I was undecided where to post this shot, as I would like advice with the photography (well, basically the crop I have used, and the bits of shot I included).

Anyway, this was shot during the summer on a day out with the family to Blackpool.
I was buggering about, trying out the 'shoot from the hip', amongst other things.
After a trial download of Rawshooter Premium last night I decided to have a tinker with some of them, and this was the result.



It was the old couple that I was shooting, but in your eyes what do you think makes the photo (if at all), what crop would you apply? In the above version I went for the couple, the pier in the background with the big wheel, and the railings being a leading line....

Anyway, the photography aside, the main question I'm unsure of is the post processing. I've royally buggered it up (I'm not one to mince my words ).

To me it just doesnt look right, yet no amount of fiddling along the way could I figure out exactly what was wrong with it.
Also, the wheel in the background doesn't look right either. It looks as though I've shrunk it down to 10pixels and enlarged it again...lol

Anyway, please feel free to launch into a tirade of abusive comments about my skills (or lack of), and offer any insight into where I've gone wrong, where I can improve on it (if I can, that is).

Here is what the original looked like....resized to 700px (to show here).



Here's a link to a bigger (2000px) size (700k ish) jpeg, if anyone feels like having a tinker to show me a better crop etc.
http://www.askbod.com/ph/050817_0945_2000unedited.jpg

Regards

[Gandhi]

ok. locked and loaded (rioja ammo)!

I think possibly the ferris wheel looks dodgy 'cos maybe it was moving when you took the shot? dunno what the xposure time was but I would expect that to be the cause. Either that or mild camera shake/lens issues.

Just gotta wait 10mins for my pc that's a bit ancient to load PS then I'll ave a go at it!

I think your composition isn't that far off. I like the idea of the railings as leading lines but i think i would've cropped tighter still............

[Gandhi]

oh yeah, and take 15 steps to your right and take the pole out the frame as it's a bit of a bugger to clone out!

[Gandhi]

just cropped, straightened, sharpened at two levels, once on lightness in lab mode, fiddled with the curves and de-saturated a little.


I was aiming for the old holiday snap kind of feel.


missed.

a bit.

[Dave]

Example with post cloned out for ya ...not perfect , but gives you the idea

Thanks for the comments (and tinkerings). I think it could be the pole messing the shot up, which makes this a photography issue rather than a post processing issue.

Actually I think I'll stick in the critique section

[fingerz]

Quite simply, there are too many things in shot and they can't be cropped out. Portraits need to be simple.

"If your shots are no good, you're not close enough"

^^Can't remember where I saw that (does someone here have it as their sig?) but it's very true.

Its in Arkady's sig

You could be right, there is alot in the shot. Too much to make the people stand out I suppose.
Although in my defense, I was just messing about and 'shooting from the hip'. I suppose this question isn't really "Where did I go wrong", but more "What's wrong with it?".

Also not sure about the post processing, it does look oversharpened and oversaturated to me, but I tried tinkering and couldn't get it adjuested and processed 'just right'.

[Dave]

I think it's possible to save a portrait shot by post processing, but very rarely a more detailed shot like this. There are too many parts of the shot that would need to be manipulated to recreate the correct light etc.

[Arkady]

True, too true.
You look at it now and kick yourself for not going closer. Difficult, I know - I still get the shakes when shooting people 'cold' like this - though bizarrely I have no such traumas when at work; maybe because I know it's 'work' as opposed to for myself?

http://www.thephotographyforums.com/...0809_0022M.jpg

This in its original form was the result of a quick 'stalk' and a bit of chat just to reassure the girl that they wouldn't be used commercially. Helps with digital as you can show the preview to the person afterwards.

[Gandhi]

^^ nice shot dude.^^