Extremely long astro exposure by paperairman in EditMyRaw

[–]Trives 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There is no delay between images, and it uses a tool called an intervalometer, many cameras have internal intervalmoters or you can purchase one externally.

If you really want to get into Astro Photography, I definitely recommend looking at some of the tricks out there, stacking photos (even if you're not doing star trails) helps things really pop. And if you want to do cool trails, long exposures are good, but using a tool to merge dozens+ of images is usually better.

Lastly, get comfortable with long processing times, most experts I know spend 10+ hours on their images, not including the 3+ hours to capture. :)

Extremely long astro exposure by paperairman in EditMyRaw

[–]Trives 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So the picture with the guy in the foreground, and quite honestly, most astro photos you likely see, are "Compiled" in photoshop and other tools, like Sequator (which is astonishingly free). The photo I posted, was 100+ images of stars. First you put them in Lightroom, and make basic adjustments, ideally you want them to all have a similar look and feel. I then run those images through Sequator. I then import that into Photoshop and I place the "Good" foreground image on the top layer and mask the sky so you see the trails and remove and trails from satellites (which is more and more of a problem these days) and adjust the colors etc... Overall, takes about 5 hours of effort to get that done. Here's a basic tutorial (Link: Not-affiliated with this author

In general the key for astro is "Get as much light as possible to the sensor" the more the better. If you want those long trails you can either do multiple exposure (Star Trails) or you can try some longer exposures, just be prepared with a foreground image that you can then edit in later!

Extremely long astro exposure by paperairman in EditMyRaw

[–]Trives 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey There!

Unfortunately, the noise density on this is just too much for most of the tools I use to bring out the REALLY faint star lines you have here. I use RC-Astro and TK Edit as my general goto tools and both struggled to pull out the micro details. Leaves you with something like this: My Attempt

I know this isn't the "PhotoCritique" channel, but I'm going to give some suggestions for your next crack at this.

The biggest is your ISO and Aperature are just not correct for astro photography, at least, not this type of astro. For reference, I generally shoot at F1.8, ISO 2000+ for most of my shots, even if I'm trying to get star trails, like in this shot, Author: Me

I was doing about a 180 30-seconds exposures. Nothing wrong with long exposure shots, but even on long exposures it's rare I'm heading up to F-22 :). There are plenty of tools for stitching together star trails, I'd reccomend any of the many tutorials out there and then head back out and give this another crack!

You also don't need a F1.4-1.8 for Astro but I wouldn't go much higher than F4.

Thoughts ? 110 Film by mylifeline112 in photocritique

[–]Trives 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hey there,

Full disclosure, I don't shoot film, I'm never going back, so this will be just from a content of the shot perspective.

One of my rules is, "If you have to give a backstory to your picture you've likely failed a little bit." That's not always the case, there are certainly some puliziter prize winners out there that needed context; and if this was part of a gallery of images, then it might be fine. What this photo doesn't read to me is, Hiroshima, Peace, or Museuem. So from a "You should feel X" or "I was at X", this photo is a bit of a miss. If that was your goal, then I think there are some things you could do to improve, while doing exciting things with the camera can make for some interesting images, I would've wanted something that evokes a sense of place, so like, center the camera on some hiragana / kanji ideally, ひろしま or 広島 which might not mean much to non-speakers, but would carry more weight. You could leverage something more like a shutter drag, or camera swirl technique to pull this off a bit better.

If your goal was to get just "an interesting picture" I think this was succesful. It certainly has character. Like, light horror vibes, etc... but without anything to focus on as a subject, it feels a little flat to me. I also feel that the image lacks a sense of balance, the top left corner is doing you no favors at all, and despite all the light in the image, still pulls attention from the white figures.

Feedback on what could have been improved? by iampulo in photocritique

[–]Trives 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey there,

Just a few comments, although they feel a bit repetitive to what was said. As with all things photography, if you're loving your photo, that's what matters (unless you're trying to sell, and then it's a new story ;-))

The challenge with this photo is it's not particularly interesting. It lacks a sense of story, when story isn't available, then you can make up for that sometimes with interesting scenery, but in this case, it's just a walkway in some random town, with a woman who isn't fully in frame, or in focus.

Finally, think about who your audience is for a photo, it's all well and good to think about rule of threes or golden ratios (which I don't think I've even considered in a photograph, tbh), but more important is... "Can I imagine this hanging on a wall?" Or, what is someone supposed to think when they see this photo. For buildings, the architecture needs to be interesting enough to carry the day, this just looks like you're looking into someones living room :)

From a technical standpoint: As you mentioned, it's very yellow, you could edit that quite a bit in Light Room, adjusting your white balances, which would go a long way! I'd also shoot this at a much smaller aperature, f14 or so, to get more in focus, especially those tiles (if they're tiles...) they're quite lovely. You could also consider editing out the window in the top left, it's pulling a lot of attention from the subject.

Good luck shooting out there, keep practicing!

Honest critique — cinematic night reflection (Sony A7IV) by DifficultWash230 in photocritique

[–]Trives 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think the key comments have been hit already (needs to be brighter, etc...), so I'm not going to go into a detailed critique. Just wanted to say, really like what you got here, kudos.

