matthew_peters

Cloning isn't cheating if the (i.e., your) rules allow it. It's altogether different if you are playing by someone else's rules and they don't allow cloning, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. I'd keep the bottom sea gull in the photo. As pointed out earlier, he/she anchors the bottom of the photo and creates a dialog with the singers.

 

This is overall a wonderful photo, but I'm really bothered by the composition. It's too close. Zooming out or taking a step back would include all of the sea gull in the bottom left foreground and the rest of the birds on the right hand side. I think it would result in a cleaner, less cluttered and hopefully more elegant photo.

Well, do you like it? I struggled with "printing" this - any

suggestions? There is another photo from the same tarn and same

weekend in the folder.

Any cropping suggestions or other comments? Sure it's not original,

but the goal wasn't to make something terribly original, it was to

make a pretty photo to hang on the wall. Have I succeeded?

I really love this. The silky smooth pastels and lines in the sand, the color gradient in the sky, the far away, highlighted bush. The slight imperfection in the sand about 1/3 the way from the bottom is a little distracting, but is minor at best. My favorite of your twenty or so uploaded photos.

Your thoughts, comments, ratings and critiques greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

T.J.,

 

I think the sky is great. Good color, the blue is a welcome addition to the dark reds and oranges. You waited until the sky filled with color and were there at the right time of day.

 

There are a few things which I think could improve this though. There is a little too much included water. The boat and bird are interesting, but are too small to hold attention for long. Switching to a longer lens, including less water (perhaps by rotating the camera into portrait) and trying to include larger interesting elements in the foreground will help tremendously.

The colors here, especially in the red tree on the left, are good, and the subject has lots of potential. I personally like showing different elements in the same picture: rocks, autumn trees, a stream.

 

I partly agree with Ravi. Get closer to your subject, but not because I think you should decrease the amount of space for the rocks or water, but because you will allow more detail to be captured, and less (relatively uninteresting) sky. I'd try to recompose with the goal of showing more detail in the foreground and less sky.

Great light and timing! It seems a tad cluttered with the tree overlaping the background hills and its reflection behind the fence, but sometimes these things are unavoidable. The boater makes the picture.

I like the perspective with the tree and hill just about cloud level, it is unusual.

 

The second tree half in the frame doesn't quite work for me. I don't know if a change of perspective was possible to eliminate it or not, but it clutters the compositon, and the main tree doesn't stand out enough.

 

Maybe crop the top third down to a panoramic?

A nice idea, the lighting is good, and I like the black and white. I'm having a problem locating a focal point as my eye seems to wander around the photo. If the rays of light and the abstracted shapes of the trees are the purpose, then you may want to try cropping the ground and the right side of the frame.

The tilted trees really bother me too.

Here is a fine idea, but something doesn't quite work here for me. Perhaps it's the grain. Maybe it needs more contrast, or a change of lens/perspective/position to emphasize the repeating geometry. As it is, I'm not quite sure what main subject or focal point is.

Ak, so much tension in such a symmetric photo! Composing (or cropping) the photo with the point of convergence missing, the lack of sharp focus anywhere and the dark, mysterous colors all work together. Very nice.

I really like this photo a lot, my favorite in the folder. Perfectly exposed, good color, well composed. I'd also like to see it taken a step or few forward with no rocks. It would abstract the scene even more and be a different photo entirely, but I bet would also be very nice.

Comments very much appreciated. Thank you.

The composition is very good as is. The colors and light are outstanding. The bright yellow rock on the far right is a little distracting and a little crop might help, but this is a minor point.

 

There are some nice grooves in the red rock in the middle foreground (no doubt left by the retreating glacier). Something to try would be to move closer to them and somehow use their lines to lead the viewer's eye into the photo towards the rocky sunlit peak. This would however eliminate the symmetry above formed by the peak, grooves and rock at the very bottom of the frame, almost shadowing the peak. It may or may not make a better picture, that would depend on other factors - perhaps by getting this close your shadow would get in the way - but is worth a try.

Overall, a very nice photo. However, I feel the bush actually detracts from the depth of this photo. Without it, the cloud filled valley would form a splendid curve leading the eye from right, then left and back right into the depths of the photo and towards the highest volcano. Regardless, the bush's red flowers look out of place in the surrounding landscape.

 

The hill in the foreground in this respect works: being a highlight it attracts the eye to the valley and starts the process. I wonder if it was possible for the photographer to walk a few paces to the right and eliminate the bush?

Jason,

 

Neutral density filters are clear on one half, and 1, 2, or 3 stops darker on the other half. They come in hard or soft versions, the hard variety with an abrupt change between light and dark, the soft variety a more gradual change. By positioning the darker half over the sky for example, you have effectively decreased the contrast range of the scene to something (hopefully) within the range of your film. I find them essential for any landscape work at sunrise/sunset.

 

Nice color you've captured above. Gotta love those clear summer nights.

Including the foreground in this version, unlike the 35mm version, gives the picture far more depth and perspective, and I think makes it. Excellent job.

Interesting! Moody and subtle enough I can't quite tell what it is.

Eric,

 

I like the backlit idea showing the form of the barns, trees and texture in the snow (and I've started taking many backlit photos this winter), but feel the overall photo could be improved by backing the exposure off at least a stop. As it is now, it's too washed out. The barns and trees are still silhoutted: decreasing the exposure won't effect these, and I suspect enough detail will stay in the immediate foreground.

 

You may also try cropping the entire dark foreground...this would create a more dreamy, moody image should you be so inclined.

 

Matt