Photoshop Fun - Looking for Feedback on Quality

[lhoy]

Here are some of my results of playing with Photoshop. I made no adjustments to photos, only created borders. What could I do to improve the quality?

Thanks,

Lee

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b68/lhoy/EclipseZoanthids.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b68/lhoy/MazeCoral.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b68/lhoy/AmbonScorpionfishCustomwithFrame.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b68/lhoy/MoonCoral.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b68/lhoy/PsychedlicMandarin.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b68/lhoy/LeaffishwithBorder.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b68/lhoy/PurpleMontipora.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b68/lhoy/HalloweenHermitCrab.jpg

[Noodle]

There's a small bit of overhanging in the white border to the right of your signature in the Mandarin pic. Otherwise, it's pretty nice - great selection of pics and awesome corals!!

[lhoy]

Good catch, that is from my signature box and easy to fix.

Lee

[taldrich13]

maybe a little drop shadow/bevel on the frame? They look good to me otherwise!
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j40/taldrich13/lee.jpg

[ReefOne]

very sweet Lee

[Sherri]

Don't see that you need to change anything...did you use a flash BTW? Very nice pics too.

[lhoy]

Taldrich 13 - Oh, yes, much better. You know what is crazy, I had the guidelines on how to do that and totally didn't. Like that addition.

ReefOne - Hey man, you doing okay? Thanks for the compliment.

Sherri - Thanks a ton!! I do use flash. I find that when I don't use flash the pictures look flat to me. I am currently using a Sony MVD-CD500 which I both love and hate. The cd feature is great unless you get a CD error and you can lose lots of pics. The flash at times, due to the closeness of the macro feature on this camera, can cause a shadow at the bottom of the pic due to the extension of the lens. I just bought my wife a nice Olympus 7.0 megapixel camera and it doesn't do as well as this Sony on macro!!

I think to get even crisper photos I really need to utilize a tripod.

[Apocalypse]

Your pics look great, Lee.

[abe77901]

Awesome Lee, looks good.....show some of the sps I know you have.......

[stoneroller]

To add a bit more scientific touch, you could underline or use italic for the scientific names (something to set it off from the common names).

You could apply the golden ratio to your rectangles (pics, borders, etc.) http://mathworld.wolfram.com/topics/GoldenRatio.html Something to play with.

Love the pics.

[lhoy]

Stoneroller, I tried to italicize the latin names (in the correct form) but so far couldn't figure it out in Photoshop. I am one of those who will use any software, but rarely use the help or instructions. ; ) Makes things a lot harder that way, but when you do learn it is finally down.

I will look at the golden ratios. Have never heard of that. Thanks

Lee

[Sherri]

Yeah, Lee, a tripod does do wonders!

[murkywaters]

Those were great

[erikharrison]

if you click on the layer(s) with text you can add drop shadows etc (Layer Effects) its a button located on the layers window. Be careful though, you could spend an hour just on the text :) You could also select>select all, and go to image>adjustments.... there is a ton of cool crap in there picture wise, so if you have a pic that doesnt look 100% natural to the eye, you can adjust the coloration to match what you see. I think the pics do look really awesome though, but I havent seen all that stuff in person to be able to tell what looks totally natural in the pics, and which are offset. I got bored messing with pictures in ps, so now I use it to make digital art, I have a 2x2 image that I have framed in between two pieces of glass to make it look like it's "floating" and the image is 2" from the frame. Well, shoot, ill post the pic of it. Excuse the blue wall, 20k lighting does that to a room! Yeah, I should have ps edited it, but I just wanted to do a quick pic.


http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/9905/art1ex0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

I am also on www.deviantart.com my name on there is DeviantDemise
If you guys are not on there, they have contests alot. Some are with non edited pictures, and I think yours would do great, if not win first place.

[erikharrison]

here's a quick example of the font stuff....

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/2368/leesn0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


ok Lee, now you can tell me how to take better pics ;)