Day 05 - Sweep
by shalrath

Comment by MacDonald:
I love this shot.. any more would be too much information ... the interaction between broom and leaf tells all we need to know.

Day 06 - Carry
by shalrath

Comment by MacDonald:
Precious baby, cradled safely on momma's back - first thought that came to mind - wonderful processing.

Day 07 - For Deb
by shalrath

Comment by MacDonald:
I don't know the story so keep that in mind as I give feedback on this shot :) - I think that some of the top could be cropped off to add to the comp of this shot.. about half ... he has a strong face.. it holds my interest.. his expression is interesting.. I like the sepia and the slighlty blown out look - it all works.

Day 04 - Back in Fashion
by shalrath

Comment by MacDonald:
the first thing you see in this photo is the love, in the blocks and between the man and the little boy (father & son) nice capture - love the oof b/g. The composition is very strong, the exposure is right on.

Day 03 - Spotted
by shalrath

Comment by MacDonald:
great job on the b&w, his attitude makes this shot very interesting .. I like how she is playing with her hands.

Landscape Study
by shalrath

Comment by jaysonmc:
Terrific shot!

At Peace
by shalrath

Comment by jaysonmc:
You came in the top 1/3 of all the pictures, that is quite an accomplishment especially for your first studio shot.

Everyone is going to have different opinions on the overall quality of the photo.
I think preserving the burnt out highlights in the hair might have helped. I am personally not a fan of a lot of white space, others are. I personally like the pose, others might not.

The point here is that if you want a shot that scores "extremely" well then you need to appeal to all of the voters. This shot isn't bad, it is quite good but it is not going to appeal to everyone equally.

5.7 nothing to scoff at, especially considering it is your first attempt. Much better than I could do. Congrats.

At Peace
by shalrath

Comment by magenmarie:
Saw your post asking for comments.... I really like this picture. It's nicely composed, and the model is in an interesting position, which sets this pic aside from the "norm". The only thing that is a little distracting to me is that it looks like the backlight was too bright. You can see this by her right shoulder - it's a bit blown out. Also, some of her whispies in her hair are lost and a bit overexposed as well. Although, the light ON the model is great, but just a tad bit bright because the backlight looks a bit too bright. -Hope this helps. Magen

At Peace
by shalrath

Comment by Blackbox:
'...give me a few hints, tips, suggestions...What I'd really like would be some constructive feedback from anyone who knows more about this field than I (most everyone...) So if you have a moment...'

I'm no expert and have no studio experience. However, I have been looking at photos for a while: I hope that counts for something. I rated your photo at 8. I thought it was excellent photographically speaking: maybe slightly overly bright? I didn't give it a 10 because I felt it didn't have a 'Portrait' feeling and as much as I don't like centered objects/people, I felt Portraits done in a studio were generally done that way. I hope that might help somewhat...I'm sure others will have much better answers for you...

Day 08 - V is for...
by shalrath

Comment by bassbone:
what a face! - the title of the shot really made me look hard at the shot - the use of shallow DOF with the cars and other background images to smooth so as to remove distraction works great to emphasize his face