I could see the beauty and the natural lines in the mushroom.
Type of Critique Requested
Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
The Lines of Nature. The TONE of the photo . I tried to capture something simple and yet complex.
Gill, nature does have lots of lines and shapes, and you sure found and captured them here. B&W works well to reveal the lines and shapes even more. I think you did a fine job with the tones. The black background (BG) makes the mushroom stand out nicely.
I found your macro photography on insects and birds. WOW. AMAZING. What lens do you have to capture the quality. Did you use a tripod. I don’t know how to respond on your site yet but I’m learning. Beautiful work.
Gill wrote:
I’m new to this group and learning how it works.
Gill, please feel free to ask us anything concerning help with navigating the site, and you can always use the little chat balloon at the top to get help.
There are lots of folks here that are more than happy to provide guidance with the site as well as photography guidance.
The image you posted is very nice, I too, like the lines and shapes and the contrast between light and dark.
Have you tried rotating this to other orientations? It might be worth exploring
I see quite a bit of digital noise in the whites, that’s likely from being slightly underexposed and from a higher ISO value.
Do you have a noise reduction software program like Topaz Denoise or similar?
It’s still a good quality image but reducing the digital noise would make it even better
Hi Mervin. Thanks for compliment and suggestions.
I didn’t reduce the noise mainly because I like the old photography from years ago. Edward Weston is my favorite photographer and I love that old photo look. Never perfect and always questioning the eye.
It’s great to be in this group and learn and become a better photographer. Always listening and asking questions.
Peace to you.
Thank you, Gill. I am glad that you like my insect images. I shoot Canon, so my main macro lens is the Canon 100mm L f2.8 marcro lens. I shoot mostly handheld with a flash and diffuser. By the time I see an insect in the garden and run get the camera, set up a tripod, etc., they would be gone. So I keep my macro camera, lens, flash and diffuser on the ready so if I see something I can run get my camera and hopefully get a photo before the insect leaves. I love shooting macro. It is a whole different universe looking at the details in tiny little insects up on the big screen.
If you need any help feel free to ask. If I don’t know I will try to find someone who does. Looking forward to more of your images.
I use Nikon cameras. I have a macro lens from 1979. Real piece of glass. I use it when setting up a shot. I did my mom’s 100 year old violin using my macro lens and setting up on tripod. 100 ISO and long exposure.
You have a great eye and know how to shoot real quick.
Very cool.
Hi Gill - I really love the idea of this and with a little refinement it could be something. I’ll download and play with it tomorrow, but in the meantime I wanted to chime in a welcome and that I have a vintage Olympus macro lens from the same timeframe as your Nikon. They are gems aren’t they? I don’t use mine much anymore since it’s so fragile and has been repaired once and can’t be again. My system lens is pretty sweet, but those old lenses are fantastic.
Hi. I’m interested in the changes you see for my photo. I’m pretty old school in my editing and try to get that look that Edward Weston got using film. Sometime he created a softness and tone that’s really interesting. It’s cool you find my photo interesting and see other possibilities. Have fun and hope to see the results. Peace to you.
No problem with old school at all. So I tried working with this, but it’s so noisy that the things I wanted to do just aren’t helping and are in fact making the noise worse. I think there is some good detail and tonalities here in addition to the amazing shapes, but as you don’t list your camera settings or editing steps, I’m not sure how to suggest a fix. Can you upload an unprocessed version and talk about exposure and other settings? I’m also curious about the light source. A window? I love sidelight to bring up modeling and texture and it works well here.
I usually don’t keep up with camera settings. I’ll try to do better as I join this group. I did use high ISO and natural light. Good shade so no hot spot. Not much editing in photoshop. My Shell photo should be up today or tomorrow. I shot it with different view. Thanks for showing interest in my photography. I’m 71 and have done film/darkroom work. New to digital. Really enjoy photoshop. I don’t keep original shots for the most part. I may have this one. If I can get that old school not perfect look in some of photos I’m pretty happy. I look at Edward Weston a lot. The photos and the way they are printed. The “ Bell Pepper”. I love that.
Take care and thanks.
I’m learning how to navigate on the NPN site so I’m a little slow.
No worries at all, Gill. The Weston influence is clear. I think your time with film and darkrooms will pay off with digital as you get more immersed in it. The flexibility is greater and the way you can apply edits even finer. As you explore Photoshop you might benefit by checking out Luminosity masking with a plug in called the TK8 Plug in for Photoshop. It was created by Tony Kuyper, also a member of NPN, and works to help you create and use luminosity masks to better isolate tonal values in your photos and apply edits to only those areas you choose. It does a lot more besides that and while the learning curve is a little high, the pay off is huge. And there are a ton of resources to help you learn it. A google search will get you to his website and I can direct you to other good learning tools as well. It’s a lot of fun and has made life with Photoshop a lot easier!
Thanks. I don’t understand Luminosity mask. But I’ll learn.
I have lots to learn in editing but also learn not to over edit. Check your Instagram. Hope you will follow me as well. Love your photos. The Red Sky and Trees. Stellar.
Gill, I think I like the first image better, especially knowing that you are trying to give the image the grainy look of old B&W film. It feels like you lost some details in the mushroom in this image in the process of trying to remove noise. I think these days most of us try to avoid noise, but I can certainly see in B&W trying to go for the grainy/noisy look too. It is all in our taste and vision. I looked up Edward Weston’s photography.
Thanks. Yes I lost some detail but kept the tone. Actually brighter in spots. Edward Weston was the guy I saw in a documentary years ago. Almost had a heart attack. I know that style of photography. This soft and sharp and emotional photography that questions the eye. He runs some photos off the edge. I love that.
He saw the world from a different perspective. I see that way. I beat to a different drum. My whole life.
I’ll work on my photography as I go and post more photos. To be the best photographer/composer I can be. Thanks for taking the time to look at my work. There are lots of great photographers on this Network. I’ll fit in the best I can. Really enjoying meeting everyone. Peace to the Planet.
Gill, we usually let others know that you have an updated image by adding +Repost or something of that nature to the right of the title. I will take care of it. To do it in the future, you will find right next to your title is a pencil, which if you click on it you can type +Repost and then click the check mark below to accept.
I meant to comment on this one earlier and got busy – but you got good responses above. I think this is very interesting and definitely evokes Weston. I could go in between the two on brightess. There is a strange glitch in the second, toward the lower left – an odd shape.
I appreciate this one although my preferences lean toward a lot of breathing room in the frame and soft tonalities. I love the way the lights, mids and darks play here! The structure of the veins and the light on them is wonderful.
Just wanted to add – please, please – keep your original files! Your processing skills will increase and they can often be re-processed in a way you might find better. (Think of the original file as the original digital negative or master file.)
And I just found some of your music – I think it is is going to take up some of my time! Very interesting!!
Gill, the lines and shape looks very good here. While current software allows a lot of noise reduction, noise can have a place in creating a feeling. I prefer the original post as the redo includes a number of places where the brighter details have been lost. As I look, I enjoy the sense of dancing, which has me thinking that rotating to vertical would emphasize that just a bit more.
BTW, you can add the redo to the original post by selecting the edit button, which lets the viewer click back and forth between the versions to better see the changes. When you do that add something, such as repost, to the title.
