Camera Labs

and




the black and white conversion was done in photoshop with channel mixer. i applied the green filter preset. i'm not sure which one i like more yet.

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-b.
constructive critique *always* welcome!

Hey b.

Welcome to the Forum

I just saw some of your pictures and .. wow, they are such great captures. My favorites are the last two from the horse collection and this portrait of the little girl The colors in this one are great and I prefer them over b&w. This is just my personal opinion though. The shot itself remains very emotive either way. Great job! I was also thinking, what would you think of maybe adding a subtle vignette to the color one? I think it would help focus the attention even more on the subject. just an idea

Feel free to share more of your photos. I liked these a lot

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Nikon D40x | AF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II | AF-S 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 VR

andy -

thanks so much for your compliments, and i think the vignette is a great idea! thanks!

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-b.
constructive critique *always* welcome!

Personally I like the color one, good contrast

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Setup: Nikon D300 | Nikkor 18-200mm VR | Nikkor 50mm 1.8

Really nice shots - I like them both, but I think I prefer the colour one...

Yeah I like the colour one better as well because that yellow give the photo heaps of .. I don't know the word but just gives it that extra thing. I was watching a vid and the photographer said that the photos that turn out best in black and white are photos that the colour doesn't do much for. The example was a fence post and he took a picture of it and the colours were actually distracting from the subject so it looked awesome in black and white. (I guess that's not a very good example of what I was talking about.)

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Camera: Canon 40D, 17-85mm IS
Knowledge of Photography: Hours of reading and videos.
Computer: iMac 24inch 3.06Ghz 4gb ram 500gb HD Nvidia 8800 GS 512mb

Awesome shot. I like the one with colour better since there's so much of it.

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Graham
Flickr

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Oh well, nothing like being in a minority! For me the black and white shot works best. The little girl's body language says "sad" to me and the bright yellow in the colour shot overpowers that.

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Alltho the color-picture is a nice picture, i like the b/w the best.

nice caps b.

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Canon EOS 40D - Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM - Canon EF 50/1,8 II - Canon EF 70-200/4L IS USM - Speedlite 430 EX - Lowerpro Nova 4 AW
My Flickr

The B&W works very well for this image, very nice....... have you tried a square crop to make your subject much more of a focal point.....

big pix - no, i'm not really a huge fan of the square crop as i'm a huge fan of the 'rule of thirds' in composition. not to mention part of the charm of that photograph is *where* she's sitting and cropping it out would probably take part of that away.

thanks for the suggestion though!

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-b.
constructive critique *always* welcome!

I see what you mean........ and agree......

....... now about the rule of thirds........ it is not a rule but only a guide...... and some of the more interesting images in to-days world, the rule of thirds does not get a look in......

...... good composition is always important and what has been portrayed here works well

i hear you on good shots not seeing the rule of thirds.. it's just my 'happy place' photographically, so to speak and i tend to default to that particular 'rule' over all of the others. not always, but usually.

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-b.
constructive critique *always* welcome!

andy, what do you think of this? i don't have any software that would automatically add a vignette so i used the burn tool in cs3...

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-b.
constructive critique *always* welcome!

ummm .. personally I like it a lot. I don't know if it's just me but I actually like some vignette in certain shots. What do others think? Of course it should not be overdone but I think adding some strategically can enhance a photo's feel.

The most important though is what you think of it as the shot is your creation and vision.

Also, you know, I have a simple trick to do vignette with PS. I usually choose the center of the picture on a new transparent layer and then add a radial gradient going from transparent to black (from center outwards) and then adjust the layer's opacity to control the intensity of the effect. Might be easier and smoother.

P.S. I like the "rule of thirds" too

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Nikon D40x | AF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II | AF-S 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 VR