August 14, 2009 4:11 PM PDT
Experiment 2: Photo editing
(Credit:
Lori Grunin/CNET)
Don't click on that Photoshop icon quite yet; we're talking about a different type of photo editing. The kind where you selectively edit down a bunch of photos to the few (in this case one) you like. In the second of our experiments and exercises, we ask you to bring your thought processes into the light. In the comments, post links to any set of five related photos--different shots of the same scene--then tell us which one you think is the best, and more importantly, why you think so. Then, look at other people's sets and see if you agree with their decisions. We'll discuss the results in our show the week of September 7.
Learn, comment, enjoy.
Senior Editor Lori Grunin has been covering digital imaging for two decades, but her memory's kind of sketchy on the details. You can hear about it every week on Indecent Exposure, the podcast she co-hosts with Matt Fitzgerald.
Lori Grunin has been an avid photographer for almost 30 years, and spent the past 15 attempting to master every aspect of technology.
Matt Fitzgerald has been involved with digital camera technology and the photo industry for more than 15 years. Matthew's background includes work as a professional photographer, a technical representative, and a repair technician.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37791728@N07/sets/72157621917719547/
The models name is T'nisha.
T'nisha 1: The focus is on the light diffusing through the wrap.
T'nisha 2, 3,4: The focus is on her and the reflection of the wrap in the water.
T'nisha 5: Is a close up.
I would probably pick: T'nisha 2.
Simply because it contains all the elements: The diffusion of the sun through the dress, the reflection of the wrap in the water, and the model herself with a very calm demeanor.
Highgloss
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sebastiandavies/sets/72157622044909062/
Was raining and got random shots in back garden of it raining on things.
Rainy Day 5 was my fav!
From Seb :)
Cheers, Tim.
This is an exercise in selection, indeed. Here is a glimpse into my dizzying selection process & the influences involved (sorry in advance for all of the photos, but each was a serious consideration for the architecture submission):
1. Who is the audience & what do they consider "architecture"? Is it something commercial, residential, traditional or modern (or any other of the thousands of styles)? Local classical would have been the court house across the street from my office (I like both, but I didn't feel that either was strong enough to go up against the submissions on this site):
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p58/super6s/cnet/courthouse-1small.jpg
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p58/super6s/cnet/Courthouse-2small.jpg
2. Little Rock is not a hot spot of cutting edge architecture (don't tell my bosses I said that). Not many cool buildings, so instead of a picture of a cool building, I have to rely on a cool picture of a building (much harder to do). That would be the Clinton Library (building featured before in the bridge to the future photo). I like this, but it looks too much like a promotional or pamphlet photo:
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p58/super6s/cnet/LittleRock.jpg
3. I have only had my new DSLR since March & have not traveled much to take arch. picts. I have only been to Disney & New Orleans with the new camera. New Orleans is great, but houses @ 35 mph on the St Charles trolley line, the aquarium & the zoo, don't make for great submissions. Jackson Square in N.O. was going to be my water submission. However, not enough "architecture" in my mind for a submission:
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p58/super6s/cnet/Jax-reflectionbw-small.jpg
4. I did get one good photo from the Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs. I love this a lot. I love seeing things screened & you have to fill in information, but I didn't think this was strong enough for this site either. This could have been in the glass submission, but someone else did the Anthony chapel (same architect):
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p58/super6s/cnet/thorncrowntubw-small.jpg
4. A little humor...The tree at the center od Magic Kingdom... basically painted concrete over steel frame structure & vinyl leaves = impressive, but architecture? naaah!
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p58/super6s/cnet/AnimalKingdom-small.jpg
5. Disney is cool & all, but not what I want to be my submission. If I was willing to do Disney, it would have been this one (EPCOT):
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p58/super6s/cnet/EPCOT-small.jpg
6. I also like to do abstract architectural, but I didn't think this would have been well received. I think it is cool, but others might just say, "huh...":
Air force chapel - film shot:
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p58/super6s/cnet/AirForceChapel-2small.jpg
St. Louis arch - film shot (again, screening the subject):
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p58/super6s/cnet/StLoiusArchsmall.jpg
For the selection for the week I have to go with my favorite architectural style - Gothic. Here is the national Cathedral in DC. This was taken a few years ago on my 3.2Mp point & shoot. If I was to take a trip to see something based on architecture, it would be a gothic cathedral (anyone want to fund a trip for me to Notre Dame...no, nobody?...doool). In fact we had one day in DC & we spend 1/2 of it at the cathedral alone. I could have spent the whole day there, but the wife dragged me to the National Mall as well (Washington Monument, Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln's monument, the Whitehouse, ect....all those other things in DC).
