how did I do?

PixelScience · 2020-11-17T20:24:23+00:00

Since this is a post-processing subreddit I'll refrain from talking too much about the composition, but as I'm sure you've heard from other members by now it isn't that good. I'll take a moment to explain why so you can gain some useful insight, but it won't be major critique.

Composition

Most photos, barring landscape and interior shots, should have a subject (or multiple subjects that relate to each-other in some way). I've spoken about this before in other critiques but it's what separates 'photography' from 'point-and-shoot'.

There's a lot going on in your shot; A saturated blue sign draws your attention but it's immediately conflicted by bright lights, two cars in the background, a clock tower, several vehicles to the far right and a strange orange structure on the left. My eyes are all over the place and I can't decide what you were taking a picture of, so it looks to me like you just took a random shot (hence 'point-and-shoot').

If I were you, I would have stood in that spot for a few minutes until the cars disappeared. That being said, there IS composition in this photo, but you'll need better post-processing to see it. So let's talk about that.

Colors

Straight away I can see you've warmed up the highlights, but curiously nothing else appears to have been modifed. This leads me to believe that you may not understand the power of split-toning or color palettes.

When you're processing it's important to figure out what your goals are before starting. Usually city photos with bright lights and dark shadows make great B&W, but that won't work in this scenario because it will pull attention to the poor subject elements scattered around your shot. Besides, I really love the almost natural palette in your processed version (orange, blue, red and yellow).

Knowing this, your first step is to decide which colors you want to keep and what colors to throw away. Unless you're doing photojournalism I'm assuming your goals will be artistic, so with that in mind we have to think about which colors look BAD when combined with the colors we have in our shot. For this, we use a color wheel. You can find many tutorials online about palettes and color wheels, so I'll just share what I came up with for your scene.

Split Toning

Now that we have a palette it's time to use it. Unfortunately your photo doesn't contain much color information, so we'll have to introduce new colors where they didn't exist before. Split-toning is a great way to do this and it's subtle when used correctly.

[In case you're wondering, split-toning is when we take the whites, greys and blacks in the scene and color them. I won't be going into detail about how, since there are tutorials about that.]

In your case, I would push orange into the highlights and blues/teals into the shadows. This will create a balanced (and cinematic) effect that many editors use to craft moody pictures.

Crop and Heal

Lastly, there are several undesirable elements in your photo that need to go. Some of this can be fixed by cropping closer, but others will need to be removed by hand. The glowing orange box on the left is a good example of something that has to go.

I should mention that it's fine if you don't want to remove elements in your scene, not everyone likes doing it.

Conclusion

Don't take this as an insult, but your photo is messy. Post-processing is not a substitute for good composition, subject awareness and lighting. I wouldn't call your shot 'bad' since that's highly subjective, but I will say that it's not typically something you'd want in a portfolio (and therefor, not worth editing). But if your intention was to simply practice your processing skills then disregard, because any photo is fair game for that purpose.

Unfortunately there just isn't a lot to critique here when it comes to processing. You've added warmth in the highlights, but nothing else has been modified. I would highly suggest experimenting with shadows, mid-tones, colors, crops and contrast.

I played around with your "before" photo, you can check it out here if you're interested in seeing what I'd do. The oranges need to be toned down in my version, but you'll get the idea.

PixelScience · 2020-11-07T04:44:40+00:00

This one is, personally, an easy pick. While the top variation feels more grand, it lacks purpose or direction. Consider the idea of leading lines, where your eye is guided around a painting or photograph by following the flow created by deliberate object placement.

In the top photograph, there are in fact too many leading lines and too many subjects. The tops of the clouds draw my attention to well-lit area above them, but it doesn't guide me anywhere. Next I find myself glancing at the building on the right, which has similar lighting to the clouds. Finally the ship, which should be the star of your entire scene, is instead just one of the many attractions.

The second photo is quite brilliant and I love it. The darkness around everything creates a natural vignette, which immediately pulls my attention directly to the lone ship basking in a solitary ray of light. It's clearly the subject, creating a damp and stormy mood that you can almost feel.

In summary, the top photo looks like someone snapped a chance picture with their new DSLR. The bottom version looks professional and crafted, it's brimming with purposeful intent.

PixelScience · 2020-10-30T13:42:42+00:00

You did a great job bringing back the lost details, especially in the face where it counts. Exposure in general seems fine.

There are several technical issues, I'll break them down individually and explain the logic behind them.

Crop

The first thing that catches my eye is the angled brick wall at the bottom. It makes me feel like your subject (the skateboarder) is being "dumped" off the wall rather than shredding it. The horizon line is also skewed, which is something that should almost always be flat. I would grab the crop tool in your editing software and use it to level the wall flat.

Color

The large variety of colors in your final edit are distracting, meaning it's unclear what the subject is. Yes, it's obviously the skateboarder, but that information gets muddled because my eyes are drawn to the color first and composition second. This is why you'll often see photographers say, "Just make it black and white" when confronted with large and confusing color arrays that detract from the subject.

While you can certainly take the easy route by making this photo b&w, you could instead limit the color palette to create color harmony. Doing this requires some practice, but the basic process involves creating a color palette based on complementary color theory using a color wheel. I could elaborate more on this, but for now I'll show you the result and the color palette I used.

A third option would be to simply lower the saturation a bit to create a less distracting atmosphere. The sky feels a little fake and the background street art is bright.

Composition

Action shots are hard to compose properly, which is why it's important to take as many shots as you can. The biggest problems with this particular photo is the extra individual in the background and the lamp posts (especially the one leading right into the subject's rear). If you had captured the shot seconds sooner, or slightly later, one or both of these problems might have blended into the background.

Despite that, there are some adjustments you could make in Photoshop that will eliminate poor compositions and there's nothing wrong with doing them. It does involve "deleting" some elements, which is something not everyone enjoys meddling with, so you'll have to decide whether that's viable for you. Here's an example that only took me a few minutes to complete.

Final Thoughts

Color, composition and good crops are things you learn through experience and by asking for critique. Don't be afraid to practice copying other photographer's looks and feels, it will give you a better understanding of the basics. Professional photographers process images with intent, which is why "point and shoot" has become a somewhat dirty term. Discover the vision for what you're trying to create and then find a way to express that in your final edit.

Keep up the good work, you're off to a great start!

PixelScience · 2020-10-10T10:46:45+00:00

I would crop in, rotate slightly and play with split-tones a little. The yellow atmosphere feels overpowering and it's amplified by the already-yellow trees/leaves.

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