bens

i'd rather see him without the bars.

a soulful shot, but the photoshopping is distracting to me.

nice candid, has a nice mood given their intentness and the low light.

yea, works great, being the bimbo that i am, i could not figure out this was a reflection before reading your note. the colors and clarity are very nice, and the unifying horizontal lines "holds" it all together.

the shadows on the left reall distract me, sorry to say.

hi jim, nice use of the sign, certainly fits the house, suggest cropping up to the bottom of the pole holding it.

what a fine eye you have, my friend. thanks for directing me here, very enjoyable in composition, lines, good idea to go with a light toning.

love it matt, love that you got down to her level, its got an interesting background with the stairs, but it doesn't distract from the birds, in fact it adds more into the picture in an interesting way, the grouping of the birds works (like the group on the lower right), and her intent efforts are priceless. the splash of red brings my eye right to the core of the shot. consider dulling the snow a little bit. congrats on a very fine picture.

Rich, i like this compsition, its clever and engaging. i suggest burning a little in the center area.

a very fun, well composed picture with beautiful colors and a lovely scene. as a dog owner, this made me laugh, as a photographer too, as i realize you are getting yourself covered in sand to get the shot. the ball's a great color for the sky, the clouds create a nice backdrop, the dog is in a great pose. i have a quibble about the dog placed right behind the ball, would have liked to see other options too, but its a quibble. you make a shot hard to get seem easy.

very nice piece of work, clever use of the lens, the winding street, the uniform colors the lack of cars and people, make this a fun arhitectural study. i agree with claude about cropping down a bit. the color seems splendid to my eyes.

hey, you made my day~ (i type this as i help my son with his homework . . .)

you know, i have a hard time giving constructive criticisms about photos like this. the miracle of children just gets to me. he is an adorable child whose image you have captured well enough to touch my emotions -- those eyes and the outreached hand . . . okay, one criticism, the shot is a little grainy -- consider using something like neat image if that concerns you. i like your use of light here -- the light on his face is soft and lights up his face well, while the side light adds a little drama.

Don, honestly, I just didn't know what you were saying -- as my literacy does not extend beyond the steve martin movie in this area. Seeing the link, I suspected you were being positive, but I resisted a little because I am just one of about 90 people trying now to create more dialogue, I'm not particularly an example for the "group", don't want to be, just want to be Ben S. Thank you for your understanding and leaving a further note, I really appreciate it.

 

Glad you are a fan or Howard's as well, I don't think I would be trying some of the "street" work I attempt here and there without his example. He's one of the first photographers I encountered around here who gave me the feeble courage I have mustered to approach strangers, and I have also liberally borrowed from his post processing techniques over time.

 

 

 

don, i've got very little idea what you are talking about. i don't pretend to be a sample of anything but myself and i've got no interest in fencing. but i will tell you this -- for the kind of photography i do, i've learned as much for the past two years from howard's works and generosity as from anywhere else, here or elsewhere.

 

sorry, howard, looks like don thinks he should address me here instead of your picture, i hope you don't mind that i responded. say the word, glad to delete.

 

 

postcards make a nice background, but the lights a little harsh, particularly to the right behind him, pulls my eye away from him. this might work better in black and white, where you can play with the tones more without it looking obvious.

adorable, great patience, i assume you are shooting to a spot and seeing what walks into it. this works nicely, as if it is a dog waiting for someone to retur, ignored by the passerbys. consider lightening the darker parts of the dog's coat a little bit.

hey, lets not make any more or less of this than it is. first of all, its a dion, so there's an interesting composition (the angled head is great) that well isolates the subject, great tones (either version), and someone warm to the camera revealing a little about themselves. second of all, its a beautiful boy who trusts and loves his grandpa enough to let him grab the @$%@#%#@$ camera in the middle of a television program and start snapping away. (i think the latter is more important, and more revealing.) third of all, snap away howard dion, cuz before you know it he won't let you, no matter how much he loves you.

i agree, and she is a worthy subject for your considerable talents. my one suggestion is to ask her to look away from you, to strike poses that appear to be more candid, less of her smiling to the camera.

Hi Gary, pleasure to make your acquaintance. I enjoyed reading your bio --- never shot film myself, entirely digital. By now you probably realize that the shot taken by the Rebel is soft out of the camera -- in both contrast and sharpness. People have advised to treat it like a negative for a slide -- though I have not done slides, I understand you had to protect against highlights by underexposing at times. Well, digital images seem to have a somewhat narrow dynamic range on both ends of the continuum, and it is easy to blow out highlights, particularly when you add contrast or unsharp mask, which you often have to do because of the softness of the image. My solution has been photoshop work in layer masks, and I've put a link on my community member page to what I do if you are interested. Basically, I work on selected portions of an image to adjust the tonal range.

 

On this one, the natural light fits the subject nicely, its a strong candid photo. I'd add some contrast, but protect against blowing out the sleeve on the left. In fact, you could dull the light there a bit and brighten a little on the face to see what you get. But the composition flows very nicely, and she is wonderfully isolated with just the essentials visible to get the point across. I like that very much.

nice exuberant shot, works very well emotionally. The evident ps work that you refer to works fine, except for around the top of his head, where it seems a little, just a little, obvious to me.

both composition and colors work very well. i like the machine on the left juxtaposed with the wheels behind it, createsa structure that is pleasing.

i agree with guy, this rises above just the photo of the subject, its quite evocative of georgia o'keefe's work to me.

the tones, textures, the composition, i really enjoy this, find myself marveling at it. very very nice. what is the red?

beautiful mood, pleasing composition, nice piece of work.