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UER Mobile > UE Photo Critiques > Elementary School (Viewed 2251 times)

post by corgerz

Elementary School
< on 5/19/2014 5:22 AM >

Hello, here's some photos I took on my most recent adventure. This is my first time posting here but I wanted to get some critique. These were what I thought came out best.

1.

(I hope I attached the images correctly..) Any tips on composition and editing would be much appreciated.

[last edit 5/19/2014 5:26 AM by corgerz - edited 2 times]

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post by fornaz

Re: Elementary School
<Reply # 1 on 5/19/2014 11:14 AM >

Cool pictures. I've wanted to explore a school for a while, I hope I'll get around to it soon enough.

I don't think there's much to fix in terms of composition. I like to throw in an odd close-up once in a while to spice things up, but that's really up to your personal tastes. You could also try to focus on an object more, ie. the chair and desk in your first picture. Try it and see what you like.

The one "flaw" that is more obvious are the blown lights, apparent in picture 3. It's a classic problem with long exposures and dark places with windows. If you don,t have / can't be bothered with multiple layers, try and shoot with a higher ISO, so you don't have to expose as long, you'll often get a bit more details in the shot. There's also the lightroom sliders, and though they can't magically bring back information for pixels that have been whited-out, they're often impressive. The ones most likely to help you are the 1. Exposure compensation; 2. Contrast; 3. Whites; 4. Highlights. It's also worth it to check the HSL's Luminance tab, and mess with the colours until you get the right feel.

Best of luck!

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post by puddlejumper12

Re: Elementary School
<Reply # 2 on 5/19/2014 12:06 PM >

Pretty good! Way freaking better than when I first posted here that's for sure. I like all the photographs really, the compositions are bad. I think there's just some tweaking and things to keep in mind for the future.

1) Horizontal and vertical lines: This boils down to preference, but I prefer to have them be straight across or up and down and try to compensate for the curvature of the lens in some instances. I think it adds a very professional or finished look to photos. But use at your discretion.

2) Compositions: Pretty good. I like 3 even with the blown highlights. I always try to employ the rule of thirds and get the most interesting subject matter into this format. I never subscribed to it before, but after playing around with it, it does help photos get that compositional edge. Yours are good, but for the last one in particular I'd love to see that toilet a smidge more to the right so its about one third of the way over. But that's it.

3) Blown highlights: I'm not as much of a stickler as some people on here, but 3 is a biiiit too much. I don't think it would look good with a clear view outside, but I think its a bit too bright. Sometimes blown highlights can look epic. This one is close but just a little bit much. Just keep it in mind!

And take all this advice with a grain of salt. I'm far from a professional photographer by any definition.

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post by corgerz

Re: Elementary School
<Reply # 3 on 5/19/2014 4:11 PM >

Thanks for all the feedback, I really appreciate it!

I'll try to keep it all in mind the next time I go exploring. I'm probably going to take the 3rd one back into lightroom and see what I can do with the blown highlights. Now that it's been pointed out, it's bugging me as well and I'd like to try and fix it. I definitely think rule of thirds would have helped #4 as well. Here's to improvement in the future then!

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post by acktomic

Re: Elementary School
<Reply # 4 on 5/20/2014 1:08 AM >

If you are using a tripod...you can take two exposures and blend them together (not hdr) but in photoshop. I can link you to a good article about it. I started doing it with CS6 and it is awesome.

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post by ISO640

Re: Elementary School
<Reply # 5 on 5/20/2014 11:14 AM >

What are you editing with (find the noise reduction if you have it tho that usually makes the images less sharp)?

It looks like there's a lot of noise in the images (hard to tell at the size displayed but I can mostly see it in the white/off white in the images). That means you're shooting at a high ISO. If you ARE shooting at a high ISO, I'd suggest a tripod, lower ISO and longer exposures (which don't help with the blown highlights but you've been given fixes for that).

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post by corgerz

Re: Elementary School
<Reply # 6 on 5/20/2014 4:27 PM >

Yes, link me that tutorial please! It'd be interesting to try.

I edit in lightroom 4. I'll mess around with the noise reduction in that. I do currently shoot on tripod, ISO 100 and long exposures. I use aperture priority mode (it's a canon 7D). Is there something else that could be causing the noise? I'm 90% sure it's not the ISO. I've always noticed my photos aren't as sharp as I'd like them to be.

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post by ISO640

Re: Elementary School
<Reply # 7 on 5/20/2014 9:55 PM >

Posted by corgerz
Yes, link me that tutorial please! It'd be interesting to try.

I edit in lightroom 4. I'll mess around with the noise reduction in that. I do currently shoot on tripod, ISO 100 and long exposures. I use aperture priority mode (it's a canon 7D). Is there something else that could be causing the noise? I'm 90% sure it's not the ISO. I've always noticed my photos aren't as sharp as I'd like them to be.

Well, I'm not seeing a lack of sharpness. It could be me though and the image size with the noise I'm seeing. Could also be how you're saving the jpg.

As far as sharpness, try shooting two stops up from your lowest f stop. So if your lowest f stop is 2.8 then try shooting at f/5.6. Generally, that's the sharpest point of the lens.

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post by acktomic

Re: Elementary School
<Reply # 8 on 5/21/2014 2:57 AM >

holy crap...that's a good camera...i shoot with a crappy nikon d3100...

i'll find the tutorial tomorrow after work....going to bed now...

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