Critique #51 *Open Theme* 5 Participants

[ampguy]

critiques

critiques

Ian - I like this a lot, it's good use of b&w using extensive latitude of exposure, and caputuring the couple realistic concerned expressions. I wonder how it would have looked if the background were more out of focus.

Raid - Vermont Fall, I like the feeling of being buried in fallen Fall leaves. The colors and feeling seems so short as I'm trying to shoot as much fall colors myself right now. Great deep depth of field and an interesting house or shed hidden by more trees. Very nice.

Nico - very mysterious but I think it's children playing with balls on a dirt street in sandals. Nice shadows in what was probably very bright light.

shiro_kuro - Looks like a walking trail very close to the edge of a river. The river below and to the left appears alive and ready to engulf you, while the trail on the right is tranquil.

 

[raid]

... attached mine too ...

I wonder if my adjusted image of Nico's is making the contrast look better or not. I hope that Nico is not upset about this suggested adjustment.

Raid

 

[nico]

hey Raid 🙂
i'm absolutely not upset but grateful indeed: you spent your time adjusting a photo of mine.
It's a photo I shoot in the early afternoon in Portugal with the sun still high and strong light. I choose this extreme contrast because i did want to tell the story of 2 kids playing (ampguy, you're right!🙂) only with their shadows, feet and bowls with less details possible, but I can understand that it may appear as too much contrasty...
When i scanned this one i tried different cropping and a tighter crop seems to me to force the shadows in a too small place to be confartable playing bowls ... but this is just a beginner's opinion...
anyway, thanks for the comments and the adjustment guys, i really appreciate 🙂.
I'd also like to read Shiro Kuro's opinions on all the shots, hope he will post his critiques.
Ciao
Nico

 

[ampguy]

Thanks Raid

Thanks Raid

This was actually captured in color, but might have been better taken in b&w. I like your conversion a lot, I'm not sure if I like it more than the original, but I like both a lot.

This is a scene across the street from our house, it's a lot between two streets where normally about 4 or 6 houses would be, but this land is owned by the regional power company. To the right of the scene is a small fenced off mini power grid, and as ca be seen, houses are on the left.

Until about last year, every year in the winter, and sometimes spring, we would see families (4-5) of white-tailed deer coming to nibble on the trees, I have quite a few photos of these deer from my 12x zoom camera. However, starting last year, we didn't see them, possibly because of increased building activity going on in the area, keeping the deer further away from us.

ampguy: The image is monochromatic, so I tried removing all colors with greyscale. Is this originally a color photo or was it taken with a C-41 B&W film? As for the image itself, this is a nice photo of a scene with snow. There is a house showing in the left corner fo the image. I wonder how this image would have looked like if you had slightly shifted towards the left, showing more of the house and less of the telephone/power lines on the right. I like it.

Raid

 

[nico]

Until about last year, every year in the winter, and sometimes spring, we would see families (4-5) of white-tailed deer coming to nibble on the trees, I have quite a few photos of these deer from my 12x zoom camera. However, starting last year, we didn't see them, possibly because of increased building activity going on in the area, keeping the deer further away from us.

I'd like to see some of those shots (i love wild animals) would you mind to post some pics in this thread? thanks.

 

[ampguy]

not at all

not at all

I would be pleased to, but it might take me time to find them, I'm motivated now though, as they might be good stock photographs.

I'd like to see some of those shots (i love wild animals) would you mind to post some pics in this thread? thanks.

 

[raid]

Nico: I don't know if you consider birds as "wildlife", but here are a a few photos of birds:

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=647873


Raid

 

[nico]

Thanks for the link Raid,
a lot of beatiful photos there (the nature serie is great).
ciao
Nico

 

[raid]

Thanks, Niko. It used to be my favorite photography topic in the past. I even bought books on birds to better identify the birds photographed.

Raid

 

[iml]

Come on shiro_kuro, where are you 🙂

Thanks for the comments. Agree re. DOF, my excuse is it was shot very quickly with no chance of a retake (a street shot within a few feet of the couple). I like it because of the expression on the woman's face, I have no idea what was going through her mind but I thought she looked really interesting.

Nice bird shots raid.

Ian

 

[shiro_kuro]

Ian -I agree I think the cut hand takes away from this shot..... I also think if you stepped to the right and back just a bit . I would like to see more of the mans face at a slightly different angle and have more space in the direction he is looking ... as it is there is not enough room ....my eye goes in the direction he is looking and just stops at the edge of the frame ...... I really like her intense gaze - you captured this moment well and the tones look great
Charley

 

[shiro_kuro]

Raid - I miss New England in the fall ... Great colors and I really like the depth ...It seems you are pretty low to the ground ??? I like this perspective .The ground is so full of leaves drawing your eye straight back to the large barren tree in the background ....Hopefully I get a chance to take some shots like this next week ..Japan has a really beautiful fall also ...
Charley

 

[shiro_kuro]

ampguy .... Your photograph really makes me feel cold ...I also agree on the point about the telephone pole ---- I would rather see the house or neither and just a shot of the trees .... are you actually outside taking this photograph or inside ? I am not sure if there is a reflection I see or if that is snow whipping through the air ... Thanks for sharing I get a glimpse of what I am soon in for .......summer is over ....
Charley

 

[shiro_kuro]

Nico- Great shot -- I like this composition very much --- maybe a little more detail in the shadows ... the interaction between the shadow and light was well seen --- the white foot and the players hand not touching --- what do you think ? My feeling is the composition is so balanced with balls and feet and hands that a separation there would of been nice...... Here is my version of your Photo .... Just a little dodge and burn and some tonal changes ...hope you don't mind..might not even be noticeable 🙂
Charley

 

[raid]

My photo was taken ten days after the peak of fall colors, and I had to drive around to find any remaining leaves left on trees. I saw this one place suddenly as I was on the Interstate, and I pulled over to capture some fall colors photos.

Here, I used a 24mm lens vertically and I placed the tripod at minimum height and close to ground level. Film used was the old Fujichrome 50 (not Velvia) with a polarizing filter. I recall checking depth of filed setting to make sure that the foreground was sharp and that the background also was OK.

Charley: Where in Japan do you live? I stayed in Nagoya for six weeks two years ago.


Thanks for all comments. I enjoyed the discussions.

Raid

 

[nico]

Charlie,
thanks for the comment, I agree with about separation, it would have been better to have the foot and the hand separated, I also like your adjustments, thanks 🙂.
Where did you shoot yours?
Bye
Nico

 

[iml]

Autumn/Fall has arrived very late in the south of England this year. It's really only just starting. I'm hoping to get some nice autumn colours photographed this weekend.

Ian

 

[shiro_kuro]

Nico I shot that photograph in a place called SanDanKyo -- a three level water fall ... very beautiful spot and very old ..the trees look ancient ....in fact I just went there today to try and catch some leaves changing color only trouble was I had a half a roll of color film left in my camera and three boxes of Black and white in my bag : )
Raid I live in Hiroshima near a place called Miyajima ...been here for about a year ... next week I will give it another try catching the leaves change ....
Charley

 

[iml]

Hey Charley

I know Miyajima, beautiful place. I spent a month travelling around Japan last March and spent a day walking around Miyajima, it was great.

Some of my Hiroshima and Miyajima pictures

Ian

 

[raid]

Is Miyajima the island with lots of deer running around?

Raid