mriy

The subject is striking, but my first thought was that the subject doesn't stand out enough from the background. the tones are very similar. I like Ol' Fishface better even though the background is even busier, maybe because you got up close and it is better isolated from the background without losing the sense of place the background provides. My favorite is the kids playing by the statue, beautiful colors and perspective.

Nice job.

Wonderful, wonderful portrait. Not a lot of tones, but it fits the mood just great. As a health care professional, I can't advocate for kids gumming cat doors, but as their going to do it anyway, I'm glad you got a great pic out of it.

I agree that there are terific photos in the folders, but I think this is one of the most striking and original. I like it better with the red toned down as I think it maintains a slightly surreal element that isn't too manipulated-looking. It doesn't bother me that I don't know what it is. You composition is excellent. The gloominess is pervading and could be too much, but it is saved by that red thing and the thin strip of green grass below the trees. I would leave it in color for that reason.

Nice tones, nicely composed.

I like the tones. The only thing is the background, where that pole cuts right across your subjects nose. The background is overall a little busy.

Also, would consider using fill flash or a reflector to fill in some light on the face, or have the person turn a bit to have a little more light on the face. It loses some impact in the higher contrast of the rest of the picture.

I think this is a pretty good photo, but the two things that could improve it are, first the composition, which as you mentioned could be improved with cropping. As it is, I think the perspective could be improved by getting down lower, perhaps even laying on the ground. The current view from 5 to 6 feet off the ground can be improved on. I would also try to get the tree out of the view as it looks young and healthy, just leafless, and I think it takes away from the mood. Finally for composition, would try getting up close, maybe trying to include some of the inscriptions where they are broken off, or getting a wide-angle, head-on view of the far headstone with the blocks leading up to it, or a view close to the far right stone looking down the line.

Second is that there isn't much of a tonal range, as everything is near the same grayness. I've always heard that a good black and white photo has the full range from pure black to pure white, just a rule of thimb, not a rule rule. Would play with increasing the contrast heavily or try varying exposures leaning to the over-exposure side then working with that to bring out some depth in the tones.

The current POW guy's porfolios have some nice contrasty black and whites in them.

Keep up the good work

I think this is a great match of vision and equipment. The sharpness and depth of colors is great, the composition is wonderful. Nothing to add.

Great shot. Very nice exposure. Great depth and richness.

Wow, I just took a look at your excellent portfolio, really nice stuff. You have terrific vision and glad that you share your photoshop experiments.

Keep posting.

Very nice, but at the risk of sounding like some people who recently argued over a similarly confusing POW, the lighting seems to be coming from all different directions, the back of the gull, the right-facing peaks of the glacier, the left facing edge of the ice in the foreground, and all over the splash/wave. I'm assuming this is a montage made digitally. Would appreciate your clarification on technique. Not that you owe anyone one, but just so I'm not making assumptions about your work.

Very impressive.

I agree with you that the colors are wonderful. The only thing I would maybe do is lop off a little of the left side to move the lighthouse off to the left a bit.

Too bad there weren't better clouds. That would have added a nice element.

Nice job

Interesting idea, and for this picture, I think the reflection adds to it. Without the reflection, it would be really static.

I would like to see some views from inside, like a macro of the dash through the steering wheel,the symmetry of the dash is really cool, or of the knobs. When I think about my dad's old truck like this, those old bakelite / plastic knobs seemed really cool when I was a kid, and I think they would make a nice nostalgic picture. Great old truck to have fun photographing.

Nice job.

A very nice job. 2 things i would try.

#1: Use a red or yellow filter to darken that upper left hand corner, or burn it in a little. Your filter did a nice job on the other silhouette picture in your portfolio. That corner being open is a distraction.

#2: I kind of like it cropped down below the "Hotel California". As it is, I think the Hotel California sorts of competes with the funky statue, and I like the statue better.

Just my thoughts.

Really nice portfolio.

Very nice photo.

Your composition is nice, keeping the verticals vertical and horizontals horizontal makes for a pleasing image. The lighting is nice and your positioning of the camera is very good.

One thing that may have improved the image would have been capturing someone walking through it. I think it would have been nice to see the juxtaposition of a person walking through and that imposing grafiti. Either that or having someone sit on that bench near the center. Just a thought.

Keep up the good work. This is a much nicer composition than the other picture you have posted.

This is one of the best pictures of its type that I have ever seen. You have extraordinary vision and compositional skills.

Keep taking great shots and keep posting them.

I like this a lot. I can appreciate how well you've caught a surprisingly difficult scene to get. The colors are vibrant and the clarity is stunning. I could easily see this on a postcard (one of the nice kind).

My only constructive comments would be similar to that of miguel's in that there as a lot to look at. The rock is nice, the moss is nice, the wet leaves are nice, but they are all nice to the same degree and instead of complimenting each other, they sort of fight for your attention. Would try to macro in on a thing or two, or as was suggested, try a very narrow DOF or try to bump up the contrast to get that sort of medieval magical forest feel.

Excellent job. A good promotion for the 4800.

