Critique #47 *Open Theme* 5 Participants

gabrielma said:
Leica M6 + 35mm Ultron f/1.7 / Fuji X-tra 400
I think the colors are wonderful . At first I felt the lamp was to centered ..it was the first thing my eyes went to ...Then I saw the man who seems to fixate on the light and ignores the beautiful view ... so I start to see this subtle humor and I like it .... and the more I look the more I like it ........... Now I have to wonder if this was your intentention :) .....if it was not ...light is to centered and I do not like the way everything is bunched up in the right corner .....lol
Regards , Charley
 
Charley: I agree with you that the pastel colors are wonderful in Gabriel's photo.

Raid
 
AusDLK said:
Here's mine.

Xpan II, 45mm, Kodak HIE, 89B filter. Scan of silver print.
My first impression was that this photo had been severely cropped, until I read again that this was taken with an XPan camera.

The zeppelin and the smoke stacks make for interesting elements. The trees make this too busy, yet add an eerie feeling to it.
 
flashover said:
here is my shot.
This is a great shot. Although this could use some cropping so that the cars at the top of the frame are removed, and you'd have an even greater image. Nice timing.
 
raid amin said:
Here is my image.


Location: Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee, USA.
The colors are very pleasing, and so is the light. The square cropping, to my eye, demands a better composition, although the subject matter here is not very helpful. If you play around with the original negative (if I assume this came from a 3:4 ratio rather than a 1:1 negative)

Edit: my paragraph got cut off! OK, I don't remember the rest exactly, but if you play around with the original negative, perhaps you could place some of the lines in a "Z" formation. It is hard to get this kind of deep red and bright yellow (it must've been an overcast day), and the "glow" adds to it.
 
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shiro_kuro said:
Here is mine :)
The composition is disparate, but here it doesn't matter (to me), for it captures a moment that only the viewer can experience in their own way. There is a faint background, making me wonder where this is; is this a family fishing, making sandcastles, or just goofing around?

If you crop the left edge of the frame so that the bottom "bottom" is gone, it'd be improved, and perhaps removing a little bit of the top frame. Other than that, I think you have a very nice photo here.
 
Bump.

Bumpity bump. (adding words because forum says my message is too short; now, it's not that short, is it? What value is there in adding fluff? I don't know. Do you know? Perhaps? Or maybe not. But there it is, the message isn't that short now, is it? I hope not. We'll see. OK, it's in. Thanks, software. you're welcome :eek: )
 
AusDLK said:
Here's mine.

Xpan II, 45mm, Kodak HIE, 89B filter. Scan of silver print.

Dave Love the infared look and the air ship gives it science fiction look. The format looks off when viewed on the monitor with the lower half white. I think as a print it would be more striking. Jjohn
 
Sorry, group. Busy at Photokina and sleeping...

I will do my best to post my always thoughtful comments tonight.
 
shiro_kuro said:
Here is mine :)

Nothing like a day digging in the Mud. I like the expresions on their faces. The hazed over face shore gives a feeling of a dam day. I would of like a little lower framing to chatch the action of the liitle one in front (digging in the mud I assume)
 
raid amin said:
Here is my image.


Location: Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee, USA.

Raid the DOF is nice and the color is good, the hint of a few rays of sunlight hitting the leaves. The more I look at it is seams to blur almost like I am getting lost in it. Not sure if that the intent or just me.
 
gabrielma said:
Leica M6 + 35mm Ultron f/1.7 / Fuji X-tra 400

This gives me the feeling of a damp cool day that I would rather be inside on. My eye is drawn more to the steam ships on the outer edge. I find the darkened edges distract me from the image some what.
 
John,

I looked at the leaves, and I saw "depth", so I took this photo. One person swears he is seeing a poodle in the background. I used the Angeneiux 70-210 zoom lens with Fujichrome 100.

