Back from Cuba! Got pics!

[Fardringle]

While there are some basic guidelines for framing which munky already mentioned, the only REAL rule is that they are your pictures, so process them they way that you want them. Other people will always have different opinions, but in the end the only thing that matters is what you want because they are your pictures and you are the one that is going to be looking at them.

If you want to see how many different "right" answers there are, give us a link to a picture (preferably the raw photo from the camera) and then look at the many different ways that each of us end up processing the shot.

 

[jpeyton]

We can give better advice if you show us some pictures

 

[scootermaster]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
We can give better advice if you show us some pictures

Done and done!

I've uploaded two pictures.

The one of the guys playing stickball I've already tinkered with and have a decent feeling for what I want. The one of the girls in the cemetery I haven't done anything with. So it'll be interesting to see what you all come up with. Not that there's really much to do there, but still....

Edit: I uploaded one more, just for kicks (and since this one can have some interesting color-correction done to it).

Further Edit: The only time I dislike being tall -- I'm over 6'4" -- other than when I'm in an airplane is taking pictures. I pretty much have to kneel down to take pictures with appropriate perspective. Or just crop the bottom out of all of them.

 

[Fardringle]

I don't generally do a lot of processing on my photos unless something is really special or has a specific purpose, but here are a couple of simple ideas that I might use with the three shots that you posted: click me

I didn't do much with the stickball picture except a small adjustment of lighting levels and a crop of the empty road at the bottom to make it look more like a panorama and to accentuate the space between the ball players.

I bumped up the saturation on the graffiti shot and cropped the edges a bit to get rid of anything that distracts from the art. The girls could be considered "art", and not only because their clothes match the colors on the wall, so I didn't touch them..

I decided to do two versions of the cemetery photo. The first just has the levels adjusted and a bit of extra contrast, for a standard snapshot look. For the second one I took the first version and moved the individual color saturation sliders all the way to zero for all colors but Orange, Red, and Magenta in Lightshop. This gives the impression that the scenery is all in black and white but the girls still have their color, highlighting the contrast between "life and death" in the scene. It did leave a bit of color in a few of the weeds on the ground near their feet but it's not really noticeable unless you are looking for it. If I really wanted to do the effect properly, I would create two layers, completely desaturate one layer, then "paint" in the girls from the colored layer. But, I'm too lazy to do that right now so you just get a quick and easy version.

 

[scootermaster]

Originally posted by: Fardringle
I don't generally do a lot of processing on my photos unless something is really special or has a specific purpose, but here are a couple of simple ideas that I might use with the three shots that you posted: click me

I didn't do much with the stickball picture except a small adjustment of lighting levels and a crop of the empty road at the bottom to make it look more like a panorama and to accentuate the space between the ball players.

I bumped up the saturation on the graffiti shot and cropped the edges a bit to get rid of anything that distracts from the art. The girls could be considered "art", and not only because their clothes match the colors on the wall, so I didn't touch them..

I decided to do two versions of the cemetery photo. The first just has the levels adjusted and a bit of extra contrast, for a standard snapshot look. For the second one I took the first version and moved the individual color saturation sliders all the way to zero for all colors but Orange, Red, and Magenta in Lightshop. This gives the impression that the scenery is all in black and white but the girls still have their color, highlighting the contrast between "life and death" in the scene. It did leave a bit of color in a few of the weeds on the ground near their feet but it's not really noticeable unless you are looking for it. If I really wanted to do the effect properly, I would create two layers, completely desaturate one layer, then "paint" in the girls from the colored layer. But, I'm too lazy to do that right now so you just get a quick and easy version.

Thanks for responding! I did the same thing with the ball players; that's what I meant about being tall. I sometimes get tired of crouching down and zooming in, so because I'm taking the picture at an downward slope, I get more foreground than needed. I also like the color correction you did with the graffiti picture. I'm not so into the black and white + color type pics, but I can see what you were trying to do there.

Anyone else?

 

[Fardringle]

I don't normally do the black and white and color effect together either, but while I was looking at the colors in the picture I realized it would be really easy to do, so I decided to go ahead and have a bit of fun with it.

 

[scott916]

Damn, that wall piece is awesome.

 

[scootermaster]

Originally posted by: scott916
Damn, that wall piece is awesome.

The graffiti or the photograph? I assume you mean the former....