4 Reach for the Sky
by cykhansen

Comment by PTLParsons:
Beautiful shot. Love the angle. Beautiful sky, just a little on the purple side, though. Good focus, nice crop, good subject. Nice composition and good execution. 7 PTL

4 Reach for the Sky
by cykhansen

Comment by Wheeler1992:
okay

Swish
by cykhansen

Comment by Azrifel:
~~~~Critique Club Comment~~~~

Composition (content)
The composition is basically okay. You've got a slope and overhanging tree that lead the eye, a nice background, a subject in motion and snow that gives the picture an extra 'winter' touch. Nothing wrong with that.
There are some things that could be improved:
Take the subject (boy on the sled) out of the center. You don't have all the control with a moving subject of course, but it would have come out best if it was just right of the tree with the rest of the frame the same I think.
I wonder what it would have looked like when you panned the subject and blurred the background with your own movement. It would give the image a great extra human touch that it now lacks.

The difference in color and intensity between the trees and the white slope is very good. And I really like the falling snow.

Background
Nice background, everything says winter. The background at the right, beyond the path woulde have been better when it was blurred by choosing a wider aperture, but I see from the settings that you needed that you needed the ISO 50 and small aperture to allow for a longer exposure time. The only solution to that is to try it at another time of day when there is less light.

Camera Work (Technical)
Can't say for shure, but it seems a 1/3th stop overexposed. Altough the detail in the trees doesn't want a shorther exposure. It is very hard with snow.
Was this on a tripod? If not, I admire your steady hand.
Whitebalance seems to be a bit off, a bit blue/purple in the snow.

Digital Processing (technical)
I loaded the picture in Photoshop and autolevels alone took away a lot of the purple/blue cast that was over the whole picture. I only saw it clearly when I took it away. The result is a more natural look of the trees and foreground shadows. A bit of fooling around with the white eye dropper in the snow took even the remaining blue cast out of the snow, but it enhanced an overexposed look of the snow.
I don't want to brag about PS, but I believe that PS Elements 2 and other cheaper imaging software have these capabilities too (ask in the forums, I am not shure). It can really enhance the quality of your picture. The difference for this one was stunning, especially when I added some unsharp mask too.

Don't forget to save at the highest quality level possible, your picture is 70kb and 150 is allowed. A higher jpeg quality keeps more detail in the trees for example, saves the sharpness of all edges and gives better color rendition. (In PS use Save for the Web)

My opinion
The corrected image looked very good, now a panned version and you would have a high ranked pic.

Message edited by author 2002-12-16 16:36:17.

Swish
by cykhansen

Comment by chrysalis:
Yes, well... fits the theme. But the shot isn't anything too much here.

Swish
by cykhansen

Comment by KarenB:
The scene is sharper than the figure... Since the subject seems to be the figure sledding down the hill, I'd like to see him/her in sharper focus with the background blurred to give the sense of motion

Swish
by cykhansen

Comment by Turbotech:
1)Does the photo fit the challenge?(6)
2)Color(4)
3)Composition(4)
4)Focus(5)
5)Background(6)
6)Lighting(5)
7)Title(4)

Overall Score: (4.84 rounded to 5)

Commentary:
This has to be a difficult shot to set up. considering the Blur you want and the speed the subject is moving. Personally I would have tried to get the focal point more on the left to add more direction to the shot. You did well at getting something in the shot that was not moving ie the trees in the background. Overall you did a nice job.

John (TurboTech)

Swish
by cykhansen

Comment by catpixel:
I was going to submit a similar shot. i'm glad I didn't now, because your's is much better. Could crop it a little more to really focus on the tobaogganer.

Swish
by cykhansen

Comment by nds:
IMHO a blurred background and a sharp main subject would have been the better decision. You can achieve such an effect by moving the camera with the sledge while exposing. (5) nds

Swish
by cykhansen

Comment by jgillard:
A bit sharper of shutter speed would of made this photo much beter, as more detail in the sledder would be seen, but still be blured and moving! Keep trying! jgillard5

Venus in Misty Blue Dawn
by cykhansen

Comment by Alecia:
CC

i have gone out and taken shots like this myself! it is so hard to make our beautiful sky turn out like you see it! this really is a nice shot, the blue sky is a gorgeous periwinkle color, and the moon, small as it is, manages to make me feel very small! compositionally, it is nice. i like where you placed the moon and venus in the frame. technically, you did well, also. i guess the only thing that bothers me a little is the fact that it is almost "too" empty! i really dont mind the negative space feel at all, i jsut wish this one had a tad bit more in it to give it more impact. otherwise, very nice job!