Photographed TODAY (or Processed today)

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by Janet Petty

Very, very nice Danny. I really like the way the conversion came out on this one. She is getting to be way too pretty for her own good. You should be proud.

Janet

Thanks for your kind words, Janet.

Here's a little layer fun with my son's pal, Jake.

Templates for for mag logos here: http://www.escrappers.com/magazine.html

[AFrazier]

A friend and I went shooting this morning at the falls. I had to get my feet wet to get this one, but I thought it turned out rather nice.

It was shot with a 70-300 mm, F22, ISO 100, for 1/2 a second. The sun wasn't up yet, so I used a white balance of shade -3. That left it a little "cold," so I adjusted the RAW file appropriately to the histogram, corrected the color in Photoshop proper, and gave it a Lab Color finish for a punch in the color department.

[AFrazier]

This was also shot at the falls ... though obviously in a much more still area of the river, and much later in the morning after the sun was up.

I thought it kind of funny that I got the exact same photograph of this duck going in both directions. It traveled the identical path, so the focus, size, color, etc., are all identical. The duck is merely reversed in one of the photographs.
It will make for a good sale at one of the galeries, since they are a natural matching pair, rather than one photo flipped.

This was also shot with a 70-300 mm, F5.6, ISO 800, at 1/500th of a second shutter speed. The white balance was set to shade.

[JD Spears]

Just retouched this one. Shot last week at my daughters house. Her boyfriends Mother & sister.

[Janet Petty]

AFrazier: nice work. I like the duck a lot. The water is good. I can relate to getting wet. It took my shoes three days to dry out.

JD Spears: Good portrait. Good manipulation. However, even with the small file size, I can detect some heavy lines on the older woman's forehead that could be toned down just a tad. Don't take them all the way out. That makes photos look unreal. Good pose and great lighting. You have a winner there.

Janet

[AFrazier]

"Feet" might have been an understatement. I was wet up to the bottom of my shirt, lol. I could see that the shot was there from the shore, so me and my friend Mr. tripod went for a wade to capture the magnificent torrent. I almost dunked my camera .

[JD Spears]

Originally Posted by Janet Petty

AFrazier: nice work. I like the duck a lot. The water is good. I can relate to getting wet. It took my shoes three days to dry out.

JD Spears: Good portrait. Good manipulation. However, even with the small file size, I can detect some heavy lines on the older woman's forehead that could be toned down just a tad. Don't take them all the way out. That makes photos look unreal. Good pose and great lighting. You have a winner there.

Janet

Older Lady!!? She's just 38. Coming into her prime. Just playing. OK! I'll tone them down a bit. Thanks Janet.
JD

[cardmnal]

Shot this yesterday at Oxbow Bend on the Snake River. Most photographers shoot down near the water to catch the wonderful reflections but I wanted a different perspective so climbed the hill.


Alan

[Janet Petty]

cardmnal, not that the Ozarks where I live aren't beautiful; but I do have to say you have some of the most magnificent scenery right at your doorstep. Beautiful!

Janet

[AFrazier]

Shot last week at the Biltmore Estate in Ashville, SC, processed last night. Minor color correction and a classic Palladium toning to enhance the actual color of the stone work.

Shot with a Sony Alpha 700 at ISO 200, shutter speed 1/25, aperture 3.8.

[Blindv]

I shot these this afternoon...well yesterday afternoon - but seeing as I have yet to sleep the day has not ended I think they turned out pretty well.

A House is where the Heart was
The Beaten Path
Windows are the eyes to the Soul
Field of Dreams
Your Chariot Awaits

[palms1]

Trying out my new camera today and this is what i came up with
Interesting trying to take a photo of a bee and not get stung ! ! !

( oh and i mean trying only about a quarter of the way through the manual for the first time )

Palms

[AFrazier]

I've always noticed that any time I try to photograph bees, they always manage to be turned away from me. I rarely catch them sideways or facing me. It's always their bee hind.
Good shot. Nice color contrast with the flowers. My yard is so bland, I end up getting a yellow bee against yellowish-green grass. You have to search out the bee in the picture, no matter how wide the aperture or how shallow the depth of field.

[CJ Swartz]

Originally Posted by palms1

Trying out my new camera today and this is what i came up with
Interesting trying to take a photo of a bee and not get stung ! ! !

( oh and i mean trying only about a quarter of the way through the manual for the first time )

Palms

Palms -- good start! I'm uneasy around bees also, and am quite happy to shoot them from "beehind". (borrowed from AFrazier )

The subject bloom looks sharp while the background is blurring nicely. The color is lovely, and the bee shows up well (except for his smile).

There are some burnt out highlights on the right side - I wouldn't mention them except that I know that you are serious about wanting to improve your photos, and one important step to improving is being able to see what area needs improvement. Look at your EXIF data (the file data that is saved for each image you shoot by your camera - it shows your shutter speed, aperture, date/time, etc.) for this shot and see what time of day, what aperture, what shutter speed, what mode (auto, program, aperture priority, etc.) your camera was set on, what exposure compensation (if any) was set -- then think about how you could have made it even better. Think about some of these aspects -- shooting at a different time of day - sunlight coming from a different direction - sun not hitting the blossoms directly at a different time of day; choosing a bloom that was not being hit directly by the sunlight; shooting more than one shot and changing the exposure to see if more or less exposure helps the image, etc.

[AFrazier]

To add to that ...

Most of the higher end DSLRs have two nice features that can help.
The first is the histogram. You'll have to consult your user's manual to find out how to access it on your particular camera, but a quick look at the histogram will tell you right away if you are blowing highlights or shadows. Just look for clips on the left and right side.
The second is the step shooting feature that comes on some of the semi-pro DSLRs (Nikon D300, Sony A700, Canon D30, etc.); possibly on some of the lower models as well. Once you meter your shot, it will shoot three exposures. One at the settings you've selected, one slightly underexposed, and one slightly over exposed. It gives you the opportunity to see the shot in three different ways. Perfect light isn't always perfect.

If you are going to shoot in direct sunlight, I would suggest shooting in RAW format. You'll be able to correct the exposure that way. (This is said on the off chance you aren't shooting in RAW). You'll also be able to adjust the curves, white balance, hue, saturation, sharpness, and a number of other things in ways that Photoshop proper won't let you do with the same precision. .jpegs compress the data, leaving behind artifacts, and corrupt the pure data of the image. Once it's compressed, if you change one thing, you change everything else with it. While it's still in RAW format, you can make adjustments to individual settings independent of the rest of the photograph.

The picture was still great. If you want to fix the blown highlights, just make a duplicate layer with the multiply blend mode, mask the layer, and paint in the areas you want darker with white. Blur the mask to soften the edges, and adjust the opacity of the layer to make it match the hue and saturation appearance of the rest of the surrounding pixels.