Can you cut it like fish sticks?
by salmiakki

Comment:
Love the processing - makes the photo really pop. Great lighting, great focus, and nice composition. It really captures the feel of being there (minus the smell I am sure:-) ) of standing there at the fish market. I like this photo for it captures a moment and feel of a slice of 'culture' that has largely disappeared due to large supermarket chains.

Family Portrait - Hicks
by love

Comment:
I absolutely love what you did in the final composition! You have made the child the Main focus of the shot with the parents on either side as the 'supporting' cast. Children are a combination/result of the pairing of their parents (both in physical looks and behavior) and here you show us that very strongly. With just the half of the mom's face on the left and half the dad's face on the right, the two halves hold in place the combination of them both - the adorable little girl! Two halves combine into one whole! You would not get that visual symbolism with the original but with the final composition is sings out strongly. The close crop also eliminates the more distracting elements of the wall that was behind the family. With this crop you bring us closer to observe the family as a strong unit. I also love what you did with the processing - the bump into brightness/contrast levels by moving it into a high key approach and the desaturation of the strong color tones (such as the pink of the girl's sweater) really shines the spotlight on the family's faces. Wonderful job!

Day-07.jpg
by Dirt_Diver

Comment:
When you have good lighting and a great model to boot the photos that come out of the shoot are wonderful. Love the expression! I have to say I like both because the composition, model, and lighting are wonderful (of course in the original you would crop closer to the blue backdrop to remove the distracting elements in the background on the right). The after image has great appeal for it has an old retro feel - plus the processing brings out greater contrasts in the face and hair thus making them even more prominent.

Day-5-after.jpg
by Jaker

Comment:
I like the closer to a square crop better than the original. It makes the viewer focus more on the bird's silhouette. Love the golden glow of the beach and the waves but they engulfed the main subject in the original. In the After image those two elements act more complementary to the main subject now. In the original I found that the cresting wave at the top third of the picture was too distracting - the golden gleam at the crest of the wave and the deep shadow at the bottom acted like a dividing line drawing far too much attention away from the dividing line of the water and the beach and thus attention away from the main subject that stands just below it. In the after image you removed that 'double' dividing line. Now there is just one division between land and sea.

In the shadows
by IreneM

Comment:
Wow, great portrait the whites of the eyes of this grizzled cowboy really grabs the viewers attention. Subject really fills the frame and thus captures and HOLDS our attention. Focus is wonderful showing us every great detail upon this cowboys face. He does appear to be peering out or emerging out from the shadows. My only critique on this is that I wish that that there is greater definition of his hat - the black tones of his hat fade and blend in too well with the dark backdrop. Mayhap a little dodging around the brim and top portion of the hat would give it better definition. The other possibility is to place a light directly behind the subjects head to illuminate it better. But I would not use a strong light for then it will give too much of a halo look surrounding him - rather a dim light just enough to illuminate the edges of the hat like highlight shading such that it stands out from the dark backdrop.

squirrel.jpg
by yanko

Comment:
Your post-processing skills REALLY hit this photo out of the park! Jawdrop - just look at all those rich details in the textures from the concrete post to the tail of this squirrel!!! It really pops and draws the eye in visually. The contrasts between light and dark tones are so dynamic that they extrude this two dimensional photo into a three dimensional one:-)! Great job I have no absolutely no critique at all on this one. Love those textures and details!

doors day 3
by onesaint

Comment:
Great job in warming up the tones in this capture. The tones of the original were more to the cold blues - here the warmer tones compliment her skin better...not only that it warms up the color feel of the image. And by that I mean the autumn hues of the leaves are now a deeper warmer shade of orange and yellows. I know that you like the image and it would (SHOULD) be a wonderful shot of a beautiful young women gazing out the window upon the autumn adorned trees but I find that the reflection of the photographer within the photo distracts from that mood & feel. I would recommend getting a GOOD quality polarizer to remove reflections (my research lead me to buy Moose's Warm Circular Polarizer which works beautifully) but then that would rob this shot of the autumn tree and the mood of 'reflecting' upon nature you have captured here. The simplest solution is to change angle mayhap a 45 degree angle or 25 degree will keep all those lovely elements within the shot.

day6_after
by love

Comment:
HA! Gotta love the 'editoral' opinion slapped on the edited version of the magazine. Excellent job in darkening the background for it allows the model with her lolly and magazine to pop off the page. B&W conversion has a wonderful dynamic range to the light and dark tones. Good job there. Also great job in removing the 'words' stuck to the lolly. In this final version the spiral of the lolly is detailed and unbroken with that words that were originally plastered onto it. Love the pose/attitude of the model as she is sucking the lollipop and flipping through this magazine. My only plaint (and a minor one at that) is that the head of the model on the magazine cover appears to be a sharp diagonal line. In the original you see that her head is resting on a pillow - here her head looks like it is resting a flat space. Perhaps burning back in some of the lines that defined the pillow back in will not make her look like such a 'flat line' head.

Self Portrait Edited
by TCGuru

Comment:
Hmmm, I am wondering why you wanted to have the main focus of your composition the earring...is it perhaps you were creating a modern day portrait of Vermeer's Girl With the Pearl Earring? I really like the closer crop for the main subject now dominates the composition drawing the viewer in closer to observe & appreciate the details. Excellent job in 'reconstructing' the earring in nice sharp detail - the original has the bottom portion blurred. Skin tones on the subject are lovely but because the backdrop has a similar hue range it does not allow her profile to truly visually pop off the background. A darker backdrop before the shoot or darkening the backdrop with PP would really make the profile of her face pop off the page.

IMG_0075Grand-Canyon.jpg
by JerseyGenie

Comment:
First off the composition had strong bones about it with the natural framing of the tree dominating the left & bottom side and the overhanging branch on the right. What you have done in this B&W version is bring up the tones, details and contrasts in the tree with it's twisting/curling branches and really made them the main focus of the shot with the Grand Canyon as a complimentary backdrop for it. In the original color version the details of the tree and it's textures are lost in shadow. Because it obscures the view of the Grand Canyon it seems an annoyance that would normally be a throw away shot. But here in your B&W version those knotted & twisting branches really pop and become the main focus for a rather unique view of the interesting landscape. Nice job.

Message edited by author 2008-06-14 21:22:34.