I decided on this shot because I love this building & I think the style & the mood of the photo conveys the darkness associated with the style of the architecture.
Architecture submission:
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p58/super6s/cnet/Nationalcathedral-BW.jpg
Oh, once I decided on this photo, there were a few decision to make, as this is a crop of the original. I have probably bored too much already, so I won't go there.
Markitect
(mark)
Here is my architecture picture for this week:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/digital-salsa/3831505618/
Thanks!
Eric
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yellojkt/sets/72157621954404991/detail/
I was looking for foreground interest, reflection in the river and good saturation of color from the gold paint in the morning sun.
I decided that the best picture was this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yellojkt/3832771043/in/set-72157621954404991/
Which was the only one that wasn't the entire bridge, but I like that another bridge is visible in the background.
That was the most deliberately composed shot of the set. I was deliberately going for the reflection and I liked having the matching yellow buoy in the lower right part of the frame.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22756141@N06/sets/72157621964390267/
I think I would probably choose Zebra Lines as my favorite. What do you think?
Just curious why were they all together like that? Were they spooked?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41850775@N08/sets/72157622133906588/
I think 5 is the best picture in the set because the framing of the rocks and plants around the water. Also, the slower shutter speed(1/30 lol) makes the water appear more flowing then turbulent.
The subject is a spider I found in a lamp shade. First a little background on how I shot this pic. I used a D90, a 50mm f/1.8 w/ a 10x macro afocal lens attached and a Vivitar 285hv w/ a RF remote. Hand held macro on a really small subject made for some really tough shooting. Holding the D90 in my right hand and the flash in my left while manually focusing. Since my 3rd arm hasn't grown in yet, manually focus means moving the camera to just the right focal distance and hoping that something is in frame and in focus. And the lamp is over my head so I'm aiming almost straight up on every shot.
I felt there was nothing really special about this photo but the spider was in focus.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/madmarv/3858721562/in/set-72157622023043911/
I liked this shot because I kinda got the vertical lines of the lamp shade to line up with the camera frame. Then I remembered that it doesn't really matter because I could rotate in post.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/madmarv/3858721596/in/set-72157622023043911/
The spider appears to be ready to pounce at me in this photo. Kinda has a sense of action in what was a very dull subject. I'm sure that I blinded the spider for life after the first flash.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/madmarv/3858721658/in/set-72157622023043911/
I liked this shot becuase the spider is upside down and it feels like it is looking at me like Spider-Man. Unfortunately the spider is so close to the edge of the frame that I couldn't visualize a good crop for this photo. Otherwise, I would have picked this one to polish.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/madmarv/3857932091/in/set-72157622023043911/
Ultimately I chose this pic for further processing because under 100% zoom it had the most detail of the spider and I could see its eyes clearly. None of the other photos had a good shot of the spider's face.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/madmarv/3858721534/in/set-72157622023043911/
The final post-processed photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/madmarv/3854887643/in/set-72157622023043911/
My five where from the Worldwide PhotoWalk in Downtown Ann Arbor, MI, I must have shot over a thousand images that morning. I narrowed it down from that to a handful and from that the final one I submitted. Here are 5 of the the handful and why I choose these. Although not of the same thing, but a theme. They are all however HDR.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kmacke/sets/72157622028491091/
1. Window Dressing - I liked the overall feel of the image. How the two people where dressed compared to the mannequins. The two seemed more rough in contrast to the summer apparel. What I didn't like was the reflection in the glass, it seemed to overpowering.
2. Art - I like the way the shadow fell from this bike rack. The lines in the cement crossing into the r. The texture overall. What I didn't like was the pair of shoes which I could seem to creatively get out if the image.
3. Where Is 9 - There were doorbells all over of various types and this set on the wooden block seem so warm. The fact that there was no number 9 apt. added to it because of course 7 eight 9. It had a little humor to it. What I didn't like was the DOF was to narrow, kind of makes me dizzy.
4. Two Of A Kind - This one to me just seemed to have a gritty urban feel to it. Again the couple sitting drinking and smoking you get a better view of the two. There shoes are very worn and clothes a bit small. The color of her scarf complemented the tent color. Again there clothes contrasting with the clothes in the window, new vs old. What I didn't like was her legs seem to dirty.
