Symbol of Life!
by vikas

Comment by sherpet:
I like this image and love the soft candle glow.

Symbol of Life!
by vikas

Comment by confused:
Love the colors

Symbol of Life!
by vikas

Comment by macrothing:
6 - Met the Challenge quite well in my opinion - "Use candlelight to create the impact of your photo.". Criticism; nice and simple, colors are nice, especially the green, which is more subtle, including the shape and resulting reflections etc. The 'effect' is nice, but again, although I can decipher what appears to be a full spectrum, just seems a bit harsh, not sure. Although shots like this usually have a lot of softening/blur - if this had at least the edges, especially bottom left 'softer' would likely have given this an overall better 'feel' and made it better in my opinion.

Symbol of Life!
by vikas

Comment by angela_packard:
nice rainbow starry effect!

The Industrial Look!
by vikas

Comment by nards656:
Greetings from the Critique Club! :)

This is a scene that I see many times daily, as I work in the machine shop industry. I hope my insights are helpful.

Composition
Personally, I really like your composition here. I like the tight crop, and I like the fact that you've moved my eyes away from the nearest machinist by not showing me all of his head. It is a little bit "busy", simply due to all the knobs and handles on the mill, which makes it a little confusing. If there could be some way to simplify and not show quite so much, I think it would strengthen the image a good bit.

Background
I also like the way you've shown another "worker", slightly out of focus, but it's not out of focus quite as much as I think is necessary for the shot. I'm kind of surprised by this, at f/2.5, but I don't think you could ever get as much background blur with a G5 as an SLR would provide, just due to the sensor size limitations.

Camera Work
The shot is focused nicely, and the lighting is very even. I think a little foreground lighting to bring out the details of the digital readout on the mill and the dark area on the front of the mill would have been an improvement. Those are pretty well buried in the shadows.

Post Processing
I only have one minor complaint, and that is in reference to saturation. The reds seem really dominant, and I think that makes the shot a bit more "garish" than you intended. The machinist's face is a little red, and all the red lights,etc., are really emphasized by the color. My mention of foreground lighting, above, might have been wrong; you may have just gotten a little bit heavy with the contrast adjustment and pumped up the blacks too much.

My Opinions
In general, this image strikes a familiar chord with me, and I realize how difficult this was to pull off in a manufacturing environment. However, there is an element of "punch" or "wow" that is somehow missing from the shot. It feels a bit "two-dimensional", and normally that's a lighting thing combined with contrast adjustments. There are other "tricks" to induce a feeling of depth, but I'm not sure of how to advise you to "fix" it, I just see a bit of room for improvement.

I hope these thoughts are informative and helpful. Thanks for submitting!

sunflower.jpg
by vikas

Comment by Tranquil:
Wonderful composition and great vibrancy. Looks a little edited as there are halos on the edges of the petals, but some careful rewordk could make this one brilliant!

sunflower.jpg
by vikas

Comment by Neil:
This has great colors and color contrast, and I like the composition and softness of the petals. This version seems very low resolution though--and it shows as loss of clarity in the center area of the flower. Some PS work could be in order, or it may simply be a problem of the reduction.

Path through the Light !
by vikas

Comment by davidx76:
I was wondering what Ithaca-based photog took this great shot! I really like how the background isn't blown out at all, and nice composition. Good effort!

Path through the Light !
by vikas

Comment by whatdewuc:
What a place. Nice exposure study. Like how my eye is drwn down. Good luck

The Industrial Look!
by vikas

Comment by ohiochase:
Nice focus and composition.