Speak no evil
by amandalore

Comment:
Great stuff with the eyes.

Bit of a dark spot on the head from lighting...

Did you start with your lights at 90 degrees or 120 degrees angle from each other? Maybe they need to be a tiny bit higher... ?

Lighting can be really tough.

I think you are definitely starting to move beyond "coming along nicely" now...

Nice to shoot someone else for a change isn't it?

A nitpick would be in the strange soft appearance of the eyes. A bit of sharpening or something might give them a bit more snap... maybe. I'd try a fairly wide radius with some strong amounts masked just to the eyes on a separate layer and maybe in darken mode and play with the opacity... Just a guess.

Pepper Magic
by javamoose

Comment:
I think this looks great because of the lighting. It creates the illusion that they are vertical, not horizontal.

Good job!

Monochrome
by elsapo

Comment:
Two words:
Well Deserved.

One word:
Brilliant.

Gold Flinger
by graphicfunk

Comment:
Fantastic.. I love the mock stroboscopic effect... The motion blur is really great.

The Swirly Kind
by amandalore

Comment:
Very nicely done! You sure are coming along girl!

Great visuals with the S curls and the W in the fan to really complement your title.

I like that little question mark.

Message edited by author 2006-07-26 09:51:49.

If caterpillars were meant to fly, God would have given them wings...
by tapeworm_jimmy

Comment:
Honestly, I think you might even have had some difficulty with taking a better picture than this even if you had the Rebel.

The small sensor cameras can really do quite well with DOF for slightly larger subjects.

This one is pretty much perfect.

The whole butterfly is in focus, and enough of the background is also in focus to give the rest of the scene some context (also justifying the broad crop). This context really helps to work with the butterflying facing away, also spreading its wings which helps to build an anticipation of flight into a world dimly perceived, but active and waiting.

Very nice stuff.

A tiny bump to contrast and saturation might be suitable here.

Dredge Ship
by rox_rox

Comment:
another take on this one from the original without full editing.



In response to PM.

I just noticed that there are a few things that were done differently in this pic.

I think I'm going to have another stab at this after I get back from work.

Message edited by author 2006-07-20 00:52:01.

Quiet Progression
by Melethia

Comment:
Barbed wire fencing is such an awesome subject for photography. Well conceived and well executed!

Towards Maturity
by Konador

Comment:
Hrm. Am I the only one that sees the weird edges? Looks like there's a fairly strong case of oversharpening here. Was this intentional Ben?

10
by Loweese

Comment:
Good to see you back in action!

This shot seems to have a few major obstacles.

#1 is the light. It's almost good. It suffers a bit from not having left your hand in one spot long enough... For that purpose it's possible that you could have benefited from actually stopping down a bit (to keep the highlights in the flame controlled), but increasing the exposure a little to weight the light towards your hand... This would have brought a lot more sharpness to the hand (if you could keep it still for a few seconds) as well as possibly picking up a few interesting flarelights in the candle.

#2 is the composition. The other candles are really more of a distraction here... Without the other candles, this picture would come up a lot.

If it were me, I would have maybe added a bit of drama by bringing the crop right up, removing the candles, darkening the arm just a bit, shifting some of the reds out and adding a knife on the floor... I would have maybe called it something like "10 seconds left" or something... I wish I had the PS skillz to add the knife... :)