Welcome!
by tolovemoon

Comment by Falc:
Feels washed out a little, needs more contrast. I know this is going to sound terrible but the subject is a little uninspiring, lacking WOW, but maybe thats what you wanted to portray.

My glass guitar
by tolovemoon

Comment by dsb_mac:
it looks as if you used an actual guitar for the background. A pretty thoughtful and unnoticed touch if it is the case. To get a more blurry background effect try placing whatever you want blurry much further behind the object in focus (in this case the blue object behind your red guitar). I don't know if your camera has manual aperture settings but if it does the larger the aperture 'A' (smaller the number) you set the easier it is to blur things. If you can't set it manually I think a trick is to use "night" mode and the camera should set itself automatically to its largest aperture thus achieving the same effect. The blur effect is often used to make your picture's main subject stand out which in turn usually makes a better photograph. Try it out you may find it to your liking! Good work!

Message edited by author 2005-01-22 08:35:26.

So much love and joy in a family!
by tolovemoon

Comment by Bear_Music:
*** CRITIQUE CLUB COMMENT ***

There's a lot of love & joy in this image, and as a family keepsake it is priceless. I like the sense of 3 generations at play, and I'm fascinated by how the baby's attention is focused across his grandfather (?) at his mother (?), despite that the grandfather is the one actually doing the interacting. (I suppsoe it's possible that the older folks are the parents, and the woman in green is a neice or somesuch...)

As a challenge photo, however, it has problems.

The lighting is harsh and flat, a characteristic of built-in flashes, which I presume was how you shot it. Notice how the foreground hand is brighter than it should be, and the background has fallen way off in value. It'svery rare for a picture with this sort of lighting to do well in a challenge, although it works very well for family snapshot-type photos.

Even more importantly, the background itself is extremely busy and totally against the intimate mood of the subjects themselves. It's actually a good thing that the light falloff is so extreme, I suppose, because if the backgroudn were actually lit it would be even more distracting.

So, basically, this image has been judged low, I think, on lack of "technical merit", not for weakness of content, and I tend to go along with that. It's a nice shot for the family, way better than most such snapshots, but not really challenge material.

Robt.

My glass guitar
by tolovemoon

Comment by Skip:
i appreciate your effort here, but it is really not working for me. from the image quality, i'm going to guess that you might be asking more from your camera than it is capable of. one thing to keep in mind before you submit to a challenge is whether or not your image is one that you would really want to hang on your wall. while i 'like' most of my entries, the ones that have scored higher are the ones that others would like to hang on their walls. don't let this discourage you; it is a weekly learning experience that only works if you keep on trying! good luck in future entries!

My glass guitar
by tolovemoon

Comment by tazza:
sorry, but everything is bokeh, nothing's in focus!

My glass guitar
by tolovemoon

Comment by orussell:
The colour combinations are nice but I find there is nothing in the image that suggests bokeh. In fact I don't find anything to be in particularly good focus, let alone a subject with an OOF BG. Maybe if you set it up so that the tiny glass guitar was your subject set against (not on top of - at some distance) a back drop of your full size guitar which could be completely OOF, it could work better

My glass guitar
by tolovemoon

Comment by peecee:
Very noisy and no bokeh I'm afraid.

My glass guitar
by tolovemoon

Comment by ahaze:
The short definition of Bokeh from KenRockwell.com, which I am using for voting on this challenge: "Bokeh describes the rendition of out-of-focus points of light." We do see a bit of that on the glass guitar. The rest of the photo isn't in sharp enough focus to really tell. Is the subject enhanced by the bokeh of the background? To my eye the bokeh is such a minor part of a very jumbled and poorly shot image that it really doesn't even come into play. the blue background is distracting, the light from the right of the frame appears to be too hot, the black.... fur? is just weird.... This doesn't work for me.

Dressed up for Halloween 2004
by tolovemoon

Comment by Mona:
Your kids are so cute. The youngest one has a lovely expression in his face that you have caught very well.

Frame two photos a week!
by tolovemoon

Comment by rocco22:
Great for you 52 weeks times 2 = 104 framed pictures in your house...No more painting to do then