|
| Group |
Round |
C/R |
Comment |
Date |
Image |
| 35 |
Mar 19 |
Comment |
Helen, I got a message from you stating that your email address had changed. Gmail put a warning message on it. If you did not send this message please let me know asap. I am contacting you here to avoid any possible issues with the new address. Thank you. |
Mar 26th |
| 35 |
Mar 19 |
Comment |
To me this is a really interesting piece of art. I have come across several highly reflective sculptures recently, so that must be a trend. I think your choice of using symmetry is a good one for this image; however, I feel the dark shadow bottom left detracts somewhat. I would crop a bit from the bottom and clone out the remainder. The other thought I have is to try a luminosity mask to make the sculpture pop out more from the background. |
Mar 17th |
| 35 |
Mar 19 |
Comment |
There is a very strong emotional story here, so for impact I have to give you the highest possible marks! The compositing is in my opinion well done, although I think the light is coming into the scene from several different directions and that feels a little uncomfortable to me. It seems to me that you have a split center of interest with the ghostly figure and the children so far to the left and right edges of the frame, although everyone is looking into the frame. Also, I think I want to see "Mum's" feet. Even though you would lose the cross grave marker, I would make her a little bit smaller and more in the scene. |
Mar 17th |
| 35 |
Mar 19 |
Comment |
I am really glad you shared the program you used to create this interesting image, because I would never have figured it out. In fact I might have thought you included the wrong original! That is certainly a unique effect. There is a lot to look at and wonder about in this image. |
Mar 17th |
| 35 |
Mar 19 |
Comment |
I can definitely see why you wanted to make a number of exposures of the Georgia O'Keefe Home. It has great lines and textures. For this image, I think the old adage, "Go in tight; then go tighter," would be good advice. The "party" so to speak is around the window and the ladder. For me there is too much dead space in the top left due to including all that sky that has very little drama. I hope you plan to go back sometime and do a whole series focusing in more on details. That would make a great portfolio project. |
Mar 17th |
| 35 |
Mar 19 |
Comment |
My first reaction to this is that the tumble-down structure and the rock pile are the center of interest, but do not take up enough of the real estate in this scene. I feel they are overwhelmed by the sky and the trees. I know the trees as you saw them must have been appealing, but for me they are lost in the bright sky. I tried to think about how it could have done differently and my idea is that shooting from a low perspective and at an angle from the lower left it might have worked. Of course, I have never been there, so I am only surmising that. Generally, I like high key images, but for this one I think a more contrasty treatment would add depth and impact. |
Mar 17th |
| 35 |
Mar 19 |
Comment |
This makes me even more anxious to travel in your part of the country. There are a number of interesting elements in this image. I would like to see some separation between the rocks and the tree so that each can be appreciated. I realize that in some of these places there is only one perspective from which visitors can view the scene, but if it would be possible I think shooting from farther to the left would give the separation I am looking for. Otherwise, this is a great image for IR. The contrast makes it pop |
Mar 17th |
| 35 |
Mar 19 |
Reply |
You and Helen are correct. See above. And thanks for pointing that out. |
Mar 10th |
| 35 |
Mar 19 |
Reply |
Nope, you were right. It was off by just a tiny bit, but once you pointed it out it was very obvious to me. So I tweaked it in LR Transform using vertical upright. I lost little bit on the left which is too bad but now it won't make anyone dizzy. |
Mar 10th |
 |
7 comments - 2 replies for Group 35
|
| 52 |
Mar 19 |
Reply |
Thanks, Judith. I see you are the administrator for a fine art group so I know you understand how I am trying to see nature as art. By the way, I love the image you have in that group this month. |
Mar 25th |
| 52 |
Mar 19 |
Reply |
As I indicated above, I intended this as an artistic presentation rather than a record photograph of a strictly nature image. I enlarged, and was able to see what you are referring to. I am not sure what those spots are, possibly small water droplets off of which the light was reflecting. Or perhaps it is just "duck dandruff." Thanks for spotting that. I have removed the spots and de-noised in that area.
