gary phillips

I don't use that word very often....but this is a stunning portrait. The lighting is perfect & the close crop is great. There was a discussion some time back about chopping the top part of the head off & this is the perfect argument for why it is acceptable! I appears that you used a reflector to throw some light up under the chin area which has made for perfect shadowing & great catchlights in her eyes. Your photography has really complimented this subject. Would you care to comment on the specifics of the lighting? Thanks.

 

Gary

My favorite shot in your whole portfolio....what a moment! Great use of the architecture of the stairs. This image really tells the story. You can just sense the excitement in the kids'. Yes, there's a little noise in shadows of the dark wood, but one run through the "smoother" and it'd be gone :)

 

Gary

Yes, the smoother is simply a noise reduction action that I run in Photoshop CS2. I used to use Neat Image to do the same effect. Normally I only run the action once (maybe twice) but in this image I think I ran it 4 times. I e-mailed it to the bride and she commented that I have a way of making her skin look perfect. She loved it. I almost always run it on a seperate layer so that I can "erase" at least a portion of the effect if it makes the eyes too soft. I like to keep the subject's eyes pretty sharp & bright, even in an image like this when you only see a portion of one eye. Thanks again Stephanie.

...that's probably it. I'm in the middle of my workflow & haven't converted any of them to sRGB as of yet. I have several shots similar to this so I played around with this one. I ran it through the "smoother" several times for giggles, normally I would only do it once if at all. I personally like the softness, but of course I'm biased so I appreciate your opinion.

What do you think? Over-processed? For some reason the skin tones

look green to me here, but not on the original. Thanks for any

critiques positive or constructive.

This is Sophia, 3 years old. She was beginning to tire of photographs

& laid her head down to rest. What do you think?

It's a nice shot, but there are some reflections that are a bit distracting. Also some areas in the turtle are almost (if not) blown out (it may be my monitor though). All in all a nice shot, I had to take a closer look to see that it was not taken underwater.

This is what I've ended up with after trying to give this dog

the "charachter" that he deserves. Hard to do this dog justice. He's

old, has only one eye, lumps all over the place, walks really stiff

after too much activity, but still loves life.

Nice shots of the Blues. I have some very similar shots in my Blues folder. It looks like some of your images could benefit from some noise reduction. I personally prefer NeatImage, but many others work as well if not better. Nice shots.

...and caught with a D100, which means that your timing was even more impressive (not the quickest camera). Really nice job, one can't help but wonder what happened just seconds after this shot was taken. I find myself wanting the little guy to escape, but knowing that he didn't. Great image!

I love this shot! Puts a great perspective on things. I was stationed at NAS Whidbey Island and you've captured the beauty of the Northwest in this shot! Nice capture. (by the way, if you look in the upper right corner of the image it looks as if you have a speck of dust/dirt on your sensor). You can either clean it or edit that out digitally, just FYI.

I used Photoshop CS (you can do it with earlier versions as well). For step by step video instruction, go to www.Photoshopuser.com and in big bold letters you will see "How'd they do that" click on it & it will give you a video demonstration of this very thing.

The Willen kids in a high-key beach shot. Ok, ok, so I've been on

the NAPP website - couldn't resist trying this effect.

No doubt this could be "spiced up" but I wanted to be able to check

the "unmanipulated" block so I didn't touch it other than some

slight sharpening (didn't even clean up the noise). What do you

think?

Critiques are appreciated. I didn't like the way the sky turned out

to be an orange color due to the lights of Ford Island in the

background so I have tried a few alternatives. Thanks.

A rare Hawaiian Monk Seal. One of less than 1500 alive today. I sat

there for quite a while waiting for him (her?) to open his eyes.

One of the most endangered of all seals, there are less than 1500

remaining. Truly a rare opportunity. He was not much of a poser, just

laying there with his eyes closed most of the day.

Nice shot here. I like the fact that the background isn't full of spectators, that's tough to get. I also like that you can still see sand in the air. The exposure is perfect & the saturation looks great. Good capture.

Another of our daughter from my hula series. The noise was added to

give it an "old" feel. Thanks for comments & critiques.

The latest from my "Hula kick". This is our daughter. Thanks for

your critiques.

I don't see sad...solemn or reflecting, but not sad. Also, I think there's a bit too much saturation in the flowers. I would desaturate them a bit & it (and color the stems) and it'd be perfect. Nice shot.

This is a great, natural shot, but the 1/2 person & the cup are very distracting. This could be a great candidate for a square format. Otherwise, great moment, great lighting.

It seems around here (Hawaii) that this is the direction

photographers are going, so in an effort to keep up...I submit this

for critique. Please give me feedback, positive or negative.

My favorite of the bunch Norman. I didn't get one like this! Great capture, good exposure on the 18's and the smoke trail's not blown out! Great Airshow folder.

A fellow sailor married in uniform this Saturday. Please feel free

to critique me hard, it's the only way I'll learn. Thanks.