[Pavel]

I havent been around much for a while. I hang around Flickr mostly, trying to learn composition. Here is some of my more recent stuff.
The first photos is an attempt tosalvage photos from France from 2005 shot in jpeg. My first photos with then new D70s


#1







#2







#3







#4







#5







#6







Next some stuff from this winter






#7







#8







#9







#10







#11







#12







#13

[Toad]

These are amazingly good. Your learning is paying off! There are so many excellent ones that it is hard to single any out - but my favs would be #1, 3. 6, 9, 12. Fantastic!

[Kombisaurus]

There are some gorgeous photos here. I particularly like 3, 6 and 9.

As you've posted this in the critique section, I'll try to offer some constructive criticism.

Some of the colours appear just slightly unnatural to me in a few of the shots, but don't take that as a negative point because in this case I think it really adds to the flavour of the photos (in much the same way that, say, polaroid film gives distinctive colours). I'm not sure if this was deliberate or not, but it works for me.

I realise that the PP in images 12 and 13 is supposed to be obvious (I like what you've done with 13 but not so sure about 12), but in the other images I assume the PP is meant to be invisible to the viewer.
Looking at these other images, I can just begin to see the tell-tale signs of PP creep into some of them which you might want to be a bit careful about. It's not bad by any means, and I'm sure a non-photographer wouldn't notice it, but if these were my shots I certainly wouldn't push the PP any harder than you have here.
Examples of this are the NR/sharpening in #2 is just starting to affect the textures, the chroma noise in the boosted water shadows of #3 (particularly on the left), the over-saturation of some areas of some photos (I assume due to masked curve layers being selectively applied), and some visible masking (such as the tree/sky line in #11).

But they are lovely images, and the PP you've applied is thoughtful and well executed.

[Pavel]

Toad, Kombisaurus, thank you both for commenting. It seems that you both like the same photos.

Kombisaurus, thank you for your comments. Indeed I want a critical feedback and I thank you. About the colors: I still can not resist the wow effect of rich colors. I try to keep it in check, but it keeps on creeping into most of my photos. With the photos from France, the problem was that I worked with Jpegs and that I had to adjust exposure on some. Not much and often only in shadows, but with jpegs, there is not much latitude and chroma noise creeps in easy. Chroma noise is less of an issue in my recent photos, which are more carefully exposed and shot in RAW. No question the problems you describe are there.

I was a bit careless with #2 and I oversharpened after downsizing for the web. I see the artifacts in texture. The salvage operation on #3 was about as successful as I am capable at present. The original jpeg had a lot of problems. I like the photo, but I know that technically it is very weak and effectively unprintable. I am still very new to masking and I think I overfeathered on # 11.

A big part of my problem is that I am not a perfectionist and it is something I will have to tackle soon, if I am to improve further. Right now, however, my biggest gap is composition, which I know nothing about. I am investing all my photo time to learn composition right now. I even launched a site on Flickr that specializes in composition. I agree with you though being meticulous is important in getting good photos and I have not yet started being truly careful from planing a photo and taking it to processing it.

Thanks for commenting

Pavel

[Wedding Shooter]

Hi Pavel - wonderful work. You have really explored the subject and composed very well. 6 and 9 are excellent examples of beautiful composition and lighting.

Well done.

[NT73]

I prefer 8, & 10, and the last one, which has an unworldly look. Sort of more like a painting or etching..

[Pavel]

Thank you wedding Shooter for stopping by. I am now thoroughly fed up with winter photography and all i want to photograph are things green (and full of chlorophyl - for you smart guys ready to make recommendations about other green things). Pavel