lmcinnis37

Blessed is the peacemaker.......

Great eye for humor. Well done. I love it. I hope the flowers were as interesting as these thorns.

Great emotional show of joint pride. I lightened, increased contrast, and sharpened, the added a thin border. Nice capture.

It's not a perfect portrait, but you may like what I have done to it. I could have "laundered" his tunic, but didn't have time. Great-looking child you have there.

Previous comment did not upload photo to match description. Here it is.

Adding to Jeremy's observations, above, I added a "trial balloon" to make a point. The object of the child's interest in your original is outside the frame. It is anybody's guess as to what it is he's looking for. Putting the object of his interest within the frame makes for a much better image as well as a good story. Perhaps a vertical framing or crop would have done so. I simply (and crudely) darkened the unidentifiable background lights (door) and isolated the child in darkness. The image is now clean and simple without any confusion regarding the cause of the child's upward look. And, it tells me the child is watching his lost "balloon" disappear into the heavens. I hope you find this helpful.

The performance characteristics of this small bird far exceed those of any jet fighter...at least, of any I ever flew. Maybe not as fast, but it has a wide range of movement and hovering, acceleration, changes direction almost instantly...nothing any jet fighter can compare with. But, your capture from this vantage point is new to me, and very well done. You have captured the outstretched wings beautifully into a perfect cross. This bird really "wears his wings proudly." I salute it and you for this delightful creation.

Suggest re-cropping to eliminate the bullseye effect and use a tiny bit of sharpening.. Perfect rose, great color. Nice dew or raindrops give added interest. The leaf cnnot be cropped out. It becomes an integral part of the rose since they overlap. The upper left leaves are not as pretty as some of the others, but in this case, they needed to be retained. See my suggestion for your cropping.

Zip! Zap! Pow! Voila! Take that, Powerlines!

Vivid colors throughout---except for the shadowed area under the hat. Suggest forced fill flash in cases like this to capture the subject. I tried to bring out some facial features, but with only marginal success. See example..

I would like to see a little more of detail in the tree and foreground. See example of my quick effort to convey that thought.

Too dark on the ironwork on the left. Too dark on the buildings. See example of editing.

The foreground is too dark and has little detail to show. The information is there, but you have to do a few post-processing steps to get it to come out where you may appreciate the full beauty of the landscape. Mine may not suit your personal tastes as someone who has "been there", but for demonstration purposes it may give you some ideas.. Nothing was done to your beautiful sky.

Love the rich colors but, in deference to the earlier critique, the sky is too weak.

Note how the increased blue in the sky makes the entire image stand out better.

A suggestion: If you edit this shot, I suggest two things that will not alter the intimacy and poignancy of the image, but IMO will improve the dynamics of it. Clone out her hand on his back and clone in part of his tux shoulder line to extend to the margin as if he were in back and she were in front. Example shows these.

In any wedding, there are only two principals, the bride and the groom. They should share the limelight equally. Here, the groom is placed in a supporting role due to the absence of illumination on his face. His face is hardly visible at all. A good choice here would have been fill flash. In the sunlight, the fill light would have made very little difference on the bride, with her light complexion, and her white dress, but to the groom's dark clothing, tanned face, and face-down positioning, it would have meant a great deal. Any lighting would have been beneficial. Some editing may alter the usefulness and sellability of this image. See example of my effort to demonstrate the improvement that editing can make.

The bridal bouquet in color is a nice touch, but this image suffers from a variety of distracting elements which may have been avoided with better pre-planning. First, the mirror and folliage behind the bride's head appear to be emerging from her head in an unattractive manner. The sunlight on the floor behind the bride on both sides is eye-catching (but shouldn't be) and could have been anticipated based on timing of the shots. There appears to be something behind the bride's dress, right side, which is not identifiable, and which is equally as bright as the sunlight. It could be toned down or even cloned out. Finally, the bride's head and interest seem to be directed outside the photo toward something else. All combined, this is an image which may not end up in the bride's photo album, and that cuts into the photographer's profit line. Planning ahead pays.

Not everyone has a perspective control lens, but a quidk study in PS will solve that and many other editing problems. I like the stairstep of this image.

Everything has a shadow.............except the baseball. Now, don't tell me it's too fast because it's dead still. Or, has it been cloned in without the shadow?. Don't forget the details. Very nice shot, otherwise.

I agree with David Lloyd. Straightening the verticals and the horizon in minor amounts enhances the viewer's pleasure without the distractions. The left corner needs to be moved down a bit to level the river, and the right corner should be moved to the right to make the pink building lines look normal. (See my sample.) I do love the ambiance of the scene. Great capture. Still, the suggested "tweaks" may help. Regards. Lamar

I played with this because I felt the real eye was not bright enough. I find that lightening it a little makes it display as a better point of interest without dominating the blank eyes. I hope you find this useful.

This is a well composed image with excellent color and contrasts. We should all be so lucky as you are when you "shoot from the hip" with a P&S. I find it delightful to look at, but wonder if this was the only white lily in a pond of magenta lilies (or, is it lilys?)..

As a man, I naturally appreciate the full buxom as well as the beautiful face of this bride. The lighting exaggerates the contour of the breasts in areas which could be softened to make the breasts appear more alluring. Each person has a certain personal image of themselves. What may be exaggerated to some is quite acceptable and normal to others. Obviously, this bride seems to appreciate her fullness and apparently so does her groom. But, some judicious retouching here will alter the apparent fullness if they desire. And, speaking of desire, I suspect this will be a really BIG honeymoon. My best to them for a long and happy life of wedded bliss.

These birds are skittish, jumping around all the time and spooking when approached. You are fortunate to have captured the image and for that I congratulate you. The framing is not the best. The bird appears to be ready to jump out of the left side. If possible, include more of the bird in the direction it is facing to give it space to move into. The detail is good on the body and the head, but focus falls off on the far wing , the tail feathers, and the feet. I suspect the lens used was a long telephoto. DOF is greatly compressed by these lenses and especially when using full aperture. You may need to balance the f-stop and the shutter speed to reach a healthy compromise between DOF and stopping the action. Birds "flit" their tail feathers for balance and seem to move them even when the bird is stationary. Your timing and the bird's movements may be responsible for that lack of focus. But, don't be too hard on yourself. This is still a very respectble image and one to be proud of.

I like your image, but I prefer more saturation and richer colors for it. Here is a reworked image with those attributes. Different strokes for different folks. Kind regards for an excellent capture.

Bob: May I suggest the following: 1) recrop to cut off the lefthand edge of the retangular concrete slab the bikes sit on to make it equal with the right and bottom edge corner crops; 2) crop the top to just barely show the paint smudge on the pole; 3) darken upper lefthand corner outside the rectangle that the bikes occupy; and 4) darken the image just a little. Once you have done all these, you may try to make a B/W of it, too. I especially like the vantage point from which you shot your image, and that you kept the pole vertical. I like the idea and think you have really good image. See my color sample.