irvingthalburg

Uncle Jake! Very pretty. I definitely like it.

Awkward.

Ahh! Madeline! I got the Vertigo!! (Jimmy Stewart)

Next time try without the flash.

Greeting card?

Very pretty, however, it's a boring photo.

Flat lighting, unbalanced composition.

Jason, this my be a little biased due to the fact that I've completely gone B&W, but my initial impressions of this photo is that it's a

"good snapshot."

 

The composition is textbook, there's a good balance between left and right. My eye enters the frame with the "castle" and exits through the "statue."

 

My critiques? Looks like something I've already seen... Has a certain postcard look to it. Perhaps because the popping colors. Is that good or bad? I'd say thats for you, the photographer, to decide. However, If I were photographing this, I would have probablly focused on one object, and filled that objcet in my frame. Or if you wanted both, I would have composed the statue vertically, and stopped down to a 8.0 or so that the background was almost in focus.

 

Like I said, the photo has a certain familiarity to it, as if I've already seen it already. Otherwise, keep up the good work.

Carl, great job on this one. Great balance and framing of horizon/sky versus beach.

 

My guess is you exposed this with a red filter to achieve the dramatic clouds? Irregardless of method, I think that's one of the key successes of the photo -- the dark clouds and water -- while keeping the sand exposed at a good luminance value.

 

The fact that the flags are floating doesn't bothering me. They're just blowing in the wind, like everything else is in this wispy-dreamy shot of the beach. The vignetting around the edges of the frame also adds a nice touch.

 

Out of curiosity, and a complete aside, I've noticed youve been mentioning entering your photos into competitions... I'd love to hear about that sometime. It's something that I've never considered... yet.

 

Well seen, and keep up the good work Carl.

 

Nice job, Carl. Wonderful execution of technique and style. The yellow glow in the center is not only pleasing to the eye, but balances well with all of the other colors. The falloff of light towards the bottom is just right. Well seen.

Carl, I really like this. It is well composed, and tonally balanced. Without the biker, it would have been a wonderful photo -- however, with the reflection, you've captured something nicely. The shadows on the left of the frame are perfect -- they give the background a wonderful texture, and balance the frame well. The motorcycle in the top corner provides context, but I wish it wasn't there.

 

The slick, shiny, smooth lines of the bike contrast nicely with the tough guy. The cumulus clouds are perfect, too. Nice shot, and way to be gutsy and not wuss out when he approached.

The colors of this photo are great -- pastel blue, red, and white. Unfortunately, I can't say that this does much for me.

 

The uniformity of the photo is what makes it appealing, however, it's not completely uniform (the right side windows). I think this could be a better photo if all the elements were all uniform, the lighting was a little less flat, and perhaps, there was a fat guy without a shirt holding a beer on one of the balconys to provide some sort of un-uniformitiy.

 

Also, I'd love to see a version with the straight lines straightened via Photoshop.

 

_Dave

Carl, I think this works really well because the paint chips have very little chrominance. Consequently, since our eye has 3 times as many rods than cones, the difference in time from the luminance information v.s the chrominace information reaching the brian causes somewhat of a visual trick. Makes you take a second look, and that's a key part of a good photo.

 

The composition works well. The color, however, of the leaves is almost fake looking. Not sure if this is good or not.

 

Well seen.

Please comment, then come back and see what others have said. I promise a lengthy post after you all have had a crack at it.

Hahahahahahha.... nice one, Carl.

 

I like it Carl. The chiaroscuro lighting is wonderfully executed. I like the strong contrast between the foreground and background. The shadow pattern is great. It's a nice lighting change from closeup work that's lit with one overhead Chimera to give a soft, diffused, pretty look. Your choice of using B&W film further enhances the look.

 

How did you light this? From what it appears, I guess you either used one light and filled it with bounce -- or two lights and your fill fixture was about two stops lower than your key. I'd be curious to see what it would have looked like with a kicker positioned at the same height as your lens (or a few inches lower) several degrees offset to give the egg holders a little shine. It appears that they're metallic, and the only indication of this is the last egg holder on the right side. I would love to see a similar "shine", perhaps a stop or two less bright, on all of the holders.

 

My compositional comment is that the photo appears to be slightly crooked. There appears to be a small amount more of space below the last left egg than last right egg. This causes the eggs to look as if they sloped downward from left to right. If you look at the smaller thumbnail, its more apparent.

 

I think a closeup of just one egg, lit the same way, might be somewhat more effective. Youve lost a little detail (not sure if from scan or not) in your highlights. Id love to see the tiny shadows on the bumpy surface of a lone egg.

 

Nice shot. Looking forward to reading the other critiques.

 

Philippe, I like this photograph. I feel you achieved your intension.

 

The palette is wonderful, and the lone leaf in focus is catching - almost makes time look frozen. Reminds me of a David Lynch film.

 

I'd love for you to show us the original -- Carl is getting at something -- so many times just a subtle difference in cropping can make all the difference.

Peter, the silhouette definitely works. Technically, I think this shot is great.

 

Compositionally, I'm going to nit-pick. There is nothing wrong with the composition you chose. However, IMHO, I think you could have either framed a little wider, or a little tighter. Part of me wants to see the silhouette of the face of this worker, and what he's doing -- and the other part of me wants to see a large structure with a small lone worker on it.

 

Nevertheless, Nice shot.

 

Take 10 steps forward. Be ballsy. Stop down. Pick one thing to photograph, and weight that object in your frame.

 

This to me is just a blur of stuff... my eye is not drawn to anything. You've got a great location, but push in and capture a moment.

I second the cropping suggestion. However, kudos on the non-flat lighting. It's nice to see a stop or two of difference between the key and the fill.

Bruce, I really like this shot. IR film gone right ;)

 

I like the composition, but the leaves entering the top of the frame on the left is somewhat distracting. It's too bad that the main focus of the photograph (the bottom plant) blends in with the background so well.

 

I've never used IR film, so unfortunately I don't have any technical suggestions to make this good shot better... :)

Hey Carl,

 

I'm pretty sure this is one of those photos that look much better printed than on a computer screen!

 

When I originally saw the photo on the "Medium" size, I didn't quite realize the light falling on the ground was the same light falling on the tree. Upon viewing this on the smaller size, the details came out. The clarity of the fog also seems a little compressed on the computer screen.

 

The fog, however, does pull your eye into frame. As well as the light falling onto the tree. I like the image, but unfortunately, it doesn't exactly jump out at me. I don't know if it's the quality of color saturation, or just b/c it's on a computer screen.

 

What lens did you shoot this on (on your 100-300mm) I'm guessing that the longer lens has flatted the space of this image.

 

Anyway, I'm curious to see what everyone else thinks of this. Carl, you definitely have some other excellent images in your folder!

 

Dave_

Your photograph made me smile. I like it.

Looks a little Photoshopped. Great capture of the moment, however.