morten_nielsen

Great mood and composition. Harry Callahan comes to mind. Great shot.

Cheers,

Morten

Street work. She has this haunted look in her eyes - "who are you and

what do you want?". But sent me a smile just as I passed.

Shot with the Nikkor 105/2 DC. On the DX sensor DOF at f2 is so

narrow that one has to be very careful. But it has soul and I love that

lens. Picture is heavily cropped and saturation has been reduced a little.

Comments would be most welcome.

Thanks,

Morten

Thanks for your thoughts, Michael. It was rather late and I have tried to preserve some of the atmosphere. I'll do some experiments and compress a little to try out your advice. /Morten

My first upload and request for critique. I was not shure about

category... not really a child picture, not really a portrait, Fine Art is a

big word. Well maybe someone can guide me there.

Thanks in advance for any comments on the photo.

/Morten

Dear Antoine Vella,

I will try with some "real" critique instead of just "lovely picture". Hope I succeed with something constructive.

The basic framing delivers "eye-glue" with a good symmetric geometry that gives the picture a calm, steady feel that supports the setting. No unnecessary or disturbing elements - except for the sprinkler in the upper left window frame. That might have been removed in post-proc. The diagonal produced by the table surfaces serves to stage the cathedral as the main motive even though it is heavily cluttered by the window frame. But this is where it gets interesting. It is further supported by the exposure choice to expose for the sky and leave the room and foreground somewhat murky. This may seem like a strange contradictory choice, as the composition lends most of the picture to the low-key foreground. But this construct, intended or not, is exactly what gives the picture merit, in my opinion.

The picture has a nice duality about it. It is, no doubt, a picture of a cathedral. But actually it is not. It is a picture of a conservative, quiet - obviously pleasant - room with a view to a cathedral. Or maybe it is the other way around. The room, with its almost pastoral, dark silence, a micro paraphrase of the cathedral's huge inner expanse. And vice versa. If you went to the cathedral you would find the same quiet. Tall functional windows to celebrate the light streaming in. The dark church benches. Two sanctuaries. For the celebration of spiritus. Sanctus and otherwise.

The picture supports this story and conveys atmosphere perfectly.

If I had to come up with technical critique it would be that a little more detail in the low tones in the room would add. Also I would have gone for deeper focus to render the nearby table surfaces sharper. And I would definetely have corrected the photograph so that the upper window frame was horisontal instead of almost horisontal, as it is. A little lower camera position? Maybe.

I like the photograph! I has a solid appeal and conveys the location atmosphere very well despite difficult light. Interesting.

/Morten