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I headed into the heart of the city to photograph the Anzac Day Parade. I didn’t want to carry a lot of gear through the crowds so I just took the camera and the one lens (although it was the 2kg monster Sigma 50-500).

#4 is an outstanding image....the others just merely good. #4 has something special about it...power, force, impact. A great day for photography.

Rodney,

I think that #2 is great.

With some of the others, there seems to be quite a lot of vignetting; I'm seeing this in #s 1, 4 and 5, for instance.Have you added this, or is this coming from the lens? Regardless, there's no need for it, and I think that it's detracting from the images.

White balance seems to be out as well; there's a lot of cyan here, and I don't believe that these images should be displaying this colour shift. In #1, for instance, look at the shadow section of the back of the gentleman holding the flag (as your primary subject). I suspect that his shirt should be white, but there's a colour cast here. Likewise in the shadow section of the head covering that the lady standing camera left of him is wearing. Now look at the colour of the stars in the flag that is rightmost in the final image; they're light blue/cyan, when they should be white, I suspect. Pretty well of the images in this set are displaying a similar hue, and I suspect that if you modify your base colour temperature for these temperatures, there will be a vast change in how these all appear.

Finally, I think the first image .... looks very .... plastic. I think that you may have overcooked the post on it just a tad.

Matt. K wrote:#4 is an outstanding image....the others just merely good. #4 has something special about it...power, force, impact. A great day for photography.

Thanks Matt

gstark wrote:Rodney, I think that #2 is great.
With some of the others, there seems to be quite a lot of vignetting; I'm seeing this in #s 1, 4 and 5, for instance.Have you added this, or is this coming from the lens? Regardless, there's no need for it, and I think that it's detracting from the images.
White balance seems to be out as well; there's a lot of cyan here, and I don't believe that these images should be displaying this colour shift. In #1, for instance, look at the shadow section of the back of the gentleman holding the flag (as your primary subject). I suspect that his shirt should be white, but there's a colour cast here. Likewise in the shadow section of the head covering that the lady standing camera left of him is wearing. Now look at the colour of the stars in the flag that is rightmost in the final image; they're light blue/cyan, when they should be white, I suspect. Pretty well of the images in this set are displaying a similar hue, and I suspect that if you modify your base colour temperature for these temperatures, there will be a vast change in how these all appear.
Finally, I think the first image .... looks very .... plastic. I think that you may have overcooked the post on it just a tad.

Thanks Gary for the very informative feedback
I added the vignette (quite a lot in some cases - e.g. #1) - the lens had essentially none
At this stage I just left all the images on AutoWB so you're likely very right about the WB - I'll "correct" the WB in #1 and remove the vignette and repost for comparison

actually I reworked all of them (WB & vignetting) but here are the 1st, 4th and last

Rodney,

FWIW, I think that the reworked images are much better.

But that's just my opinion: the critical question is whether you agree. Not that it would upset me if you didn't. It's just how I'm seeing these images. I would even be a little inclined to go a little further with the corrections that you've applied, but as I said, these are already significantly improved from what you originally posted.

But to elaborate a little on what I'm seeing here, with the original wb, the colour cast, obvious when you can see it in the white shadowed areas, also has an adverse affect on the skin tones, making the subjects' look a little less healthy than what should be the case. These same skin tones now look much healthier.

The first image still appears to me to be overcooked in your post processing. Have a look at the bottom edge of the flag that the guy who's the primary subject is carrying, and also along the bottom edge of his face, directly below his left ear. There's some haloing there, and I think if you pull back on the sharpening that you've applied, you'll have an even better image.

As to the vignetting ... We were at The Guthrie Center in Great Barrington on Monday, and I was shooting on the J1 with the 10-30, and had a lens hood on. But I suspect that the hood is for the 30-110, and the results I obtained - while shooting blind due to glare on the viewing screen - were horrendous. Ouch!

Thanks Gary - I certainly like the WB better

The vignetting I'm not so sure with all of them - with the first I did it to make you look at the flag in the middle first and then move out to the many other flags marching by but still stay inside the image - but it still has natural darkness esp in the bottom left and right anyway so...

Also with the overcooking - I'm not sure why you're getting that - (In Lightroom) I have added no clarity in post, and the level of sharpening is really low (barely above the import sharpening - in fact I've got the masking at 50 which is actually reducing sharpening in flat areas - it's the level of sharpening I'd use for really close portraits). At 100% I'm getting no halos around the face, etc; under the flag I think there's an unfortunate bright spot on the ground in the distance which creates that illusion but it's it's not a PP artifact.

Remorhaz wrote: under the flag I think there's an unfortunate bright spot on the ground in the distance which creates that illusion but it's it's not a PP artifact.

Ok, that's fair enough then. Sounds good, and certainly, what you've done compositionally certainly works very well.

What I'm also seeing through these images is an interesting mix of cultures that appears to have been present on the day. I think that's a great thing, and I think it's wonderful that you've been able to capture this element within these images.

I like best 2nd and 4th.

I like all these. No1 has that tilt shift lens look, probably a mix of the short focal length and the added vignettte.
Like the others, I agree that no4 has real power and is just a great capture.

Number 2 is a lovely pic well done

Looking again...I think #1 is also excellent. Beautiful control of the background and a wonderful concept.

1,2 &5 for me. Wonderful images. I stood in the dark on Thursday for the sunrise service in Coffs. Thousands present, including surfies, kids, babies, in fact, a massive cross section of the community to give thanks to the diggers.

I always shed a tear or two at this time. The crowd seems to get bigger every year. The photos of the old fellas here are poignant and timely. Thanks Rodney.

zafra52 wrote:I like best 2nd and 4th.

Thanks Zafra

ian.bertram wrote:I like all these. No1 has that tilt shift lens look, probably a mix of the short focal length and the added vignettte. Like the others, I agree that no4 has real power and is just a great capture.

Thanks Ian

Nikon boy wrote:Number 2 is a lovely pic well done

Thanks Nikon boy

Matt. K wrote:Looking again...I think #1 is also excellent. Beautiful control of the background and a wonderful concept.

Thanks Matt - note this image was not "setup" and was serendipitous - I saw the mass of Australian flag carrying folks coming by and then out of the corner of my eye I could see the guy in front started waving his flag and instead quickly shifted focus there - luckily I was already shooting wide open (for this lens) so got the effect I desired.

ozimax wrote:1,2 &5 for me. Wonderful images. I stood in the dark on Thursday for the sunrise service in Coffs. Thousands present, including surfies, kids, babies, in fact, a massive cross section of the community to give thanks to the diggers. I always shed a tear or two at this time. The crowd seems to get bigger every year. The photos of the old fellas here are poignant and timely. Thanks Rodney.

Thanks Ozi

Thanks everyone - appreciate the feedback and comments