[Neville]

On Saturday I took photos of a rugby match between two provincial sides, the Sharks and the Pumas, in our local Curry Cup tournament, and posted an album of my photos on Facebook.

Today I received a Facebook comment, to my album, from one of the established Canon pro photographers - "mate to much photoshop you are killing us LOL".

I haven't responded to his comment, but it got me thinking that he might have a point, or maybe it's a bit of sour grapes, because I do it for my own pleasure and no financial reward, but it's his business and he has lots of very expensive gear? I don't use Photoshop, only Lightroom, and all I adjust is shadow and highlight levels (to get the histogram balanced), and some Clarity and Contrast. I shot this match with the following settings on my Pentax K-5II and Sigma 70-200mm - 1/2000 sec, f/2.8 and auto ISO (never more than ISO 1000). I also did quite a bit of cropping.

Please have a look at my Facebook album here and give me feedback. You can also view my album on Google Photos here. My initial (internal) reaction to his comment was not very positive, but perhaps I need to learn from his remark...

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Last edited by Neville; 09-07-2015 at 06:54 AM.

[altopiet]

Clarity and Contrast

Hi Neville, I don't think he meant it in a negative way. I would ease up a little bit on the clarity, as it gives it a bit of an unnatural look in some of the images...almost HDR'ish if one can put it that way...IMO

[Bromberger]

Hi Neville,
i checked out your pictures and i think they are great!
I also think the Canon guy ist mostly being a douche.
Moslty because: i think your processing could be *a little* better. But it's not so much off that it justifies the comment that you've gotten.

I do think however that
- your saturation is too high (if you don't adjust the saturation yourself, it could come from adjusting the contrast which affects saturation as well). the grass looks almost a little radioactive. when you have people in the background (out of focus, in the audience), and they have a pink sweater or something like that, it's always VERY intense pink. look here, the shirts are VERY red, but especially the orange shoes are glow-in-the-dark-orange, and the red stuff in the background is also very intense.
- your skin tones are a little strange. i suspect that comes from the high saturation as well. it's normal that some people have skin that is more on the orange side, some more on the green side, and some on the pink side. in your picture, this difference is intense. examples: orange, orange&pink&green, green.

i hope my criticism is ok for you, and that it helps.
The job is well done, so you cerntainly don't deserve the comment the Canon guy gave you.
Micha / Bromberger

[ramseybuckeye]

I took a look at you album and didn't see any big problems, but how could anybody see overdone pics on facebook, the photos are so reduced they would almost need to be comical to notice. I can't imagine what he meant by that. You have some fantastic action shots there. For the heck of it I looked as his site too, he has some really nice images, but I have to say I think yours are much better in composition and timing. You have the timing down, which is everything in sports action photography.

[KjetilH]

I'm strictly a hobbyist. Looks good to me, even if the colours are somewhat strong. Maybe it's down to screen calibration? The variation between computer screens is pretty huge at times.

Also, while Facebook is a nice social arena, I'd love to see your pictures uncompressed - I feel like I'm missing out on something.

[Neville]

Hi Neville, I don't think he meant it in a negative way. I would ease up a little bit on the clarity, as it gives it a bit of an unnatural look in some of the images...almost HDR'ish if one can put it that way...IMO

Thank you - I think you are correct. I will see if I get it right at the next match between Sharks and Western Province!

---------- Post added 09-07-15 at 02:14 PM ----------

Hi Neville,
i checked out your pictures and i think they are great!
I also think the Canon guy ist mostly being a douche.
Moslty because: i think your processing could be *a little* better. But it's not so much off that it justifies the comment that you've gotten.

I do think however that
- your saturation is too high (if you don't adjust the saturation yourself, it could come from adjusting the contrast which affects saturation as well). the grass looks almost a little radioactive. when you have people in the background (out of focus, in the audience), and they have a pink sweater or something like that, it's always VERY intense pink. look here, the shirts are VERY red, but especially the orange shoes are glow-in-the-dark-orange, and the red stuff in the background is also very intense.
- your skin tones are a little strange. i suspect that comes from the high saturation as well. it's normal that some people have skin that is more on the orange side, some more on the green side, and some on the pink side. in your picture, this difference is intense. examples: orange, orange&pink&green, green.

i hope my criticism is ok for you, and that it helps.
The job is well done, so you cerntainly don't deserve the comment the Canon guy gave you.
Micha / Bromberger

Thank you for the detailed critique - much appreciated, and great examples! I will adjust my post-processing techniques next time.

---------- Post added 09-07-15 at 02:16 PM ----------

I took a look at you album and didn't see any big problems, but how could anybody see overdone pics on facebook, the photos are so reduced they would almost need to be comical to notice. I can't imagine what he meant by that. You have some fantastic action shots there. For the heck of it I looked as his site too, he has some really nice images, but I have to say I think yours are much better in composition and timing. You have the timing down, which is everything in sports action photography.

Thank you for your vote of confidence! I've been feeling somewhat deflated, but I also need to learn. But your comments picked me up again!

---------- Post added 09-07-15 at 02:18 PM ----------

I'm strictly a hobbyist. Looks good to me, even if the colours are somewhat strong. Maybe it's down to screen calibration? The variation between computer screens is pretty huge at times.

Also, while Facebook is a nice social arena, I'd love to see your pictures uncompressed - I feel like I'm missing out on something.

Thank you for your comments. You can view the album on my Google Photos site here.

[derekkite]

The trick is to be as picky and annoying to yourself when you look at your own work.☺

[chmance]

I guess your reaction to not respond right away and seek a second ... and a third ... and so on ... opinion is commendable.

[Neville]

The trick is to be as picky and annoying to yourself when you look at your own work.☺

So true! In fact, I took over 700 shots during the match, and purged them down to less than 100. I was simply not happy with most of them.

---------- Post added 09-07-15 at 02:33 PM ----------

I guess your reaction to not respond right away and seek a second ... and a third ... and so on ... opinion is commendable.

You might have seen my delayed reply to his comment, which sums up what I believe. Knee-jerk reactions generally end up in a flame of words to and fro...

Besides, I will bump into him again at the next match, so it's not worth any bad vibes.

[Outis]

Props to you for getting a nasty comment and instead of just writing it off, getting second opinions to see if there's any truth to it and any way you could improve your work!

[Neville]

Props to you for getting a nasty comment and instead of just writing it off, getting second opinions to see if there's any truth to it and any way you could improve your work!

Believe me, my initial reaction was anger and irritation, but I took a deep breathe... So often we can't see the wood for the trees when it comes to our own photography, so a bit of brute honesty is useful sometimes.

[manntax]

I tried too see the photos but all I was able to see was a bunch of thumbnails - is there a way to click on each photo to see it better? From what I can see on thumbnails is too reduced to give any meaningful comment....

[Neville]

I tried too see the photos but all I was able to see was a bunch of thumbnails - is there a way to click on each photo to see it better? From what I can see on thumbnails is too reduced to give any meaningful comment....

It's strange that you are not able to see the photos clearly. Did you click on my first link (Facebook) or my second link (Google Photos)?

Are any others having the same problem?

[Racer X 69]

You might have seen my delayed reply to his comment, which sums up what I believe. Knee-jerk reactions generally end up in a flame of words to and fro...

Besides, I will bump into him again at the next match, so it's not worth any bad vibes.

Definitely better to take the high road. Great response.


Oh, and great photos!

[redcat]

- your saturation is too high
- your skin tones are a little strange.

+1 this comment, maybe your straight out of camera Jpeg is plenty good enough, I sometimes over post processing my photos so I truely understand your vision when you tweak the sliders, we tend to like saturated image in our head