Newbie playground shot

[bam88]

Hi all, I just got my D90 2 weeks ago.. Looking to improve my photography skills. Any comments welcome. Thanks

1. in what area is critique to be sought?
The composition,foreground subject,colour contrast

2. what one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?
Improve my overall photography skills

3. under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
Cloudy afternoon

4. what the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture
Added black and white filter to make the colorful playground stand out more

Full resolution image: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4122/4753704929_4ae6405f76_b.jpg (6MB)

 

[cabbySHE]

The effect use is nice and appropriate, however, if a layer of gaussian blur is able to apply to the black and white background would be great.

A 5% burning to some of the sand also could improve.

 

[allenleonhart]

The effect use is nice and appropriate, however, if a layer of gaussian blur is able to apply to the black and white background would be great.

A 5% burning to some of the sand also could improve.

not just that. desat the colours a bit. while u are trying to bring out the colors of the image, too huge a contrast is too strong for me. slight desat will help. as with cabby, blur bg too.

 

[xxdoggyxx]

Not bad... Its a post processing or some sort of built-in filter???

And this place looks familiar... Mind telling me where it is? Looks alike to the warren or palmgarden... Hmmm

Cheers

 

[drinxman]

a good shot , and a nice attempt highlighting the playground ,,,, but could you highlight it more by reversing the affect?, like the playground has no "oomph" in its day until the kids come to play

 

[sakuragiz]

What is this B&W filter about? Want to know more.

 

[bam88]

Hi all,

Thanks for the comments I think the background blur would certainly help add focus to the playground.

drinxman: Do you mean b/w playground with colored blackground?

xxdoggyxx: It's actually the playground at my condo haha

sakuragiz: I added a black and white filter with a layer mask to keep the playground in color while the background becomes black and white

 

[Jonathan Ang]

a good shot , and a nice attempt highlighting the playground ,,,, but could you highlight it more by reversing the affect?, like the playground has no "oomph" in its day until the kids come to play

Agreed. Try using B n W on the playground instead?

 

[night86mare]

when people start out in photography, they will go through passing fads.

there will be an attempt to try out all the techniques talked about in photo mags, online.. and then instead of finding something that suits the technique, they shove subjects into the technique. selective colour seems to be a pet peeve of many newcomers, and there is nothing wrong with that.

here, even with the selective colour treatment, the scene is cluttered, distracting and full of clashing elements. the selective colour treatment seems to isolate the playground better, but that is just running away from the truth, i.e. that this scene is full of elements that compete for attention.

concentrate on the basics. simplify, isolate. then have in mind all the tools available to you, and apply them and see if picture with technique is better than picture without. this is much better than trying to use techniques to save pictures. technique should be used to enhance a picture that is already good, not to save pictures that would be poor otherwise.