Ascension
by jmsetzler

Comment by jodiecoston:
Lovely abstract feel to this image. Very well done in the terms of the challenge, and your exposure is very good. Nice work. (8)

Ascension
by jmsetzler

Comment by Jacko:
Very nice curves. I'd like to see more of the railing (not as tighlty cropped on the right and side). Very nice black and white. Jacko.

Ascension
by jmsetzler

Comment by Gordon:
I like this , but I think the design elements would be stronger if the right hand rail hadn't been amputated. Then you'd have 3 elegant curves, the left rail, the carpet/ stairs and the right wal/ railing, all working in harmony to lead you through the scene. The tonal range is okay, the lighting is interesting, but that interuption bothers me and my eye. If those elements were more in harmony this would be a much stronger, very graphical design. What would be 3 major tonal areas are also divided up into 5, with triangles in the lower right and upper right that are competing not harmonising with the scene. The steps give just enough interest and tonal range to stop this eing boring. A good effort but needs some thought on the composition and the visual weight of shapes and relationships.

Ascension
by jmsetzler

Comment by carsten:
I think this composition is very good. Perhaps I would have liked to see the right part of the stairs too. But it is not THAT important. Great focus, contrast and perfect in b&w. Well done and good luck!

Ascension
by jmsetzler

Comment by Shiiizzzam:
I really like the contrast in this. The soft lines just draw you in. Nicely done !

Liberty And Justice
by jmsetzler

Comment by adriana5150:
This is such a great picture and the way you did it its so cool. You are very good!

The Falls
by jmsetzler

Comment by buschmeister:
Very nice

Nailed
by jmsetzler

Comment by karmat:
CRITIQUE CLUB CRITIQUE
by karmat

COMPOSITION
Overall, I think the composition of this shot is good. The dude walking fills up the frame, and enough of the sky is included to give it some color contrast. For some reason, though, the little splotch of blue makes it have an "unbalanced" feeling to me. Maybe if there were another color or more blue in another part of the shot. Don't know if it would be better, just different maybe. When I first saw the shot, it struck me as being a little flat (most signs are, duh), but I am not sure what you could do to add context or depth without obliterating the nail. sorry.

TECHNIQUE
The colors here are awesome. the blue and yellow form a nice contrast, and the black stands out. The nail is visible, and casts an interesting shadow on the sign. I like the perspective of the shot. I see in your comments what the line running down the sign is, and it would have added impact, but on the full size picture, it looks like a mistake in lighting.

OVERALL EFFECT
This sign is extremely funny. You have to wonder if they nailed it like that on purpose or if they even realized what they were doing!! The brightness of the sign catches your attention, and the clarity of it keeps it. I like it.

Nailed
by jmsetzler

Comment by Silver Fox:
nice live color here, and you really caught the shadow of the nail as well as the rusty nail itself. What's that yellow streak running down themiddle of the sign? some kind of stain, or shadow?

Dead Of Winter
by jmsetzler

Comment by stephan:
Hello John, greetings from the Critique Club (I guess you heard about it ;-))

Composition:
A bit uneasy. There are lotss of details to see. Outdoor photos can be very cluttered sometimes but you did a good job to handle it. There are three elements: the tombstones, the house and the tree. The house gets a bit more attention because of the lighting but generally all three elements seem to play an equal role. So your composition was used well to capture the overall mood of the while scene.
My personal preference is that I like simple photos more and I think the photo would still look good without either the tree or the house. But I'm unsure if it would look better, because house and tree balance each other well.
Two "mergers" distract a little bit. First, the tree does not contrast very much against the trees in the background. The colour tones are the same and because if the wide DOF both have the same level of detail. Second there are two tombstones which merge because they're both black and there is no edge.

Lighting:
I like the infrared lighting and the high contrast very much. It's very stange and interesting. Black and white suits the overall theme.
Unfortunately the lighting looks a bit too sunny and happy, which does not fit to the theme "dead of winter". The blown out wall of the house, the high contrast and the bright grass makes you think it's sunny and you expect shadows. But there are none (at least I can't see them) and this makes you think it's (a hot summer) noon.
What I like most in this photo is the gradient in the sky. It's has such an awesome eerie feeling! Very moody and dark. This really "makes" the photo in my opinion.

Focus:
I like the DOF. Good decision to use the narrow aperture and accept the resulting slow shutter speed. The focus is great especially for such a slow shutter speed.

Postprocessing:
I removed the border in my image editor and I like it better without it. It "constricts" (warning: looked word up in dictionary, hope it fits) the photo and without it the photo is more "open" which fits much more to an outdoor landscape photo. But I'm no broder-expert and very rarely like borders.

Art:
Not a typical landscape photo (which is a plus!), but in my opinion you met the challenge topic. Creative use of infrared lighting. It transports an interesting mood and has an appealing strangeness. The title fits although the "winter" part is not very visible (as explained above).


Ok, that's it. I hope I was able to express my thoughts about your photo correctly (which is a bit difficult sometimes, especially because English is not my native language). If you have questions, please don't hesitate to email me.

Stephan

Message edited by author 2003-01-26 14:22:59.