kendurling

for the comments so far. I agree there are other compositional possibilities here. Two things: I think the upper right corner gives needed depth, and b) this photo was taken in low light, just before sunset. The contrast should reflect that.

This is excellently seen - and great use of monochrome. Beautiful thirds composition. I just wish it were a bit sharper.

I recently got back from a photo trip to the eastern Sierra, and have

been working through a number of photographs. This one seems to be

problematical. At another critique site, one reviewer called it

"flat", but I don't really see that. Of course I'm biased, and ones

tend toward myopia with one's own photos. I'd appreciate any

feedback, and suggestions for improvement.

This caught my eye immediately. I love the use of negative space, and how the leaf is defined so differently on either side of the central stem. The right side is reminiscent of a pregnant woman. Beautiful shot.

Just posted a series of three photos, "Steps Down" 1, 2 and 3,

"industrial abstracts" taken of the inside of a WW2-era submarine

drydock, and would very much appreciate comments. Angles limited due

to chain-link fence, taken from the top of my truck. Thanks!

 

Ken D

Haven't posted a critique request in a while. Recently got this shot

which I like, but would like some 2nd opinions. Thanks!

 

Between storms here in CA I made a spur-of-the-moment dash for one of

my favorite wildlife spots and caught this diffuse glowing sunset.

The air was crystal clear and calm and full of birdsong.

Would very much appreciate feedback on this shot and its two

companions, Blocks and Hook, a series of "Jeweler's Workbench" shots.

Thanks

I really like your sense of line here - the waterlines of the boats, the invisible ceiling of the birds, and the great variety of vertical lines, including the angled crane at the right edge. I also like the proportions between the areas of water at the bottom and sky at the top - good handling of negative space. Some good cropping choices. Nice job of seeing interesting forms in a potentially jumbled scene!

Sensuous. The peaceful undulating curves backed up by the understated power of the mountain make a great grand theme. I love the way the mtn is "reflected" in the cabin (?) on the right. Terrific detail and good exposure. Well done! G5?

Beautiful portfolio of architectural photos! Bravo.

Great shot. I love the balance of symmetry and eccentricity, and all the variants of light and shade. Wish it was a bit sharper for being such a "technical" or graphic shot.

Very nice. A bit too centered though, and therefore static.

A lot of interest here, Vicki, but I think a bit too cluttered. Commendations for trying to find an interesting POV, something I find in most of your shots. The bright curb, wall surface or whatever in the background is the primary culprit I think. Really doesn't go with the richness of the flowers. I think there's an interesting shot in just the lower right quadrant of this shot. Thanks for this folder, I enjoyed it a lot, and want to comment on some others.

Gorgeous color and shape! Maybe a little less negative space?

Andrew, you might not like it, but the positioning in the frame was very intentional, and one of the things I'm fond of in this shot. Thanks for commenting, though!

I like it a lot. The placement in the frame and the overall mood are wonderful. I do feel it could have used a little more DOF - maybe f/8. It's shocking just how little there is at these close ranges, I always have to kind of double my estimate based on normal shooting. f/8 gives plenty bokeh!

I'm very fond of this shot - as a step along the path towards something I realize I haven't attained yet. It's admittedly a "Weston Study," but I certainly don't apologize for the model!

However, it has received very little attention wherever I have posted it, and I'm curious why. What do you see? It is a shot I intend to keep working on, with Scala and also negative film, even though it's a 3 hour drive from me. What IYO should I look for? Any suggestions welcome. Thanks.

Comments and criticisms most welcome. B&W C-41 - XP-2 - negative

scanned using Vuescan profile for Fuji Reala to obtain mild toning.

Re: your comment "What is the purpose of this photo?" Without begging questions about "what is the purpose of art," I'd like to hear more about what you mean by asking that. I'm not being at all defensive, and I'm assuming you are asking out of real curiosity, rather than implying "this is a pointless photo."

 

In part the photo is to show something compositional that appeals to me aesthetically - like most photographs. In part it is a technical challenge, with the purpose of catching what is to me an elusive visual impression of extremes of light on film. You could say that it's also part of my learning process - a laboratory shot. It is also something in my immediate environment, something I see everyday, and I'm interested in noticing more carefully what is right there in front of me, in amongst my wanderings for "extraordinary" situations.

 

It is often stated that a photograph needs a "clear center of interest" or a focal point. I don't always agree. Often a photograph can be about formal relationships, or flow, or undulating shading, or - on and on. To me the formal relationships in this shot are enough for me to sustain interest. I would never expect it to be true for everyone, but I'd still like to know what you mean by "purpose."

I really like the idea of monochrome macro, and have been thinking about it myself. This is a good choice of subject for it, and overall really nice photo. I agree the foreground anther OOF isn't ideal, but I'll look forward to seeing more, and trying some myself! Thanks for the inspiration.

Would welcome some comments, based on my description in the comments

section, on how I could go about starting to experiment with reducing

the range of this photo further - toning down those lanterns -

through development reduction. "Expose for shadows, develop for

highlights." Thanks for any suggestions.

An exposure problem that I've been working on for some time. I posted a version some months ago, and this is a progress report.

The range of this scene - from lanterns to shadows - is 12 stops, far too much to capture on film. So I've been experimenting with ways to not have the lanterns completely blown out and still have some shadow detail. On this roll I tried using two 2-stop graduated neutral density filters, one hard-edged and one soft-edged (because that's all I have), for a 4-stop reduction in the upper part of the photo. Since they're in a Cokin mount I could slant the break across the photo diagonally to more or less match the line of the lanterns.

I found the multi-spot metering function on the T-90 to be a big help, and IIRC, I biased toward the shadows under the diagonal rail with two readings there, in addition to 3 single reading elsewhere. 8 stops is still really too much for film to grab, but I regained some detail in the lantern frames by setting the white point in Vuescan to 0.3, kind of an ersatz development reduction.

The next step is to learn how the "expose for shadows, develop for highlights" axiom can actually help me here

Another Black-crowned Night Heron, this time looking uncharacteristically heroic! :-) He was fluffing out his feathers, right when I got him lined up with some nice background colors.

I'm aware of the DOF "problem" around his beak. This shot is from a roll in which I shot everything at f/4.5 - wide open for this lens - to learn more about what its characterisitics are at that aperture. The roll was shot midday, but clearly I might want to use the lens at low light hours - sunset and sunrise - so I need to know what I'm dealing with. As you can see, DOF is very shallow, especially at this close distance. I was about 20 feet from this bird. F/calc gives the DOF for 400mm at f/4.5 @ 20 ft as about 5cm. Focus point was his eye, so this photo certainly bears that data out. Nice to know, even if "ideally" this shot should have been shot at f/16 (6" DOF) to get his whole beak to his eye in focus, but then I couldn't have gotten the background blurred like this. Trade-offs!!

No, this is pretty much straight out of the camera. No digital mods, other than the usual adjustments in scanning and post-scanning USM and slight contrast adjustments.

. . . is a cast bronze sign letter, about 10" high. The letter "U," IIRC.