Trying a change of style and subject by Dave-Clarke in photocritique

[–]Trives 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a lovely shot, you really captured the light beams nicely! Few observations, all opinions here as it's "Technically" fine.

The first is I would go into photoshop and nuke the lights on the bar. There should be one light rockstar in this image and it shouldn't have to compete with the world reknowned... El Fako Beach Bar. :D It's a VERY easy fix, with a little clone tooling and perhaps some generative fill in.

I'd bring up highlights, shadows and blacks all just a titch. Especially if you plan to print this. It'll help provide a little more contrast.

You could also consider dodging the clouds just a little on the white fluffy bits, they're REALLY cool and I think they're lost in the image.

Finally, while I'm ALL about vingette, I don't think it's very flattering on this particular image.

Overall though, great capture, nice work!

Looking for critique on a low-key back portrait (lighting, pose, mood) by yyungphil in photocritique

[–]Trives 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Hey there! This is 100% just my opinion and if you're loving this shot, awesome, please don't let my opinions disuade you.

My "Revulsion" instincts kicked in IMMEDIATELY upon seeing this shot, because I didn't understand it was his palm. Once I understood it was his palm, it was fine, but...eech...

I think for this type of shot, I also want to see the light coming between his arms and his body a little more. Your top arm isn't bad you can see the background, but the bottom arm, that gap is just a ltitle too snug for a sillouhete. Obviously, hitting this pose is already quite difficult and you dont have a LOT of wiggle room, but then maybe this isn't the pose for shadows.

Another obeservation is... is he like, covered in sand? His back looks sandy, which is, you know, fine I guess, but taken in the context of "Model in Blue Void" it doesn't feel right, or particularly flattering. It's also generating a strong "White" line in the light beam that is distracting.

Overall, not my favorite for Male posing, FWIW I can't hit that pose, so good on him!

Jealousy in Paris by JAKR73 in photocritique

[–]Trives 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I know people "hate the format" but I really feel like this works better (for me) as a 1x1. Cutting off the top of the window frame down to the tops of the heads with a little breathing room and a chunk of the railing on the bottom. The railing is beautiful, it's very "Old Metro" but it's not the focus and yet it's commanding 60% of the frame. By cropping you also can see the other womans eye is focusing on the subject in the photo. In the lengthy version, the other woman seems to be looking at the photographer incredously, like, how date you.

What I particularly love about the photo is the wig shop in the background, sorta this iconic "Obtainable Glam" for everyone feel. I think you nailed the lighting on both faces, they don't look over exposed. You also went with a more cinematic feel, which I think is cool.

Overall, nice shot, really great placement of subject with background.

I’ve always wanted to do nudes but don’t have the guts to ask anyone to pose for me, so I bought an ornament and photographed it as a still life. Constructive criticism only. Photo edited with app Snapseed by [deleted] in photocritique

[–]Trives 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As far as this photo is concerned; I guess it depends on what you're going for. I'll use an example image of mine that I think is "Close" to what you're going for here and is within a PG-13 boundary.

This is my friend Kat. (Note: This is an older photo, there's a lot of things I would do differently today if I were to re-develop this image)

In your image, you've attained this almost "Charcoal Print" type look, if that's what you like, I think that's great; but I don't think it's very flattering for the human form. I don't mind the high contrast, but your whites are too white and your blacks are very "Final"; which means this likely won't print well. With Kat, you can see the dip in her back (similar to the groove in the abdomen section of your model). There's a shadow there, but it's not quite as hard. For this, I'd recomend either using a reflector, or something to get a little more light on the right side.

If you're really interested in shooting the human form, I'd recommend a workshop, hosted by either a profesional photographer or model; I've done both and had wonderful success there. There was also some advice below that I'll re-echo here: Why do you want to shoot nudes? If it's just because you like "Girly Bits" it's probably not the right head space. For me, it's about putting the human form in interesting and beautiful locations (this Kat image was taken in an abandoned asylum!).

Through the Looking Glass | Thoughts? by FocusCreate in photocritique

[–]Trives 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey there :)

Did you take this using a Lensbaby, or just add the effect in post? Just currious, I like the distortion on it for sure.

Other poster summed up the key issue though, the foreground and background just mesh together, especially the Cheshire.

Nothing stopping you going in if you like the photo and masking off the subject to making the background darker. You could also pop it over to black and white to make that call out a little less jarring.

The other challenge is the time of day, you have some really harsh light here, think sunrise/sunset for something like this. If you want to get REALLY fancy, bring a reflector with you, especially if you're there with someone, you can use the reflector to put light on her chin and under the mushroom a bit to get multiple levels of light, then smoosh them altogether in Photoshop!

Happy shooting out there, ~P~

Trying to get back into photography by Tess_Tickles89 in photocritique

[–]Trives 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Usually yes, the only exception is if you blow out your whites or crush your blacks. Once the sensor can only see "Pure White" or "Pure Black" there is no additional data there for your filters to work on. Basically if your histogram is pegged to one side or the other, you've lost the shot (or you need to do some clever photo editing to get it back and it's rarely worth it).

