scotty-jay

Our pastor is departing and I arranged to take a portrait (not my favorite

category) of him for hanging in the church.

 

I had the pastor stand on the threshold of the sanctuary just off center (his

left shoulder is butted against the door frame). I opted to reposition the

cross on the altar slightly to have it show up and reflect back at the camera.

There was a single speed light on a stand with a shoot-thru umbrella just to

the left and slightly in front of the pastor. After several captures with the

pastor, I did a series without him where I adjusted the shutter speed to get

the stained glass window to the correct exposure (or, at least, closer). This

is a composite of pastor with some of those other plates. I shot f/2.8 in

order to maximize the focus on the pastor, though I am having doubts

whether stopped down further to make it more apparent that the window is

Jesus with two lambs on either side.

 

Any thoughts or constructive criticism is welcome.

 

Scott

I like this photo.  I like how it is framed and desaturated (either because it looks that way or you did it in Photoshop).  I'm curious what the object that appears to be a streetlight at the apex of the roof is if there isn't electricity wired for the house.

It looks interesting.... not sure what it is or how it was made, but it caught my attention.

I've tried something like this before, and haven't been overly pleased with the result.  In this case, because you have the silhouette of the trees in the foreground, it could make it more interesting if you flashed the trees during the exposure -- especially if the trees are are colorful.

I've tried also to photograph star trails on a tripod for 30 minute exposures, but I get sensor noise showing up in the corners when I do that.

I know where you are coming from in the attempt, however.  Good luck!

What I really love is that when I first saw the photo in thumbnail, I thought the ice looked like clouds in front of the tree.  Very nice.

I like how perfectly isolated you have the subject from the background/table on which is sits.  I think I would prefer a little more black space beneath the mat as a result, however.  Not centered, but a little more weight to the bottom.

 

Very nice.

I've had this image for a while and worked with it in Photohop recently to

the current form. The image isn't cropped, but I sort of wish I had more of

the wheel and white wall so that hubcap didn't seem cutoff on the bottom --

more "centered" on the lower left corner, as it were. It is an HDR, but I

don't think it's overdone like some others that I've attempted.

 

If you care to comment, I welcome helpful feedback. Thank you!

Butterfly lighting?  I think that's what this is called based on some recent assignment I had.  It's done here much better than some diagrams and my own attempt at it.

Nice HDR.... I'm working on learning how to do this myself.  Great rays from the sun.  I wonder if it would have been possible to get an exposure that would have captured the tree without it moving and blend that so you don't see the blur?  I love the sky.  What range of EV did you have to use in order to shoot into the sun?

Thank you for taking the time to suggest improvements.  I had a similar thought about cropping the tree on the right side out of the picture, but I kind of felt that the bridge just rolling off the right side of the photo didn't look right, and having that bit of tree on the right somewhat contributes to the sense that you are in a forest -- balancing the smaller trees on the left side.  I was as far to the left in my position as I could get without falling into the rapidly moving stream, so getting more of the bridge in the picture (as it reaches the woodland path) wasn't an option.  I definitely like the contrast of the brown and white, so I'm inclined to keep that water color, but I think your interpretation actually gives a good start to what the scene would look like in moonlight (something I’ve been thinking about trying as a post-production exercise).  I kind felt the snow had a “dirty gray” look to it and did a levels adjustment to brighten it closer to the way I remembered it. 

Thank you both for the comments.  I do appreciate it.

I took this photo several months ago, but I'm currently expanding my

knowledge of Photoshop and post-processing, so I've uploaded a few

photographs that I've been putting my new skills to work. Any

comments for improvement are welcome. Thanks!!!

That's exactly where my financial career died last year.... far side of the tall building at Churchill Place....

I like this photo very much.  I'm experimenting and trying to improve my technique with hand HDR and I love the idea of photographing churches, so this caught my attention.  Very nice.

The only thing that strikes me as off in the photo is that the bottom half of the picture seems to have a green cast to it, perhaps from having to choose a white balance (or its associated magenta/green tint) for the ceiling but mismatched for the pews?

One more thing: I would either clone out or replicate the corner of the pew in the lower left corner so that it matches the lower right corner as it is the only thing throwing off the symmetry the longer I stare at the photograph.

That's what I see as suggestions, but it's just suggestions.  A fine photo for sure!

Scott

 

I like this photo very much.  Excellent timing, especially as it shows where the coffee and the cream splashes are mixing together.  I don't think the flower looks convincing, though -- I assume that was PS'd into the pic after the fact.  It seems like a good addition to the picture for its color, except for the fact it looks PS'd, which is distracting.

One other thought: if the mustache mug were turned such that the handle was mirroring the handle on the lips mug, it would balance the photograph a little more, and it looks like the ears to mugs' faces, which seems appropriate.

Great work.

I was going back through some of my waterfall pictures and originally thought this

wasn't any good to use, but after playing around with the RAW file in Lightroom, I

thought this looked pretty good. I tweaked the colors and exposure levels. Thoughts?

Comments on how to do better next time? Suggestions welcome. Thanks.

