Extinguished but not Forgotten
by riot

Comment by tanguera:
Taking a walk through your great port. Love the fantastic notes you've provided. Nobody does that anymore. Quite the setup!

Old Friends
by riot

Comment by riot:

Originally posted by snaffles: Greetings from the Critique Club! .. Hope this critique has been of help, feel free to PM me, Susan

Thanks for the detailed critique, and the welcome! You're right, I've returned after being mostly away for the past four or five years - this place has changed a bit, but hopefully I'll hang around :)

By the way, this image is actually naturally lit and full colour, not black and white - just a very naturally low-saturation scene. I was going for a flat look, but you're right, to get the votes it would have needed a lot more pop!

Old Friends
by riot

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Just took a quick scroll through your port before returning to write your critique...Eugene, you have some very serious photo skills. I'm guessing that you're returning after a hiatus from here, ad if so, in advance, belated welcome back and hope you hang around!

Now onto the photo. High-key, as you've probably seen from the front-page top 5, is essentially all about the white and bringing out the details within it. This is a site populated by literalists and they vote accordingly - I saw where you were in the final standings and to quote Austin Powers, 'Ouch, baby. Very ouch.'

The presence of the heavy black Hendrick's bottle and the accents on the Kraken bottle pretty much knocks this out of the running in terms of high-key; true white and true black is acceptable in high-key, but only in very small quantities. This is a decent b/w image, but both comp and subject matter lack interest unless carefully lit and made compelling in some manner. The candles look flat and the flash shadow on the wall behind them.

Hope this critique has been of help, feel free to PM me,

Susan

Water & Wax
by riot

Comment by sidpixel:
Hello from the Critique club

An interesting image that makes a significant contribution to the free challenge

It̢۪s pleasing to see you experimenting to find a unique angle to make your images stand out, well done. I would say, that in the main, the angle has worked though the wide angle distortion does have an effect that it is not always easy to control in a creative way so whilst its obviously distorted on the edges of the frame, because her hair is hanging over the edge of the bath the elongation is perfectly acceptable. The things I like less are all the blown highlights from the candle-only lighting which is inevitable to retain all of the important detail of the lady in the bath. The other thing is her right leg looks as though it has been amputated, its nice to have the leg raised but only slightly out of the water would have been better. A crop of just the bath alone significantly improves the end result, do we really need to see the end wall? Finally, some colour balancing would also have improved it.

Thanks for your original idea Eugene

Possession of the Summoner
by riot

Comment by Pangurban:
Really like the concept but wasn't so keen on the very bright light around the horns - I felt it distracted from the skull.

Water & Wax
by riot

Comment by tate:
unique angle.

Possession of the Summoner
by riot

Comment by onthecusp:
I hope this is doing well despite any prudes. A challenge fave! Best of luck. TEN!

Possession of the Summoner
by riot

Comment by bahai:
Better than any other photo in this challenge.

Water & Wax
by riot

Comment by jim29028:
& wine, quite a bit of distortion on this with the wide angle, think a B&W treatment would have improved this, it's got too much yellow/red color in it for me although it may have been true to the scene, could have corrected in raw

Dreams of the Sea
by riot

Comment by riot:

Originally posted by posthumous: I would love to see this series.

Well it's been four years, but better late than never, right? Here's the next photo in the series, Called to the Sea:


I've been away from photography for a while but now I'm back and I intend to complete them.