[Sandy Hancock]

Much better Neville!

[noelpolar]

Yep....well done.

[severalsnakes]

I have gone back to my images and modified my settings quite significantly and chosen only a few of the better ones, which you can view in my Google Photos album here. Tell me what you think now? Is there more that I should do?

Dang! I thought they looked fine before, but I admit, I like the look of the images even better now. Well done! :-)

[aleonx3]

As many have suggested, your shots are great, and with just a little less 'HDR' like processing, it would even be better. I too find that most of that has to do with saturation of color (example, red and orange). I also find skin tone a little less enticing, but then again, I am not sure how close would it be to the actual skin tone on the people. FWIW, I am also a Lightroom user and shoot lots of events, I have recently used Silkypix ver 6.0... and find that to be extremely useful in post-processing to correct skin tones, color profile and also default noise reduction straight from RAW. From now on, I use LR only for addiing watermarks and reduce the size of the JPG photos. Again, the shots you took are great, don't let anyone discourage you.

[Exroadie]

Unless you're trying to sell your pics, the only thing that really matters is whether you like them.
Maybe he's just jealous of your saturated reds!

[derekkite]

Whatever you did made the background busyness seem less obtrusive.

Great shots. Maybe if a pro says something it means they looked.

[c.a.m]

Neville,

I didn't have a chance to offer any comments on your first post. Looking at your second set, all I can say is "wow" and "awesome." IMO, you certainly have a superb knack at capturing the intensity and action of the match (perfect timing on your part), and I think your revised post-processing does full justice to the shots. I'd certainly be proud to have taken pictures like yours (but I still have lots to learn before reaching your level).

And, thanks for bringing your subject to the forum (and to other posters for the suggestions) - I've learned a few things through this thread, and have figured out a few refined settings for my own post-processing attempts.

Cheers,

- Craig

[skierd]

Unless you're trying to sell your pics, the only thing that really matters is whether you like them.
Maybe he's just jealous of your saturated reds!

If you read a little closer, you'll see a visual bias on the part of the pro. Is it art or is it journalism? To the pro, it's quite clearly the latter. He needs "real" more or less true to life unadulterated shots to use in publication, so he reads and looks at images with that mindset. Hence his comments on PSing the photos, he can't buy and use a heavily manipulated image in his publication.

An artist can make a case for a hyperrealistic HDR image, and ones portfolio can benefit from it, but that's not going to get sold to the sports pages.

[mee]

Unless you're trying to sell your pics, the only thing that really matters is whether you like them.
Maybe he's just jealous of your saturated reds!

Do you really think another photographer is jealous of oversaturated colors? They can just as easily cook their images too..

But I do agree with the first sentiment.. what is your purpose in sharing your photos? Is it to share your view of the world with others or to make your manipulated view of the world accepted by people who don't know or care to know the real you?

[severalsnakes]

Do you really think another photographer is jealous of oversaturated colors? They can just as easily cook their images too

Yeah, but some people don't have the cojones to smash their images with PP. There's a danger in over-cooking, but there's also something lost (never gained) if you refuse to take risks with the development of your images.

[mee]

Yeah, but some people don't have the cojones to smash their images with PP. There's a danger in over-cooking, but there's also something lost (never gained) if you refuse to take risks with the development of your images.

That doesn't force them to upload these photos onto the web though? I mean I can take any of my photos (and often have) into photoshop and cooked it a bit too much.. then either then or later realized it was too much and backed off of the sliders quite a bit. sometimes much later was the realization.. especially early on..

I can add too much oregano to my pizza sauce, but if I'm not being critical of the flavor as I am preparing it I can easily not notice it until after the pizza is baked. I see the point though in that some people enjoy a little more oregano than others.. but I don't see the point in suggesting someone is jealous of too much in another's sauce. They too can sprinkle it in their own sauce.. when no one is looking.. in the privacy of their own kitchen.

[cgchang]

I personally like the original set over the version 2 edits. Clarity and saturation on the original set could be lowered slightly (particularly reds and greens seem over saturated), but version 2 looks dull and flat to me. On my screen it looks like shadows and blacks were increased too much and contrast lowered.

[severalsnakes]

I personally like the original set over the version 2 edits. Clarity and saturation on the original set could be lowered slightly (particularly reds and greens seem over saturated), but version 2 looks dull and flat to me. On my screen it looks like shadows and blacks were increased too much and contrast lowered.

You can't please everyone. ;-)

[Neville]

I will be taking photos this evening again, when the Sharks take on Western Province. I will apply my new post-processing techniques and post the best images here. An added challenge is that the game will be played under floodlights.

[Neville]

Here are some of the photos I took this evening.

The first batch were taken during the second half of the curtain-raiser match between The Sharks U21 and Western Province U21.











And here are some photos of the main match between The Sharks and Western Province.