'All the colours of the rainbow'
by talj

Comment by rinac:
May not be striking to you, but looks pretty bloody good to me! The only issues I see (and they're really no biggies anyway) is that the plastic wrappers are visible and the stem poking out over the yellow gerbera. Otherwise, fantastic colours, light, dof and comp!

Shopping for Sunday's Breakfast
by talj

Comment by rinac:
Ooooh... I like this colour combo much more. What an incredible red! Seriously, it could be interesting to see if it sells as stock. I suspect it would move very well.

Oranges and Lemons
by talj

Comment by rinac:
Awesome colour and contrast! Great subjects for stock too.

by talj

Comment by rinac:
Odd illusion... the middle window looks like it's leaning, but when I cover the two windows on either side, it seems to straighten. I'd go with a dramatic vertical crop on this one.

Other than that, I'm not sure you could do much else with this. Very dark, isn't it?

Kneeling Cushions
by talj

Comment by rinac:
Boy, did extremely well under the circumstances. You ought to try weddings then, eh? I reckon you got the skillz :)

Compositionally, I'd be tempted to rotate clockwise just enough to crop out the row at top of frame.

Candles for Prayer
by talj

Comment by rinac:
Photographs don't have to be "pretty" to be great. I think you've done an excellent job in pp emphasising the important aspect of this shot - the sign and the single candle. From a purely photojournalistic(sp?) point of view, a simple crop would have worked just as well. The lighting effect however, has ensured that the viewer reads the sign first, which is important for the storytelling to flow in the right direction.

IMG_1526-01.JPG
by talj

Comment by jowood:
This has been a personal fav of mine for a long time now T.
So glad you have added it to your portfolio for everyone else to see:-)

IMG_5916.jpg
by talj

Comment by rinac:
Hey, that's sneaky! Thought I'd commented on all the Ickworth House ones. You're just trying to mess with my head ;)

So, did you pp this one? The light looks a lot brighter here. Or it could be just because it's a closer shot.

Anyways, the closer you get, the more I want you to crop out (or clone out). The tree top above the building on the left and the bit of tree coming in at right of frame, have to go!

I played around with this one for a bit of fun.

Cloned out the trees I mentioned above.
Converted to duotone.
Curves adjustment.
Dup layer and added diffuse glow with grain (just to see how it looked and I liked it).
Vignette in soft-light blend mode.
A bit more burning around edges of frame.

Curves
by talj

Comment by rinac:
She's a breathtaking old Lady. Your documentation of her is outstanding. I do love all the curves and lines through this. Wonderful shadows draped across the lawn too.

There's not much I can critique here, save for maybe pulling up some more detail in the shadows. I'd have most certainly taken the exact same photograph when faced with such a complex visual feast.

Wonder if the original architects and ground planners took every single angle into consideration...

Leaving Ickworth
by talj

Comment by rinac:
Improvements in ps, hmmm? Ok, first thing I would do is a basic clean up. Completely burn out the lit path beyond the fence line and patches of light coming through the trees at the end, as well as cloning out the bits 'n pieces on the grass.

Then I'd convert to duotone (I prefer dark browns rather than black), and throw a radial vignette (white inside/black outside, 150%) over the top in soft-light blend mode.

Howzat? :)