|
| Group |
Round |
C/R |
Comment |
Date |
Image |
| 2 |
Mar 20 |
Comment |
What a beautiful and inspiring photograph, Karen!
I really like how you shaped your artistic expression with this beautiful flower. Lovely complimentary colors, perfect lighting to direct the viewer's eye to the subject and hold its place. The updated crop works for me too. Do you think it is a touch dark in the upper left corner?
LuAnn Thatcher
visitor from Group 62 and Group 3 (April 2020) |
Mar 26th |
1 comment - 0 replies for Group 2
|
| 3 |
Mar 20 |
Comment |
Hello Mary Sue,
I like your nighttime street photography image. I appreciate how you captured the overhead light reflection in the windows as it frames the view outside well.
I am not bothered by the walkway because I see it contributing to the street story. If you take the walkway out, then you still have a portion of the handrail in the image, and then how do the overhead white lights fit into the scene, how would the photo explain them? So for me, all your elements are working together to build your story. These would be the things I would think about if I was to take this image.
Most importantly, the elements you have included tell the story of what you saw. What I have found in doing street photography is that minimalism isn't always as necessary as it is in other genres, because it's those tiny details that give you a sense of place in this photograph.
If you want to compromise, try to adjust the brightness level on the walking path in front that would be an option to consider.
One more question, what was your metering mode? Spot metering or matrix?
Best regards,
LuAnn |
Mar 25th |
| 3 |
Mar 20 |
Comment |
Hello Kieu-Hanh,
What a cute dog and frame! You made some very unique and creative choices for your image.
The only thing I can see to recommend is to do some tidying up around the blue area; I see some of the original image peeking through and his dog tag.
Best regards,
LuAnn |
Mar 25th |
| 3 |
Mar 20 |
Comment |
Hello Randolph,
I was hoping to have heard from you in this monthly session, but hopefully, you will get a chance to see my option for enhancing your unique image. Your eyes are better than mine to have even caught him lounging on this branch.
I do hope you are well, and everything is ok. Sad times we are all experiencing right now.
I edited your image in Lightroom. I adjusted the exposure, highlights, whites, clarity, and sharpness. Most of the adjustments were to bring down the brightness of the midday photo. I playing with the sharpness I tried to bring the focus to the lizard and less to the background. With a higher resolution image, I believe there is potential with this photograph.
Best regards,
LuAnn |
Mar 25th |
 |
| 3 |
Mar 20 |
Reply |
Thank you, Ruth! |
Mar 23rd |
| 3 |
Mar 20 |
Comment |
Hello Randolph, good to meet you online!
I am new to your group and a long-standing group member of Group 62 monochrome. I recently accepted the admin position for your study group 3. So to get to know you, I want to ask you a few quick questions so the group can start a discussion about your image this month.
What do you like about your image?
What kind of help do you want from the group members with this image?
How do you usually process your images, generally, what software do you use and what techniques do you like to use within that software choice? I.e., Photoshop and layers, or Lightroom, or Nik Collection, etc.
I look forward to chatting with you on this image before the month ends.
Best regards,
LuAnn Thatcher
|
Mar 21st |
| 3 |
Mar 20 |
Comment |
Hello Jim,
You did well hand-holding through a window. You found a beautiful bird on a tree branch, nicely posed, and you have background bokeh, which is all good. Bravo to you for experimenting with a macro lens.
Here are some thoughts of mine to enhance your image. May I suggest in the future to consider playing with your aperture by trying f/5.6-f/6.0. The f/3 aperture is a very narrow DOF. I would like to see more of the bird's feathers in focus.
The other thing I can suggest playing around with is to remove that dark branch that runs at the end of the bird's tail. The dark tail and dark branch are creating a figure-ground relationship where the eye gets confused about where the bird's tail ends, and the tree branch begins.
These are very minor suggestions I hope you find them helpful.
Best regards,
LuAnn Thatcher
Group 62
|
Mar 14th |
| 3 |
Mar 20 |
Comment |
Hello Lisa,
Love this image of street photography you captured! Great colors, and contemporary art.
What type of paper did you use to print your image? And bravo to you for selling your work!
Look forward to talking with you in this group next month.
Best regards,
LuAnn Thatcher |
Mar 14th |
| 3 |
Mar 20 |
Comment |
Hello Ruth,
I love the colors in your image. I would love to visit a place like this one day I am betting you had a great time visiting there.
I took a copy of the image and edited it in the Topaz software. I believe it was the Urban category that had some HDR effects along with the adjustments. Then I tried a different crop.
I agree with Sharon Prislipsky that the tall highrise building is distracting from the beautiful and colorful buildings around it. I also think that the road dead-ends in the middle of the frame. So with my crop idea, it moves the road to the right side. Now I feel my eye can move to the center of the image. I also have an eye line from the lower left of the frame to the top. Finally, I did crop away some of the overcast skies agreeing with Sharon's second point.
However, now your jpg file is tiny. So I am hoping you have a larger version that perhaps you can play with these possible suggestions.
I am curious about what you think of having a little HDR effect on the buildings. I am not a big proponent of HDR, but I did see a travel magazine photo that used it for an advertisement to this very city, of which I found it to be very appealing.
