Little Miss & Mister......been a while

i dig #1 & 5.

keniko wrote in post #9644344
As a total lurker on this board for quite a while now I've seen many of your photo's of your beautiful kids. They are absolutely goreous, don't get me wrong for a second.

However, I have enough balls to say I absolutely hate the way you process your pictures. I wish you would let us see those beautiful babies in a more real light. Do you really not see those horrible, horrible halos in these pictures? And that their eyes are totally insane?! Maybe I haven't been lurking long enough to realize why everyone tip toes around you. I apologize if I have offended, but I am just being honest.

I dont think you were harsh at all and i completely agree with you, the PP is horrible and completely takes away from such beautiful kids, as a person that loves photographing kids these two little ones would be a dream to shoot....they are flawless and they actually pose....its like they are trained models.....with that being said, i wish the OP would tone down the obnoxious post processing, just be subtle with it.

EDIT
Just went back and read a couple of pages and i must say some of you are completely blind, how can you love halos around a subject??...product of the abuse of the dodging/burning tool?...bottomline, subjects are great, composition-wise the OP did a very good job, PP its way overdone, this is not about personal preference or opinion, its very very obvious and since this is a forum for both negative and positive criticism, i think we are entitled to help each other, if I was the OP i would be thanking Keniko for his harsh honesty, simply because out of all the replies ive read on this thread his have been the ONLY constructive ones. From the OP's reactions to keniko's posts i can tell she just posts expecting to get the usual...."OH EM GEE WHAT A GREAT SHOT MATE" responses...learn to accept all sorts of criticism before posting your work.

btw Keniko did not survey me...lol

i like them. to each there own.

Wow I can't believe how rude some people are!!! To say someone's work is "horrible" in my opinion shows that you have no class. Perhaps you don't like the processing but your "critique" is downright hurtful. There are ways to word the negative criticisms without being so harsh.

Cmon guys, you are way too sensitive as far as critique goes, harsh or not still good critique, I don't understand why we must walk on eggshells... People have been harsh to me in the past too!, it's part ofthe learning curve...eerything about the OPs pictures is very well done, which in fact says she has a great eye and knows what she's doing, the problem is the post processing...I would really encourage the OP to post her originals so that we can take a crack at it, to express our critique better maybe.
If saying the OPs PP is "horrible" was such a bad thing I apologize, your processing is not good at all and needs to be toned down...is that better?

Your pictures are great, especially like #4.

i'm newer to this board and i know its been said here already but amazing job on these! gorgeous kids you have too!
every photographer is going to have their own style and you seem to do this style very very well so congrats on that! not everyone is going to like it but what good would it be if everyone did the same exact thing, right?
i'm sure you have more natural looking shots of them for your own as well but this is a cool effect given to them i think.
our daughter also has big eyes (not quite this big) so any work you do on them to enhance can look like you did more than you actually did i think. just the fact that they are big makes them stand out on their own!
i look forward to seeing more of your work!

agresbach wrote in post #9862577
i look forward to seeing more of your work!

Hopefully she will return someday so we can see more! Many more positive than negative responses from my POV.

Point-n-shoot-n wrote in post #9874985
Hopefully she will return someday so we can see more! Many more positive than negative responses from my POV.

i wouldn't use positive vs negative, i would lump them in praise vs. critique.

Lol dwarfcow, I just have to say that has got to be the funniest signature I have ever seen!

I think this topic has gotten waaaay too dramatic for me! Let's all just agree to disagree... or agree... whatever you want!

I'm with Kstyle and Keniko. While I think the composition and subjects of the photos are great, I am not thrilled by the processing on the eyes. I don't think the eyes were altered to be larger (and I believe this is supported by the OP's statement that she didn't enlarge the eyes) but there seems to be excessive sharpening and dodge/burn being used (which the OP did state she did).

If these photos were of adults and posted in the portraits or g&n section they would be ripped apart for the over processed eyes.

