Ski boots-which for poster?

[amy_bb]

I took these two pics this weekend and my husband has suggested we enlarge one and frame it for our rec. room. I've edited both (first shot at cloning and some other enhancements) and I wanted your opinions on 1-which one is more interesting? 2-How did I do on the PP and do you catch any glaring erros on either:

[JaxD]

Since I'm quite a newbie to this photography thing, I generally don't comment in the Critique section as I don't think I'm 'worthy' yet to have an opinion.. But since no-one else has replied, IN MY OPINION, the first one is better. I prefer the depth of field and lighting. In the second shot, my eye skips over the first row of boots and is then drawn to the blurred figures in the background whereas in the first one, my eye roams over the boots. I can't see any glaring PP errors personally but I'm new at that too so they'd have to be pretty bad for me to see..

[Pitrih]

one more vote for #1

because there is much more focus on the boots than on the #2

[amy_bb]

Originally Posted by JaxD

Since I'm quite a newbie to this photography thing, I generally don't comment in the Critique section as I don't think I'm 'worthy' yet to have an opinion.. But since no-one else has replied, IN MY OPINION, the first one is better. I prefer the depth of field and lighting. In the second shot, my eye skips over the first row of boots and is then drawn to the blurred figures in the background whereas in the first one, my eye roams over the boots. I can't see any glaring PP errors personally but I'm new at that too so they'd have to be pretty bad for me to see..

Being an extreme newbie,I feel exactly the same way! I appreciate your input and feedback and I have found on this site that it's not only the pros and seasoned photographers that give helpful feedback. Sometimes the newbies will catch something or have a useful take on a photo that is helpful to the OP as well.

Thanks also for your feedback, Pitrih.

Once I posted (and re-edited) both photos I could easily see that #1 was more pleasing for all of the reasons stated.

Do you think I should try and edit out the guy in the bike jersey in the background? If so, what should I replace him with? In photo #2 I actually replaced a whole person with grass (go me!) but this one is tougher. I almost hesitate to do so as this photo marries my hubby's two loves--cycling and skiing but from a photographer's standpoint, I wonder if he is too distracting.

Thoughts?

[Eileen D]

It's really the bright yellow jersey that's the distraction so instead of trying to get rid of the entire figure, perhaps you could work on toning down the jersey so that the viewers eye doesn't jump to the yellow.

[amy_bb]

Originally Posted by Eileen D

It's really the bright yellow jersey that's the distraction so instead of trying to get rid of the entire figure, perhaps you could work on toning down the jersey so that the viewers eye doesn't jump to the yellow.

Great idea! I boosted the saturation of the whole photo and the jersey completely popped out when I did that.

Still new to editing....technique for toning down the color on just the jersey? I use PSE 8.0.

TIA.

[Eileen D]

I downloaded your image, Amy, and tried a quick edit to see what would happen to the yellow. Here's the result:




I selected the yellow area, desaturated it and then darkened it so it becomes a black shirt. The figure is still there but at least the bright yellow isn't competing with the color of the boots! If you find that the border of the selected area is too defined, you can increase the feathering level of the selection and/or use the cloning tool to soften the transition. I also cropped a bit more to the right to get rid of a few more distracting details.

[amy_bb]

Eileen--
Your image must have moved b/c it is not available to me per your posting.

Thanks for the tips on the edit, though. I will give it a go myself and if yours comes back up I can see how I did!

[Eileen D]

The image comes up on my screen, Amy. Let me know how you do with your editing!