ellery_chua___singapore

Grin the big question is did you blur this or is this look of a raw unsharpned file from a D60 ?

 

Initially the lack of any point in focus bothered me - its a lot like when your not sure if your glasses are going south. But given that this may be trying to show mind is miles away or longing for that which is lost ...hence the wing ???

 

Suggest you leave the suggestion of the wing - it seems to bright.

 

This is a great shot but it may be missing that extra 10 to 20% the separates good work from exceptional - it does have that potential. My limtation is that my range of vision is not in the same frequency as yours - need to stretch.

Danny,

 

Hmmm may I suggest that you check your monitor for calibration drift. On both systems at work and home - there is more than adequate seperation.

nice a little posed but ok. Miss the smoke from the cigerette.

This was a test shot to check on lighting from a studio session about

2 years back.

cute expresssion. background is ok but not the greatest maybe burning in would help. Like the face after the toning effect.

This is detail of a roof structure for an new art center building

that is opening in a few days time. It crop to a square format from

135 format.

I like the clean feel of the comp. The contrast in colors is ok but the red is a little too strong.

 

My main issue is the lack of focus - it seems like the plane has been tilted off. It could be a digital thing as I have noticed at least on a cheaper consumer digital camera a PS unit - that it cannot get focus right when there are more than one element in frame. Could you confirm with the original file if there is a clear point of focus. I expect to be able to read works embossed on the sprikler control.

The hat is a little off tone in this -it makes a distraction from the face.

 

Your product is commercial viable and looks a lot like a painting. The only problem with dreamy looks is that there is this lack of connection with the viewer - a separation. I sort of wish your subject had engaged her focus rather than blanking out- the smile is great but the eyes failed you here.

 

I am having some uneasyness with the highlihts in the left eye.

As I see this I feel like going "Ommmmmmmmm"

 

The shot has a magic of its own, there is a sense of one piontedness and the temporary forgoing of self - just like a dip into Nivarna or steping up to see the Face before you were born.

 

It is lovely to see some thing that allows us to point and say yes humanity can over come the weakness of its individuals to stand tall and proper in full glory. Especially when there are dark clouds in our sky.

 

A true celebration of the zest that one can find in life.

 

If anything the lack of discernable faces in the crowd allows us to see the mass of people featured as one - a visual representation of the divine spark that links all of us together; for at the point there is no you there is no I as everything exists in you and you are in everything.

 

Well done - you are blessed indeed to have been there and I see that the spirt has moved you to create an appropiate image.

 

Thank you for sharing.

 

The blurr edge effect is from a hand held long exposure shot - there was another person who was shooting using the flash syn cables - I was experimenting from the side of the set. Exposure is from a mix of availble light and the flash when it went off.

 

the blur edges or double images seem to act like a soft filter effect. That is sometimes seen a lot in glamour type shots.

This was an alternative view point from what the lights were set for.

Done while another shooter was doing his thing.

I do not feel that the motion streaks add to a jazz environment = which pardon me is dark dim lit smokey. With the motion blur you have way too much light and worse yet bright lines that go past the player to some point outside the picture. Jazz music if it had a shape would not be a straight line.

The contrast in this seems a little too low - but you shot using tmax400 which is by nature a low contrast film. Did you use a filter ? Green X0 or yellow would help a little to render the flesh a more pleasing tone - alternative you could rebalance the tones in PS if this was scanned from film.

 

Too tight on framing - I do not see any reason for parts of her hair to be cut off and part of her shoulder.

 

Suggestion may be it may be better to do without the flowers. The jewellery is not a good idea. Your sitteer looks ok not all the comfortable but not petrified - good point to start with.

 

There could be a lot that you can do to work this over - vignette mask, burn in this and that, rescan for eye detail if there .... list is endless subject to your personal direction.

 

Good trial print.

 

Thank you all for the comments.

 

This was process normally in Tmax developer. The Tri-X was scanned in via a HP S20 - not the very best of scanners but it gets the job done. The image you see has been balanced for an envirnomental portraiture - some details of her back ground are need to indentify who and where she is. However since this could be potentially messy - this is shot with a 80-200 at I think f4 with me some where a little more than min focusing distance of that lens.

