Recent Work- Please Critique

samdodsonsamdodson Registered Users Posts: 24 Big grins
edited June 16, 2009 in Sports
I'm a high school photographer who is looking for critique. Here are some of my recent work. All advice, criticism, and general feedback is welcome! You can view my site at www.samdodson.net .


1
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2
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3
494281194_img_8282.jpg
4
481516415_img_4596.jpg
5
504922863_lcc_mg_0083.jpg
6
_MG_0627.jpg
7
485581781_img_6264.jpg

Comments

  • samdodsonsamdodson Registered Users Posts: 24 Big grins
    edited June 15, 2009
    Anyone? I'd love to hear any of your thoughts and comments.
  • zack75144zack75144 Registered Users Posts: 261 Major grins
    edited June 15, 2009
    Hopefully some of the mainstays of the forum will chime in for you, but in the meantime, I'll give my 2 cents.
    Generally I think your shots are good. I like the composition. You have lots of faces and balls in the frame. The images seem clean, WB looks good.

    I think my main criticism is that they are a little flat in color, you could mind your horizons better on the girl's basketball shot and the last one is underexposed. (You could find all of these issues in my works as well).

    My favorite shot is the pitcher in red.

    keep up the good work!thumb.gif
    Zack www.zackjonesphotography.net
    EOS 7D, Zeiss 50mm f/1.4, EF 24-70mm f/2.8L, EF 135mm f/2L, EF 200mm f/2.8L II, EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM, EF 1.4 Ext II, 430EX, ST-E2, Tamrac Velocity 10X & Expeditioner 7 Bags.
  • ToshidoToshido Registered Users Posts: 759 Major grins
    edited June 15, 2009
    Two things first about the post... Both to make criticism easier to give, imo.

    1) Separate your post into multiple posts by sport.
    2) Always number you images. Makes it much easier for viewers to ID them when discussing the images.

    I like the first picture. Not a large fan of the crop though. I, again personal, prefer to keep pictures cropped to a 2x3 or 4x5 standard aspect ratio. Makes for printing as 4x6 or 8x10 easy.

    I like picture 2. Good action and all the bodies are in plain sight. Nobody hiding behind the other players.

    Number 3 is excellent action, I like it very much.

    Number 4, girl's basketball. The tilt is way off horizontal, but not enough to look intentional. If you mean to tile the horizon, go big. Also don't like the player #45 in frame. I understand not much you could do about it now though.

    Red pitcher, number 5. I would have liked more to the side so you could see the arm. I think the timing is excellent and you got his face beautifully. From that angle i think the arm moving forward so yo ucould see it would be better. Again, my opinion.

    Number 6, runner. I like the extreme tight crop and the intensity in him. Fill flash or some lightening around the eyes in post might help here though. Eyes seem a little dark.

    Last picture, number 7. I like the expressions, especially the tongues. Also like the action. Would be better brighter (underexposed) and if the defending player was not clipped.


    In all the pictures I think they could do with either vibrancy and/or saturation adjustements. Maybe adding some contrast. The colours just seem blah in them to me.
  • samdodsonsamdodson Registered Users Posts: 24 Big grins
    edited June 15, 2009
    Thank you both for you input. I really appreciate it. I agree that the color of the images look a bit "flat", so I'll make sure to learn how to brighten-up the colors in my future work.

    I also appreciate the posting-rules lesson. I'm sorry that I didn't originally include numbers with the photographs. Next time I'll make sure to organize them by sport.

    Anyone else have any comments?
  • ToshidoToshido Registered Users Posts: 759 Major grins
    edited June 15, 2009
    Not really rules, just makes things easier.

    \the seperate posts with the sport labelled because different peple like different sports. Not sure if everyone looks at all the posts or not.

    The numbers to make it easy.
  • beetle8beetle8 Registered Users Posts: 677 Major grins
    edited June 15, 2009
    zack75144 wrote:
    *snip* You have lots of faces and balls in the frame. *snip*
    rolleyes1.gif

    Anyway,
    Stuff looks good nice and tight, a lot of the small issues can be fixed in post.
    #1 is near the best of the bunch
    #2 is just "eh" maybe a bump in curves would give it punch but the moment is still "eh"
    #3 in a race with #1 for best of the bunch, a little TLC in post and it's a winner.
    #4 I like it I think the railings and the athlete are making us confused on the angle.
    #5 color and exposure is on but timing is just off and it looks a little soft.
    #6 the shot is suffering from the dark and soft face, what a great moment though. Love the tightness!
    #7 tied with #2 for "eh" and a few technical issues. underexposed, too much DOF, a few degrees off level, and it looks soft.
    Keep shooting tight, if these are crops, then next time zoom in and shoot tight, it'll help with metering and focus.
  • samdodsonsamdodson Registered Users Posts: 24 Big grins
    edited June 16, 2009
    Other then increasing the saturating and color tones of my pictures, what steps can I take to improve my pictures?
  • beetle8beetle8 Registered Users Posts: 677 Major grins
    edited June 16, 2009
    I don't think you need to increase the saturation.
    Just a slight bump in curves, grey slider in levels just a nudge left to 1.05 I believe. and a high pass sharpening layer

    565377126_tgWgV-XL.png
  • beetle8beetle8 Registered Users Posts: 677 Major grins
    edited June 16, 2009
    Maybe a vibrance adjustment?
    565382252_x2nFE-XL.png
  • samdodsonsamdodson Registered Users Posts: 24 Big grins
    edited June 16, 2009
    beetle8 wrote:
    Maybe a vibrance adjustment?
    565382252_x2nFE-XL.png

    Those look good. I'll make sure to play with them a bit more in PS.
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