5. Sex Sells - The colors seem to glow here in the background, the crossing sign - pops the greenery's highlights push through. The post and ad are in complete contrast. The staples covering it means a lot of things went on here. The ad it self is very simple and draws you in quickly from one word. What I didn't like was the van in it. It didn't seem suburban enough, to much like a work van.
In the end I picked "Two Of A Kind" because I felt having people in a photo gave it more feeling.
Keith Macke
http://www.flickr.com/photos/deathdisco89/sets/72157622160889502/
I would like to submit my five photos for the photo editing exercise. However, I am really interested in feedback on the first two photos as I want to include either or both in a portfolio on a protest march that I would like to exhibit.
The photos were taken at a protest march over the summer in San Francisco. All the photos were taken with negative film (Nikon N90S with a Nikkor manual 35-105mm lens) with C-41 processing. The first two photos have been scanned at a higher resolution. All five photos are full-frame with no cropping.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marinasf/sets/72157622117208595/
I really like the first photo as I like the girl who is walking away from the crowd and striking out on her own, parallel to the bus.
My friend, who went to art school for photography, thinks that I'm too far away and that I should have been much closer to capture her expression and facial features. She prefers the second photo as she thinks it is more lively--primarily the guy in the foreground leaning forward. I believe I used a flash in this photo.
Do you and Matt (or anyone else) have an opinion.
Do you or anyone have an opinion on cropping? My friend suggested I crop the information beyond the bus (to the right of the bus) as it's not pertinent to the photo, which I agree.
Thanks everyone in advance for any advice you may have!
My 5 edit shots are from the flower contest. The comment line in each photo in the flickr set is the reason I chose my Susans with Bling.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35413458@N03/sets/72157622141833225/
Thanks again for your photon-ic-ly hard work.
Dane in NY
Times Square/Broadway: These 5 photos were taken on a hot "summers" night in May--it didn't get that hot again until August! Though not technical gems, I think they capture the movement and excitement of the city. It happened to be on the Friday night prior to the "permanent" closing of vehicle traffic in that area of Manhattan the next morning. Well, as permanent, I guess, as anything can be in NYC. LOL
I had made three sets, but ultimately chose this one because the rush.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30978872@N03/sets/
Thanks for such a good thinking exercise. grace
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30978872@N03/sets/72157622171964333/detail/
Thanks again,
grace
http://www.flickr.com/photos/xylite/sets/72157622320625762/
Originally I had a lot of photos I wasn't satisfied with from this shoot and spent a long time deciding what to salvage. I had a lot of trouble sifting through what to eventually post on flickr and ended up with 16. Here's the five I narrowed down for this experiment.
1. This was taken earliest of the 5, just as the sun was coming up. Because of this, I think the sun has less presence and impact than the others, and it also seems to be a little too centered. I do like how the silhouette of the branches seems to cradle the sun.
2. I like the cooler color temperature of this one. I think the lake has a more expansive feel. I dislike how bunched up and cluttered the branches are. It makes it look messy and disorganized, especially compared to the mostly empty space on the lower left.
3. This one seems the most balanced to me. The sun has a high presence and draws the towards the left of the frame, while the branches make an interesting framing, but aren't too distracting. Perhaps the horizon is to high.
4. This one gives a lot more focus to the sun reflecting on the water, and I like the almost glaring brightness of the sun. The problem I have with this photo is that it seems otherwise uninteresting. It feels subjectless and empty to me.
5. This one is similar to 3, but the sun is much brighter and larger. The branches are more subtle and focus is more to the middle left instead of the far left. I'm liking the positioning and location of the sun more on this one, but the photo has less contrast then 3. I also like the color shift across the horizon in 3 more, which is more prominent then in this one.
I think my one choice is 3. Next would be 1, 2, 5 and 4.
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by LLOYDjr
September 9, 2009 5:29 PM PDT
- Here is my set of 5:
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(45 Comments)http://www.flickr.com/photos/digitallloyd/sets/72157622199597437/detail/
This was taken in Long Island at the William Floyd Estate. Looking across the bay, a family was strolling on a stretch of sand, with the little girl running ahead.
My favorite shot is #2 (WFE0047). This shot shows the peak of action of the girl's somersault, whereas the others show before or after the peak. It also moves the parents more off to the edge to emphasize the independence of the girl compared to shot #4.