mark_hanegraaff

On the positive side this picture conveys a good sense of motion. Generally speaking though, the peak moment of a physical feat is usually the best one to capture in a shot. Unfortunately this picture does not really do that, although it's a good example of something that should. It's also a little busy since there is no real distinct subject. It's a nice effort, but it does not live up to the rest of your portfolio, which is actually pretty good.

taking pictures of bees while doing their thing is really hard. This one is not bad at all. All that I would suggest is to decrease the aperture and increase the ISO setting to get an overall sharper image while still freezing motion. Something like F8/iso800 would probably do (as long as you shutter is about 1/1000 less you'll be fine). Since it's nice and sunny in your picture you shouldn't see any real recognizable noise even at that ISO setting.

This is actually pretty good. I like it. How come did you crop so tightly above the helmet? I think a little extra space on top would probably benefit. and HDR version of this, where the highlights on the building wall are not blown out, would probably look very nice. The composition though is very good. No suggetions there.

Non e' male per niente, pero' credo che forse sarebbe stato meglio se il soggetto fosse piu' distinto ed identificabile. Magari anche qualcosa di piu' riconoscibile (anziche una barca?). Comunque sempre non male.

This is good, although if I may suggest, I would change the cropping a little. I think there is too much empty space over the bird's head. Also the feet are cut off. The subject itself is pretty good.

This is a very interesting image. I like the pink/purple coloring and the dark center. This is not much of a critique, I know, but overall I think this works pretty well.

This is one of the best hong kong skyline pictures I've seen so far. The exposure of both the sky and the buildings couldn't have been timed better. I really like it.

It's essentially a mirror image of "snake river" by Ansel Adams. Well done none the less.

defintively good. I would tend to agree with the comments above. I would have preferred if the woman were not holding what looks like her cellphone and the other white rectangular object.

The composition and the yellow solid background are good, but if I may suggest, I think that there too little DOF. As a result a lot of the pins look blurry. A tripod would have helped for this shot.

I disagree with Jennifer, I like the transition from ligth to dark. Cropping it, in my opinion would make this picture look boring and ordinary. As it is it's very well done.

Ken,

I like both the fireworks pictures you submitted, but if I may I would suggest 2 things. The first is to make the shutter speed a little slower to create some longer trails, and the second would be to try and include something else other than the sky in the background, like some buildings or landscape. Nice job nonetheless.

I like this picture a lot as far as the composition goes. If you shot this RAW, unless you did this on purpose, you may want to experiment with a cooler white balance setting. I think between that and burning out some of the already dark sky areas, this picture could be even better.

The shutter speed is perfect for these fireworks.

I rated it a 5/5 but it's more of a 5 1/2 in my mind. It's simple and well done. How did you clean up the noise on the dark areas? painting and burning?

This is a pretty cool shot. It would be nice if the lights on the boat had been brighter and more emphasized somehow. The sky reduction is nicely done. Was that done with simple burning, or did you use a different technique?

thanks for the tip, Kent. Again, outstanding portfolio.

Each of these pictures, if looked at individially, is decent. As collection they are outstanding. It's exactly what documentary photography should be. Probably the single most interesting portfolio I've seen so far.

 

Do you approach your subjects individually and ask for permission to photograph them, or just snap away? I'm curious to know. I would imagine that biker conventions may not be the friendliest place for a person with a camera.

I may be wrong, but it looks like the glow over the mill and trees may be due to too overexagerating the highlights in the shadows/highlights function is PS. Unless this was done on purpose, I'm guessing that you did that to show the detail in the clouds.

If you shot this raw, you may have better luck changing the curves of the raw file, or better yet make it an HDR image (It's real easy in PS).

This picture has a level of creepiness that I really like. Very well done. I'd love to hear more on how you put this toghether.

This must have been a tough mask to extract, although it does show some of the tell tale signs of a poorly extracted mask. I don't mean that as an insult, I know first hand how time consuming it is to do correctly.

If you are doing this for a living, I would highly reccomend: -Photoshop Masking & Compositing- by Katrin Eismann. It's by far the best book on the subject I've come across.

What I like about this picture is that is doesn't blow out anywhere on the shiny surface of the fly, so the exposure and lighting are right on the money.

The only negative I can think of is that the top to bottom angle makes it look a little ordinary. The backgound is very nice.

It's an interesting shot. I think that if it were tilted more to show the true slope of the road it might be better (then again it might just be the 10mm distortion). Judging by the persective it looks like you probably didn't have enough room to make the shot wider. Just a guess. The windows might use a little correction to reduce the reflection in them, although I'm not sure what I would have done in this case.

Not bad though.

Technically, this is an excellent shot. Very nice colors and great detail across the spectrum. I rated it a 4 in originality because it's not unlike many other pictures of this type. Still, it's a very good pcture.

I normally don't go for nudes, but this one I do really like. The flower background is a real nice touch.

I took about 200 shots to get those 2, and I'm still not very happy with them. Still this is a good picture anyway.