How Good is my Photo..?? Discussion.. Any tips, Criticisms or Ideas Please..!!

A great set of photo's there NG!

 

Thank you ladies, and Armandii . I am hoping to do an event called a 'tough mudder' or similar this Saturday. Basically lots of runners, in lots of mud, and with obstacles.
Unfortunately the motor has to go into the garaaaage for some investigative work (about the fourth time now ). She suffers from a terrible graunching sound on braking, but it's intermittent . Vauxhall has already changed the pads, and caliper carriers (£300+ at their expense). I am hoping I can leave it with them and collect it later in the day.
I have also had an invitation (twice) to link to a professional photographer, but as yet, I haven't acted upon it. I just don't get the time to do anything these days . I really should make time to at least contact him.
Yes @Apple Blossom , definitely a rough sport!

 

@Sheal , I have been meaning to show you an example of how to straighten a vertical (the post), without changing the horizon. This isn't a great example, but it gives an idea of how it works.

 

So I presume you have tilted the picture to the left?

 

It's really easy. You just grab the the left corner of the picture, and drag it over until the post is straight. Then... you simply crop it .
It can be a bit more complex depending on the composition. I could have used a tool to put the wall straight behind it, but I couldn't be bothered . On a sky, you wouldn't even notice any distortion (in a cloud for example).
No tilting or rotation as such.

 

But then that turns the scene in the picture into a lie NG. Every photo I take is untouched, I don't alter them in anyway apart from size. I can't see the point in taking a photo and then altering it, I want to look at these pictures in the future and know what I'm seeing is exactly how it was at the time, not something that has been made up to make it supposedly easier on the eye, that's not natural. If I don't like what I see in my shots then they get deleted.

 

Well I understand exactly what you are saying Sheal, but you have to remember that it is the lens that distorts the image (wide angle or even fish eye if extreme). What I have done is alter the image back to probably what your eye 'did' see at the time, and therefore more natural than not changing it
If I get a good shot, I would rather tweak it back to 'natural' than delete a good image
Quite often, your camera doesn't record what you actually see. A correctly exposed foreground, with a blown out sky, is not exactly how it was at the time. This is why photographers use nd grad filters.

 

Lets go back to your two pictures above. Are you telling me that the corner post was upright to the natural eye? I don't think so somehow.

 

Well this is it. I don't recall any photographers that I know off who remember if a post is exactly vertical or 1 degree off when they took an image. I imagine most would do what I have done, and assume it was straight. I don't see how straigtening it, is destroying its properties as an image. The components of what make up the image are still there.
It is a common argument, and like I said, I do understand where you are coming from.
I recently got into a discussion about windswept hair on a model portrait. There were a few really distracting/annoying hairs across her eyes/face. I said remove them, some said it's an outdoor portrait, you expect it. The OP did remove them though, and it made a huge difference (one which he preferred too). The other guys then backed off.
To be honest, I think they were just people who couldn't have edited them, and so argued that they should be left . It turned out to be a really nice portrait in the end. Deceit? maybe. A nicer image of the model? Definitely. Still the same girl, same location? It looked it to me

 

Slightly off topic now, but just for info ..... editing photos to improve their looks goes back decades. It was being done way before digital
Its like a Canon or Nikon scenario. At the end of the day, we choose what camera we like, and leave each other to it

 

Yes it is down to choice and talking of which I'd pick the first photo above every time because that is genuine and the second one isn't.

 

Hi there,
I really was intrigued by this kind of thread. So what do you think about this picture?

 

Could have been great if the bird's head was in a different position, like above it's body.

But isn't that a picture originally posted many years ago (2013?) on a German forum?

 

I had a crack at a 'pain and suffering' obstacle course a little while back, at Corby castle. Not as easy as you would think, so had to do a few close crops of the ones who got up close. I had a 70-300mm and a 17-40mm , but not always able to switch easily at speed.
www.flickr.com/photos/kjl42

 

Mojacar sunrise