stephenh

This is an extraordinarily beautiful photo whose principal fault is its size. Please, please limit your photo size to 800 pixels in width! The normal screen size is limited to 1024 pixels, so very few of us can appreciate this photo as you have posted it.

This is an arresting portrait of a waifishly beautiful girl/woman, diminished solely by a shadow under her chin. You should have eliminated the shadow by repositioning your floods.

Rich colors here. The image is too large for display in a maximized NS window, which always ticks me off some, but you can't but love those Fuji colors.

A beautiful composition, lit perfectly. Thanks for this unusual figure treatment. The wood floor adds a perfect counterpunctual contrast.

Nicely conceived and executed, Jerry. No doubt similar technique to my attempt at a similar merging of images.

Superb detail and control of light. If the resolution permitted, this is one I'd like to see as a large (18x18 at least) print.

The rich, textured feel of this photograph raises it above many others depicting the human body. Very fine control of light, very fine processing.

Interestingly, Elisabet, your comment demonstrates the variety of possible approaches to this photo, since I quite prefer to show the musculature in the leg, contrasting it with the smoothness of her other leg beneath her. Think of the composition as a study in lines: 4-1/2 vertical lines poised atop 2-1/2 horizontal lines, with another 2 horizontal lines atop it all.

Nicely done. I see you are using the effective "sharpen-the-eyes" technique for bringing a soft-focus portrait to life. Nice lighting and range of tonalities. A gorgeous model; she should be very pleased with this memorial to her beauty.

Quite effective, especially for a self-portrait. Would be interesting to learn why you decided to photography yourself as a non-revealing nude.

Mysterious and just a little bit dark (metaphysically, not photographically). I like it, although as with others of your photos, I'd like to see it larger.

This is certainly a very original series, in which nudity plays a role subservient to the mystery of the scene. Nicely conceived, nicely composed.

Cliches are fine, if your rendition is done well. My suggestions: make the figures stronger; use a series of layers in PS (you may have already done this; on one layer, cut off the floor and wall near the feet of the dancers; interpose a layer with a gradient fill that provides a graduated background starting at the (cut-off) solid floor. Difficult to explain; easier to demonstrate. Consider this example (substituting your ghost dancers for the figure here):

http://home.netcom.com/~haynesmn/nudeimages/CRW_9420_B&W_gradient.jpg

An intesting series. Some are more ambiguous/mysterious than others. Some nice thoughts here, which you should explore further.

Nicely executed, different landscape.

This has potential to be a fine portrait but for two matters: you have lost the highlight in her left eye, which deadens that entire side of her face, and frankly I would have preferred to have more light on her chest and less on her back. Just my opinion.

I like the composition, but the photo is slightly too bluish (look at the whites of their eyes).

Nicely original. Skin tones are nice except the blown highlights on her thigh. Scanner problem?

I don't own a spot meter, so it was an averaged reading. (Probably should get a spot meter, but so far haven't found a real need for it in my work.) If I dropped the ISO, I'd have to drop the shutter speed and might have lost the stop action here (as you can see, they were moving pretty quickly). I always shoot my stage photography a bit underexposed in order to avoid blown highlights (white dresses, tops of shoulders, glistening foreheads, etc.) As to the circumstances of the photograph, I am the "volunteer second official photographer" for the Minnesota Opera, and all these shots were taken from 40-60 feet away from orchestra seating during dress rehearsal and with the permission (actually encouragement) of the opera management. Sneaking a 70-200mm "L" lens into a real performance would be quite a feat indeed!

If interested in seeing other dance scenes from Carmina Burana, I've posted them on my web site.

You need to reduce this photo's scale to make it more easily viewed. Having said that, I like the composition, the warm tones, and the muted sensuality. Nice start (if that is what it is), and I'd like to see more of your work.

Very effective action shot, and all the more dramatic for being in slightly toned B&W. Nice job, but I thought this particular formation was called a "scrum"?

As may be seen (and from the description) this was taken in very low

available light. Did I push the envelope too far? (Comments on this

or others in

href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=188960">this

folder

much appreciated.)

Nicely done, all the more so as a self-portrait.

I like the asymmetry of this partial torso, and nice use of light. Again, the water is a nice touch. Keep showing us your work in this arena.

Effective lighting. My one problem is that the photo gets kind of lost in her stomach, with some odd shading where the torso meets her hip. The water droplets are a nice touch.