The all-purpose running photo/critique thread.

Cam, I'll go, I'll go, I'll go ... that line never gets old

Thanks for the advice. I've never heard of artifacting. What is that?

A few more things about our process here: We can't make photos any larger than 170 resolution. The raw photos (out of the camera) come out as 72 DPI and I increase it to 170. I'm wondering if I leave it at 72 and simply adjust the other measurements, so that I'm not ruining the original integrity of the shot. Also, I absolutely freakin' hate CMYK — ruins all of the original color. Hate it with a passion. Reds and blues turn to mush once I switch from RGB to CMYK. On top of which, I'm sending my pages 25 miles away to the central office for press guys I don't trust. There have been days I've toned several photos to the point I like only to see how the pressguys butchered them during pre-press and final printing by adding too much ink or not enough; ruined so many good shots.

The one thing I have control over is color/black and white. We have the option to run color on inside pages but 4 years worth of butchery prompted me to make all photos inside black and white no matter what. I almost want to run B&W throughout the section and save the pressers the "responsibility" of extra work.

I do use color balance sometimes. I can't figure out dodge and burn tool. Someone showed me, but it won't work when I try. As soon as I download yesterday's baseball shots I'll upload a few trying your methods.

Gracias.

 

"Taking the mask off" ... just another term for "sharpen the mask" in the sharpen filter.

 

One of the easiest ways to color balance in in the Levels menu, using the eye dropper tools.

Double click in your white eye dropper, click on something white in your photo. You'll see in your window the color you've selected. Bring it to the left to neutralize the color cast and hit OK. Then click in the same spot and you'll see the whites become neutral according to the values you set.

 

Local kid threw 47 pitches in the 1st inning of a state semifinal yesterday. Suffice it to say, his team didn't fare too well. Finished with 118 pitches in 4.1 innings. Great kid.

So I kept the mask on this one. For the paper this week I'll not take the mask off of this shot and see how it reproduces in the paper.

 

Same shot, did auto level/auto contrast and sharpened the mask.

 

I'm not a photographer, but when I cover golf, I take a digital camera the department has and take shots. I don't know how to adjust anything, but I love taking golf pics. I think these are good, but what the hell do i know.

EDIT: Can't get pics from Web on here, so I'm just posting a link. Sorry for our paper's awful Web site and the giant SAMPLE over the pics. The golf shots are mine.

http://photos.sonewengland.com/thumblist.asp?pg=2&ID=2596&Pub=SoNewEngland.com&Category=Other%20High%20School%20Sports&DateRange=Last30Days&Keyword=&Photographer=

 

Found this fella after the game yesterday on a farm in Richmond (Vermont, that is) ...

 

Love the shot of the kid in the blue shirt blasting out of the water that's splashing every which way. Nice job.

 

That's a good shot. I also like the one next to it where you can see the ball when the guy has a salad hanging off his club head.

 

There's some really nice work there, sir. You have some really nice action moments, but I think your best photo is the one of the young man, head on, watching his shot. His mouth's hanging open and it's a really well-done capture of a different kind of golf action.

 

I may or may not know who that kid is. Typical _________ High baseball. You always take great photos Xan.

 

Great pic.

I even like how Gatorade and Powerade are not full words. Love how the kid is disrespecting his glove by lying it like a taco on the ground. It shows that the season is over.


I am by no means an expert on image quality and sharpness or light meter readings, but i think I had a very good professor in college that taught me how to look at the enire frame.

This is a great photo. It would be a shame if it was cropped.