Lisa V

Not only is the butterfly facing away, but the defined edges of the butterfly wings against the blur of the flower it’s sitting on along with the background, with no variation of focus on the butterfly itself, makes it look a little like it was stuck on top of the photo after the fact. Does that make any sense? It somehow doesn’t seem part of…[Read more]

My first thought was “what an oddly shaped belly.” Then I realized she’s wearing black pants against a black background. You need to differentiate that some, a bit of backlight or something would help. I like the idea though.

I appreciate everyone’s comments. @fidelito you’ve given me some great input to consider for future shots. Thanks.

Thank you @tpinck.
@caimi, sorry for the headache. 🙂
@jujujems32, thank you so much. Your comments and thoughts were very helpful. I appreciate the time and thought you obviously put into it. And thank you…her eyes ARE beautiful. I did a couple of little edits playing around with your ideas.

the grass is much less distracting…[Read more]

Keeping in mind that this was just portrait practice with my daughter, I wasn’t giving much thought to her nail polish, but you’re right of course. I took a variety of other shots and poses, but this was my favorite, although I do of course wish I’d gotten the focus right. I thought I had in camera, until I saw it on screen. The crop on this is…[Read more]

No, I think cropping the horizon off will lose what sense of perspective you have. I understand your excitement with this field, but I suggest going back in better light. The golden light of a sunset or a beautiful sunrise would set off these flowers much better than this admittedly flat light. As you acknowledged, you need a better perspective…[Read more]

Nope. The photo appears to be set as private. Maybe check your flicker settings?

Sorry, much too small to be able to identify anything about it.

I don’t believe Ken was trying to be funny. Generally cropping at the joints is a bad idea. If you’re going to crop a portrait avoid cropping at the joint….as he said, halfway between joints is better, or lose the whole thing altogether.

I liked the original sky better I think. I agree that cropping out a little of the foreground might help. Maybe as much as half of the foreground could go without losing the impact. The sky is the star here.

I agree it’s unfortunate that the hummingbird is the same color as the leaves. Perhaps you could request that he pose for you against a nice red or blue background? 😉 If he’s not agreeable to that, I’d agree with desaturating the leaves some and possibly some more blur of the background. I’m not a fan of vignettes, but it might help focus…[Read more]

Straightened horizon is much better…a must. Although I think the lens flare becomes the focus of the initial shot, in the edited one, you’ve lost something. The colors are much more dull and it really has no main subject. I’d work with punching up the colors some, but it needs something else. I’m sure these good folks will have some great suggestions.

The brightness on the left keeps drawing my eye. I’d also like to see the mushroom more off center, closer to the rule of thirds.

Thank you all for your input. @redman, I’ll work on the tone some. I hadn’t noticed the blue cast. Thank you for pointing that out. I’ll also work on that shadow in the corner. You’ve all given me some great input and I appreciate your time. I’ll likely post more photos as time passes. You’re all teaching me tons.

I too love the idea. This is the type of shot I am drawn to but am also trying to improve my work on. In this case, I agree with @hilli that the crop is an improvement. It has a more focused feel, as opposed to the more cluttered feel of the unedited shot. I feel this would have been improved by a sharper angle, maybe shooting from the left…[Read more]

That makes perfect sense, @nikon-nut. Thank you so much for your comments.

I’m finding this very helpful to me both in learning PSE as well as in learning to see various ways to see the same photo. Is this more what you had in mind @rocket2722?