C&C on these two images please ...

[ddt0725]

I have been practicing alittle in PS CS5 which is all new to me and one photo I posted in the "Post Your Pets" thread where for the first time I merged two images to have all three dogs looking at the camera at the same time.

The two photos below I used my 7d & 100-400mm set at 400mm, f/6.3, 1/1600. The first photo I post-processed in DPP and in the second one I followed the steps Scott Kelby shows in his CS5 book for fixing depth of field problems.

Please let me know what your opinions are on both of them ...

#1 - Post-Processed in DPP




#2 - Post-Processed in CS5




Not so sure I like the vignette he said to apply in the last step. Maybe if I changed the settings he suggested. For his picture of a bride, it looked good!

Thanks for looking!

Denise

[clemmb]

Denise,


Both are great. You are starting to make me look bad [] LOL


It looks like you did a great job improving the depth of field. The increased color saturation is a little too much for my taste but that may just be me. I use a vignette on almost all my shots but for nature shots I usually use a rectangular instead of a circular.





Mark

[thekingb]

Very cool Denise! I

[ddt0725]

Thanks guys!!


Ok, on this one I cropped the shoreline away more and reduced the vibrance and the vignetting some. I don't know how to do a rectangular one. Since I cropped more I had to redo the blur and this time I think I brought back too much in-focus area. I guess it just takes a great deal of practice to get it just right! I'll keep trying! Thanks so much for your opinions!!

[Sheiky]

Nice photo Denise. Quite some post-processing going on there, should have taken some time I guess? [A]


I think the vignette "problems" the others had is caused a lot by the size of the photo here on TDP. If I view it large on Flickr, it's really not that bad I think.


The shoreline was a little distracting and I like the photo more when it's cropped off a little.


I'm not sure how many steps you have putt in this photo, but I think your selection could have benefit from a little smoothing. It's a little edgy I think.


Other than that you have made an enormous improvement to the original photo, great work!


Jan

[andnowimbroke]

I like your last attempt best ddt. Very nice.

[ddt0725]

Thanks Jan & Mark! It only takes 5 quick steps to do and the only part that takes any time is getting the complete subject selected. Which by what I

[clemmb]

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This looks really good to me. The amount of saturation looks more natural.


Mark

[Steve U]

I agree with Mark, the saturation only looks apparant because you included the first shot. The colours on the bird are very natural.


Great work, keep it up.

[Richard Lane]

Hi Denise,


Nice shot! I also like the post processing. All I would add is a little space above the birds head. I like the amount of negative space above the birds head in your first 2 images better.


Rich