szrimaging

Getting back into black and white. I would appreciate constructive critiques.

Thank you! And if you have anything you would like me to critique, please

send me a link.

Oh, all constructive critiques are welcome. And thank you in advance.

Charlevoix Lighthouse in Charlevoix, MI. This was taken yesterday morning

between the harsher times of the windstorm. Waves never really kicked up

around here.

This was also my first attempt at manually blending exposures by hand.

Mark,

Seeing as how she is currently my girlfriend, I may not want to admit to making her look evil.

That said, she is 5' and I am pretty sure the lowest height possible on my 13' Maxi-Stackers is 5' or more. Key light is a beauty dish from the left at the lowest height on the stand. Kicker from the side with a standard reflector on it, above the model.

Her head is tilted back, so that would be part of the reason you see the catch as from below her instead of above. The expression is more of just her goofing off, as are the other two. After art school I have kind of revolted against the idea that all images need to say something. I agree, that this would not make it as an artistic, or even a good advertising photo, but to a personal client, this would make it.

As for what I was really after was the retouching. Seeing as how she had no makeup on, I'll take the makeup comments as a compliment.

The overall feel was supposed to be moody (deep shadows) with a touch of gritty (leaving the background in focus to get the gritty from the bricks). Not to mention this was all shot close quarters with a 20mm lens on a 1.6x crop body. The eye focus is weir to me. Her mouth is in focus, and her hair is in focus. The eyes should be in focus also. This was shot at night, so maybe her pupil being so large had an influence on this?

As for the whites, I guess I have work to do. The image is tinted with brown, but I guess I need to work on the blending to allow whites to come through more. She is blonde, but had actually colored her hair with slightly red highlights. So that combo with the brown tint led to the "Irish" hair.

The edges are "burned in". Just more subtle than you may realize.

This was less a serious shoot for posing/story telling and more a playful shoot to test equipment and my own skills. When it gets time for a serious shoot, out come storyboards!

Working on my style for portraits. What do you all think? All

critiques welcome.

Good use of an elongated exposure. The flash may be a little too heavy on front side.

Overall your composition is good, but I might have added a blur to the leaves up top, that is a tough call. As it is, the framing is really good, and the colors are well in line with what they should be.

Overall I think this is a good image. DOF is great, and the colors seem to be dead on.

That said, I think you should have shot it vertically. What you miss right now is a sense of the height of the jump.

Brett, where on Superior is this? Kind of reminds me of Presque Isle up in Marquette, MI (used to live in Marquette).

Nice shot though!

This is my first attempt at light painting. This is a person in a

Fourth of July parade. Please, all critiques are welcome, good or bad.

Karl -

Very nice study of the straight vs. curvelinear lines presented in the architecture. I love the saturation and colors also. Techincally done very well. Also a great study in form. I do find the small shape at the bottom of the frame slightly distracting. However, the peak of the very saturated red symbol between the buildings is GREAT! Nice job.

Karl -

Not bad. The light on the branches, etc. is very good. Your use of Depth of field is also very well executed. Using the out of focus Cathedral as the primary background works very well.

However, for me at least, there are TOO MANY of the flowers leading to visual confusion. Perhaps you should have closed in even more on the branches, made the flowers larger.

As for story telling, well, your image doesn't say much to me other than look at the pretty flowers. Perhaps I missed the point. Perhaps that was the point. But nothing here sets it apart to make it a fantastic image.

So in synopsis, technically good, artistically, not really on its own. However, with a larger portfolio it could shine.

I can't get just the right title for this peice. I have one main theme

I am trying to convey with this, which I am purposely not telling you.

If you could please leave any comments on the image, plus any title

suggestions, it is appreciated.

Thanks

-Zach