sammm

I see some of what others (Lannie, Marc) are admiring in this, but I think I'd have an easier time seeing the advantages if this were significantly larger on the screen. For example, the little ripples by the lower fin lead me to believe that there is some motion depicted and that this is shot from over the water, not in it. But I can barely make them out. This may be less "still" than some are thinking, and more "dramatic" than others think.

 

And those reflections are still very distracting - they pull my eye right off the shark every time.

I have to agree with Mona. This one doesn't grab me, and I think that is because of the fairly static composition. Maybe also because of the colors. But please don't blame my perception on any sort of rigid application of textbook rules. Forget the rules, the photograph itself simply fails to grab me emotionally, and fails to convey to me the true drama I imagine was there.

 

As to the colors, the color shift Felix has chosen downplays the motion and feel of the water, but retains and emphasizes sunlight reflections that seem to me of secondary importance, and fairly distracting, in the drama. Of course the detail is nice, and if the whole thing were larger it might be easier to appreciate it even more.

 

But, for those of you whom it strikes and grabs, please let me know why. I'd love to say when the week is over that I'm wrong, and am missing something here on the first viewing.

Marketa has been on my interesting list for a while - not because she is the best photographer here, but because she isn't afraid to experiment and share with us the experiments she is working with. I'm sure this is a technique she is playing with and just learning to master, and I, at least, have learned something from the close look at it the POW affords.

 

This kind of high key treatment is often tried not just with camera but with pencil and paper - how often has this pose been sketched (yes, John, in Art Class 101)? And the shot looks a bit like a sketch. But, as Mona and others have noted, the darkness of the hair brings our focus to it, and a "study" of hair really doesn't hold our attention. Would this have been improved with further lightening to the hair and darkening to some of the body curves, perhaps in around her neck and knees?

No rules indeed. Looks like the world is just all lit up for her.

Poetic.

 

Looks like small aperature/low light combination. Was it a struggle to keep Ariel still?

I've seen this girl before! Wonderful shot, catching a nice expression. I'm not quite sure I can figure out what is going on the background.

 

 

Nice series overall. I like the etherial quality the blown highlights give this one. The eye is really forced right to the little girl.

It might be worth trying to darken up the highlights on the tree; they compete with her eyes and the highlights in her hair. Nice.

He's looking in a fishtank at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga. Yes, either more room, especially on the right and up top, or perhaps a couple of fish near the glass would be good to see. In the absence of more room all around, I do like the tight crop better than unbalanced room.

 

 

 

I think this one is about perspective, and that generally Vincent has it about right - I'd like to see this at the least from a step or two back, perhaps a bit more sky, more tree, and a bit more perspective on the whole scene.

 

There is a vanishing point created by the two trees that draws my eye - outside of the photo to the left. Ideally, I'd like to know what is to the right and left of this scene, and wonder if this might be a very good middle third of a horizontal photograph.

 

Still, I love the detail in the foreground rocks and in the knarled trees, and the photo is worth some time viewing just for those; the Canyon is too hidden for the depth or grandeur to really kick in without seeing still more of it.

Great moment. I sympathize.

Very nice; the eyes really sparkle and that bow frames her nicely. I wonder if toning down the highlights in the shirt might improve it a bit?

 

Best,

 

Sam

I like this; the music, piano and curtain give nice context, but have been kept from taking attention away from the face.

 

I do wonder if a shot from a bit more to the left might improve it a touch, by giving you less open space in the middle.

 

 

Very nice lines and balance. I wouldn't further distort it, as I think you'd lose the balance with a heavier foreground.

With respect to the crop by Dennis and Michael's comments - I actually like the see-saw balance between the woman and the sky, and think the cropping makes the photograph too stable. If the focus of the photograph is solely on the woman, as in Dennis' crop, this becomes a fairly traditional portrait. The trade off for stability seems too great to me.

 

Jean-Sebastian, You'll see people making cropping suggestions in many discussions on the site, and that the terms of use of the site specifically permit modifications to be made for discussion. I think it is one of the things that helps make this more of a "discussion" site rather than a presentation site.

 

I also think you have a number of great compositions in your portfolio, but while it took a while for the discussion to get going, this is one worthy of a good discussion. Particularly on its composition.

Jean-Sebastian,

 

Thank you. My thought on the birds is that adding them detracts for me, because they look added, probably because of the depth-of-focus issue. I think it would look better in either of two ways: without the birds, or with just one bird or perhaps two or three birds, positioned nearer and larger, and perhaps blurred slightly, so they looked more natural.

 

It is a nice composition and I like the photo itself quite a bit; it is only the way the birds look out of place that detracts for me.

The loss of detail in the near background looks incongruous to me with the level of detail in the birds and sky - it strikes me as a so-so photoshop job. Otherwise, the photograph itself is quite striking.

Very poignant.

I like Jana's approach. Cropped to a square filled with the "pearls" might be particularly nice.

My eye doesn't know what to do with this - it is drawn to the two sharpest points, which are the bit of hair in front of his face and the edge of his shirt, and can't quite settle on either of them as a focal point.

Wow. Great job handling with the lighting across the landscape - I trust to get this even of lighting you needed to either dodge and burn or manipulate in ps?

 

Beautiful.

Have you considered black and white? I think it brings out the statue in the balcony, as well as the sky.

 

Of course, if you could just get a beam of light to catch the cross on top of the steeple...

I like it just this way - the grain adds a nice tone. You may want to crop out the background distraction on the left.

I'm always appreciative of cropping suggestions, and had been thinking about that one already. Here's the crop - which I think does strengthen it. Would anyone crop deeper?

Thanks.

 

 

This is a low-light, hand-held grab - is the background too

distracting? Any other thoughts?