andrew_morton2

Mike - Cool photo.  As to your question about composition - I would envision that the photo would work better if the camera was lower to the ice (sitting, kneeling) and perhaps farther to the right to use the boat more as backdrop or to emphasize scale.  It looks like she's slightly blurry, so perhaps an increase in shutter speed and/or ISO.  Hope that helps.

Phil - I like this image and think it would look stronger with the fort at the bottom cropped out (realizing of course that you may have had the intent to include it as perspective).  

Brent - this photo does not look very sharp, others in your portfolio are sharper.  Perhaps in the export for posting you lost some quality.  

Here's what I'd do to make this stronger-

1.  Get closer to your subject - the wheelbarrow?  Unless you're providing context, but context here doesn't seem to be telling a story.  Fill the frame w/ your subject.

2. Camera sensor will struggle with the dynamic range - very dark near the wheel, blown out highlights behind.  Re-compose, if possible, to avoid the stark contrast.  

3. Increase the blacks in the photo to make them "pop."

Jacob - compositionally it looks fine but her face appears underexposed to me.  Lifting it in post, especially if you shot raw, would help.

I, myself, like the clean space in this shot.  Looks like a really honest and sincere expression on her face.  My only suggesting would be to straighten the photo so that the lines on the wall are parallel to the left edge of the frame, but that's really nitpicky!  

Raf - a lovely capture, the muted colors are great.  I would suggest two things - crop to remove whatever is on the left side of the frame, and slightly lighten her face without lifting the background.

Thanks Len, for your feedback.  Your thoughts about what is captured versus what is known to be there outside of the photograph is a great point and probably articulates what I like best about this.

Adrian - Nice eye to catch something like this during an otherwise difficult season to take photos in.  I like just the hint of trees at the top providing some context but allowing the eyes to fully rest on the lines.  Nice job in getting the exposure of the snow exactly right.

Nima - This is just fantastic, I can't think of how to improve it!

This is my favorite photo from a recent trip to DC. While I'm obviously partial to my own shots, what do you think of this?

I took a lot of column shots while there so that my wife, a Latin teacher, could show her students the various types of columns and how we borrow heavily from Roman and Greek culture.

I took this shot at 250mm and what you're seeing is fairly cropped already. I did try cropping away everything away but the tiger and it looks fairly good.  I wasn't shooting through glass - I think it's mainly about trying to handhold a shot at that focal length.  I did brace both elbows on a concrete wall, but no doubt a tripod and a longer lens would have helped here!  And thanks for your feedback.

This is a very cool shot.  After looking at it for a minute, I think what detracts from this image is the sky, as it has nothing to really add.  What do you think of cropping out the sky and changing the orientation to landscape?  It would maintain your focal point, which is the rail. 

A cropped photo of a tiger at the National Zoo using a T1i and 55-250 lens.

Looking for suggestions about whether or not this photo would benefit from

crop and burn, if it's underexposed, and any other general comments.

What immediately captures my eye is the car in the background!  Otherwise, it's a nice composition.  The whole photo looks a bit underexposed to me, likely because of the snow.  If you shot in RAW, lifting the exposure in the whole shot might recover the detail in her hair.

A few things come to mind - increase contrast, slight increase in saturation, and crop out the date stamp.  Looks like the camera exposed for the outside so the bird is underexposed.  If you have the software, such as Lightroom, a little dodge could bring the bird out.  Your other photos look like they could use some contrast adjustment, and that is probably due to your camera.   The edit to your photo I did in Picasa.

Cool shot!

Cristina - This is a lovely shot and I'm partial to baby pictures right now in life.  I like how the right hand is laid across the chest making the sleep look natural.  I find the white background gives the baby a lack of shape and looks like a head and hand floating in whiteness.  If the baby was dressed in a dark color or the bedding was a dark color, I think that would have given the baby more definition.  However, all the whiteness denotes an angelic quality, so my critique may be mainly about individual tastes.  Nice work :)  

What a fun shot of them playing.  My only suggestion for improvement would be to crop closer, as I have a sense of wanting to be closer to the action. B&W is perfect - focuses on the action and the water splash.

I think this is a fantastic shot, and I suggest the sky is fine.  It provides for me a sense of color balance, the sky and white shirt, green coat and trees, brown boots and rails.  I would have guessed that you intentionally used the top of the tree line to lead right into her shoulders.  

Looking for feedback in the areas of composition, lighting (especially trying

to tame the out-of-focus highlights), and the use of black and white in this

composition. Any general feedback is also welcomed.

Great perspective!  I love the duck in the bottom right.  The orange looks too saturated to me and distracts from the overall composition.