New Gallery! Need Feedback

Hello Everyone!

I have finally finished uploading photos to my first website and am looking for your input. The site is a smugmug site but there is still room for customization - unfortunately I am not personally capable of doing anything too complex! Nonetheless, any feedback on the site itself would be helpful.

Mainly I am looking for feedback on the portfolio - which images would you cut if you had too? Are there any images that just don't do it for you? Or that just don't belong? There are currently some redundant images - #13 and #14 for example, which do you prefer? Are any photos over-edited? Could any use a bit more editing? Obviously there are two images that are clearly photoshopped, but those should be obvious.

There are also some over-under shots that I took over the last year and a half - due to school and knee surgery I was unable to dive during this time. Do these 'work' with the underwater images?

Thanks a lot for your help, this is a first website and as a daily reader of wetpixel I always appreciate hearing your feedback!

The website:

http://holinskiphoto.smugmug.com/

All photos taken with the Canon G10 and Canon Housing.

Hi Steve, Very nice results, especially with "just" a G10

If I had to say something, maybe put the 7 last somewhere else on the website. They are very "different" and belong to another album I think.

About the editing, it sounds OK, but I sometimes feel the light is too "harsh", or that there is too much light. Not on all photos, but on some. Do you use diffusers?

Thanks for your input!

I was worried that the last 7 or so shots didn't quite fit with the underwater shots - as I said, being landlocked for the last year and a half they were my "underwater" shots. I have been trying to figure out how to put them in a new but related album - your feedback helps greatly!

Which photo's are you finding too bright? (my screen is no the brightest so I may have pushed the exposure, brightness, etc. up to high).

Some of the shadows are indeed harsh. At least on a couple of the photo's I was using a single YS27DX strobe. Are there any photo's where the shadows really detract from the shot?

Again, thanks a lot for your input. I hope to upgrade to a used D90 or D7000 depending on when I can finally do so!

Best,

Steve

The photos I'm finding a bit harsh-bright are :

3- hard light on red becoming pink, the shot is still great but I think the exposure on some part of the fish is too "direct". can be corrected in the post production (HDR-like)

12- maybe the light on the left side is a bit too much, but in the same time it might helps poping it out.

20- the sunrays looks weird (to me), what are the exifs?

23- I would have set the strobe on the right, facing the shark, instead of on the left. I know it's not like you can switch it fast, but I say it anyway

25- a few fish are maybe over exposed, but it's ok. I really like this shot, the light on the coral is great.

I'm especially concern because I kind of have the same problem sometimes. I've been experiencing self made diffuser on a good terestrial strobe, and now I feel I just need it underwater, more than 2 strobes or anything. It's makes everything a lot better, including the sharpness. I think a good example of it is this shot :

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2717/434047...9d7e5ba31_b.jpg

The well diffused light really helps on the sharpness, and I'm sure I can do better with more money+time

More recently with a underwater example : 2 strobes with regular diffusers, still make me feel the light is too harsh on some parts :

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5095/552680...ca05241c9_b.jpg

like on the rocks and some eyes.

Damn I just need more time to build things

I am tempted to agree with the previous comment to move the last over/unders to another gallery.

I realy like some of the other shots.

Peter

Hey Autopsea - thanks again. Your comments have been extremely helpful.

I corrected the "pink" on the Frogfish and also adjusted the light on the free-falling Crown of Thorns. The reason that there is some harsher light like that may be attributable to strobe differences - at the time I was shooting a YS110a and a YS27DX. The YS110a has a bit more punch.

The shark was shot with a Canon G7 and a single YS27DX - but I totally agree, the shadow created is a little unpleasant.

On #25 I went back into the RAW and "recovery'ied" a couple of the fish.

#20 - ISO80, f4, 1/100th - I agree the sun is over-exposed but think that it works with the photo.

Cheers, and thanks a ton for the feedback, it has made 'small-big' differences!

Love the blue ribbon eel treatment Steve! :-) very very nice!!

Thanks a lot Damo!