[Chris H]

Who you lookin at



Didn't notice the twig until I put it in Photoshop grrrrrrrrr

Need the C&C to help me inprove but please be gentle

[fgates]

I think the first one is brilliant. Such a lovely expression against a nicely blurred background.

As you said, the twig in the second one spoils it, but I also think that there are a couple of other distracting bits of flora in the picture.

Good shots!

[JMitchell]

That first one is classic! Brilliant, really very good capture, you should enter it into a competition somewhere

[Markulous]

Yeah, #1 definitely - great expression and the contrast of the black and green. Think it could do with a little more detail - maybe dodge some in? (I see you've not got Image-edit option selected so won't give an example of what I mean)

[Charlotte]

Both of these are excellent!!

#1 You've lost quite a bit of shadow detail, but the facial expression is pure class Good DoF, and the eyes are nice and sharp. This really is a great shot, only thing that lets it down is that lost shadow detail, which you may or may not be able to recover.

#2 I love this one too. That twig could be cloned out reasonably easily, just a bit of patience, and would be well worth the effort I think. I don't find it too distracting, however, nor the other foliage. I think sometimes we strive for "perfection" which is not always necessary to make a shot work, and also "perfection" doesn't have to mean a plain background. In this shot, his face is so unusual + almost mesmerising that I am totally focused upon it! The eyes are nice + sharp, you got the exposure spot on + the colours look good too.

You did a very good job on both of these Chris, well done

[Rob Barron]

I think the first one would be better if it was taken in RAW as I am sure you'd find plenty more detail in the dark areas. I've had a look at this in Photoshop and there is loads more hair detail than we are seeing here so if you took this as a RAW photo, take another look at it: there is a far better shot in there waiting to be brought out. The composition is excellent and with the stronger post processing would make this an absolute winner

Cheers,
Rob

[Chris H]

Rob it was shot in RAW but I had to do quite a bit of burning in to get rid of the chainlink fence.

I'm trying to get my head round this photgraphy game where detail recovery is concerned, unfortunately I'm only stumbling along

Hows about you having a play and seee'ing what you can do

It was shot in CR2 format 40D and messed about with in CS3

Origional file is here http://www.chris-hamlet.co.uk/pictures/IMG_0780.CR2 it's nearly 13 megs tho

[Rob Barron]

I have downloaded it Chris but I'll have to leave it for a coule of days as I have a few things on. I'll be happy to look at it then though and I'll show you what I end up with

Cheers,
Rob