Tell me how to make this better!

technoholic

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So, first of a set of images taken with my new 85mm 1.8. Playing around wide open with some depth of field. This picture is straight out of the camera, no editing. It was lit from camera right with my new Apollo Orb (Which is great BTW) and my speedlite. I like the image, I like the out of focus areas. But what could I do to improve? Partly with regards to composition, but mainly to make the colours "pop"? Ive seen many images where they look vibrant and nicely saturated without being over the top, but I was really hoping I could achieve those sort of results in camera, without having to do too much processing. Maybe im expecting too much but for now ill put it down to bad technique. Any advice would be appreciated.

Candles by DevCPhotography, on Flickr

Some of the photos in the 85mm group look amazing! (Flickr Search: canon85mmf18 I want to be able to take photos like some of these. As always though, im too critical of my own pictures sometimes and think they look terrible, even if someone else looks at it and says it looks nice, so what do i know!
 
Hi, your photo looks pretty good, the only thing I can spot is the exposure could be bumped up a bit. You will need to do a bit of PP if you want it to have more vivid colors though.. The things you see on flickr are rarely "straight from camera"!
 
Agree, it's slightly underexposed. Is it SOOC RAW or JPEG? RAWs are never vivid so always need PP imo. If it's JPEG a lot of cameras allow you to adjust saturation levels etc.
 
If you want to send me the RAW I could have a play around?
 
Hi all thanks for your replies. I've had a play around in Lightroom and this is what I've come up with:

IMG_0869 by DevCPhotography, on Flickr

Sancho and anyone else who wants to have a play around, heres a link to the public file in my dropbox, i can't seem to attach it here: Dropbox - IMG_0869.CR2

And the original image was JPG straight out of the camera, I didn't play around with the saturation settings in camera, only did that with the RAW in LR above.
 
This any better?

o2NLdkg.jpg
 
Looks good! I think it looks similar to the one I edited above but possibly a bit more detail. What did you do to it? I'm inly looking at it on a phone right now so might not be the best judge at this time
 
I've had a play with this file technoholic and can't really make any significant improvement on your second effort (or first PP attempt). I prefer the colours to Sancho's too (sorry Sancho ;)).
 
Might be slightly OTT for your taste but the plastic wrap on the items tends to make them look paler than they actually are...

IMG_0869-resized-tweaked_zps68def429.jpg


Jim
 
Thanks all!

Thanks snerkler, appreciate your comments. PP (properly) is all new to me, ive been messing with photoshop for years but only now am I trying to learn the method behind these processes. Id be grateful if shotokan and sancho could share what you did so that I know what to do if I want to achieve similar in the future?

What I did to mine was just in LR, bumped the clarity a little, vibrance a fair amount and tiny bit more saturation, along with a bit of curve adjustment to bring out the highlights a bit more although I think I might have reversed that as I didn't really like it.

Shotokan, did you bump the clarity a lot in yours? I don't think its OTT per se, just think that style would suit a different photo, or perhaps suit this photo if it was being used in a certain way? Just my 2 pence!

Also, in the absense of a live subject for now, heres a couple more that i took with the 85mm to practice some "portraiture" (dont laugh! you gotta take what you can get!)

Sad Teddy 1 by DevCPhotography, on Flickr

Sad Teddy 2 by DevCPhotography, on Flickr
 
Might be slightly OTT for your taste but the plastic wrap on the items tends to make them look paler than they actually are...

IMG_0869-resized-tweaked_zps68def429.jpg


Jim
Bit too much contrast/or black levels for my tastes :(
 
Thanks all!

Thanks snerkler, appreciate your comments. PP (properly) is all new to me, ive been messing with photoshop for years but only now am I trying to learn the method behind these processes. Id be grateful if shotokan and sancho could share what you did so that I know what to do if I want to achieve similar in the future?

What I did to mine was just in LR, bumped the clarity a little, vibrance a fair amount and tiny bit more saturation, along with a bit of curve adjustment to bring out the highlights a bit more although I think I might have reversed that as I didn't really like it.

Shotokan, did you bump the clarity a lot in yours? I don't think its OTT per se, just think that style would suit a different photo, or perhaps suit this photo if it was being used in a certain way? Just my 2 pence!

Also, in the absense of a live subject for now, heres a couple more that i took with the 85mm to practice some "portraiture" (dont laugh! you gotta take what you can get!)

Sad Teddy 1 by DevCPhotography, on Flickr

Sad Teddy 2 by DevCPhotography, on Flickr
Another fan of the shallow DOF I see :)

Any chance you could post bigger images rather than just the thumbnails?
 
Sorry, i thought if you clicked on it it took you to the full size flickr. Can you tell me how to link to embed a full size image from flickr? I dont want to upload them to another place just to share them on here, but cant work out how to do it!
 
