Am I just killing my photos?

[eruntalon]

We bought our first DSLR just before our daughter was born and ever since then I’ve become more and more enthusiastic about photography. The photos I took then were mostly crap, but they’re of my daughter so I love them. She’s about to turn two and I can at least say the photos I take now are better than crap. Outside of baby pictures (only my own,) I’ve dabbled in landscape and nature shots, but now I’ve found that I really enjoy sports photography. I took some shots this weekend at the Chicago Marathon and have edited them to the point where I’m satisfied, but I can’t stop wondering if I’m just destroying my photos with my processing. I am drawn to photographers like Nels Israelson, Tim Tadder, Gary Land, and Joel Grimes, and find their images very pleasing to look at.

Here are some of my shots from the weekend: http://www.flickr.com/photos/99279205@N03/

I know I have graininess issues, and I think I can attribute most of that to the light (we went as a family so I wasn’t going to have them follow me for a mile in either direction to get a better sun angle) and the glass I’m using. Anyway, excuses aside, I still have a lot of self doubt when it comes to the processing and I’d like to change direction if I’m way off track.

[ebi]

The grain isn’t bothering me at this size. These aren’t really bad at all. You’ve got some color consistency issues that you need to work on. I feel that some of the compositions aren’t great but you can work on that. These look pretty good. I’d not take it much further in post processing than what you are doing. Gladd you like Nels & Gary. They are both really great guys. I’ve worked with them both.

[nesgran]

You have a very weird colour/light in them, it looks like some kind of dream scene in a B-movie in terms of colour. As for composition I’d agree with Ebi, you’ve missed the mark by quite a bit. You’ve chopped runners off at weird places, you could probably benefit from using a zoom rather than a prime for an event like that so you can get different framing without having to move the family around

[eruntalon]

Thanks, I suppose color is one of the major things I have doubts about. I’ve noticed that a lot of my color processing ends up somewhere around here (which, to myself, I just refer to as ‘brown’). Personally I like it, but I always wonder if others find it garish.

I shot most of the day with a 75-300mm, but I had my prime lens in my pocket and swapped it in just before we left simply because it has become my favorite lens. Most of the shots are on the zoom lens, but the first three in the series are prime. I definitely need to get better at my cropping, I have no real method. Although some of the odd cropping is the edge of the frame because I missed the shot. I also have too many photos that I’ve cropped multiple ways and can’t decide which is best.

[nairbynairb]

I like them!

This is how I would edit a photo like this (just my style)
http://i.imgur.com/fZpc4eY.jpg

[iliketag]

I don’t think they’re bad but I do think the brownish tone and over-warm light make it hard to really enjoy. Personally I find it a little distracting. The shots themselves are interesting enough that I like the subject matter. However, I would be interested to see the sooc images to compare.

[eruntalon]

I added a couple of sooc shots

and

also, just to be thorough here is composite of sooc, RAW correction, and my color changes

 

 

[eruntalon]

I guess my images didn’t link, but they’re on the same flickr link above.

[Scrappycrow]

I suppose color is one of the major things I have doubts about. I’ve noticed that a lot of my color processing ends up somewhere around here (which, to myself, I just refer to as ‘brown’). Personally I like it, but I always wonder if others find it garish.

I tend to push my shots a bit “warm,” but what makes these seem a bit odd is the warm “golden hour” coloration while in shade.  Unless you’re getting fill off a sand- or adobe-colored wall (or maybe even off something like bronze-glass building), I would stay away from using it in shaded shots.

[cameraclicker]

Thanks, I suppose color is one of the major things I have doubts about. I’ve noticed that a lot of my color processing ends up somewhere around here (which, to myself, I just refer to as ‘brown’). Personally I like it, but I always wonder if others find it garish.

It depends on what you are shooting and why.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/99279205@N03/10315806453/

This looks like summer

http://www.flickr.com/photos/99279205@N03/10260109094/

This seems to be a crop out of the same shot, above.  The tint has turned the scene into mid-fall.  As fine art, it reminds me a bit of Joel Grimes’ stuff, but as reportage it is a distortion which would probably get you fired from a newspaper or magazine.

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