My compliments... I'm more of a novice, but I think I understand "painting with light" in concept, yet I don't know how you would achieve this result. Is it a penlight that you were holding facing the camera and moving rapidly while you were behind her? That would be an awful lot of swinging your arms around. Well, whatever you did, it's pretty neat effect. Her head has a soft focus appearance which I would presume is due to the long exposure. Anyway, cool shot and very instructive of what is possible with this technique.

Sadra,

 

As one of the above reviewers suggested, this is sunset horizon shot that is inverted, correct? I accidentally took a shot like this myself once, before I really started learning how to use the camera. The film had been undeveloped for months and when I got the photos back, I couldn't figure out how I got a shot of the earth from space -- until I flipped the image over. My guess is that the "stars" are artificially added, or are they in fact lights from buildings? (which seems incredibly convenient). It's a great shot however it was done. Would love to know the details of the manipulations used, if any.

 

Thanks,

Scott

 

 

Mike & David,

 

Thank you for the comments. I'm partial to this darker B&W picture than the color, and I also agree that this shot is partially diminished by the crop on the right. Unfortunately, I thought the best shot was vertical to get the fall colors of the trees that lined the stream on both sides. The sky in the scene was washed out, however, so I cropped out the top, and after playing with the exposure, I came up with version, which I like. This waterfall is conveniently about a mile from my house, however, so I can go back and try it the other way. I have actually been back there since this photo was taken, but we've received quite a bit of rain since then, and there is so much water going over the falls that it's not quite as interesting to photograph. It's a paradox -- the day I took the shot with relatively little water going over the falls, it didn't look that interesting to the naked eye as it trickled over, but with more water crushing down the falls, it's not quite so interesting once photographed. That is even more true for the Buttermilk Falls (UPPER) that I posted.

 

I did view both of your portfolios, and they're great. I've not been to Alaska, but those aurora photos are unbelievable since I can't imagine the colors showing up like that in the sky. My New Zealand trip in 2005 is actually what inspired me to take "intentional" photographs, rather than just snapshots, thus getting me where I'm at today.

 

Thanks again!!

 

Scott

How do you like this? The colored original is in the folder, but I

thought this looked pretty good. Slowly working my way back through

the ongoing Waterfall Project to and applying what I'm learning about

Lightroom and color management (I know!! I have lots to go!!). All

constructive criticism is welcome. -Scott

Constructive comments always welcome...

I tried the suggestions and I think they do look good -- it emphasizes the side-lighting a bit more and takes out some of the clipping on the right side. I'm not crazy on the effect it has on darkening the image overall, but it looks different on one screen versus the other, so I think I need to make a priority of getting some monitor calibration equipment. I agree with the shallow DOF for blurring the background, but I wish I had a just a little more sharpness of focus on her face, which I think I would have gotten with another stop.

 

Thank you for your comments. My niece is pretty photogenic for just about anything she does.

I think I took about 50 pictures of my niece as she was eating her

pudding on this particular day. This one is pretty priceless. My

self-critique is that I didn't need to use f/1.4 and should have

stopped down more to get a slightly better DOF, but I just got my

lense at the time, was playing with it, and I'm still learning.

Probably should have gone for a shutter priority. None of my screens

are color-calibrated, so I can see on this monitor (not the one that

I toyed with the picture on in Lightroom) that Juliet's hair is a bit

tinted green (not the more golden blonde on my laptop), further

marking the need to invest in the equipment to get colors calibrated

(any recommendations?). I'm personally a bit distracted by the

slightly washed out arm and shirt on the right side of the photo, but

for what I was doing, I wouldn't have been able to change that at the

time of the shot, and I'm not aware of what I could do post-process

(again, any suggestions?).

 

Thanks for any constructive criticism. I welcome comments that would

make me a better photographer here, or on my other photographs.

The boy's smile totally makes this photo. I like that the background is the darkness of the fireplace so that it makes his jacket show up. If you could clean up the brown spot in front of his right foot, I find that distracting, as well as the... shoelace?... next to his left foot. If I had the skill to do so, I might also play around with the color of the rug itself and make it a richer red. Probably would play with the bricks, too, to get a richer red color. Just a suggestion, though -- not necessary.

Nice soft lighting and the wrinkled folds of the blanket make the picture interesting for shadows and texture. Upper left corner of the photo is blown-out, which is a bit distracting. A little bit more light on Nathaniel's face would be good, too, I think, perhaps by use of a reflector.

 

Cute kid, though. Congrats!

 

Scott

Ciao! Massimiliano!

 

I know about as much Italian as I do French, and frequently confuse the two, so I will not say more than "ciao" which my friends in Napoli taught me...

 

This photograph grabbed me in the thumbnail version, and upon inspecting, I was wondering exactly what you did to manipulate or take the photograph? It would appear to me that you used a polarizer and then desaturated the color afterwards. I like the look of the photogaph (and some others in your portfolio with similar quality) and would appreciate any revelation to an amateur.

 

Grazi,

 

Scott