vlad po...

Not only a good pjournalism but an excellent picture overall, well composed, excellent feeling of motion. The "Swan Lake" poster in bg ironically reminds about August 1991 in Moscow and the last days of the USSR...

I like window shots and this IR looks excellent. Nice perspective and soft colors are a good addition.

A strong shot. I guess, both this or B&W version would be equally good.

 

 

 

Michael, if you mean that the image is too good for this site overwhelmed now with stupid bug-flower-"home-made-simple nude"-etc snapshots, than I completely agree with you.

Looks Beautiful! And to me David Rossien's suggestion makes sence.

Yes, it looks interesting. Not so many photographers use wide angle lenses, so most of images of this kind, if composed properly, looks original. I can only doubt if central position of the horse's head is the best here, otherwise looks fine with me.

 

To Dave: how did you find that it is a COMPOSITE? I downloaded it in PS and didn't find any borders, cloning spots etc. Could you please explain your observation.

Your get the best portraits when you don't try to "imprive" the life, but show as it is (and you probably know it better, than me). Do you really like yourself this overphotoshopped (or overqimaged) plasticky, barbie-like creature? Didn't want to say anything bad about the beautiful model, it's not her fault. Well, eye-candy lure for the ignorant crowd ...you probably want to be famous 365/24/7 - lol

 

CheaterCheater

"Calling all Mate Raters. Be on the look out for an average portrait"

 

You, probably, missed the point, Yuri tried there to show a POOR portrait (his portfolio as a reference point) to illustrate how NOT TO DO if you want to make a good portrait, am I wrong? And the title in this context sounds sarcastic...

As I understand Yuri tries to express how he sees what's going on at the Middle East now. Pretty sad times, I guess.

Excellent portrait, wery nice shadow.

The composition and the tones look nice. I'm wondering if it was a real fog or it's a result of PShopping, e.g. selective dodging?

"Please, view in LARGER mode! For more pictures please visit my personal website..."

 

Yes, see in LARGER mode this cr..., otherwise you may decide it's a masterpiece... "minimalism" (heh-heh), well, I'm surprised how ignorant the PNcrowd is..3 for technique (you have much better in your portfolio as a proof, you are getting lazier); 3 for "artistism", because it's pretty banal...nothing to add, let's others wowing...the most inportant thing, there is no any COMPOSITION, that's the bottom line.-peace!

Yes, this version is much better, it's excellent. I've seen the original one so I can say that here you did what I was thinking about. You cropped out unnecessary negative space on the bottom and dodged the rest of the bottom part that IMHO improved the image significantly.

Ditto to Michel, outstanding! Difference in characters nicely strengthened by contrast in their clothing. DOF is shallow enough not to detract from the main subject, but deep enough to show the historical surrounding.

I can only say "Wow", what a character! Such an incredibly perfect combination of details and emotions. Her face looks like an opened lifebook, you can reed and find every time some new stories and it's jist an endless process. Haven't seen you for ages, decided to stop by pnet for a minute and here we are! Excellent portrait! Optimal DOF,tonal range, and contrast effectively isolate the main subject and focus the viewer's eye on her face without botheribg by the BG which, in turn, adds to understanding of her environment. I guess you've captured an essence pretty well. It's also a nice report about your travel.

 

Happy New year! Wish you and family all the best in 2007 and want to see more images like this.

Cheers, Vlad.

Excellent. Looks so surreal. Indeed, technically demanding...to walk for 8 hours with flashlight...I wish I would be so patient. But the result was really original.

Impressive shot. I like it a lot.

A classical subject for high-key. Probably, Eddie is right, highlights on the top look slightly blown out, maybe a tad more density would benefit, at least I'd try to play. Overall, the composition looks nice and you achieved high-key effect. Did you try B&W, sometimes it may look even better in B&W.

 

I disagree with MONA. People are different, so emotional responses are. When I look at this image I feel, for example a) how fragile is everything in this world including life itself (and peace in PN discussions � LOL); b) that everything ends up some days; a moment ago it was a good bulb, but now it became just a recollection. And so on. So, I�m with Rick. Cliche? Than what about multiple landscape, nude, flower, or portrait cliches accepted enthusiastically? IMHO, technically the image is good enough not to detract attention from the major subject. We can argue about composing it in a different way, but it would be a different image. Cropping is up to author. Unusual picture format looks attractive in this certain case IMO. Nice work generated an interesting discussion, well deserved POW.

