self portait
by alpharich

Comment:
A few suggestions for your next self-portrait: Try a softer colored background - gray or a soft green - since the stark white of this one is overpowering. The shadows thrown by the light on the background are very sharp, but the focus on your face seems soft. This seems to indicate one of two things to me: either your focus was on the background rather than your face, or you've had to do extensive editing to compensate for overexposure/harsh lighting. (Or perhaps edited the background to white and not yourself?) In any case, I would suggest a couple of things. Firstly, try to position yourself far enough away from the background that you do not htrow an obvious shadow. Secondly, make sure your pic is correctly exposed and properly focused. For self-portraits, this can take lots and lots of pics to do - trust me, I know.
Another suggestion I would give you is on your pose. Instead of leaning back and lifting your head, try leaning forward just a bit and lowering your chin slightly, which will make you look up just a bit to look into the lens. This will have a slendering effect on your neckline and make your jaw appear 'stronger'. You might also try facing the camera more directly instead of from an angle.
The skin tones in this are good, but perhaps a shave next time? (personal preference for me - either clean shaven or beard but not in between so it's not a scoring issue).
Not trying to be mean or picky, just offering some tips. Hope some of it helps.

"Amanda'
by tfarrell23

Comment:
There appear to be some serious color issues on this. (I say 'appear to be' since it may have been intentional - if it was intentional, I don't think it 'worked'.) Her skin color is way off. Even if she was sunburned, the color is still off. Also, the whites of her eyes are blue. I find this odd since the background is gray shading to white, which leads me to wonder if the eye color wasn't a result of trying to compensate for tooth color or for overdone redness in the skin or for bloodshot eyes...
At any rate, in the future, one of the best ways I have found to correct skin tone without throwing off the color of the skin (ie, adding too much red), is to copy your background layer and convert the copied layer to black and white (I usually use 'desaturate'). You can then adjust the opacity of the b&w layer using the slider until you get a more normal looking skin tone. This helps to correct skin that is too red or too yellow, and I've found that it also helps to correct bloodshot eyes and yellowish teeth without going overboard.
I'd also recommend (if the colors were not done deliberately) that you either have your monitor calibrated or if you work on a flat screen monitor to check your editing on a CRT monitor as flat screens can sometimes distort colors and contrast.
There are some good points to the photo. Her smile is wonderful, the pose is natural, the lighting seems good, and the focus is good. Just need to work on the color.

Fire and Water
by LeeD

Comment:
Oooh! I can see why you're kicking yourself for not entering this one. THis is beautiful!

Palmetto State
by LeeD

Comment:
Seriously, you ought to make this one up onto some note cards or something and see if the State Museum or somewhere will sell them.

flower-Pray word.jpg
by kenskid

Comment:
Perfection! :D

flower-Pray.jpg
by kenskid

Comment:
Nice! Very cool capture, especially for a "snap" shot.

The Great Escape
by Transit

Comment:
This is a classic! Wonderful! Made both the kids double over with laughter.

Step Up!
by JeremyFleury

Comment:
This is cool! Love the perspective, the leading lines are great - this is very neat!

And It Was All Yellow
by hotpasta

Comment:
Beautiful. Very serene photo.

Sunshine
by train

Comment:
Nice dahlia(?). Love the "soft" quality of this color yellow. Beautiful capture of the center spiral, but it looks like you have a couple of hot spots on the upper right edge of the spiral.