Steam Train attempt

Yeah, what do you think of the PS editting? Done an ok job with it? I cropped it a little, removing the crap in the bottom left and then made it B&W, then editted the colouring a little to give it a sepia feel.

Here it is pre-edit.


Uneditted by Ace Modder, on Flickr
 
Speaking as a railway nut, #2 just looks plain wrong :)
All of the furniture is completely out of place for a black and white photo, and the guard's uniform is out of place as well.

The revised edit of #1 is much better, but again the chain-link fencing is jarring for the black and white railway era.

Numbers 3 & 4 are the only ones that really fit into black and white for a railway nut.

(Sorry! I know......)

-Leezer-
 
Much better than your last set, I really like the first both with and without the pylons (I've never edited one out of a picture) really interesting composition and for me the b&w works.
 
Ok....here are my experiences.

Everyone goes through the selective colour phase but the truth is that they seldom work, when they work, it needs to be VERY specific...something like this..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scampychamp/1469066013/

The other thing is that there are some nice leading lines in the photos, I can see that in these and the last yet. However the leading lines leads to nothing.

There should be something at the end of it, it gives the photo a purpose, a direction and a story.

Without it the eye will just keep wondering around and around.
 
When you are just starting out I wouldn't worry too much about processing and PS effects, messing with the colour channels etc. Concentrate on taking good photos, think about the subject, the composition, the framing, leading lines, balance, contrast, arrangement of elements, lighting, time of day, exposure, depth of focus, shutter speed, sharpness, capturing motion (or preventing motion blur).

When you have a good understanding and grasp of all of these aspects of photography then you can start seriously delving into the processing side. Remember, you should always start your processing with the highest possible quality of base photo, and that no matter how good your processing is you cannot change certain aspects of the photo. If you took the photo at midday with poor lighting then it wont look as good as 3 minutes after sunrise, no matter how much time you spend in photo shop. If the composition is wrong then beyond a little cropping the photo will always have poor composition.

Secondly, you have chosen a lot of B&W/sepia styles. This is normally an indicator of a beginner photographer that is trying to improve a bad photo. Most great B&W photos are already great colour photos that can stand by themselves as a colour photo. IF the photographer chooses to process in B&W then then they must think carefully why, for what purpose. You are throwing away a lot of useful information in the colour channels, you need a reason to do so. Typically this is so you can enhance other aspects of the photo, bring to the attention of the viewer things like texture, contrast or composition.

Furthermore, a good B&W photo was always destined to be a B&W photo before the shutter was pressed. The photographer upon careful examination of the scene decided that a black and white treatment would be best due to textural or compositional elements. Exposure and composition are chosen for B&W processing in mind. The colour RAW is still going to be great mind.

Lastly, if you are going to make some B&W photos and things you should be consistent with the style across the set. You the same B&W or sepia tones across all photos, don't mix and match within a set.
 
Ace Modder said:
Yeah, what do you think of the PS editting? Done an ok job with it? I cropped it a little, removing the crap in the bottom left and then made it B&W, then editted the colouring a little to give it a sepia feel.

Here it is pre-edit.


Uneditted by Ace Modder, on Flickr
Click to expand...



See, I much prefer this to the sepia version. Porcessing would definitely help but they way I see it the sky is overblown and the foreground to dark. I would look towards balancing these better, bring down the sky a litle and brighten the foreground. An ND-Grad (soft) filter may have helped when taking the photo.

But really the composition would be my main criticism, the guy on the right has his legs chopped off and is about to walk off the frame. The bin seems to be a major a subject of the photo, right in the middle. There is a group of people and maybe somehting of interest at the back of the train but they are too small to be seen. The 3 most prominent parts of the photo are the empty green grass, the empty grey pacing and the white sky - the train and and passengers are relatively unimportant in this composition. I doubt that is what you intended. have a browse for ideas on compositions:
https://www.google.com/search?q=leading+lines+photography&tbm=isch
 
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