digitalbeast

this is an updated version, addressing several of the points brought up by "David Farler",

my fellow design student friend. Next time, I plan to use a more "normal" focal length to

avoid odd distortion.

This is the updated image, with changes made according to David Farler's critique.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I cropped the bridge support out, and made the barge more transparent to rob it of some emphasis. The horizon is a bit lower now too.

I would very much appreciate constructive critique. Thanks

Your constuctive critique is much appreciated.

-Color, texture, composition... What do you think?

JPGs are great, if used correctly. Since they are a lossy compression, every time you resave the image, it reduces in quality. So when working w/ your images, use .psd or .tiff.

When preparing for upload, use the Save For Web tool in Photoshop. This allows you to tweak the compression of the jpeg, while viewing your image to make sure quality stays acceptable. Make sure you check the box, ICC Profile.

Noise is very common among images w/ Digital, especially in low light, and the cheaper the camera, the less able it is to control its noise (typically). Tweaks in Photoshop quickly accentuate noise if you aren't careful. If this is a problem, be careful when adjusting Levels, Curves, Color Balance and so on.

As for this image, it is a beautiful evening! I love the warm, firery colors in the clouds that are embraced by the cool sky. Your composition might be helped by just ever so slightly cropping, so that the top-left of the image doesn't have any sky, just the tree. This would be nicely accomplished at the time of shooting by panning right just a bit, which would give the cloud a little bit of breathing room.

This is a panoramic image made from 6 seperate photos hand stiched in Photoshop. No funky automated tools.

How does everything look/work? Your thoughtful critiques are very much appreciated.

It's name come from what I believe to be mineral deposits (iron) in the rock wall, creating flames, in an imaginative mind.

The was tripped by a self-timer, while it set on my camera bag, on a large boulder. My tripod was in the mail at the time.

Please let me know what you think. What can I improve? Is there a good technique for not blowing out the sky (I know of graduate ND filters, but don't have one)?

The soft fog captured in this photo creates an amazing calm, slightly eerie mood. The animal (cow?) in the foreground is rather dark, a bit hard to see; it would be good to either lighten that whole area up a bit, or maybe just slightly dodge the animal.

This was my first attempt at a water blur effect. I was trying to create an interesting mood, in blowing out the water, and capturing the cool, dark colors of the surrounding rocks and shoreline.

What do you think?

That is a wonderful bolt, with lots of branching, and the glowing clouds are quite cool.

If you don't mind revealing, how do you capture your lightning photos? Prolonged exposure, hoping for lightning to strike while the shutter is open?

This was shot as part of a story told through images. The image degredation and coloration were applied in the digital darkroom, to help case an overall mood and as another means of bonding all of the images together.

-Does the model / lighting / image treatment convery a mood?

-What suggestions do you have for improvements?

Your constructive critique is welcome!

This beautifull waterfall is near my house in Kentucky. I've been studying waterfall images

on here, and am eager to keep improving. Please provide me with some of your insight.

this composition is beautiful, don't listen to Christophe's comment about the object touching the bottom of the frame. The light curve violating the edge pulls the viewers eye around the image, and a similar, smaller curve is repeated in the background, making this composition that much better.

You did a wonderful job of freezing the hummingbird, all but his wings of course. Did you use flash? Your colors are a bit cold and washed out. Some tweaking in photoshop would do the trick.

I've only been at this for a year and am open to all critique. Don't just be nice.

-Thanks