Ne 50/3
by JerseyGenie

Comment by levyj413:
Jeanne, your eye for composition shows once again, and your focus control on this macros is very good. And the angles on the spools are definitely nice, as opposed to straight up and down.

I do have one composition suggestion: try moving the left edge in so it just touches the orange spool, filling the upper left corner with orange. That'll get the other end of that spool out of the middle and eliminate what my eye perceives as a big border to the left of the orange thread.

More importantly, I think, this lacks contrast. I bet that thread on the right is lot brighter than it looks here, for instance. You mentioned using levels. Experiment with really pushing the contrast to where it looks terrible, then back away, as opposed to slightly tapping it upward from where it starts. Play around - you never know what you might discover. :)

Why have you forgotten me?
by JerseyGenie

Comment by levyj413:
Jeanne, the composition is very nice. This image lives and dies by the depth of detail, though, so the softness hurts the interest level. At least for me. This is where posthumous comes in behind me to say it's perfect as is. ;)

I also think that more contrast would benefit it. Learn how to use levels or curves to add contrast without blowing out the highlights. You usually want something to be pure white and pure black. Not always, but I think so in this shot.

Partial tree
by JerseyGenie

Comment by levyj413:
Generally, horizontal or vertical lines aren't as interesting as diagonals (as others regularly remind me). I also think that brightening this a lot would help. I realize this was minimal editing, but for future efforts, try adding more light or lengthening the exposure time.

asparagus, tomato, parsley, cabbage, oh my
by JerseyGenie

Comment by levyj413:
Jeanne: I'm poking around your portfolio, so I'm taking another look at this. I still think it's a nice image, with terrific colors, but I'm trying to figure out why it didn't score higher.

I think it may be the composition. I keep wanting to crop out the upper right corner. I'm not exactly sure how I'd do it, but try this: bring the right edge in to where the tomato on the bottom of the frame touches the bottom on the right. That'll fill the bottom right corner with that terrific red. Then it'll be too tall, so move the bottom and top in until it looks good.

Reflective Pond
by JerseyGenie

Comment by KaDi:
Softly stated. I can feel the end of summer in the light on those Queen Anne's lace.

Reflective Pond
by JerseyGenie

Comment by stevenov:
Very nice attempt. I think it would be much nicer without the reflection of the trees in the pond.

Day-29-The-Canal.jpg
by JerseyGenie

Comment by MelonMusketeer:
The flash made it so misty looking by lighting up the nearby moisture. Good trick, and this is a very nice shot just as you have it here.
A gradient neutral density filter would bring the sky down to the same light level as the sweet reflection in the water if you have one. I have one, but keep forgetting to use it because it is a new trick in my bag.

Day-29-The-Canal.jpg
by JerseyGenie

Comment by annig:
nice fog across the water shot
looks peaceful; need places like this to slow the pulse down
~Anni

Day-29-The-Canal.jpg
by JerseyGenie

Comment by jmritz:
Looks like fog coming off the water. Lovely shot.

Day-27-No-1-Son.jpg
by JerseyGenie

Comment by levyj413:
He looks like he's flying down the ice! So that's a case where my knowing how hockey looks fools me, since he's really on wheels. I suggest bumping up the brightness, though. I suspect the brightest part of his uniform is white, not gray.