rivi

Great picture, no doubt. I tend to remain silent when I don't have something to say about potential improvements, but here I just congratulate.

Thank for comments and ratings

Well, while it obviously it a beauty by itself and a good piece of work to bring it into that state, I find the picture could do it a little more justice. As a bike in desert painting, the forest in the background is a little misplaced. if it was not possible to put it on the plain field, you might have chosen a lower viewpoint to hide the forest somewhat and still get some sky (preferrably blue one). The diagonal placing towards the camera is one of the standard "poses" for bikes. Nevertheless, you may want to tilt the handlebar a bit, to make it more dynamic.

 

Pierre: Es steht ausdruecklich "Heer" (WH) drauf....

 

For a picture to work in general, you should ask yourself what was it in the sight that made you want to shoot it. Do you see, in the picture alone, what originally appealed to you in the scene? What do you want us, the mere viewers, to see in the picture?

Hi and thanks. I was thinking of cropping it square, as I had done it with a few others from that series, but then left it in 3:2. But I think you're right, too much black; I'll recrop. It's a friend of mine showing his fire juggling skills (in this case with two chains with two burning elements each) at a wedding.

 

Thanks for your thoughts.

Please let me know what you think. One my first celestial shots "for

fun" since I went digital.

The composition is good. However, from your other works I conclude the lack of sharpness and the black overscan region on top are probably intentional and thus have a purpose. Frankly, I fail to see which.

Hi,

 

Thank you very much for providing a picture that is large enough to really view and judge it! I do like the counterlight concept, and that the bikes are forming a slight diagonal parallel to the strips makes the picture interesting. A minor point is that the upper white strip should not end directly behind the handlebar, something that can be corrected digitally without pain. The one more major thing, however, is that I think the two bikes merge too much, optically. The upper contour of the lamp of the red one gows almost without break into the contour of the seat. A slightly lower viewpoint would have changed that.

Hi,

 

yes, the crop does give a certain "up there in the sky" feeling I appreciate a lot. Lens limitations are hard to judge with a downsized picture, but I think the sharpening was a bit aggressive: It has produced a bright pixel ring around the moon.

Hola,

 

Santiago certainly has a tricky sky for going deep. From your portfolio you have collected quite a bit of experience since this "first attempt", and already this is quite good. Just rising the black level would be a waste of signal, specially in the reflection part of the nebula, but have you tried wavelet filtering to reduce the noise? Sorry, no idea if and what that's called in PP, but I am making good experiences with this technique using gimp (it's a plugin there). Greetings from Paranal, Rivi.

Technically it's fine. The slight tilt to get the houses uncoulored gave you some yellow water, but that's not very disturbing.

 

Frankly, however, I think the vision of yellow/tobacco skies has been overshooted and needs a break for a decade or so. I'd appreciate a much fresher style in such a scene.

The window looks too artificial. Even if it's a real one, i.e. not a "Photoshop window", it just doesn't look right, that's why it doesn't work for me.

Hmm, unless it's digitally composed, that's rather unlikely to be Toronto (it's about two hours drive from the falls, and the CN tower is a little higher). Maybe Niagara itself? But anyway, I like it.

I'm afraid I have to disagree with the above about art and genitals. The painting "L'origin du monde", 1866, by Courbet shows nothing else and is still art (see http://images.google.com/images?q=The+origin+of+the+world&btnG=Google+Search).

 

I also agree the photo being provocative in its context within photo.net: especially the blurred motion implies more than just seeing the female body as an (admittedly wonderful) passive geometric form, but actively erotic. There are very few pictures implying that in this forum, but unsuitable I'd call it only if the image had no other intention than the viewers sexual excitement. I don't feel this is the case here.

 

What's wrong with a provocative photo, anyway? On other subjects I've seen claims about "not provocative enough"

 

 

 

That's a good one. Maybe manipulate to get the sky red?

An offensive outfit, but the more I appreciate the braveness of wearing it. The photo itself, from a plain photographic point of view, is not very special, I'm afraid.

Dear Edu,

 

I think it's a nice shot with the building to the left creating interest. There a just a few things

you may consider. Seem that you have used a polarizer? For me the sky darkens a little too much in the right, but if this was natural I don't know what to do. Maybe you could upload the images somewhat larger, then it would be a lot easier to write comments

I think it would be better if the horizon would be defined well. Maybe some shade of grey would not do harm to the sky either, just to make you feel it's blue.

 

Since it is B/W, you have a full range of options. It depends also if the burnout is already on the negative or happened during printing. What you could do if the negative is already overexposed is A) a colour filter to reduce the sky intensity (orange?/green?) B) a graduated ND filter C) if you have a full roll of high-contrast shots, adjust the developping time (see http://www.photo.net/photo/tutorial/film)

 

If the negatives look good and you do the prints yourself, D) take a lower gradation paper and/or E) shadow the forest area (e.g. with your hands), while exposing the sky a little longer.

 

 

I like the idea, but you should take care that the sharpness is either on the branch right next to the sun or on the sun itself. At the moment it is on the very top of the frame, which is not where you look first. Maybe blow the dust off the slide before you scan it.

I agree, to make the pictures interesting you should try to make a point in them, to which people react. As it is by now, it shows a nice scene of probably special meaning to you, but not to me. A photo I should look at longer also creates/transports meaning for me. When you, as suggested before, make one of the boats foreground (or something else that is there) you put things into relation between each other, and this can make pictures interesting.

 

 

I think this gives a good feeling for the people in the situation. For the girl and the boy in the middle the button was pressed in just the right moment. For the left side, it would've probably been better to take him on the shot entirely, or to wait until he's looking aside. It's just the mixture of facing towards the camera and being cut off that doesn't work, either one would've been fine. Probably better if he'd been on the frame entirely, since his hand touching her arm adds to the photo ("Look, we've been portrayed")

 

Rivi

Dear Kent,

 

While I in general like those pics with "water fog" a lot, I feel your's could be improve by the composition. My points would be 1) to get the top of the falls horizontal, 2) probably crop some of the upper forest, it distracts from the image, 3) get a somewhat higher stand, so that the rocks in the foreground don't block the view on the lower parts of the fall (they'd still make a good foreground). If you ever happen to be there again, you may try a zoomed portrait orientation shot of the left fall only.

 

I had a look at your folder. It's a little less sharp, but from the composition I love the shot of the Milla Milla falls.

 

Cheers

Rivi