greg neils

your portfolio is great. For me, this is a weaker photo of yours. The center focus, the bright area directly in the center, is bland. I like the colors you choose and the subject, but to me they just don't come together into an interesting photo.

The rock on the left catches my eye first and it is blurry. Was this from camera movement on a really long exposure? I found many sharp long exposures in your portfolio that I like better. My tastes run for a little less brightness.

great reflection, good details, sharp with a splash of color. well done.

Marco, my wife and I had an interesting discussion about whether or not the dancers were poised. I lost. My wife won. And that is part of why this photo is amazing.

Reading through the other comments, I thought... Hum... maybe they are right? I hope nobody minds that I applied the suggestions above to the POW, for discussion purposes. See below.

 

I really like the photo. That said, after very close inspection, I agree with some of the other critics... I too think the arm in the left of the photo looks much larger than the others. The dancer on the right is a little too hunched over and her arms could be angled differently. I like the arrangement. It doesn't feel posed. I feel like I'm standing right there, looking over them seeing the same thing the photographer saw.

For me the red is a little too much and the blue of the wood is odd for wood. That said the colors do work well together. Your portfolio is amazing and I hope you keep posting.

My educated, untrained, guess about the main lighting sources would be that there were three primary lights. One coming from in front of the camera which lights the foreground grass. Another which lights half of the subject's face. And the last light shinning down from above. In my humble opinion, the light on his face and arm is just a little too much and separates him from his environment. Darkening it a touch made the subject become part of the photo, but it also darkened the mood quite a bit, which might be unappealing to some.

I could stare at it all day long. I really like the simplicity and the lack of saturation in the sky.

I really like it. I'm having a hard time with the people and the trees. What's making the trees lean so much? I trust the people are upright and that the trees are tilted. I keep wanting to make the trees grow vertically.. I'm intrigued but I also want to look away.

All critiques welcome.

I too like the long exposure and the good DOF. This photo really draws you in. I'm in Venice on vacation and I hope to mimic your technique here. Thank you!

On my screen it is a little on the warmer side of the Kalvin scale. Taking a look at the other photos like "Ran right out of his pants" I'm very hesitant to suggest what the perfect kid color is. Using your own photos, "They're for you!" seems to be right on while this photo has shades of color more like "Lightning 2007". (I like every photo, but color wise there just wasn't many to choose from).

In photoshop my own simple adjustment using color balance was to decrease the Red, Green, and blue (making it more Cyan, Magenta and Yellow.)

 

I'm blown away by "Rose 1". Incredibly 7/7.

 

I really hope I haven't offended.

The lines and texture in here make the photo. I flipped the photo to make the sun on top and the wires on the bottom. It definitely shouldn't be that way, but it did draw me in more.

This is an amazing and powerful photo. One thing that I'd like to see more of is the texture of the dirt. I think it really helps give the photo even more of a 3D feel. Using photo shop I added even more overall saturation. The greens, blues, and red were a little too much, but the ground really drew the eye in adding even more depth to a wonderful photo. Without it, I think the colors are saturated too much for my tastes.

An ordinary boring object that you have made beautiful and interesting. You have a wonderful gift! Wonderful lines.

Absolutely right on! Don't change a thing.

 

I like it. I hope you have a higher quality picture where the sky is not as grainy.

I like the colors and the placement, but I'm having a hard time focusing on any one item. Both structures are nice, but I think they might look a tad better alone.

These colors go well together. They sky works well with the photo. But I'm wanting more to really pull me in.

I really like this photo, but it is missing something. All critics

welcome

I think your crop is good. I'm going out on a limb here... you may need to adjust the skin tone a little bit.

Great Macro. Everywhere I look there is something interesting to focus on.

I love the timing. You've captured the sunlight at just the right time. I would love to see a video of the light moving across this subject, but that's a different forum

I love this photo! The eyes are beautiful and fun, the smile is genuine, and the framing is perfect. The hair across the neck is distracting.

The model and pose are very nice. For me, the yellow, red, white and sun light lines are all too distracting. Perhaps removing either the color or the sun lines would help.