Tint

Looking at the first page of my flickr, I'm putting a red/brown tint into my images.

This is done through messing with the red level. What do you guys think? Examples would be:

AnCatDubh

A personal opinion only - I'm not liking the colour treatment on these at all BUT if it is something that appeals to you then you should keep doing it. Sometimes processing will be a fad - I have a style of processing which I know that I may be the only one in the world that likes it - its a preset known as Nostalgia so I only use it sparingly where i'm the intended audience.

So to me, its a mater of what you like and you enjoy. I suspect things will change for you over time.

AnCatDubh

In terms of what I specifically don't like about it (albeit it looks better on my netbook than a dodgy dell lcd laptop screen) - i think we can be better drawn to contrast and colour - neither of which these images have (again that's only a personal opinion). Personally, I love high contrast black and whites and also reasonably high saturation deep colour images - all the better if there is good contrast in these too. For me, the samples posted are too 'grey' and 'flat' - they would need something to lift them. A job with curves/levels could work wonders. Again all of this is only my opinion. Not sure what others think.

KarmaGarda

My thoughts are slightly different. On first look I prefered the first image. Just because the particular levels applied appealed to me more.

But on closer inspection I start to prefer the 2nd. I can't quite put my finger on it but I think it's because the flatter, slightly duller, almost dirty, effect on the 2nd really suits the subject matter. Maybe the reason I didn't initially like it is because I don't like what's in the picture, and the tone or emotional level of it aplifies that some what. So for me the image quite cleverly is a success in that manner. It shines an even dirtier light on the subject and therefore makes me like the picture! I don't know if that's what you were trying to achieve. Also, the out of focus part in the bottom right of the "eye" pic is off putting for me. If that was black (conforming with the top right of the pic) it would have worked a lot better.

I know, I'm wierd.

Cheers guys -

KarmaGarda, thats exactly what I was going for with the second image. I have a love-hate relationship with smoking, and for me, the image brings forward all that I love and hate about it. Some people told me that they hated the image, because they hated smoking. To me, thats sucess. My image brings forth all that you feel about the subject.

On the eye - its a different shot. I think I messed up as the eye isn't where I would have liked it, but I like the darker type of images anyway.

KarmaGarda

Cool. I have a love hate relationship with the "subject" too. I'm about 3/4 months without the little devils and I still hate them, so hopefully I'm rid of them for good :pac: ... I don't mind the pints though

In regards to the positioning of the eye, I quite like it. But I think it would have been a super image if everything on the top right down to the bottom right was blacked out. But that's me just being picky. I still like it. I haven't tried these kind of shots yet, but I'm usually impressed when I see them. Must add it to my list of things to try!

KarmaGarda

Just to add to that, can you explain how you achieved the 1st shot? Both from a lighting and post processing aspect.

Processing was just bringing the levels right down and then taking the edge of the grey by bumping the red a bit. Lighting was just the natural light one evening in Glendalough!

Large scale, low res of the cig image is at http://photo.riverslaney.org