My personal interest is in presenting nature as art and that is what I attempted here. I realize that others who photograph nature have a different intent, but hopefully, there is room for all of us to express ourselves. Thanks for your input. I am always looking for help in improving my image before presenting it to the general public. |
Mar 20th |
| 52 |
Mar 19 |
Reply |
There are stacking programs such as Helicon Focus, but I do it manually. I never stack more than 3 or 4 though; after that it gets tricky. It is somewaht difficult to do outdoors due to wind. This Orchid was probably in a hot house so there likely wouldn't be any wind. Nothing can move between exposures. You can do it without a focus rail, just be really careful when you adjust the focus and use a remote release. Open the images you want to stack as layers in PS then go to edit>align. I practiced on supermarket flowers in the house until I learned to do it. Good luck. |
Mar 17th |
| 52 |
Mar 19 |
Comment |
For me, this image is very visually appealing. You captured fantastic light. I love the wing position and all the detail in the feathers. The grass in the Anhinga's beak tells the story - it's nest building season. It makes me think of that Geiko commercial where the Penguin says, "I'm gonna mate." For me the background works well. If it were lightened I fear the brighter color spots in the upper left would become distracting. Personally, I would not change a thing. |
Mar 16th |
| 52 |
Mar 19 |
Comment |
I am thinking that you saw a story here. For me it has a very wintery feel.
Personally, I like birds against a white background; the simplicity is pleasing to me. I think this image would fall into an artistic category . On the other hand, as a bird photographer, I find it too soft for my taste. The blurry wing on the upper bird sort of interferes with my overall enjoyment of it.
Since I don't know how much this may already have been cropped, my suggestion may not be workable; however, I feel like the best part of the image is the bird at the bottom. I would crop the other bird out. Then I would use an impressionistic filter such as those in Topaz Impression 2 to make this a creative interpretation. |
Mar 16th |
| 52 |
Mar 19 |
Comment |
Wow, Tom...you got a double "s" curve here! How lucky can a photographer get? These two love birds are making such great eye contact I feel as if they are entranced with one another. I think this image is a bit too cool; I am guessing that they were in fairly deep shadow. In my opinion warming it up slightly would improve the color.
It appears that you chose to capture your subjects in a position that provided a great background, one that shows the context but is not overly distracting. How long did you have to wait to get this shot? This is a good lesson in the way planning patience often rewards us. |
Mar 16th |
| 52 |
Mar 19 |
Comment |
I feel as if I could reach out and touch this Monarch. The sharpness is for me very impressive. I think the colors are harmonious and the bokeh you have achieved elimates a lot of distraction. For me, the two small branches sticking up from the bottom edge are a distraction, so my suggestion would be to remove them. Other than that, it looks to me as if you have captured an image that has all the memory of late summer embedded in it and I find it extremely "wall worthy." |
Mar 16th |
| 52 |
Mar 19 |
Comment |
When I look at this image I can almost smell the scent of this beautiful orchid. It is an almost perfect specimen which is often difficult to find. I wonder about the depth of field; I realize that the petals are on many different planes so you probably stopped it down, but I believe that opening up the aperture and doing a focus stack of even just a few exposures would have resulted in less detail in the background. Your edit with the darkened background and the somewhat tighter crop is, in my opinion. a good step toward making the viewer's eye stay on the subject rather than wandering into the foliage. |
Mar 16th |
| 52 |
Mar 19 |
Comment |
For me this brings back memories of my one and only trip to Costa Rica. I did not have the opportunity on that trip to indulge my passion for photography, but this is just the kind of subject I would have been seeking. Having been there I know how tricky the light can be. In my opinion, the canopy works well as a difuser on the upper portion of the image but shooting from that perspective causes issues in the bottom third. Unfortunately, birds hardly ever wait for us to move around to capture the best light. I think one possible solution would be to select the background and darken all of it, then do the inverse and try to boost the color ans constrast of the bird. That may hold the viewer's eye on the subject. See what you think. Compositionally, the curve of the beak leads me to that tack sharp eye; however, the dominance of the branch takes my eye to the bottom of the image before I have a chance to appreciate the lovely colors of the back and tail of this fellow. This is a beautiful bird under and circumstances. |
Mar 16th |
| 52 |
Mar 19 |
Reply |
Were at South Padre Island, but the weather was damp and foggy most of the time, so we went to Laguna Atascosa and Estero LLano Grande quite a bit. The color pop on my image came from Photomatix although I had to reduce it to only about 30 percent to avoid making it look super overprocessed. However, that is what I find I have to do with almost all the plug-in filters. They are way too intense for my taste. Have you tried Topaz Impression 2 for flowers? The program is very slow, but it has lots of artistic options. Again, though, in my opinion if you do not reduce the opacity on them the tend to look garish. |
Mar 10th |
6 comments - 4 replies for Group 52
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13 comments - 6 replies Total
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