I look forward to talking with you next month!
Best regards,
LuAnn Thatcher |
Mar 14th |
 |
7 comments - 1 reply for Group 3
|
| 62 |
Mar 20 |
Reply |
Oliver - you're right it would be time-consuming I just tried it. Sorry, Bob. I remember I took a wedding photography course in college recently and the professor had us remove the impossible for an assignment. It can be done but it was painful.
LuAnn |
Mar 15th |
| 62 |
Mar 20 |
Reply |
Thank you very much, Oliver! It really does need that large area of black space to give the illusion of being a gaseous planet, I agree. I also like what you said about the blurred edges being expected. I really struggled with them. There is no way to take multiple shots of a bubble because it is forever in motion. I love how the colors become very vibrant when you softly blow on it; the bubble just dances before your eyes very mezmerizing.
This was an easy and fun project!
LuAnn |
Mar 13th |
| 62 |
Mar 20 |
Reply |
Israel, another thought to ponder on this image is with regard to your corners and shadows.
Shadows add mystery and mood to an image. If you can see all the detail in the shadows and corners then there is no mystery to the scene.
However much you decide to darken your corners will determine how much drama, mystery, even mood you have in your image. This man in this scene is calling for mystery. So you can set the scene and change it from a flat image to an intriguing image with darkened shadows.
I really like this image.
LuAnn |
Mar 12th |
| 62 |
Mar 20 |
Comment |
I love the story in this image, Gary. It doesn't appear as though the sleeper or the sax player are noticed by the people passing by as their attention is on something outside of the view in the image. My eye keeps trying to figure out what's around that tree that they are interested in.
You did really well using the 1/15s shutter speed. I have tried that speed but could never get away with it. I also like your crop it includes enough to tell a fun street story. You did well my friend.
LuAnn |
Mar 12th |
| 62 |
Mar 20 |
Comment |
Love your image, Oliver, beautiful waterfall is what first caught my eye. I love seeing the detail in the water; an easy flowing cascade of water very beautiful.
The only thing I want to suggest is to see if you can remove some of the unnecessary branches that are around the water. Just the obvious ones like the two on the left side of the image that jut out to the right towards the waterfall (bottom left corner and then just a little ways up from that one is the second one). This is being picky on my part.
Also, have you ever made a vignette with a radial filter? I could see that working to darken the area around the waterfall making this an even more beautiful image. This would darken the branch Randall was referring to above.
Excellent job my friend!
LuAnn
|
Mar 12th |
| 62 |
Mar 20 |
Reply |
Thanks for the comment, Gary!
Best place to get info, Gary, is YouTube. Just type in Bubble Photography and you will have everything you need for info plus demos. It really was a ton of fun. Tricky, The glycerin (not mineral spirits) really made bubble last and a gentle blow of your breath makes the turn and the colors keep evolving.
Have fun!
LuAnn
|
Mar 8th |
| 62 |
Mar 20 |
Comment |
I like your image, Bob, beautiful water I like the effect the leaves surrounding the waterfall gives to this black and white image.
The only thing I would recommend is to try and remove that sapling tree on bottom right. Removing it, though I know it can be time consuming and difficult, would give the image a beautiful final look.
Nice work on the water! I like being able to see the nice detail in the waves.
Best regards,
LuAnn |
Mar 6th |
| 62 |
Mar 20 |
Reply |
Thanks, Bob, for your comments.
It was a fun project. See the bubble dancing around on the plate for several minutes was fun. You gently blow on it and it spins.
Fun stuff.
LuAnn |
Mar 6th |
| 62 |
Mar 20 |
Reply |
Hello Israel,
The photo I edited is just a quick suggestion. If you think the corners are too dark, then yes add your personal adjustments. My edits are subjective and you have the final say just as it should be. Most importantly, you know the feel of the room so you will know just the perfect amount of shadow the corners should have. Was he in a cave or cavern, maybe, I do not know so I can not give you a final edit that has to be your choice.
I do love this image, Isreal, it tells a great story.
Best wishes my friend,
LuAnn |
Mar 3rd |
| 62 |
Mar 20 |
Comment |
Hello Israel,
This is a lovely image you have submitted here this month. It has an impact and it tells a wonderful story that grips my heart. I think you have done an excellent job of finding a nice clean area empty of chaos and distractions. I can see the light first on your subject's instrument and then I am led to his face which is filled with great expression.
The only suggestion I have to help you improve an already great image is enhancing the shadows and balancing the light, in my humble opinion. I took the original into Lightroom and checked the histogram to see if the highlights were blown; I did have to make an adjustment there they were a little bright. Then I went into Topaz software and selected black and white 298 to deepen the shadows and add some drama. With this adjustment, I backed off from 100% to 70% of what Topaz suggested.
Lastly, when I brought it back into Lightroom, I used a radial filter over the man, unchecked the box that says "invert" and darkened the outside of the radial filter to give a little vignette around the man. I like him brighter but just darken the back a tad.
Tell me what you think, Israel. You did a wonderful job with this image!
Best regards,
LuAnn
|
Mar 2nd |
 |
4 comments - 6 replies for Group 62
|
12 comments - 7 replies Total
|