 

The wet trial prints of this suggest that for dramatic effect the darkening of the background is a good direction to go but to make that believeable some creative burning needs to be done to refocus on the eyes. The eyes have details that are not so visible here but when seen they are out of this world - looks really like an alien !! One of the wet have been submitted to an overseas print competition - Pity I do not have a spare (read that as wet dark room's weak point - complex prints --- you want waht 20 copies exactly the same .... faint)I am hopeful for that print though it is not the perfect one that still eludes me.

 

Be a bit busy till towards the end of this month -

getting married so there are a lot of things to do. Duh wedding studio and out door shot was 11 hours when you count time to do make up, a lunch break and travel time in between locations. Just saw the proofs boy am I impressed with the pro - Mr Matthew Tan from the UK MPA (Master Photographers Association) that did them - grin learnt a few things being the subject.

Good capture on the look and expresssion.

Being objective about this - it ok not earth shattering just competent work. Why not put up something from your current works ?

 

What I like here is the appropriatness of the exposure and softness of the skin. God details in thw whites. What I am not too thrilled about is the camera angle and the placement of the hands in particular her left wrist - its too masculine in that placement. There is a certain degree of contriveness in this pose - yeah it easy to say make it look natural but that is what seperates those who are talented from us who try. Was half of a couple who got studio and outdoor bridal done on us yesterday by top flight pro who is a friend of a friend. It is not easy producing a natural looking posed shot - grin its worse when you have to be the subject of one. Cannot wait to see the proofs.

Capture on tri-x in a make shift dressing room for an amuetur troop

of Chinese Opera peformers. This is a scan from film version - I am

still trying to work on wet vs digital formats - wet seems to have

better emotions potential - digital requires a very strange work flow

to come close to what happens when burning and blocking are done in

the wet darkroom sytem.

 

This is a trial piece - am still working on what would be the final -

the eye detail is the keystone for this shot - it is a little visible

in this.

Good work on origin caputre and the post shoot tweking. The hour glass pattern on Mom's cheek may need more work. A little more off the top on the heads may reinforce the image more. Looks tender and sweet - what do your sitters have to say about this.

Perhaps its my monitor - your all white background is not pure white - there are areas of peach, the white seems with a touch of blue. The hair on the top of the head of the little tyke is strange to say the least - blue with a touch of black.

 

Agreement that it looks set up. The palm print on the shirt is a give away. I think so are the little daps on the face.

 

I feel this is too tight.

 

But having said all of this - it is pretty good considering that babies at play is not a subject to venture into without a strong stomach and lots of patience and skill and luck. My batting average in this area is bad... perhaps when my kid sister delivers then I will have a model to literally play around with.

A shot from the ancient Kodak DC265 as a test shot for some latter

film work. This is FaKoo the lastest addition to the fast growing zoo

in my hose.

Street type work is terrible to do -so much distraction, backgrounds are always difficult to refine etc.

 

I feel you made some wrong choices here. Either go in real real close or get it as an environmental shot with the appropriate supporting background - this is some where in between so its not going to be very good to look at. The background does not support your main subject at all. I would be in my opinion a distraction.

I think you need more work on the lighting - no sparkles seen in diamond, no diamond glitter so if you did not say it was a diamond I would have assumed saphire. Can not offer you more than that since personally have not shot jewellery yet.

A test shot via the digital camera , DC265. Rendered into B&W via PS.

From a digital camera capture from a studio session about 14 days

back. Was using the digital camera the kodak DC265 to simulate a

polariod back. The crop is intensional to give a in your face feel to

this.

Perhaps you might want to consider who are the subjects here. The bad part is they make up what 5% fo the busy scene. The 2 benches of by standers is not helping any.

 

Since your subjects are children, have you considered the reason why you are shooting down from a standing angle to capture them? Pictures of people's backs are not normally very engaging -like the geuture "I turn my back on you" this visual message is carried over here.

 

There is great potential here but it appears that you may have made in appropriate decsions - suggest that you review what you have captured, look around from exapmles of pictures similar that catch and hold your attention and really look to see the differences.