bryce_mohan

Wow, I couldn't help but laugh at the various responses to this photo. The funniest by far being the chap who indicated 'folks who expose themselves are to be born as a tree (and burned apparently) or some such nonsense, of course that certainly didn't stop him from browsing through the nudes category did it? LOL.

 

Listen folks, I'm not particularly enamored of this photo myself but all the self righteous rhetoric we could surely do without.

 

Telling someone their photo is 'bad' or 'should be removed' is way over the line of constructive criticism that photo.net is about.

 

I'm particularly chagrined that the patrons commenting on this photo couldn't be bothered to be constructive (as if this was the first photo they've seen that they thought was in poor taste).

 

 

Interesting texture. The rock follows a circular sweep which brings the eye along. I'm not convinced a clear focal point is present. The fact the tones are so equal across the photo leaves me guessing as to where I should be looking. Interesting effort.

Very strong balance between color and comp. I think you caught the contrast in the sky just enough to give it texture but not so much to cause distraction. I could make a similar comment for the field. A good candidate for noise reduction on your ditigal image however (shot with film I presume?). Thanks for sharing!

I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve here compostionaly speaking. Where for you, is the focal point of the photo? The bright orange section certainly is unusual but it's contrast is so strong and it's existance so out of place with the rest of the photo I can't help but look at is as a distraction (it can be fun to capture unusual elements like this but the impact on the photo can be significant). The trees themselves are interacting too much with the landscape, especially in the upper right center. Graceful proportions are lost as a result. The lower left rock as well creates another pseudo focal point. I'm really struggling with what your photo is trying to say and where it is you want our eyes to be going.

Very good comp, excellent use of 'motion'. Very good, strong contrast. I'm not sure about those black bars, are the intended to be part of the photo or a 'frame'? Difficult to say as they are not included vertically. I think I could do with a bit less motion blur on the subjects vehicle. Clearly the vehicle was moving the same speed as the subject and so should be imilarly sharp....not to mire this photo in 'reality' (which is seldom necessary) but my eye keeps wanting to resolve this and it doesn't quite sit right for me otherwise. Interesting photo!

Nice figure study, Ireally like the emotional range. Fun!I'd suggest a little more conrast, a little less exposure and a background that is more consistent, at the very least in luminance or proportion. At least to my eye, the right two frames look similar in comp when contrasted with the left making their ordering a curious choice. I would have probably place the first frame in the center and the second frame on the left.

Great tonal range an texture. I really like how will the zippers and lines fo the coat are working to create those magic proportions. Very well balanced comp. Good use of Boke. I might suggest cloning out the button just under the scarf and possibly the ice or snow drops to the upper right of the scarf. Hope to see more of your work. :)

Nice comp. if a little static due to the centralized arrangement. Great tonal range. Lighting is fabulous as was shutter speed and ISO. I'm not too keen on how close the leftmost element is to the frame, a little interaction there. I'd think about whether you need those specular points around the base of the 'bright' side. They draw the eye a bit more than I'd prefer.

It's really hard to make a central element interesting to the eye and I think this photo is struggling with this same issue. The wires are distracting to my eye...drawing me away from, instead of to the focal point. You might consider cloning the birds as I think they are difficult to resolve and end up causing more focus here than they should. I like the texture of the wall and I think the contrast is strong.

 

Jasdeep:

Coming back to fix a typo I noticed your comment about submission (in rate recent photos you can't see these). Regarding the ratings themselves...they are rarely well considered. Most people err heavily on the side of overly praising and almost no one offers constructive feedback. That being said...be cautious about ignoring feedback (feel free to ignore the ratings, however) as another user suggests here. That's a sure recipe for limiting your growth. The chances are good that someone who stopped to provide actual feedback did so after careful consideration of your photo and a desire to help you improve. I've found these comments are a thousand times more helpful than the usual (Super! 6/6) comments so often given.

