And it will tremble, Ever so nicely, Notice, How it sparkles, Down there
by ArnaMarie

Comment by sidpixel:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*

An appealing image that is assumed to meet the challenge.

Fungus photos abound always have an appeal but your's is a step above the norm with the lovely detail and texture you have managed to capture. Shooting at full aperture you have got a good DOF but I think perhaps f4 or similar would have got you just that little bit more to get the smaller fungi below the top larger one in sharp focus too. It may also have got the ring of bark surrounding the fungi sharp too but I think this would be perfectly acceptable.

I like the dark background it works well but the detail on the left is very slightly intrusive and would be best cloned out to match the rest of the background which makes the main subject stand out well. I do like the texture and detail you have captured on the fungus it is perfect, well done.

Thank you for a great submission, apologies for the long delay, Sid

A Lady's Glove
by ArnaMarie

Comment by sidpixel:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*

An appealing flower study.

A fairly straightforward flower shot that includes all of the plant detail but the lighting is such that it has created some strong contrasts causing some problems with shade and highlights. I like that you have resisted the urge to saturate as is often the case and opted for a more subtle approach, for me that works well. You have already questioned the frame yourself, from me, an emphatic no, I would have preferred it without.

Your focus is towards the top of the plant with a shallow DOF that sees the lower half fading into soft focus which is fine and works well, however, because of the shadow problem the focussed top half is least visible as opposed to the lower half.

I see you have asked for some PS feedback, for myself I always try to minimise the post processing so I am far from being an in-depth user but I will try and give you my workflow for the image. I hope you shot in RAW? The bulk of my adjustments would be in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw). I would look carefully at the histogram and start off with the auto adjustment which is sometimes sufficient on its own but if not I would tweak the sliders until I got a good even distribution of the histogram. As part of that process I would imagine I would have used some fill light to bring detail into the top half and I would have probably used recovery slider to reduce the blown highlights.

In PS my emphasis is always on getting the very best quality as opposed to fancy this that and the other filters or whatever, the danger is that you get carried away and far removed from the essential qualities within the image. I may have used hue and saturation to lightly subdue the colours a little and I may have used curves to make sure the most important parts of the image are being rendered at their best. I rarely sharpen I would prefer an unsharpened image to an over-sharpened one every day, halos are so unsightly and often ruin some otherwise brilliant images. So there we are, like I said my post processing is always minimal.

I hope this helps, thank you for your submission Arna Marie (what a lovely name), good luck, Sid

A Lady's Glove
by ArnaMarie

Comment by Melethia:
Lovely color tones to this. Gentle and rich.

Band of Horses
by ArnaMarie

Comment by ArnaMarie:

Originally posted by bohemka: Great photo. I really like the tone set by the processing, and the horse on the right adds a pinpoint of flamboyance in an otherwise somewhat melancholy scene. Good band as well, if it's a referential pun.

Thank you bohemka! Glad you like it! They caught my eye on a road trip of Iceland last year. My boyfriend, who was driving, almost had a heart attack when I yelled "STOP!!!". It was worth it! Haha...

I cannot take full credit for the processing. I'm no PS wiz, so I started the editing with a Nik Color Efex filter and then did some final tweaking. Have been thinking of making another attempt. Perhaps a less flamboyant version :)

Band of Horses
by ArnaMarie

Comment by bohemka:
Great photo. I really like the tone set by the processing, and the horse on the right adds a pinpoint of flamboyance in an otherwise somewhat melancholy scene. Good band as well, if it's a referential pun.

Cumulus Humilis
by ArnaMarie

Comment by mindbottling:
Beautiful clouds. However, when I see clouds, I think gas rather than liquid.

In Memory of Mary Ellen Mark
by ArnaMarie

Comment by tnun:
we twigged.

In Memory of Mary Ellen Mark
by ArnaMarie

Comment by lei_73:
Arna Marie, I think that is the beautiful tribute to Mary Ellen Mark! It does loose some points from being smaller than the contenders.
And thank you for the thoughtful and generous commenting!!

In Memory of Mary Ellen Mark
by ArnaMarie

Comment by njsabs:

In Memory of Mary Ellen Mark
by ArnaMarie

Comment by Barroness:
my favorite, good luck!