alton

Thanks, Dan!

Thanks, Todd!

Beautiful. I want to see how it is cropped for the cover. Tough to do with so many critical perfect elements.

Beautiful.

Horses would start to run, but could only go a few feet. One came over,

put his foot on the steel fence, and pounded his horseshoe on it to get my

attention. They are waiting for riders. They were well taken care of, but

could use some room.

Hopefully you can sell that to a restaurant. Nice shot.

I think it is a tight crop already. If you offer it to a publication, let them decide how to crop it. I think you should consider doing that. And I understand why you labeled it "Facing Extinction." I don't think you were trying to ignite a political debate.

You kept detail in the dark part. Perfect exposure.

I guess the obvious answer is to treat the sky. I selected it, did a Levels, and it seemed to do well. I further darkened it with a gradient but kept the gradient off the rock. I next did a gradient on the bottom because the water is a bit blown out. Seemed to me to improve things a bit, but the horizon went blackish. Nice shot as it, and if you took it in raw format you will be able to bring it out.

Perfect exposure on the bear, the hill, and good color control. Nice detail, great use of blur on the mountains in the background.

I tried some of the suggestions above just to see what could happen. Pretty much imposible to Photoshop files this small. But it shows there is more in this image.

I like it. I thought it was a little washed out and tried this adjustment. Obviously working on a tiny file crushes pixels, but it gives you the idea.

I fiddled in Photoshop. I found the bright spots had fooled the exposure a bit, so I made a levels adjustment, which brought up the distracting bright spots. So I made a "highlights" adjustment and cut them down a notch or two. There is nothing else, no contrast increase and no saturation increase. This is of course a tiny file and you have a much bigger one to work with. Also, it needs a noise reduction after my work, which would be useless in so small a file. But it gives you an idea of what's in there.

You mention that you were, past tense, quite proud of this. My advice is to stay proud, especially since it is a point and shoot, but also because it is a great shot. I noticed the "quite dark" comment, but it was, after all, the middle of the night. Pretty much the exact middle. The really bright highlights may be a little distracting. It is publishable as it now stands, in my opinion.

Needs just a simple Levels adjustment to make it pop, and maybe use the eyedroppers to set the black, white,and gray points. This could be really neat.

No fair, man. You just happen to be a pro who just happens to have access to top models. It's just not fair. Nice work. Was this a million-dollar ad account, for which you got a quarter million?

First of all, congratulations on visualizing what you wanted, and then exposing to get that look. There are a couple of things here that keep it from being totally the silhouette you wanted. First of all, the dark silhouette is against the darkest part of the water. So it blends in. Second, it is actually hard to tell he has your son on his back. There is a fuzzy ball but it is not clear what it is. Maybe try a different location, and take the baby out of the back carrier, separate the father and son a little so we see all of each person, and expose against an evenly bright scene. Just the slightest exposure increase here brings out your husband and your baby's arms and that is enough to give us a clue as to what this fused mass of black is all about. I tried it and the silhouette effect was reduced perhaps more than you would want, but the photo made more sense.

Perfect, commercial quality job. Nice work.

We're down to a matter of personal taste, and you handled the way you saw it beautifully. You can go that subtle, darker route, and have something beautiful for your wall. I like the framing and shadow as well. I wonder if the big white frame doesn't steal attention from the scene. However, I would handle it roughly like I did in the attached example.

I'm not so sure you should assume the G10 isn't adequate for landscapes. It is probably the best point and shoot on the market, and magazine quality work can be and has been done with it. I straightened the trees a little and lightened the foreground to provide more shades of gray. Then recropped. See what you think.

The bear's not smelling the flowers. He is probably smelling you. And the bear is a grizzly. I was surprised at how visitors at Waterton, when I was there, got out of their cars with a sow and cubs maybe 40 feet away, and blew their horns to get he bear's attention for a picture. Bears smell from 25 miles away, so as you hit the trail with a backpack full of ham sandwiches, they are on their way.

 

Boosted the greens? Doesn't look quite natural. I blew it up and saw the bear was a little soft as far as focus is concerned. Maybe use spot focus. Also, I know you need to show the bear's environment, but that's a lot of grass. Maybe tighter cropping, leaving the flowers and some of the gass. Now, with this crop, we have pieces of trees and a shadow that are not necessary.

This is great. Exciting picture, especially for the horse.

The hue has to be true (I just made that up) and in mine, the hue of the light red grape has changed due to the process I used. It needs to be brought back to the true color.

 

The real issue here and the reason I took the time to do anything is the light. The light needed to be on the red/purple side of the grape bunch. Instead the light made distracting highlights out of the white grapes and left the colorful ones in dull light.

 

A different time of day maybe? A reflector? Touch of flash? And also shield the white (greenish) grapes from the light? Man, this photo thing is tough work.

I played with it a little bit in Photoshop. It bothered me a little that the two white grapes in the lower left corner attracted the eye so strongly. See what you think.

Thanks, Steve, for those answers.
John, I actually work for a magazine about small aircraft and have a degree in journalism--two, in fact. So that must explain why I ask so many questions.