 

It can be difficult to have people tromping around in your creative vision but over time you will value it. Above all...keep shooting! Hope to see more of your work up soon. :)

 

Cheers, -B

Really nice balance here. Good Boke and rich color. I really like how the vert. elements in the background on the right side are working to contrast with the angle of the twig and the angle of the bird itself. Although I typically try to avoid a comp. that brings an element out through a corner (birds tail feathers) I think this works here. Nice contrast over all...I think the birds light and dark portions are well balanced. There's a highlight directly above the bird's head just before the frame of the photo that I would consider cloning. Also, the 'darkish' part of the background is interacting just a bit too much with the birds beak to be ideal. Great work. :)

 

My thoughts on why constructive feedback is important: http://www.brycemohan.com/critique.html

 

The photo:

Interesting, I almost see two photos in one here. Strong contrast on the right draws the eye to a more compressed, vertical subject. Mist to the left allows the background to maintain subtle details while also appearing to be more spacious. I really like the feel of this photo. It has strong emotional content. I would suggest cloning out a couple minor distractions. Top left corner there's a branch in the foreground coming into the view...also bottom third right tree of the most left tree there's a stick intruding over it in the foreground. It's fairly stron compared to everything else and could be removed. I would have liked to see a DOF that allowed a sharper fore. Very interesting, thanks!

The sky seems to have too much red in it with an oversaturated blue...it looks purple-ish. This itself is not necissarily bad but it seems at odds with the lifelike color of the 'park'. Overall it seems a little busy to me and my eye gets stuck trying to resolve all the detail around the building, particularly where the far land dives behind the forground land. I'd suggest a bit more contrast back there. Comp. seems fairly standard with tall trees bracketing a central subject.

Really stunning photo, absolutely beautiful. Wonderful Boke...I'm really interested how the lighting and reflections produced what I am seeing. I'm wishing it was a tad sharper around the base of the drop (specifically the water). Great use of color. I like how the specular reflection unbalances the central subject.

 

I think I've reviewed your photos before. Excellent work with birds. I recognized your style before seeing the name. Nice Boke...beautiful detail on the subject. Excellent contrast. I really like the sense of these photos that we are glimpsing for a moment, something moving so gracefully through the air. Thank you very much for sharing. :)

I like the gradiant of light to dark starting from the bottom heading up the cake. The colors are also rich and do a good job of conveying the mood around the subject. The point source lighting (appears as white christmas type lights to my eye) are a bit distracting and the wiring isn't helping. The background comp. might benifit from some cleanup...the cups plates, and angle of the light on the wall are drawing my eye too much. I'd also suggest a comp. not depending on a center subject (sort of a pet peeve of mine). Thanks for sharing. :)

 

It's a bit difficult to detect (without offline and throwing a bounding box up) but it looks like the photo is leaning to the right a bit at the ground plane. The contrast / DOF is battering me with mutlitple layers of elements all working against each other. This photo would be a good candidate for Boke. Lastly I'd consider cropping to eliminate overhand on the top right, it's heavy and my eye hits it too much while moving over the photo.

I'm not sure what can be said about this...with all respect to the photographer this appears to be relatively straightforward shot of someone elses art. Surely the photographer did well in choosing exposure that complimented the amount of light available. The crop is well chosen also.

'Polar bear at 100mph'? I'm struggling with this a bit because of what I can only guess is a rather strong motion blur in the backround. It seems incongruous with bear itself (which appears to have a relaxed, almost 'just woke up I still hav hay on me' look). Speaking of which, the hay on the bear is a seems to detract not add to the photo, I'd consider cloning it out. I do like the color and lighting on the bear itself.

Fantastic shot, very rich tones - the waves are wonderfully gilded by the setting sun. The exposure time was well chosen. Although relatively central, the waves gradually suggest a slant as the become more and more angled, moving in on the shore. The clouds also relatively linear are off enough to provide a delightful counterpoint to the waves. Really great photo.

Dave, good point about the details. -unfortunately I'm bumping into these images in the 'rate recent photos' section...as far as I can tell...the reviewer is limited in what they can see, no details are present. I suspect this is a limitation we all run up against. Any suggestions?

