|
| Group |
Round |
C/R |
Comment |
Date |
Image |
| 34 |
Feb 25 |
Comment |
I stopped by for a visit and was richly rewarded by your composite this month. There are so many ways in which you have created depth which was always one of your strengths--for example, adding the human on the stairs where you did. Using the Warp and Skew tools worked masterfully with the stairs, and the classic, ornate frame ties so much together. Everything is so well coordinated. Surrealism becomes you. |
Feb 6th |
1 comment - 0 replies for Group 34
|
| 54 |
Feb 25 |
Reply |
Moving to a city nearby is difficult, but moving halfway around the world has facets that are unimaginable. July is now a cold month for you. I admired your strength. Best of luck. |
Feb 22nd |
| 54 |
Feb 25 |
Reply |
Thank you for your feedback. I have lightened the demon as a few have suggested, and he appears much stronger as a result. I took out the pedestal, also as a few have suggested, but I feel he needs a base of some sort. As I do with a lot of my composites, I will revisit this one for a fresh perspective. |
Feb 22nd |
| 54 |
Feb 25 |
Reply |
Thank you for taking an interest in my composite. I used the Quick Selection Tool in Photoshop to lighten the devil, and it seems have worked fine. I don't have an example posted, but I'm going to use the lighter version in future competitions. |
Feb 21st |
| 54 |
Feb 25 |
Reply |
I look forward to your meeting that challenge. : ) |
Feb 18th |
| 54 |
Feb 25 |
Comment |
Sorry I'm late to respond. A lot of good observations have already been written. I think the scariest aliens would be people who look like us. Then the challenge would be to make the aliens who look like us reveal in some subtle way that they are aliens. In the movie "The Arrival," the aliens arrived and assumed shapes and voices that were humanoid, but they became careless and were discovered as aliens. I'm a product of the 1950's science fiction movies that showed a variety of aliens coming to earth, but those movies were really about the Communist scare in the U.S. I just thought I'd offer a different perspective on depicting aliens. |
Feb 17th |
| 54 |
Feb 25 |
Reply |
I did consider different titles for this composite for the following reason. Our group is international, as is the population of the Unted States. There is no devil in Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, etc. The absence of a devil and its representation by the number 666, I figured, might make a more subtle title too subtle. As per your suggestion, I will rethink this image's title. I have already lightened the devil as a few people have suggested. |
Feb 15th |
| 54 |
Feb 25 |
Reply |
I agree that this composite can be disturbing and fall within the realm of artistic expression at the same time. This is not infrequent in the art world. Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" shook up the visual art world about 8 years before Igor Stravinsky's "Le Sacre du Printemps" shook up the music world. Today, Ai Wei Wei, a Chinese artist, has been jailed by the Chinese government for his artistic expression. I minored in Art History a century ago and have kept up my interest in art to this day. I tried your method to lighten the devil, but it didn't work for me. In my version of Photoshop, "Emboss" is under the filter "Stylize" and has too many variables in "Emboss" to play with to get a desired result. I lightened the devil the old-fashioned way using the "Quick Selection Tool." I am appreciative of all of the feedback the group has provided. |
Feb 14th |
| 54 |
Feb 25 |
Comment |
Sorry to be late to the discussion. So much has been said already about this captivating image. For me, the colors and the shadows dominate the scene. I would love to know how you harmonized the colors. I wanted to know what the scene would look like without the caravan, so I tinkered. I feel the lonely hot air balloon creates a bit of mystery. In any case, this rendering is top notch. |
Feb 14th |
 |
| 54 |
Feb 25 |
Reply |
No need to apologize; your honest feedback is appreciated. In a lot of my composites, I try to avoid telling a story and, instead, create something surrealistic that generates disequilibrium and/or emotion in the viewer. I seem to have done this as you state that this image is "not [your] comfort area." My January composite follows the rule of story-telling, but my August and September composites don't even approach stories. In any case, disequilibrium, emotion, and avoiding stories are my goal. |
Feb 11th |
| 54 |
Feb 25 |
Comment |
Street photography is difficult and time consuming so why not create your own. If I had seen this photo in a series about street photography, I would not have thought that it was a composite. The lighting is consistent throughout which is essential to successful composite. This is good work. I took the liberty of applying Kirsti's suggestion about the white menu on the right and cropped a little while I was there. Crop is the word judges use most when judging my camera club's competitions. I've been convinced. |
Feb 10th |
 |
| 54 |
Feb 25 |
Comment |
I recognized the forest and checked back to find your April entry used the same Nort Carolina forest. That's heartwarming to me as I was born and raised among this kind of forest in South Carolina. The forest, here, makes a warm, welcoming background, and your idea of including children and an egret adds to the welcoming atmosphere of the image. Composites are difficult to hide cut-and-paste evidence if the lighting is not consistent among all components. The children and the egret unfortunately look cut-and-pasted which reduces the warmth of your intent. You're certainly on the right track. |
Feb 10th |
| 54 |
Feb 25 |
Reply |
Thank you for your feedback, especially the word "masterpiece." I did, as you observed, try to make the faces of the dice more consistent, but, strangely enough, the dice took on dimensions of their own. Sometimes I would "fix" a die, and it looked fine until I adjusted another die making the 2 together appear as an optical illusion of sorts. The final images of the dice may have been under the influence of the devil. :) I'll look into making Lucifer a bit lighter in future iterations. I see your point. |
Feb 9th |
| 54 |
Feb 25 |
Comment |
Your thoughtful analysis makes the number of times I re-worked the dice worth every minute at my computer. I especially like being mentioned in the same paragraph with Hieronymus Bosch. :) Thank you for your kind words. |
Feb 8th |
| 54 |
Feb 25 |
Comment |
This is another example of your masterful blending talent. I only wish it were "real" so I could go there and spend some time enjoying the sights and sounds of this beautiful scene. Well done. |
Feb 4th |
| 54 |
Feb 25 |
Comment |
What a clever use of Motion Blur. I can't wait to try it on a photo that has stumped me for years. Renoir would be proud of this composite. The "brush strike," subject, and color resemble his painting I attached. In addition to all of the other plusses, your scene is well balanced and has a road (and bicycle) that invites the viewer to step in. Your efforts truly paid off. |
Feb 4th |
 |
7 comments - 8 replies for Group 54
|
8 comments - 8 replies Total
|