This wonderful view immediately attracted my attention. With all these lines it looks like a nice abstract. I know Jack Dykinga's version quite well, so I noticed the resemblance. Well, I have seen here on PN some images, for example of Yellowstone, almost identical to my own and even taken almost at the same time therefore under similar lighting conditions. Just coincidence I believe, so I'm not surprised. Small world. This image and Dykinga's ones have opposite dominating diagonals though. Overall, my impression is, and it's just my subjective opinion, that this image has two major points of interest, light top center and light cloud reflection on the bottom right. My eyes were traveling top-bottom-top...and I couldn't decide what I prefer. Both focal points are good. In Jack Dykinga's picture the tonality gradually changing from lightest on the top to darkest on the bottom and the reflection is quite faint. I'm sure he used polarizer and/or burned the bottom part. I instinctively tried to cut off the 10-15% of the top of your original posting and liked the result. Later I found that the new placement of the horizon line in the cropped version would be close to what I saw on Jack's picture. Maybe it's just my *sense of cliche* Maybe not, because some cropping off the top eliminates one of the two lightest parts and also makes the image fitting *the thirds* closer that is, in my taste, better balances it both compositionally and in terms of tonality. Of course, I may be wrong, cropping it's a matter of taste and tastes are different. Another possibility to eliminate one of the two light spots would be to burn either top or bottom. I think the picture also should be great in B&W print because the histograms for separate channels (I checked them) mostly overlap. And I'm the second who's wondering what kind of gear was used.

I would try either to crop or to burn. Not sure, but cropping might be better. Except upper 20% the rest is just excellent, the tones are really beautiful. I especially like deep black.

Bill, thanks for your explanations. I haven't used view camera (maybe I will some days) so it was interesting to figure out more details.

As is it works better for me because it shows the scale (small car and the sign on highway). Fg appears like a gigantic elephant with perfectly textured skin. I wanted to say that it reminds me Badlands and noticed in details "South Dakota" - LOL.

 

PS. Well, now I clearly see the title I overlooked from the beginning - LOL.

I like it a lot. Excellent tonal range and details. The brightest highlights in the lower part of the grate almost absolutely white but not blown up (=243)and the gaps are black (=0). I guess,only film can accomodate this stretch. Am I wrong (what means "special back")? I can see some jpeg artefacts on the top but I don't think they are in the print. "Human presence" in upper part breaks snow monotony well, I'm not sure that triming it off will benefit. Personally, I'd rather see left 5-10% cropped to off-center the grate even more, but it's probably just me. I like snow close-ups and the 4x5 seems more appropriate for this genre. Very good as is.

 

PS. I'm not a portrait/nude photographer, so I'm guessing if the brightest skin tones may be close to RGB=243. Maybe in high-key compositions.

Personally, I like this image as it is. Interesting discussion. I have my 2 cents too.

 

I would vote for cropped version. The dense cloudy sky looks nice itself. In any other context it would be, probably, fine, but here this empty space on the top is a kind of minor distraction to me. The cropped version introduces more balanced composition with better focus on the Canyon. What is unfortunate, the cropping also removes a top of the beautiful tree on the right. But it�s probably inevitable trade-off.

 

I would disagree with Vincent and some others that one-third of the image is not enough to represent the Canyon. In the cropped version my main point of interest is exactly in the center where the Canyon is. And that�s enough to me to feel the atmosphere of this place. That�s how I see it.

 

Disagree with Vincent about the foreground too. I like the texture of the rocks, wood etc. Agree with Jacques, here is really something Homeric. These dancing lonely trees contribute more than block. What is so interesting behind them? Repetitive cliffs? May be, but not for me.

 

The horizon looks slightly tilted clock-wise, but in mountain area it�s frequently a false feeling. At least, the foreground seems OK. Even so it�s not critical here.

 

Overall very nice picture, excellent tonal range provided by the B&W film (vs digital B&W). Well deserves POW and the discussion. And Michael has an excellent interesting portfolio.

Interesting image. A microscopic human in the jungles of concrete. The angle is just right, it creates layers well. Plus I feel this incredible pressure. The only suggestion, it would be even better if you pushed the shutter a couple of seconds earlier that is before skateboarder touched the horizon. Nevertheless, pretty impressive picture.

Marielou, congrats on a POW and on an interesting discussion. The image is quite unusual and refreshing. That stupid line crossing man?s head is the only nitpick, although minor one. To me a version of a camel completely loaded but abandoned as noted above indeed looks pretty strange, a kind of ?World War III survivor?. Well, tastes are different?To watch your diverse portfolio is always fun for me and not only for me. I?m happy that the POW also helps to switch attention of many from the things ?floating on TRPs? to real things. Marielou, congrats once more and continue having photofun.

 

Bill Foster:

?However, for me at least, the main person a photo has to please is me and if I took this, I would be pleased. For me, that's validity?.

 

Exactly! Absolutely agree with Bill. He said what I actually feel when preparing to and taking any picture. When I realize that the image captured is pretty close to what I want than the time is really a great pleasure.

 

Amélie *, I think Vincent underestimating creativity of others. Your version looks busy, but I?m sure it would be a bestseller.