| » Forum Index » Readers' gallery » Topic: Some snaps |
|
Posted on 19/07/05 6:35:54 PM |
|
maiden
Golden Gif Gagster Posts: 471 Reply  |
Some snaps
Although I've posted this in the link section as a free stock photography resource I would also like to post it here for some critical feedback in terms of photography. http://www.maidenart.co.uk/ma_stockimages.html I realise there are a few images with whited-out highlights and shadows without much detail due to the extremely hot and sunny weather we had down in Cornwall/Devon and that I was also too lazy to bracket most of my shots or at least take one for highlight detail and repeat the exact same shot for shadow detail to be later blended in Photoshop which wasn't really possible as I had failed to pack at least one of my two tripods. But I have tried to improve the overall tones to create some pleasing images. _________________ mad as a badger and twice as furry |
Posted on 19/07/05 6:49:58 PM |
|
Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 7023 Reply  |
Re: Some snaps
There are some great images there - the beach scenes, particularly. As for the shadow/highlight detail issue, my solution is always to duplicate the layer, desaturate it, change its mode to Hard Light and then adjust that with Curves. It can boost the contrast of colour images tremendously, without oversaturating the colours. One thing you need to watch out for is peripheral elements that break up the flow of an image. In the Alley, for instance, those rubbish bags could really do with being cloned out! As could the drainpipe in Barrels, and the electric cable at the top of Mural. And as for that plastic box behind the first gargoyle pic… yuk! But some beautiful images there - particularly the cave, which looks like it's been painted, or rendered with Lighting Effects. I may call on you for one or two Challenge images! |
Posted on 19/07/05 6:58:28 PM |
|
maiden
Golden Gif Gagster Posts: 471 Reply |
Re: Some snaps
Yes Steve, I agree totally about the rubbish bags, drainpipe etc. and I kept them in deliberately to provide the members some opportunity to brush up on their cloning. The Gargoyle was also hopefully a future Challenge that I hope you might set as the two gargoyle pictures are of them looking rather fed up so I left the terrible background in as they were to be isolated using a clipping path. The Challenge was to be cheering up the gargoyles a test in cloning, smudge and Liquify techniques. But I understand what you are saying and I wll get around to imrpoving the qualiy of this batch of images. _________________ mad as a badger and twice as furry |
Posted on 20/07/05 09:09:59 AM |
|
Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 7023 Reply |
Re: Some snaps
I think the gargoyles may well feature this Friday! |
Posted on 20/07/05 09:14:00 AM |
|
maiden
Golden Gif Gagster Posts: 471 Reply |
Re: Some snaps
I have already included a clipping path for the single gargoyle and I'm about to do the same for the two gargoyles - Do you want the original gargoyle images or the ones with clipping paths? Edit: I've completed the paths for both gargoyle pics and also the barrels pic. The alley, mural and barrels have also been improved eliminating the unsigthly extrusions as you mentioned - are they any other images that need improving? Further edit: I've just tried out the technique you mentioned Steve about duplicating the layer, desaturating, setting to Hard Light, and adjusting the curves with the Alley picture - I also made a further modifications by cloning in brickwork detail into the whited out hightlight on the right hand side and also make a second copy of the background layer setting it above the hard light layer and setting it to Darken this had the effect of bringing back some of the original midtones into the picture whilst retaining the contrast and colour saturation of the Hard Light layer - you might want to give this a try yourself. _________________ mad as a badger and twice as furry |
Posted on 06/11/05 10:06:02 PM |
|
paul 2005
Guest Reply |
Re: Some snaps
Sorry to post a reply to this thread so long after it was started but I am new here and I was looking at past posts. You have some nice photographs on your site, but I have a question. Why do you do such extreme crops for the thumbnails? They give absolutely NO indication of the image you are getting. You may as well have text links only. One has to click on each image to see if it's what you want or not. It must be putting your bandwidth usage up considerably.  |
Posted on 06/11/05 10:50:21 PM |
|
trinityofone
Guest Reply |
Re: Some snaps
I have to agree with Paul. For an artistic portfolio, cropped thumbnails add intrigue but for stock photos, people really need to know what they are looking at from the outset. _________________ A happy-go-lucky chap, always dressed in black |
Posted on 06/11/05 11:23:04 PM |
|
rufus
Destructive Demon Posts: 243 Reply  |
Re: Some snaps
Thanks to Paul's link I read this postiing and I enjoyed looking at maiden's website. I have no problem with the thumbnalis, you could argue that traditional thumbnails are to small to be of any practical use, the detail could actually encourage you to view the photos. Keep up the good work! |
Posted on 07/11/05 08:37:39 AM |
|
maiden
Golden Gif Gagster Posts: 471 Reply |
Re: Some snaps
Yes Rufus simply shrinking the image would have done them no favours at all. As for bandwidth the host I'm with offer unlimited bandwidth (within reason) and at the moment I'm sure I don't get so many hits to make the bandwidth usage a problem for them or at least they haven't said anything yet. Whilst you say the thumbnail doesn't really reflect what you get I do feel that I've created thumbnails that reflect the essence of the larger image and therefore invites the viewer to view the fuller image. It is a free photography resource, if I was charging I'd be more worried about reflecting the true content of the image and offering a "lightbox" approach to the image thumbnails like Corbis and the others do, but I really don't have the time to create such complicated coding for something that was merely a collection of snaps, and not exactly professional quality ones at that. _________________ mad as a badger and twice as furry |