I think this is an above average picture for it's genre, the foreground notwithstanding. I live in the tropics, and as Kevin was saying, I took tons of sunsets/sunrises, which were usually disappointing, with only a few that really stood out. The thing I like about this one is that the sun seems massive. Usually the sun looks diminished and the clouds do most of the work, in this one, the sun dominates the clouds. I agree with Kevin that if you are taking photo's only to please yourself, and don't plan on getting seriously into scenic photography, then you may be better off just enjoying these moments without worrying about capturing it on film or digitally. On the other hand, if you are interested in developing your craft in these types of pictures, then I would experiment with a variety of films, filters, and formats, including polarizers, B&W with yellow and red filters, panoramics, etc. There is a market for high quality scenery such as this, usually in tourist/travel literature, brochures, etc.

Keep up the good work.

One thing that I started doing after taking so many sunsets was to turn around and take pictures of my wife, kids, plants, etc that the warm light was hitting. Some of my favorite portraits are in this kind of light.

This is a stunning photo to me. I like the background and don't feel that it detracts from the picture. I think the subtle shades place the owl nicely in its environment.

I didn't really want to wade into the originality discussion, but I must say that I agree fundamentally with Bio. Just recently I was wondering about the "originality" rating and its use. I don't know what to compare it to. I was surprised when I first logged onto Photo.net and saw the severity of the ratings of peoples pictures in the aethetics category, so I figured that people were basically grading on a scale of a 1 in aesthetics unworthy of even a shoebox and a 10 being something beyond grand. I re-adjusted my scoring to fall into that line, just to be fairly consistent (though I almost always give higher scores than the average). I think it is good that scoring is tough, as I think a site where the majority of photos had scores in the 8-10 range would be dead by now. In the originality arena, I'm not sure where to set my scale, despite the guidelines, so that I'm not too far out of range. I know that you should score based on your own feeling, and I do, but I question the usefulness of originality as an objective tool for a photographer to use if we are all over the place with it. I think a lot of Avedons, Adams and Cartier-Bressons would bomb in originlity on this site. I agree with Joe that maybe additional measures should be used to replace "originality", such as "cleverness" and "creativity" and "craftsmanship". I think that would tell a photographer more about where they should develop themselves.

One thing we do where I work when evaluating each other is that if we give a score that is at either end of the scale, there must be a written comment to explain it. Perhaps requiring or at least strongly suggeting that a score of below 3 or above 6 or 7 should be accompanied by a comment. Perhaps a template to facilitate comments could be created. Just a thought.

The clouds are kind of neat looking, Simpsonsish. WOuld really like to see the horizon moved up or down and maybe a little more ocean at the end of the pier. The shadow on the left front is a distraction.

I think this is a terrific shot. I think the points of how the composition could be improved are worth a listen, as are the points about whether this thing can be enlarged and retain its impressiveness, 'cause this is a wonderful image for above a fireplace or on a lodge wall. That being said, the composition suits me just fine as I think it challenges the viewer to just look at the mountain and appreciate it for what an amazing visual image it creates. If I were actually there, I would be looking at the mountain and probably little else. The mountain is the thing, it may look odd and probably not as powerful were it off to the side or occupying less of the frame.

 

The exposure also seems fine to me, though I would like to compare to other exposures just out of curiosity.

 

Wow

I agree with the previous comment that Michael's portfolio is terrific, and also that this may not be the best photo in that bunch (it is a bit light), but it is exceptional. Were it in the big leagues, I could easily see it on an Upper Deck card.

The only thing that confuses me is the perspective. The catcher is on the right and the base runenr is hitting him from the left. The play must be taking place at home plate, and looking at the background, you must have been somewhere in the outfield or on the infield (?), so it seems as if the runner is coming in from first. Is the image flipped? If so, would highly recomment not doing so with scenes that depend heavily on the actual perspective. Maybe I need some sleep then look again later and I'll figure it out.

 

I've tried and failed at action shots so much it hurts. This is a really an excellent shot and I think much harder to capture than it seems it should be.

 

I readily support this one as the POW.

I read the preceeding comments and I'm not sure I agree. My first impression was that the "flatness" may have been intentional given the nice tones in the front house and the fence. It has sort of a solar eclipse kind of appearance which is kind of cool. The long shadow on the street really makes the picture, I think. Agree with that annoying line up top, and including the chimney may have been a plus. I like this photo quite a bit

This is probably one of the best "zoo" shots I've seen. You were able to capture that albino gator better than any pic I recall seeing of them there. It has a sterile feel to it that is almost scientific but still artistic and creative without looking staged. I can picture it on some album cover for a slightly disturbed band like Nine Inch Nails or the like. The only thing is as stated before, the break of the focus seems really sharp across the snout and is distracting, but on the other hand, it keeps it from looking too plain, and the out-of-focus legs look just right. I'd have liked to see a pic with deeper DOF to compare this too.

 

Excellent job.

I think this is a striking photo. I think it lacks a bit of interest. The floor is cool but the rest is not so. I like the shadow on the left as it looks like a profile with teeth, adds a little surreal touch. Nice contrast. I feel like I want to put something on that floor, like a toy or an animal or a meatball or something to give it a little extra something.

Just my thoughts. Nice job.

This is a gorgeous photo. Very easy on the eyes with a classic composition and great tones.

Nothing constructive to add, just praise.