Perhaps it's because they are kid photos people are not doing that, though the eye processing seems to be very similiar to the those pageant doll photos that so many people posted (on several threads on that subject) that they hated and yet in this case so many people seem to like it. Odd.

Oh and as far as being rude... I don't agree that the criticism was rude.

Having been on the receiving end of some of Korrektor's critiques (which I might add usually, USUALLY - not all the time lol, is spot on) I thought it was rather tame, in fact Keniko even apologized if it was comming off harsh and didn't fall into personal attacks that some on this thread resorted to. I have to commend Keniko for not stepping down to the level of some of the personal attack that resulted from his/her critique.

thebishopp wrote in post #9884211
I'm with Kstyle and Keniko. While I think the composition and subjects of the photos are great, I am not thrilled by the processing on the eyes. I don't think the eyes were altered to be larger (and I believe this is supported by the OP's statement that she didn't enlarge the eyes) but there seems to be excessive sharpening and dodge/burn being used (which the OP did state she did).

If these photos were of adults and posted in the portraits or g&n section they would be ripped apart for the over processed eyes.

Perhaps it's because they are kid photos people are not doing that, though the eye processing seems to be very similiar to the those pageant doll photos that so many people posted (on several threads on that subject) that they hated and yet in this case so many people seem to like it. Odd.

Oh and as far as being rude... I don't agree that the criticism was rude.

Having been on the receiving end of some of Korrektor's critiques (which I might add usually, USUALLY - not all the time lol, is spot on) I thought it was rather tame, in fact Keniko even apologized if it was comming off harsh and didn't fall into personal attacks that some on this thread resorted to. I have to commend Keniko for not stepping down to the level of some of the personal attack that resulted from his/her critique.

VERY WELL PUT.

I dont think I would have ever learned half of what i know without some harsh real critique, it brings you down to earth and opens your eyes to the mistakes you are making that you probably are not aware of. I have an example, when i first began shooting, i had the real badddd habit of under exposing images on purpose thru PP and on top of that adding vignetting, i was torched for it a little, but thats what it took for me to understand it wasnt the right way to go about it, since then i realized how important it is for an image to be well exposed....you have to learn to take in criticism, im quite dissapointed that the OP never came back.

rmr21 wrote in post #9682820
Wow, that is rather bold of you....messing with my daughters face like that & actually thinking I might like it? You were wrong. You made her look like something out of a freakshow. Sorry if I'm coming across as harsh, but when you change my childs entire face & make her look like a totally different person.....well I find that a bit disrespectful to say the least. If you would have just presented the 2nd version where you did not alter her face my response would be far different, but I am at the momment quite upset.

Wow, I must of missed this, if I had caught it the first time around I would have been a bit more stern with the OP.

Now this post is just as if not more rude than Kenikos but somehow it's ok for her to post in this tone? I really do not like hypocrites... it's not as if dwarf did some kind of freaky edit (like I did in THIS post heh heh).

Also, IMO, if anything, the OP's eye processing made the kids look like a freakshow and not dwarfs edit. But then again it is all subjective and a matter of opinion - some people like those doll like pageant photos, I am not one of them.

this post got sooo out of hand...lmao.

I have followed Op's work from the time she started posting, and we are friends on flickr. I am very sorry to hear that you are going through some tough time, and wish you the best of luck. Your children are beautiful. As for the processing, I actually think it is her style. some like it, some dont. I would say that 3 and 6 are the ones that show some problems with processing (halos, trying to salvage a non sharp image). I have always liked her composition and general capture. As for Keniko, I do believe that you may have had the right intentions, but I dont think the wording was not the best, and it did not improve much in the subsequent posts. In the time I have seen her post, I think she is progressing more towards a natural look, and I recall making a comment to her that I love how her photoshop is not as heavy handed as it used to be, and she agreed. I think most of her posts over the last 6 months, as well as her posts on flickr have been very good. I understand the processing of the eyes is still not every ones cup of tea, and I can say I dont choose to process the same way when I post. However, I find her composition and capturing of the mood very good, and I enjoy her posts.