Give me a critique on these three interesting photos

[@dam]

So...what'cha think?

My little cousin



Nearby beach



My parent's kitten

[GB1]

I top photo: good timing of the girl reaching down, it shows the interacting between human and the beach. The colors are a little wild and don't appear legit (?) Also, there apears to be some pixelization at the top. I'd crop the top out to where you can only see the waver break just often her head on down, see what ya get.

Middle shot - Interesting colors, but they also don't seem real. I feel like 2 o the 3 quadrants of this photo are filled but that the left one is missing something - a person, an old log, a ? There's also a little something missing in the foreground.

Bottom shot - great angle and timing. Is that a real cat or just a painting of a cat? If it is real, it seems that something else is getting the kitten's attention (a mouse maybe).

Question - how did you manage to post shots larger than 640 pixels wide? I can't seem to do it!

GB

[readingr]

Top photo gives me a little problem of where the crop should happen. I think getting rid of the oilrig and tanker is a must, they don;t add anything to the photo, and possibly a fraction off the bottom so that she isn't centralised in the photo. The capture of the reflection is perfect. Looks like you may have added too much saturation to this.

second photo - I have a problem with the darkness in this photo, the clouds and the rocks could have quite a bit of interest but they are just to dark.

last - shame the cat isn't looking at the wine. Interesting reflections in the window, of the inside of the room.

Roger

[@dam]

Thanks for the input. I suck at photo editing- particularly adjusting color levels and saturation (I'm mildly colorblind). Tonight when I come home I'll see if I can make some of the changes mentioned and reply back.

You can't upload pics more than 640 pixels wide, but you can link to them. The photos above are hosted by village photos.com. Right click on the photo and go to properties and you can see where a photo is actually hosted. The downside is those sites limit you to a fixed number of megabytes per day, so if you post a big photo to a busy site, after a few days nobody will be able to see it.

[@dam]

OK- I decided to make some of the changes while I'm home for lunch. I'm uploading them directly to this site this time though, so they're a little smaller.

Here is my cousin. All I did is crop it- no color or contrast changes at all. It is a bit washed out looking, but I just can't seem to get the colors looking right. Can somebody point me towards a Photoshop tutorial or something?

Also, I did crop the industrial crap out (which I didn't like), but does anybody think it looks somewhat worse for not having a horizon?


The second picture, of the beach, I cropped it (uncropped in the first post) and increased the brightness a lot and the contrast a little. The colors outside that day were very pale and washed out. I took a few in color, but this sephia toned one looked best just because the color was so dull anyway. (I do have some color photos if anybody is interested)

The wine kitten- it is a real cat. The cat is looking at my dad, whose reflection you can see in the window. The room was pretty dark- most of the light is from the small lamp you can see reflected in the window. I was trying to get the cat to look at me, but she wouldn't sit still. This is the best I could do. (Handheald Canon S400 ultra compact camera, so low light is a challenge)

[@dam]

Where'd my cousin go? Lets try this again...

Hmm...doesn't like it. I"ll just use village photos again, and make it bigger while I'm at it...

[@dam]

No comments on the changes, guys?

[julsoph]

Hiya...
I think your pic of your cousin is beautiful...I'm a big sucker for reflections, especially in water...but I think it would be stronger if you cropped it even tighter, where there was no wave visible, like approx. an inch above her back.
Also...just to add, I love the rippled effect of the water.

[@dam]

Yeah- that is kind of cool too. You really pick up the refelection details a lot more that way. I kind of miss the ocean and horizon though. She's pretty photogenic, and I have a ton of photos of her, but that one is my favorite.

[readingr]

Both the crops are keepers for me - the bottom one gives you the sea side and the top could be re-titled "Walking on Water"

Roger