"Just singing in the rain...."
by agwright

Comment by willem:
wow, the detail in this image is amazing. And great soft natural colors. A brighter eye would be even more appealing. The background desaturation works very well here, looks very natural.

"Just singing in the rain...."
by agwright

Comment by shoyles:
Nice shot, 6. If the eye was visible would have been higher.

"Just singing in the rain...."
by agwright

Comment by geewhy:
Wonderfully sharp image..the water drops on the penguins head really add interest.. a little reflected light to brighten up the side of it`s head and bring the eye into view would have made this perfect.
Good work

"Just singing in the rain...."
by agwright

Comment by moodville:
Great textures and color. Nice simple composition with a good non-distractive background. Seems nicely sharp too. Only nitpick would be to have his eye a little brighter/clearer.

"Just singing in the rain...."
by agwright

Comment by dagaleaa:
very sharp and nicely detailed. I wish I could see the eye more clearly, but I believe it is about the same color as the body...great colors and I love the gleaming wetness....the background is perfect too...

"Just singing in the rain...."
by agwright

Comment by khkai:
I love the background, it's important that it's grey to highlight the colors of this emperor penguine. Amazing.

"Just singing in the rain...."
by agwright

Comment by pmichaud:
Excellent. I love the muted colors and mood.

"Just singing in the rain...."
by agwright

Comment by jxpfeer:
could use a little more light on the face, maybe a tweak with shadow/highlight would fix that. but the detail in the pic is great, love the composition, love the bokeh. GREAT shot!

Rook or Bishop..
by agwright

Comment by jadin:
Greetings from the Critque Club!

Composition:
This is a superb composition. The horizontal lines are straight, (crooked is highly distracting of course) The contrast is superb. The black background makes you focus on the chess board, which is where the focus belongs.

The big choice of course is which piece to take, it's fairly self explanitory, save the subtle "best possible" move. This is shown by everyone's comments, which were extremely varied on what to take :) My only complaint is whose turn it is, but that is virtually impossible to show in this context, so no worries there.

Lighting:
The lighting you used looks like it comes from beneath, leaving all pieces glowing (I'm guessing this based on your 'light box' comment). It works very well for this photo.

Techincal:
No problems with your focus etc. At f/16 all pieces are in focus, good for a photo such as this. Your crop leaves enough room on every side to be comfortable, not cramped or unbalanced. Your exposure is good, save a little on the dark side, a little more light or less aperature would've added more contrast on the light side of the spectrum.

Post-processing:
Your border helps this photo. Not sure what you did to the photo regards editing, but whatever it was it's natural enough to not show. Again the light side of the spectrum could've been fine tuned in editing if you didn't want to re-shoot.

Overall:
Nice choice for this theme. Your composition is natural. I'd prefer your lighting be a tad brighter, but it suits this photo good enough. Really the lighting is my only recommendation for 'improving' the photo. Nice work.

And some of you need to hone your chess skills. ;)

Message edited by author 2004-06-29 00:28:40.

Dressage
by agwright

Comment by Glacierwolf:
This is an awesome photograph you had to start with. Wonderfully sharp and crips, great detail and focus. Perfect. Leaving the sky blue balanced it out very well - nice call there. Supurb workmanship separating the horse and rider from the background. I had wondered about just the horse or the rider colored, but, they are a set and look great together. This is going to look nice matted and framed. Great job.