Hi all,

rather than reiterating the points I made in a previous post from yesterday.. 'ere's wot I dun rote..

Righty Ho, off to Yorkshireland now for a few days.. 4.5gb of cards.. so I might even take one worth posting when I get back..

Cheers

Liam

Hi Eric,

it's a nice simple clean shot.. just one thing though, it might be an idea just to take a small paintbrush to the shoot beforehand, and just brush away any little bits of dirt/compost. The lump (I know it's probably <0.1mm) in the middle is a little distracting.. a minor point only though.

Cheers

Liam

A cracking shot. I visited Skye a few years ago with my ME, and it's just gorgeous up there.. have to go back sometime. We stayed on a campsite, and the one thing I'll remember for ever was a group of German? students who arrived with a VW minibus, and for extra luggage space, they'd welded a Renault 5 bodyshell to the top of it..

Cheers

Liam

Go and get the girl and take more photos Pete.. There's only so much you can do in PS, and what you've done has made the shot worse, because the editing is immediately obvious..

Just because you are able to do a little bit of PP with a digital image, doesn't necessarily mean that you can change an OKish photo into a stunning one.. take it properly first time around...

To attempt what you have tried to do to the photo, and to do it well, requires an inordinate amount of skill and patience, that would be beyond the realms of probably all but one or two posters here, and they have years of digital imaging experience behind them. It'll take more than 30 minutes as well. I spent the better part of a week retouching a photo, pixel by pixel (a scanned film original, of a family scene, that had deteriorated over 50 years) and it still wasn't 100%, so don't feel bad about it..

I mean that in the nicest way as well.

Cheers

Liam

Hi Drew,

my tuppence worth, as someone who posts the occasional photo, is that as it's a photography forum, it's nice to see photos here.

You're correct in point out the size of some, and it is a little irksome to have to keep scrolling across to read the text (I post small..ish images BTW) but some of the images that are posted here have been truly incredible. I rarely follow links out of the forum, and probably miss many equally good images because of this, so it's nice to see them here.

I'd be all in favour of a critique section, or simply a gallery board.. I don't always want to comment on people's shots, but just look at them.

I certainly think that to be offered constructive criticism, and to offer advice, we have to be able to see what been taken. The key word is "constructive". Just having a place to heap praise on a poster, if their image is particularly good, would be nice.. nothing wrong with that either..

At the end of the day, it's all about photography, and somewhere in there, there'll undoubtedly be photographs. It's always nice to have your contemoraries/peers say something nice about the work you've done.. especially in a nice friendly forum like this, where you respect the opinion of others, whether beginner or pro..

Cheers

Liam

Hi Pete,

a very pretty girl. A couple of things to watch out for though.. in the first shot, you seem to have a very limited DoF (IIRC, you've got a 50 1.7). It looks as though you've chosen to focus on her right eye, which (and my eyes aren't what they used to be) has thrown her left out of focus slightly, and her nose more noticeably so. As you say your using Av more now, try the shots at different apertures, and see which come out better. If nothing else, you really need both eyes in sharp focus for a shot like this, as that is the main feature of any portrait, even if the nose and ears go a little softer.

The other point I'd say, and both points are purely constructive.. is to have a good look at the detail in the shots. You have a couple of strands of hair going over the eye in each. In the first, just moving it a little to her left, and it would frame the eye nicely, in the second, it needs moving out completely.

Don's mentioned the sun on her hair in the second shot, and just having here move back or forward a few inches, to either light up more of it, or to throw it into shadow, and it would cure that.

Apart from that.. I personally don't mind a few more pictures of your friend gracing these boards..

Oh, one final thought.. "say cheese" is as pertinent now as it ever was.. A nice smile in the first, but gone in the second.

Cheers

Liam

Hi, and welcome to the forum..

does the zeiss have a rear element that protrudes out from the back of the lens.. or more precisely, a metal ring with around a third of it's circumference raised? This is seen on some third party 70-210s (especially macro lenses) for some reason. I have a Soligor that does the same. Whatever you do, don't force it.. , but you do have the option of using a converter, or even macro tubes with it, so all's not lost.

Cheers

Liam

Hi Howard,

yes, you're correct in that it needs to be hosted online somewhere. Some use their own website, others use a photo hosting site, such as you've suggested. Once you've got the photo online somewhere you need to use the image tags to post here, like so..

[ img]http://www.liamsworld.org.uk/pug/ontherails.jpg[/img ]

.. but removing the spaces I've put in the tags (so I don't actually post the image again)

You also need to remember to post the full url, including http://, as if you just start it with www the forum software tries to find it in it's own directory. ie. on this site.

HTH

Cheers

Liam

I think the holiday homes sort of add to it IMHO. If you were on the train in the fifties, the era that the photo suggests I hope.. looking out of the window (I know the viewpoint is too high for that.. ) That would be the welcome scene of the location for the holiday away from the factory/farm whatever for the week.

Ooh, bucket and spade, jumpers for goalposts.. oh yes!

Yes, I'm making it up as I go along.. but you get the idea.

Cheers

Liam

Thanks chaps..

it's one of several that I took in and around Paignton a couple of weeks ago. I've got another couple I'll post, but the sensor was absolutely filthy.. and it'll take a while to clean them up.

I've since cleaned the sensor, and I'm off up to Yorkshireland on Monday for a few days, so I'll have some more next weekend hopefully.

Cheers

Liam