Colored Calla
by stephan

Comment by stephan:
Thank you very much for your nice comments. I'm _very_ happy about the placement and the score. Actually I'm surprised that it scored that high, because I thought that the problems with grain and sharpness would ensure me a low score. I'll never understand voting here on DPC ;-)

I have an outtake of the series and personally I like it more than the one I submitted. But eventually I decided that way, because it fits better to the Color theme.

Special thanks to Gary for his great CC critique. I totally agree about the issues you found to "mecker" about ;-)

Oh, and btw.: this was the first time I used a border. After a long time of being sceptical about that, now I think it's a good thing.

Message edited by author 2003-04-15 12:00:42.

Colored Calla
by stephan

Comment by andrewlr:
Hi Stephan,

Congrats on a great result for your photo! Keep up the great work! Will be keeping an eye on your future entires :-)

Andrew

Colored Calla
by stephan

Comment by kiwiness:
Critique Club guten Tag:

Hiya Stephan, well I get to critique your photo. First of all congratulations on an excellent calla shot, (I only found out for the first time last week from John that these flowers are called callas).

The composition of this pic is very good. I love the way the flower curves in from the right side and flows into the center of the image. The negative space on the left is justified here and it gives the flower breathing room and I think anything less would have given this photo a cramped feeling.

The choice of blue for the background was ideal. Yellow and blue always go well together, you can never go wrong using that combination. The border is not overdone at all and fits in well especially with the added effect of the border disolving into the negative space from the left hand side.

There is a jagged edge on the top petal on the left which is a little disturbing if you look at it long enough, and the background blue is a tad noisy. But these are only "Kleinigkeiten" which don't really lower the quality of this image at all, just that I had to find something to "mecker" about right :-)

Overall and excellent image, one that is a pleasure to look at, and one you should definitely start offering as a print! It has also just jumped on to my favourite photo list.

Schöne Grüsse

Gary

Colored Calla
by stephan

Comment by andrewlr:
Simplicity at its best! Great shot and really well lit! Maybe slightly on the soft side which adds to the overall effect (if thats what you were aiming for, it is nice). I'd have liked it a tiny bit sharper, but thats just me! Well done!

Colored Calla
by stephan

Comment by moono:
nicely done

Colored Calla
by stephan

Comment by KarenB:
absolutely gorgeous! If I could suggest anything at all, it would be to crop out the dark area on the left side of the photo... but I think this is great! a bit of stair stepping from ??oversharpening?? nice work all around.

Colored Calla
by stephan

Comment by SteveS:
This is really very pretty. Probably could be a little sharper, but nice job.

The Sea Won't Rage Today
by stephan

Comment by Jeileen:

Originally posted by e301: It's a complete disgrace that this shot placed 72nd. I thought I was hard done by by those who didn't understand the challenge (or at least took it all too literally), but this beggars belief. Good luck ed

I completely agree - just another instance in which voting comes to surface....
Good Job Stephan!

The Sea Won't Rage Today
by stephan

Comment by stephan:
Hi all,

first let me say that I'm sorry that I couldn't respond sooner this week. But I'm very happy about the comments. All were very nice and I'm mostly happy about the photo. What disturbed me personally most was the little white spot in the middle of the reflection. The more I looked at the photo the more it made me angry, but I couldn't do something about that without spot editing.

Anyway, sharpness really seems to be an issue here on DPC ;-)
I see the "clarity in water" => "clarity in photo" connection, but I don't want to sharpen it more because this would only increase the grain. Personally I think the grain is a much tougher issue for that photo.

I was especially flattered by the comment from Jeileen, who said she would buy the photo. Well, photography is a hobby for me and I do not sell my work. If you like my photo then I'm more than happy to share it with you.

So I made a large scale version (1680 x 2240 pixels) of the photo and you can download it here (Warning: this is a 2.2 MB file). The white spot is fixed there, too ;-) If you want a print then print it. If you want to use it as a wallpaper then use it. Do with it whatever you want.

There is only one thing: the photo is licensed under the Free Art License. It's not complicated. Basically it means that the photo is free to use for everything you want as long as it stays free (free as in freedom not free as in beer ;-) You can sell the photo if you think it can make you rich, I have no problem with that). Only the photo must remain licensed under the FAL and my Copyright remains, too (meaning you aren't allowed to pretend that it is your photo). Read the text on the linked website, it's very easy and I really like the concept.

Thanks again! Until next week...
Stephan

Colored Calla
by stephan

Comment by Jacko:
beautiful mixture of colour .... blue and yellow work great for me. The flower seems to be missing sharpness. Good luck. Jacko. 7