that one. It's funny. The rope photo looks better now.

A different perspective is exactly why I wanted a critique. It makes you think... It's like trying to proofreading your own emails - how many times do you catch your own mistakes that are glaring once someone points it out? As the photographer, you get hyper-focused on one thing. Example - I straightened the grist mill photo with the edge of the mill itself. I didn't catch the waterfall stream looking off.... water generally falls straight down.

Actually in this case, the building is not plumb. Specifically on the far right. However I straightened using the left side. I think compromises need to be made and split the difference between the water and the house.

Either way, I learned I need to be more detailed and less hyper focused on one part of the scene, which is usually my problem.


Appreciate all the feedback.