Raid
 
I apologize for being tardy in offering my critiques. I am in Wetzlar at the LHSA event and Internet access here is limited and expensive.

flashover: Shades of Cartier-Bresson's Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare. Although reversed, the jumping person, a woman in this case, and the corresponding shadow bear an unmistakable resemblance to that famous photograph. However, there is not much else that I can recommend about it. It is not always fair to comment on "print quality" when commenting on digital images but overall this image is too flat -- it just lacks the snap (i.e., sharp contrast) of a beautiful black and white image. Other than the jumping person and her shadow the image just lacks interest -- the background is cluttered with too many points tugging for my eye's attention -- all of which pull my eye away from what has to be the main point of interest. The presence of the boat is both distracting and presents promise. Would a crop that cuts the background and all the dead space on the right produce the sense that the jumping girl is chasing the boat? All in all, the similarity to HCB, whether intentional or accidental, is cool but otherwise this image as presented fails to impress.

raid amin: The colors in this image are wonderfully subdued. The out of focus yellows in the background add a nice depth to the overall image. Looking at the image, though, was unsettling and I decided that the orientation of the image must be wrong -- it looks to be upside down. I rotated the image 180° (put the black circular shapes into the top third of the image) and it registered correctly to my eye. (I was looking at a downloaded image file "File Colors.jpg".) I would have probably cropped a little tighter to eliminate some of the empty space in the lower right (where the out of focus green leaves are). All in all, once oriented the way I think it is supposed to be, this is a very nice image.

shiro_kuro: This is a dynamic image made moderately surreal by the claw things held by a couple of the beachcombers. The hazy background enhances this surreal effect. (Of course, it is not really surreal and it is pretty evident what is going on here.) Compositionally speaking, the image would be greatly improved by an 10x8 crop that eliminates the dead space (and the distracting black blob) on the left of the image. Just lopping off some of this area just to the left of the boy's hand would correct a compositional imbalance and bring the kids' activities more front and center. I love how the kid on the far right is half in and half out of the frame. All in all, I really like this one.

gabrielma: This is a very sharp, intrigue image. My eye is drawn immediately to the lamp on top of the post. From there it is drawn down and along the stones to the right to the people and the ships. I reluctantly force myself to look to the left of the lamp post since there is a lot of image area there. But there is nothing there except for hill and darkness. Compositionally the hope is that the left side of the image nicely balances the far more interesting right side but to my eye it does not. If the idea is for the eye to begin in the darkness on the left and then be drawn to the happier area on the right then this doesn´t work because the lamp post interrupts the flow. Individually there are some beautiful elements in this image (beginning about a third of the way over from the left at the two larger stones) but as presented as a whole it doesn´t quite work.
 
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Dave: yes, you are right about the image being upside down. That's a good catch.

Raid
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raid amin: The colors in this image are wonderfully subdued. The out of focus yellows in the background add a nice depth to the overall image. Looking at the image, though, was unsettling and I decided that the orientation of the image must be wrong -- it looks to be upside down. I rotated the image 180° (put the black circular shapes into the top third of the image) and it registered correctly to my eye. (I was looking at a downloaded image file "File Colors.jpg".) I would have probably cropped a little tighter to eliminate some of the empty space in the lower right (where the out of focus green leaves are). All in all, once oriented the way I think it is supposed to be, this is a very nice image.
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I was curious if any of you could suggest a way to handle the white skies ... filter suggestion ...... it seems my skies are always like this ..... I liked the surreal comment .... never thought that I could use the white skies in a more creative way and will be more aware of this ....... Thanx
 
Shiro: Try using a yellow filter to slightly add some contrast to the sky. With B&W film, the sky often appears as you see it in your photos.

Raid
 
raid amin said:
John,

I looked at the leaves, and I saw "depth", so I took this photo. One person swears he is seeing a poodle in the background. I used the Angeneiux 70-210 zoom lens with Fujichrome 100.

Raid
My friend was looking over my shoulder while I was looking at your photo and asked me about the poodle ...... Thanks for the filter suggestion I will give it a try ....
 
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