thomas_breazeale1

I disagree with some of the comments above.You mentioned Gothic Justin and in my eyes Gothic is what you have given us.This image is all about detail and highlights from the waist up..just enough detail in the legs to add definition and retain that horrific ambience.Must agree that the top needs a tad more clearance though...

Justin,this as lovely as your portfolio is professional.Superb color,light,beauty and wardrobe that comes together as a well balanced image.A small nitpik would be the darkness of the lower half of the model..a tad more highlights would emphasize the detail in her skirt and legs.Love your work....

Ruth,your rainbow and its surrounding colors are lovely.I do think the blocked shadow areas are very distracting..almost like you put a mask on them.A little more detail would do wonders for this pic.

Hello Salvatore.I am confused with this image and am not quite sure where I stand yet.I am bothered by the off balance of the exposure values..almost like you have two separate images on the upper and lower half of your composition..left side rich with tones and detail..right side devoid of any real interest.

 

At first glance my eyes are drawn directly to the snow covered peaks but when I search for an anchor in the bottom right to drive the eyes back up I find them just trailing off into oblivion.I think what this composition needs is the large boulder in the lower right to be highlited with a bit of warmth which would give the foreground a reason to be included.I think overall your compositional values work well but just too much shadow area to keep my interest Salvatore.

This is well done in every aspect and very haunting.Your use of shadows for dramatic effect here is superb.

Your so damn good...deal with it.

This is probably your best golf shot,great light and panoramic.I think it needs a little more contrast and cropping of the foreground to get rid of some dead space.For discussions sake I uploaded a version that has the above implemented,please give your thoughts.

Yes,you should spend more time taking pics but still a noteworthy image of your endevours Michael.AS someone who makes a living photographing golf courses I really want to incourage you to master this genre,you have talent and understand your light for the most part and have an eye foe beauty.

 

If at all possible never include a cartpath in your image,it just doesn't work well.Take your shots standing on the tee boxes,from the landing areas and looking into the green complexes.Include as much bunkering as possible and as little of humans when you can.Only shoot when the shadows are long and the light is soft and warm(unless you are experimenting with low light shots).When doing green complexes or shooting par 3's try and have the flagstick in the cup at all times.Go for it!

Esther,lets have some word fun with a little humour.Have you ever heard of the old adage 'putting lipstick on a pig'?Underneath the beautiful red lips the ugly pig is still lurking.AS attractive as this couple is,which they are,this image is still only a touristy snapshot and nothing you can do to it will change this.I think it is time to bring out the artist in you and start experimenting with interesting poses and better lighting conditions.Try doing some portraits on an individual basis with the couple..use a telephoto to blur the background enough to where it is not distracting.Take the sunglasses off your lovely sister and take some intimate closeups of her face in either rising or setting sun...you will be surprised how good you really are!

Hello again Stephan again!Everything works here but you are missing the single most important element...magic hour light.If you conquer the light issues you will become a winner.Do not let the low raters discourage you,those numbers are like tits on a boar,totally useless!

Hello Luis.I think the stone wall and foreground make for a pleasing composition but your burnt out highlights are very distracting.Maybe the use of an NDgrad would have prevented this.

I think of all the images in your landscape folder this is the best because of the lighting.It would work better if the dark tree on the right was absent..it interupts the flow and balance of your composition.I like the colors and the bridge works well.

Hello Stephan.A longer shutter speed might work better here but I think it would only compound the existing problems.Generally your composition works,you have followed the rule of thirds to your advantage but you need better light to bring out the colors and contrast.Without the light your image becomes flat and uninteresting.

 

I also think you need some sort of foreground object to coexist with the white foam,something for it to mingle with and add some dramatic appeal.You have the talent..work on your understanding of light and how it effects your photography.

 

 

Stefan,this is a fine shot with superb composition and capture of the expression.The only thing that bothers me is the two white borders..it gives it an unfinished look IMO.Anyway,really well done...

To me Carl your tilt toward the right makes the entire image look like it is being sucked into the lower corner which just compounds the off balance feeling for me more.

I must agree with you about moving to the right..would have solved the pinched feeling I mentioned earlier.

