hello down there....
by larsc

Comment:
What a wonderfully expressive pet candid.

I like the sky -- it's the side of the garage that I feel is fairly uninteresting. I agree with jellyoooo, a portrait framing would have suited the image better. He leading lines of the garage would work much better lined up with the longest dimension instead of against it. Cropping the sides in a bit would have accomplished this.

The exposure of this shot is tricky, but as pointed out below, could have been better. Bringing the brightness of the face up and darkening the sky just a bit helps to balance the tones a bit better. (If you have Photoshop, the Shadow/Highlight command does this well). Care has to be taken while darkening the sky however -- the backlighting created a slight halo around the dogs head that is made more noticable the darker the sky gets.

All in all, an excellent image -- one of those pet shots that makes we wish I lived in a house that allowed me to have one. :( That makes it a winning image in my book.

David
Critique Club

The Point Reyes, Cherished Landmark
by sfalice

Comment:
A very good image, shot from an angle that accents that it is a landmark to be looked up at as well as looked upon. While I'm sure you could have taken the image from an angle that displays it's fate more clearly -- I like this perspective as it clearly shows the sea-worth vessal it once was.

This is accented by the rest of the shot. The out of focus grass in front brings to mind a rolling sea that compliments the angle nicely. However, I am of mixed feelings about the sky. I tend to agree with the commentor below -- the sky is a bit over-powering for the muted tones of the main subject. But at the same time, while lowering the saturation of he blues (I tried it) gives a more pleasingly even tone over the entire image, it also shifts the image away from a testament to what the ship once was. With the sky as it is, the sensation of what once was is much stronger.

The only real downside for me is the general softness of the image. This is in disagreement with the brightness of the sky and the general feeling of the shot. You state you did sharpen, but as you did so in the middle of your workflow I wonder if resizing didn't steal some of the sharpness from you. If so, an extra sharpening after resizing would have brought it back.

David
Critique Club

Let The Vacation Begin..........
by jrjr

Comment:
The first thing that strikes me about this image is the warmth of it -- really invites a person in.

This has a very good composition, with the perspective placed the Sun very near the vanishing point. the leading line of the rocky land leads me to the setting Sun -- but then brightness pushes me back out, onto the ship which leads to the land the the cycle continues. This keeps my attention moving from one part to another, never resting and growing bored. The result is perfect for the challenge, I feel the pull to walk along the rocks -- but that won't get me to the destination, so maybe the ship will.

As a matter of personal taste I think the lower portion of the image needs to be brightened a bit and the entire image could be sharper -- but these are at best only slightly disagreeable.

Maybe I just need a bit more light for the journey.

David
Critique Club

Silver Island Mountains
by dsidwell

Comment:
Excellent composition -- a tad too 'flat' for my liking though

A Tree Hugger
by Cam

Comment:
These little buggers are fun, aren't they -- but, I would have went with a tighter crop, ending just below the elbow

my d50 is here! (And my point of interest [d50] is placed on the intersection of the lines :D
by andyro

Comment:
Titled 'D50' would have carried the same impact. I am liking the extreme shallow depth of field.

Nebraska Windmill
by jmosher

Comment:
Excellent composition -- and I love the toning.

However, most of the image is at the extreme tones -- bringing the exposure of the shadows at the bottom up and bringing the highlights at the top down does wonders for the image. Don't get me wrong, it's nice the way it is, but there is so much detail hiding in the shadows and highlights that only help the image when brought out. After this, add contrast to taste and it would have gotten a 9 from me (with contention for 10 on a second pass), but as it is -- 7.

Unsanded Oak
by neophyte

Comment:
You've got good, strong lines in this, which is good -- but, by being nearly balanced left and right, they unfortunately don't lead the eye anywhere. Changing the perspective to a more dynamic shift in balance, enough to create a strong diagonal with the edge of the wood would (hehe) create a greater sense of depth to the shot and give the viewer's eyes incentive to move across the image. This could further be reinforced by moving the sander away from nearly directly above the corner of the wood.

The other thought I had is to add more contrasting subject matter. I don't mean in terms of light, but rather in terms of creating a dichotomy of subjects. To be precise, the subject is unsanded oak -- by adding a sample of sanded oak to the scene the unsandedness of the oak is set in greater contrast against what it could become.

This dichotomy is already present, created on a predictive level by the inclusion of the sander. This gives the image momentum into the future -- leading the viewer to predict what is to be done to the wood. This tells me you had this in mind (at some level) when composing the image.

Most of the elements are present, but I feel the image would benefit from a more obvious and forceful control of the viewer -- both within the scene and in their predictions.

David

P4130033 (resized).jpg
by David.C

Comment:
SOOTC? I'm not familiar with that one.

/edit: nevermind, I searched for it.

"Straight Out Of The Camera" :)

Message edited by author 2005-07-16 03:23:58.

P5090048-(resized).jpg
by David.C

Comment:
Ingrid: For this assignment I needed an image that had something I didn't like about the exposure. I don't keep the images with glaringly obvious problems, as I personally don't like the 'fix it later' mentality -- it just seems a bit too sloppy for my tastes. I suppose if it was a 'no repeat' photo I would keep it, but I dont have many of them -- I analyze, delete and reshoot if I think it would be worth it. So for this assignment I had to make do with a photo that has reasonably good exposure, but also has something about it I didn't like. This fit the bill nicely.

Chuck:
re: the Sun, it was nearly 90 degrees to my left -- it cast some fairly harsh shadows before she evened them with her shadow. :)

re: Center-weighted average making a difference; it would depend on how much weight the center received I suppose. If the center was given a large percentage bias (like 90% or so) I don't think it would have made much of a difference, but if it has much less bias it could have made a lot of difference. I really can't say one way or another as I have no experience with center-weighted metering at all. My camera has two metering modes; Digital ESP and Spot. Digital ESP is form of tone pattern matching, where it analyzes the location of various tones in the image and then compares them against stored templates (such as back-lit, dark background, etc) and chooses exposure settings based on the tones metered and the template it matches. It seems unpredictable to me so I don't use it. That leaves me with spot metering as all I have ever used once I started thinking about what I was doing. (Having only two metering modes is also going to make it hard to do the 2nd assignment in which we are to compare 3 metering modes.)

re: Exposure settings; yes I choose the large aperture for the DOF. I also backed up and zoomed in to largest optical zoom (equivalent to 600mm) in an attempt to increase the bokeh as much as possible. What you see is the most out of focus I could get the background -- and that is with the dark building and white flowers quite a ways back, about 30' behind the roses. The aperture of my camera, at that focal length, is f3.2-f7.1, - only a 2 stop difference, but the background would have been recognizable. Unfortunately, small sensor means large DOF -- getting anything out of focus (provided something is in focus) is always a hassle. As for the shutter speed, 1/500" may be moderate for your camera, but the fastest mine will go is 1/1000".

Sometimes I really hate my camera! :( I've spent the better part of the last year and a half learning the technical details of different aspects of photography -- for no other purpose than to be able to get around the limitations the camera puts on me. As a result I've learned a lot more about the technical aspects of photography than I would have otherwise, but I spend more time with my attention on my camera than on my subject. Sorry, didn't mean to go into a mini-rant.

Message edited by author 2005-07-16 03:15:30.