Tomatoes

[MGJ]

Okay, I'm new to this forum, and frankly I'm scared of you all...but I want to improve in my photography so that beats my reservations.

This picture has no edits:


This one was straightened out just a tiny bit.
IMG_0701 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Hand held
Camera ModelCanon EOS REBEL T3i
Shooting ModeShutter-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed )1/25
Av( Aperture Value )7.1
Metering ModeEvaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation +2/3
Autoexposure Bracketing-1
ISO Speed 800
Lens EF75-300mm f/4-5.6
Focal Length300.0mm
Flash Off
FE lock OFF
White Balance ModeAuto
AF Mode Manual focusing
AF area select modeManual selection

[windrider86]

Dont be scared, only some of us bite. lol. Seriously, this forum is filled with the friendliest and most helpful folks around.
But, theres certain criteria we ask for in the critique section. Please read the rules/guidelines and edit your post accordingly. Thank you!

Now for my take, its truly an awesome idea and nicely played out. I'm sold on the angle tho. Looks like you may have been below the tomato? Do you have any sort of reflector? I ask because of the dark area in the very front that could use a bit of light to it.

[MGJ]

Ahh, I've been waiting two days so that my post could appear and I would be able to fix it...lol. I was lying on my stomach on the floor and outside was pretty dark because it was during Hurricane Irene, so there wasnt much light. I am aware that the shot needs to be straightened out. I don't know what to do in Photoshop to make it look good, probably cuz I don't know when to stop editing. I want it to look natural but I also want it to look good.

[windrider86]

ahh, sorry. Was out of town for a few days.
Leave it to a photographer to find a unique way to spend the time during a disaster!

[MGJ]

No probs. This might be off topic, but what do you do with a picture that you wanna keep but is underexposed? For example, this picture I'm attatching was originally in color and super underexposed (I forgot to turn my flash on) but I wanna keep it..is there something I can do to "save" it?

[JFSanders]

First, the original angled tomato shot is great! No need to straighten it.

Second, the cherub doesn't look underexposed to me. But I will look at it and get back to you.

Jim

[MGJ]

This is the original shot. I find that when shots are pretty dark trying to revive the colors is impossible, so instead I change them into B&W. I'm really lost when it comes to saving pictures so any advice is very much appreciated

[mcmartinez84]

In the tomato pic, there are some vertical lines that are a bit distracting. It looks like it might be water drizzling down a window. I wish the background had a nice contrasting color to it like the one in the flickr link you posted.

You can try playing with the saturation (or vibrance) of the tomato (I use LR3 and generally play with the individual color saturations in cases like this one). That might make it pop out more.

I'd straighten the pic so that the ledge is level.

You must have very steady hands! The tomato is nice and crisp

Overall I really like the picture with the water motion in there.

[MGJ]

I totally understand about the white lines. It was really pouring when I took this picture, so it would have been next to impossible (at least for me) to wait for a time when there wouldn't be a rain drop falling when I pushed down on the button. I did make a few changes to the picture and that's probably all that I'm capabable of doing because I'm a real newbie .
P.S. My hand is a real shaker but I thank God every day for the invention of burst mode

[mcmartinez84]

Yeah, it's too bad about the lines. The edit looks way better to me!

I'm a bit of a noob, so I don't do much post-processing. I play with settings and whatnot, but I'm not an avid Photoshop user. It seems more worthwhile to me to get a good picture first and then tweak little things with a computer.