Curtis Falls
by surfdabbler

Comment by Moose408:
I really like this photo and I gave it a 9 in voting. I like the sharpness and I do like the bright greens unlike karmat.

The brown water does stand out quite a bit compared to the rest of the photo but when my eye is drawn there by the color I like that I can see the details under the water. There is more to explore there and I find that interesting.

Curtis Falls
by surfdabbler

Comment by karmat:
I really, really like the composition in this one. It isn't as straightforward as a "textbook" example, but it is still well-balanced and allows the eyes to wander around in the frame, and feels complete.

To me, the bright, bright greens are a bit off-putting. Everything looks so calm and subdued, except for the greens -- especially in the center of the frame. If that is what you were going for, it works. I know dpc seems to like the super-saturated green look (I call it drAchoo green), but it is kinda off-putting to me.

The other thing I noticed, and it may be just me, is that some of the rocks around the base of the fall looks a bit pixelated/over-sharpened/out of focus. It is not bad, but it is noticeable, and since our eyes tend to rest at the base of the falls, it may have made some of the voters feel that it was a touch out of focus.

Still, this is an absolutely beautiful shot.

Curtis Falls
by surfdabbler

Comment by Donna21:
It's not the log that bothers me (although it does pull focus), it's the brown stuff under the water to the right of it. It almost seems to be a shot of it's own added on to the waterfall shot.

What if you sliced this down the center (or just to the right of center - maybe including all or part of that central fern?) and then cropped a bit off the bottom?

Just a thought.

Josh and Caitlyn
by surfdabbler

Comment by surfdabbler:

Originally posted by Melethia: Fun shot and VERY cute kids. I like the softness of the foreground area. Did you use a flash to fill on this? I can't really tell, but the light seems just a bit hard to reconcile because of the shadows on the rocks behind them.

The late afternoon sun was behind me, but also behind a large mountain, so this is essentially in the shade, but with a huge semi-spherical blue soft-box overhead. On-camera fill flash was used (you can see the shadow under his arms). There's a fair bit of dodging and burning on this shot, which is probably what makes it tricky to work out. A similar re-edit of this shot is hanging on our wall, and it does look slightly 'studio-ish' due to the lighting.

Lady
by surfdabbler

Comment by Melethia:
Yeah, probably not blurry or messy enough for a challenge, but the nice thing about the challenge is it made you stop to look at something you'd have otherwise probably tossed. (I'm a big fan of blur.) The things that work here: the monochromatic nature of black, white and red - always a good combo in my book; her expression - it's kind and a bit intriguing; sequins - sequins on a well shaped female are always good for some reason, plus they're very cool in blurry pics. What needs work - the overall composition is a bit too tight on the left, but a much tighter crop on the right would balance that better I think. The linear object in the foreground (a railing of some kind?) is a bit unfortunate, but it's impact might be lessened by the tighter crop. All told, too low of a score in my opinion, and a very good start at seeing the possibilities in other than sharp. :-)

Josh and Caitlyn
by surfdabbler

Comment by Melethia:
Fun shot and VERY cute kids. I like the softness of the foreground area. Did you use a flash to fill on this? I can't really tell, but the light seems just a bit hard to reconcile because of the shadows on the rocks behind them.

HMAS Endeavour
by surfdabbler

Comment by Melethia:
The conversion is very good - very rich tones and excellent contrast without being too contrasty. Great detail as well.

Tulips
by surfdabbler

Comment by Melethia:
Again quite nice mastery of the tools - I'd have not known this was a composite. Did you create the shadows as well?

654433 glamour edit
by surfdabbler

Comment by Melethia:
Very good post processing! You really brought out the best of the model without making it appear like "glamour" processing. A deft hand with the tools. I especially like the "duplicate and gauss blur at low opacity in darken mode" - that creates a very lovely backlit studio glow. Would never have guessed that's how you achieved it.

Curtis Falls
by surfdabbler

Comment by Melethia:
This may sound odd, but I think in this particular FS you may have been hurt a bit by the fact it's a landscape of sorts - note that there were no landscapes in the top ten this time. Who knows why. Still, a top 10% finish in a free study of 500 entries is pretty darn good - score may not have been where you'd have liked it, but the placement is very good. You've handled the composition well - feels quite balanced to me - and have done a good job with the light, both in exposure and processing. I'm wondering if a crop to take out part of the foreground log would lessen its presence - it's a very strong element in the shot - but I'm not sure what that would do to the overall balance. Besides, I like the growth on it. And I do not see this as overprocessed - the processing seems to be well-handled without overdoing it.