The sense of movement,the lack of...dust to dust.You have a good sense of compositional skills that are accentuated by your tonality that is missed so often here on PN.I do not get the feeling of tranquility here as much as I do the sense of the finite of man and his proneness of the things he creates to decay.I would like to point out that after the initial rush from the sky(no pun intended)I felt a little off balance stemming from the right side of the image..almost like the structure is squeezed in just a bit much.Maybe some minor cropping by the 'cropping society'could rectify this?Overall a powerful image Denis and deserving of more exposure...congrats.

I like this shot a lot Cameron for the ambience of the 'pool hall setting'you have achieved.I can almost smell the smoke and taste the beer which is how I remember such establishments in my youth.Your composition works well but I think more detail in your shadow areas would add more interest...but you do not want too much detail so as to detract from the player.The neon lite is cool.

Welcome to PN David and congrats for the POW.You will find yourself feeling like a prisoner by the end of the week but I am sure you can deal with it!

 

Like others I like many things about this image especially that superb light but I also think this photo lends itself to a 'darker ambience'to put it over the fence into fantasy land as was suggested before.Because the light is so good I almost think that less detail would be beneficial perhaps in masking some of the distracting elements that take away from your subject matter.

 

I would lean towards a more etheral appearance and maybe even suggest the good AND evil that coexists within mankind by darkening the shadows but but still keeping the lovely highlights as you have here.I realize you took this image for a reason but I see more possibles that might be fun to experiment with. I have done some work on your image but will not upload without your say so David.

 

Take this post as a compliment for the fact that your image is worth the time and effort and is a great foundation to build on.

I also think this is an interesting shot Daniel but agree that the cropping is slightly claustrophobic...I sense there is more to the image than meets the eye here.Overall your tonal structure is nice but I think the washed out highlites in the upper portion of the frame(especially on the hat of the trombone player)diminishes the impact.Still nice though...

Daniel,I think that yes,this is a stronger image.Removing any distractions from the main subject matter will do nothing but help keep the eyes focused where they belong.I like your perspective here,the converging lines are dramatic but I am not sure about the DOF..whether this image would work better focused throughout the entire frame or not.This shot reminds me a lot of an image I took of a memorial flower while visiting Auschwitz.

Thanks for stopping by and much appreciated!Your input at least lends some credibility to this image...sometimes it is difficult to be 'just a voice in the wilderness'.Out of professional courtesy to Jim I have provided a link to another image of mine that he was instrumental in setting up.His version was chosen for a Mamiya advertisement while mine rots in eternity ha,ha!Thanks again Jim...

Warm tone polarizer image

Hello again GD and thanks about the POW.The image I uploaded for you is of a golfcourse in China..this is how I make my living.The white areas are sandtraps which contain a very white silica sand.The detail you see in the foreground flowers are a combination of tripod,Zeiss lens and proper hyperfocal distance to maintain sharpness from front to back.

There are two basic polarizing filters made..linear and circular with linear being the most common.Circular polarizers were developed for early SLR cameras that had built in metering because the linear ones would sometimes effect the metering adversly.Nowdays with all the advancements in cameras this is not really a problem anymore but some still prefer the circulars because they do have a different color palette.

 

Within the line of both types of polarizers manufacturers such as Singh Ray,Cokin and B+W make polarizers that have different functions.One type is a warming polarizer which I suggested you might try and another type is called a blue/gold polarizer which Tiffen and Singh Ray both make and do strange things around water.Polarizers do work best at 90 degrees to the sun and are especially helpful in the tropics to reduce glare and saturate colors.I would think that a warming filter and ND grads would be more useful for your type of photography.

Further more,why does anyone choose a specific style to express their art?Did Salvador Dali see his world through distorted perceptions of reality,a reality that is frustrating and disturbing to the casual viewer?Walking in different shoes and seeing through varied eye glasses IMO is what art is all about MM.and is it not presumptuous to assume that one must see the same as others?The colors I saw when taking this photo were much more saturated then you see here in my meager attempt to capture perfection and was beyond any eye candy film I have ever used...like seeing outside the box for the first time and realizing thee is more to life than what we have experianced.