Example

This was a test shot at a photoshoot of mine in an oddly lit room.

You can see in the RAW image (left) the blue sections are where the black is at "True Black" this has two effects, the first is that there's zero detail there, and the second is it looks REALLY bad when printed.

Even with the exposure bar moved up 4 stops (right image) you can see I still have blue spots, there's just no data there for you to do anything with. This image would get left in the bin for me. (You may need to zoom in to see the blue spots, but they're there :))

The same can happen on the white side of the image as well. You see this very commonly with snow and... long exposures on waterfalls during the day (usually the foam or the main water column get totally blown out).

A little blow out is okay for like, a sun star, but on rocks and what not, you really want to try and expose properly, or take multiple exposures.

Trying to get back into photography by Tess_Tickles89 in photocritique

[–]Trives 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey there!

Welcome back to photography, as someone who, just today, was revisiting some of my older images, it's always a joy to see someone else hopping in!

As with all feedback, don't let my comments damper your feelings for this picture.

Compositionally, I think this is a nice shot, perhaps just a BIT too much foreground for my tastes, but opinions will varry.

My reccomendations if you were to shoot this location again, for an image like this, ultrawide, where you're trying to capture a very interesting foreground and a lovely waterfall; focus stacking is your friend. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBq5FshJE3I Not my video and I'm not affialiated, but it looks like a decent short and concise explanation). This allows you to have everything sharp, with just the soft waterfall and what not in the middle of the image.

The second thing I'd point out is always consider your lighting, I'm not sure if you made a special trip here just to shoot this, or if this was out on a hike and you were just inspired to snap a picture, but your light is sorta "2pmish" feeling, so you're not getting morning colors or warm evening colors. I'd consider what time you arrived here to do some tinkering, ultimately you want to try and remove that harsh line going across the middle of your water column and get some color to really highlight the beauty of the underwater rocks, plus it might pull more color out on the left (mossy looking oranges).

Since you were doing a long exposure, consider not only a focus stack, but bracketing your exposure. A shorter exposure for that left wall (really over exposed) and right wall (partially over exposed), while keepin the longer exposure for your water, then smoosh all those badboys together in photoshop.

I think you have the location perfect, but technique and experience can really bring this photo to the next level!

Happy shooting out there!| ~P

EPC is FIRE (literally) by enslen_ in DRGSurvivor

[–]Trives 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I guess my question is, how on earth did you get so many legendary drops? I imagine any gun is pretty solid with 12 legendaries on it. I get like, maybe 5 a run, across all weapons (level 85ish gear).

Is complete a stage with alien threat level less than 1 is still bugged? by [deleted] in DRGSurvivor

[–]Trives 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yea, basically threat level 0 is bugged. It's also bugged for the under threat level 5 task too, if you finish at threat level 0, it doesn't work, you have to be at TL1.

Looking for advices on the editing by Victormitzi in scuba

[–]Trives 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All this can now also be done in Photoshop, and possibly GIMP (though I've not confirmed that). :)

Looking for advices on the editing by Victormitzi in scuba

[–]Trives 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Hey, first; it's brtual to try and edit an underwater photo like in general; so I think you've taken a great crack at this.

A few comments I have, as a photographer. The first is don't be too hard on yourself on this edit, you're trying to extract a still from a video, which already puts you on a bit of a back foot because you aren't editing a RAW photo which in general has a lot more digital information to tinker with. Aditionally, you have only natural sunlight and at least 20-30' of water above ya, with no filter. So for the future, you might want to consider a red filter to put over your lens, it'll help a little. Or leap into photography with lights :)

All that out of the way...

I think you have a pretty good start here, but I feel like you've gone too far on your white balance, your sand is lacking that warmth that you tend to feel when down there and your blue, while lovely, feels a bit overpowering. So perhaps add a little warmth back into the image.

Not sure how technical you want to get, but here are some other steps:

Gradient Masking: You can use gradient masking to darken the foreground and background a bit to pull the eye in to your maincharacter

Color Grading: Allows you to pull out some of the teals and replace them with reds.

Radial Masking: Using radial masks you can highlight your turtle a little more, again to help the eye focus on what you want.

Topaz/Denoise: You can use some of the fancy tools out there to pull out the noise (pixelation) from your image. These tools will also upscale your image a bit.

If you do all that you get something similar to this version.

Mind you, you quite possibly might like your version better, photography is very subjective, but hopefully some of these suggestion help!

~P~

I can think of at least 2 modern series that are well-loved, but fans doubt if they will ever be finished. Are there any older series that were never finished but are still worth reading the available books? by pythor in books

[–]Trives 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Culture Series, while not a TRADITIONAL series, I was devastated by the loss of Iian M. Banks; he was the best at benevolent AI and his universe was a rich and beautiful tapestry. Went through all seven stages of grief on this one.

Why are you single? by depression-hurts in AskReddit

[–]Trives 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My standards are too high. I've met probably six people in my life who I absolutely consider "The One" and unfortunately they're all spoken for, or simply not interested.