Speeding To The Sun
by paully2k1

Comment by Swashbuckler:
Bizarre shot! I'd really like to know what this is and how it was done! (I'll make a mental note to read the description after the challenge, hint - if you description is N/A or something like that, could you describe this and it's process in a comment on the photo after the challenge?? Please?) The sunglasses and smile strike me as funny/odd (in a good way!). Yellow challenge met! The yellow object is just purplexing, seems like flame, but that just can't be (how would one hang sunglasses on a flame?). Some of the dark details say "lots of post processing" to me (see the various artifacts in the shadow?). Cool artsy image. Now for the slight downside....Due to the cool effects, this seems less like a photo and more like a made up art piece (really this isn't totally bad effect, but this a photo contest, so I have an up-front expectation that the image will "look" like a photo. (Probably my bad!) Score upgrade from 5 to 6. Swash

Speeding To The Sun
by paully2k1

Comment by KimInNB:
Really soft focus - is this supposed to be "artistic"?

Speeding To The Sun
by paully2k1

Comment by Amiee:
Cool idea. How did you do that?? Very creative and nicely taken. The colors are displayed very well. Good job.

Speeding To The Sun
by paully2k1

Comment by kiwiness:
It's yellow so it meets the challenge. It is also funny and the composition is good with the negative space on the right. It is just out of focus and a tad over saturated though.

Just A Quick Fold Away
by paully2k1

Comment by Azrifel:
~~~~Critique Club Comment~~~~

Composition (content)
Good idea and nice try with your "crap camera". :)
The challenge was square of course, so I can understand the decision to enter it as it is, but I think that photowise a huge composition improvement can be made by cropping it differently. The view on the folded bird is now very centered.
Lets forget about the square challenge. I would cut off 1/6th of the top and about 1/7th of the right side. That way you get a much more interaction between the hand, the orginal paper and the folded bird. And it takes away the motion blur and uninteresting black at the right.

As someone else said, the bird seems to float/fly. That is a very cool effect. Creative and well done.

Background
The soft darkbrown tones at the left are nice, the darker right side less so.

Camera Work (Technical)
It is hard to get the exposure on the hand better. More light would mean that the paper itself will be brighter as well, that way ruining the detail of the folded bird. I like the exposure as it is, the folded bird is detailed and bright, the center of attention and the unfolded paper is like a soft curtain.
I wonder how you created this effect, a shutter of 1/15 is slow. Hardly any time to tell when to pull the paper away. Or is it a multiexposure?

The bird is in focus and sharp.

Digital Processing (technical)
The image looks a bit noisy and details a tad soft. I think that that is caused by the heavy/agressive jpeg compression. Your picture is less than 25kb out of 150kb allowed. Saving it at a higher jpeg quality (less compression) can avoid the harshness of the noise, keep detail sharpness and avoid color degradations in the white's.

My opinion
Cool idea, composition and digital processing needs some improvement.

Message edited by author 2003-02-08 09:55:59.

Just A Quick Fold Away
by paully2k1

Comment by DougPaz:
Looks like this would be a nice shot for the Before and After challenge. Interesting shot.

Just A Quick Fold Away
by paully2k1

Comment by KimInNB:
I would like this better if the "swan" was centered in the middle of the square of unfolded paper.

Just A Quick Fold Away
by paully2k1

Comment by cykhansen:
This would be much better without the hand in the picture. Lighting needs more contrast - some shadow.

Just A Quick Fold Away
by paully2k1

Comment by Ziggy:
I like the way you created the crane flowting or flying in the photo.

They really are blue
by paully2k1

Comment by goodtempo:
Critique Club critique:

Composition/Content: Nice view and great subject. The point of interest appears to be the blue ridge in the background. I would like to have seen more of the blue ridge since it is the point of interest. I tried a crop on your image beginning just to the right and below the small cloud and using everything below and to the right of that point. The resulting image showed much more of the blue ridge and to me was a more interesting composition.
Lighting: It appears that the photograph may have been taken near mid-day or when the sun was high in the sky. That would accentuate the blue but would also flatten out the color in other parts of the image. I am wondering what it would look like early or late in the day, would the blue ridge still be blue and also the other colors not quite as washed out looking?
My Opinion: I like the image a lot but it needs something to give it that wow factor. I also think that PTLParsons may have hit the nail on the head by his comment: "It's one of those things you'd have to see to ... get the full beauty of it".