Here's another one

[yakfisher]

I think I over-cropped, it is a little grainy. Other than that how do the colors look? Thanks in advance for the input.

[Steve Foss]

yakman, the colors look good to me. The subject is not sharp, however, so there probably was a case for some increased shutter speed. Either that or the focus point caught the weed (the shaft of which is the sharpest part of the image) instead of the duck. And that dead weed is distracting me quite a lot.

[finnbay]

Without that weed, it's a dandy shot. I like the color and the vibrance!

[Dbl]

Yakfisher I noticed in most of the photos you posted today that there was some object, grass, stick that intruded on the main subject of the photo. It may be helpful to take a bit more time in composing your photos and look for these distracting elements and try to minimize there presence so they don't detract from the main focus of your photo.

If you are serious about photo work whether you print or just view on a screen you really must work with known colors and brightness. The only way you can hope to be accurate about your colors is to use some form of calibration device on your monitor. It is just another in a long list of items one needs when you start down the digital route.

I know a number of folks don't bother calibration, but when you start trying to see if your colors are correct, whether you have the proper brightness, etc and want feedback on these things, everyone should be working from the same base point. That is really another step in getting optimum results from your work.

Dan

[Steve Foss]

I've got a different perspective on calibration. I've calibrated my CRT monitor to match what comes out of my photo printer, and that's all I need. I didn't buy any calibration software/device to do it, but just used the calibration options that OSX offered and tweaked it from there so what I see on the screen matches what comes out of my photo printer.

And since I did the math and realize I don't save any money printing my own work (same cost, WAY more time spent), I now send all my printing electronically to a great photo lab that produces top quality work, and they offer color correction on every file, so I don't need a calibrated monitor to work with them, either.

And I'm told that saving for the Web in sRGB color space, which is the Web standard, makes color quite consistent.

All that being said, I am a Mac user, and I'm also told that Mac systems are easier to get along with than PC when it comes to calibrating color on monitors. And of course LCD screens are toughest of all to calibrate. The LCD screen on our Mac laptop shows colors quite like our two CRT monitors do, though images viewed on LCDs always look sharper than on CRTs.

So, to calibrate or not? Dan makes some excellent points. In the end, the choice is up to each of us.

And yakfisher, keep on posting away, and if you want more C&C when you post images, just ask for it in the post. I don't critique, or encourage others to critique images, unless the poster asks for that. Many people who post pics here just do it to share and have fun, and don't really want C&C. Your work is nice, and we'd like to keep seeing more.

[Dbl]

What Steve says, keep showing us your work yakfisher, you have posted some good stuff!

[yakfisher]

Thanks for all the input it has motivated me to spend time learning how to use PS to correct images, to take more of my photos in RAW and to learn to organize my work flow when editing images. I have no problem taking constructive criticism and you guys have provided a ton of useful information. I will certainly continue to post more images. I plan to spend part of my time afield with my camera instead of my shotgun, documenting some hunts with my friends. I picked up enough pointers in 3 posts to avoid making some big mistakes. Things like pay better attention to my aperture and watching my composition better (or at least learn to edit out some of the small inconsistencies). Thanks for taking the time to provide input and I'm sure I'll be posting more soon. Thanks again.

Matt

[Steve Foss]

Stfcatfish say he who take both camera and gun into the field soon has choice to make.

I have made my choice, and sold all my guns but the deer rifle.

[yakfisher]

The unfortunate problem is I shoot a gun better than most of my friends so I don't think they will let me walk unarmed and photoing their mishaps all day. But I will heed the advice.