Another fan of the shallow DOF I see :)

Yeah, when I first learned how a SLR worked properly, shallow DOF was the first technique that really made my photos look sort of "pro" and now I do love it, but as im going forward, im being careful not to rely on it as a default because i dont want to pigeonhole myself. Hopefully I can begin to start perfecting different styles soon!
 
Sorry, i thought if you clicked on it it took you to the full size flickr. Can you tell me how to link to embed a full size image from flickr? I dont want to upload them to another place just to share them on here, but cant work out how to do it!
Yeah it does take you to flickr, but it's nice to see a proper image on here, then click through to Flickr if we want to look closer.

To get the link click box with the arrow through it (that comes up as share this picture if you hover over it), then select bbcode and the size of the image, and then copy the link.
 
These photos have been edited slightly, they have had their clarity taken down a little, and the vibrance also taken down to give it a more muted, subdued look
 
Yeah, when I first learned how a SLR worked properly, shallow DOF was the first technique that really made my photos look sort of "pro" and now I do love it, but as im going forward, im being careful not to rely on it as a default because i dont want to pigeonhole myself. Hopefully I can begin to start perfecting different styles soon!
I love shallow DOF too, but most of all I love the subject isolation giving the superimposed look, such as that when taking someone in a street and they're all in focus (not just one eye, or half the face etc) but everything else is out of focus. Ideally I'd love the 135mm f1.8 for this, but it's outside of my budget. Plus trying to convince my wife that spending over £1k on one lens is a good investment isn't easy :laugh:
 
These photos have been edited slightly, they have had their clarity taken down a little, and the vibrance also taken down to give it a more muted, subdued look
Look fine to me :)
 
Look fine to me :)

Thanks! Yeah i know what you mean about subject isolation, being able to make them almost pop out of the image is something I like too, i haven't had many opportunities so far to try that but hope to get the camera out and about soon and find some willing subjects.

Does anyone reading this shoot portraits? One thing I am struggling with is interested backgrounds. Currently have a background support with a big white muslin backdrop, and its fine for certain pictures, but I want something with a bit of interest in its shapes, but that can look good when blurred out when wide open.
 
Thanks! Yeah i know what you mean about subject isolation, being able to make them almost pop out of the image is something I like too, i haven't had many opportunities so far to try that but hope to get the camera out and about soon and find some willing subjects.

Does anyone reading this shoot portraits? One thing I am struggling with is interested backgrounds. Currently have a background support with a big white muslin backdrop, and its fine for certain pictures, but I want something with a bit of interest in its shapes, but that can look good when blurred out when wide open.
I don't shoot portraits really, just for practice although I'd love to shoot them. I just don't have any willing subjects. There's loads of ways to get interesting backgrounds that lend to beautiful bokeh if you're willing to go out and about. Might be worth while searching for portraits on something like Flickr and seeing if you can get some inspiration? I really like trees and foliage in the background :) (Not my images btw, I can only dream of creating shots like this)

Forest Princess by ljholloway photography, on Flickr
~ Dreamy bokeh ~ by Diиa ツ, on Flickr
 
no i dont have many subjects either. But those pictures are fantastic, if i could take a picture like either of those, id be extremely happy! I bet that first one was many times more difficult to take than it might seem, at least for me it would be. It's that sort of composition I struggle to visualise
 
no i dont have many subjects either. But those pictures are fantastic, if i could take a picture like either of those, id be extremely happy! I bet that first one was many times more difficult to take than it might seem, at least for me it would be. It's that sort of composition I struggle to visualise
From previous discussions I believe there may be a fair amount of PP at play, but still a superb image.

This is possibly my best portrait so far, not brilliant though.
DSC07398 by TDG-77, on Flickr

And this is probably my best superimposed look.
DSC07142 by TDG-77, on Flickr

Going to be a bit of a struggle to get the real superimposed look shooting with a short ish length f2.8 on an APS-C though. Would love the 135mm f1.8 :D
 
They look good though, the bottom one does pop from the background, looks superimposed for sure. I like how not only is the background out of focus, but the subject is quite sharp too, making it look even more contrasting.

I definitely need to get my 85mm 1.8 out and about, and im on the search for a 50mm 1.4 too, but would love a 70-200 L 2.8, it seems to be the best lens for everything! Good general portrait lens to allow shooting at 200mm to compress the image a bit (although I still think that the whole "compressing the image at longer focal length" subject is a bit of a myth, im still to be convinced it makes much different apart from changing the perspective), plus it seems to be a great lens for many many other things too. Costs a fortune also though! Getting that past the missus would be tough! The canon 135mm f2 would be a great lens too, but not sure if i'd get much use with the 85mm in play, would be better if I go full frame in the future
 
I usually go with something not too distracting and blur it.

Observing by the sancho, on Flickr

Although as you'd see from my Flickr I tend to do more 'studio' stuff.
 

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