A unique presentation to be sure. I almost feel like there are two photos here. I'm not sure I'm too keen on the horizon slant as presented. It gives me a strange sort of seasick feeling (perhaps the intent!). The stairs themselves seem a little bit overexposed, particularly the top few...these could easily be burnt down a bit without to much change in color. I'd almost like to see this image straightened, then recropped to lose the bright sand behind the stairs...I'm not sure it adds anything and is drawing my eye a little more than I'd like. In summary, I really like the creative juxtaposition here.

I like what's going on here. I'm not totally sure what that is, but I like it. ;) The photo overall looks relatively soft, as a result I can only guess by luminance / contrast where the focal point is. I'm not sure of this is a DOF issue, scaling, or compression that's causing the softness. I can see some visible artifacts around the white objects so I assume some loss of detail is surely due to compression. I think the photo might work better with more contrast...it feels abit flat right now, particularly in the lower half where the grass appears to be a single plain despite it's obvious depth characteristics. You might try a gradiated burn beginning from the bottom of the photo. I do really like the current crop and think the grass should be kept, just sharpened and possibly gradiated as mentioned. Lastly, there seems to be a wire crossing over the rear element. It's distracting at best. I'd suggest cloning it out. Thanks for sharing this photo with us. :)

This is a strong texture piece. I like the use of both fore and back Boke. I'm note sure how I feel about the wire extending out to the left. It's dividing planes in a way that doesn't sit well with proportions and it gets a bit heavier as it exits drawing my eye a bit more than I'd like. It would be interesting to see this with the wire cloned out.

An interesting photo, if a little strong on the contrast for my tast. I'm not quite sure where the focal point is. I'd suggest a possible re-crop losing the left third of the photo. This would bring down the weight considerably (assuming a proportionate verticle crop as well), focus the viewer on the tree and drop the left verticle bank of clouds which is flattening out the sky a bit more than I'd prefer. I like the mood of this photo, I wish I'd been there!

I like this photo (for reasons I'll get to shortly) however, I thought perhaps I'd put myself in the undoubtedly small category of people with the temerity to provide actual (constructive I hope!) critcism. There's always quite a lot of high fiving related to POW despite the forum rules requesting that comments like 'great job' be shared privately. In any event, the theme of the photo which seems to be 'war is bad' is a popular one and unfortunately seems to be the thrust of many of the comments here rather than the photo itself.

 

First off; the grain the photo is presented in seems very well suited for the emotional tones of the image. B&W seems like the obvious choice for the mood and is well executed here. The contrast is positive without being overly strong and the central subject is very well the focus point as a result. I think the rear fade is excellent, leaving the viewer to ponder a possible infinit length of similar graves.

 

Some thoughts about things which might be improved; the photo itself does not strike me as being a landmark original composition. I feel like I've seen many such photos - although this one is very strong and deserves recognition as such I'm not clear why in particular this is garnering such a strong originality response (perhaps I've just seen more of these types of photos than others?). Additionally for me at least, the cross closest to the foreground has it's horizontal element intruding over the focal point. This crossbar has a very heavy tone to it and the interaction of the two are visually irritating. Compositionally speaking this is a significant drawback from my perspective. Obviously it's reasonable to assume for others it adds value (again, this is just my opinion of course). It would be interesting to see the image with that element cloned out which could be done without much difficulty. Even more interesting for me is how nondescript this photo is in opposition to it's suggested theme. Had I not known this related to war I wouldn't have assumed it did, nor perhaps even felt that it was sad...more along the lines of somber. I'm leary of photos that that require significant exposition by the artist in 'order for us to get it'. I'm not convinced this photo stands as well without the message explicitly stated...and in my opinion suffers somewhat as a result.

 

In any event, all that being said - I do quite like it. Criticism aside I'd be proud if it was mine and so the artist should be.

 

Oh...and 'great job!' ;)