brendon

Well composed. I like the line of reflection at the midpoint. More contrast and a darker or more dramatic sky might be achieved with some minor post-processing.

Thought this was some fancy photoshop thing. But whatever the technique, I enjoy the vivid colors, the composition, the faces that appear in two places at once. I imagine that was the intent of the installation, and it works! And you captured a great instant of that Art.

That's a great catch; excellent street photography. Too bad you couldn't work the pillar the guy was about to walk into into your composition! Great street photography. Love B&W.

I love the spontaneity of this image! He's clearly a performer, and you let him do his thing! The people walking away in the background help to tell a bit of story too. The lighting is just great--warm, late-day sun. I'm impressed that you avoided the harshness that direct sunlight--even when the sun is low in the sky--can sometimes give. The detail in the shadowed side of his face is all there.

 

Excellent work.

 

-Brendon

Cute reflection in the eyes.

 

 

This is a good portrait. Please take my comments as constructive criticism.

 

Exposure: The skin tones appear well exposed. Maybe it's my monitor, but a little more shadow detail would help I think.

 

Color. I think her skin looks a little undersaturated and too magenta. Again, maybe it's my monitor.

 

I think a longer-focal-length lens would help. In this photo her face looks a little fat. That may also be caused by her pose.

 

Good luck,

 

Brendon

Isn't this close to the anniversary of the deaths of all those miners in the U.S.? With that in my mind, I immediately saw the cross in the reflection. Since the cross is so often a symbol of death and graveyards, I found it eerie and powerful that the reflected cross would project itself into the ground below the mine entrance. Creepy; I'd NEVER want to go down there.

 

This is a well-conceived image. The vignetting is effective and not overdone. There's a little clutter that dtracts from the composition, but it's minor. Good job.

 

-Brendon

I get vertigo just looking at the photo--so, YES, it does convey a powerful sense of being there! Excellent work!

This child's skin tones are so smooth and wonderful. Whoever says that digital has not caught up to film in the representation of skin tomes should have a look here. And I'd say you've nailed the "decisive moment" too; the little boy looks like he's up to no good at all, and having just a great time.

 

I think the border but is a little hoaky, and the inculsion of the woman in the frame is unecessary and a little distracting. The focus here is the boy and his expression and your perfect exposure can stand alone.

 

Regards,

 

Brendon

I like the composition here. It's simple and it keeps the visual focus on the subject. The way her arms are folded is visually interesting, appears natural, and keeps the more direct light off her face. Well done.

 

I think the choice of the high key and sepia/monochrome adds to the visual appeal.

 

She looks like a rather intense girl, perhaps a little bored at being photographed. Does this portrait capture her personality?

 

Regards,

 

Brendon

I know what you mean about feeling humbled by all the awesome stuff that gets posted on photo.net. I don't think I've ever posted a photo of mine on the critique forum. But advice is free, so please take this for what it's worth!

 

Composition: This is a stunning scene, and you have to ask yourself, "Does the photo do it justice?" I think the composition could be better. The horizon is in the middle. The rules say to avoid midline horizons, and I know that rules in art are sometimes meant to be broken, but here I think the rule makes sense. The mountains and mist are beautiful, and the foreground pond and grass are visually interesting, but they're so balanced that they compete with each other for visual attention. You have to decide: what's the subject here--the mountains or the water? If you see the mountains as the center of visual interest, then crop out the foreground grass, but leave a but of water and the island (?) on the bottom of the frame.

 

Color: The foreground is warm and the mountains are visually cool. I find that a little jarring, so I would play with the color temperature a bit.

 

Contrast: There's not enough of it in the mountains and mist. Perhaps cropping way down and turning this photo into a more abstract work that has just a slice of mountains and mist would work better? I don't know, because then you'd lose the foreground elements, which give a sense of scale and balance to the composition.

 

Okay, those are my 2 cents. Cheers!

I like it. It's fun to play with the shutter speeds when photographing fireworks, and you couldn't ask for a more wonderful foreground (?) element as this castle. The image brings my mind's eye back to the Sunday evening Disney movie that I never missed as a child--laying down in front of the TV at my grandpa's or aunt's home; he movies would always be accompanied by Tinkerbell and this castle with fireworks.

 

Anyway, thanks for sharing the image. My only critiques are to straighten the castle and crank up the saturation! Regards.

This image definitely drew my attention. A composition of a simple and repeated figure that is suddenly broken. I think the simplicity--the absence of background detail and the simple white lines of water--are essential for this to work. (More like Phillip Glass than Beethoven, though!)

 

Since most viewers read photos like they read text (that is, from left to right), perhaps this world work better if it were flipped left to right. What do you think? I also desaturated & adjsuted the colors a bit.

To much contrast? To much photoshop??

 

No, the post-processing looks great. But there is too much tilt to her head. I wonder if she fell off her horse too many times!

 

-Brendon

You have posed her well; she looks comfortable. However, her smile looks a bit stale, like she's been holding it too long.

 

I find the background distracting; I suggest either a wider aperature (to blur the background) or a smaller aperature/faster shutter (to darken it).

 

The flash desperately needs a diffuser; it has cast the shadow of the flowers on the bride, and the harsh light is unflattering to her face. Bounce the flash, buy a flash diffuser, or get an umbrella to really spread out the light.

 

Best wishes.

 

-Brendon

What a beautiful simple image! I want to be there and sail away into the sunset.

 

From where did you photograph this scene? An airplane?

 

Warm regards,

 

Brendon

The missing legs aren't a big deal for me. I like the photo--the colors are vivid and these headdresses are interesting and exotic. I like the sky too.

 

However, the square format does not serve this photo well, for this reason: The thing that the women are facing is not clear. If it were a vertical format, the object--the thing these people are looking at--would be the sky. In a horizontal format, I would infer that the object of their gaze is the mountains. In the square format, it's just not clear, and this lack of end-point for the viewer's visual excursion leaves the photo feeling unbalanced.

 

Just my 2 cents.

 

-Brendon

You took a spectacular landscape and rendered it beautifully, with obvious care. Wonderful light. Nice but unobtrusive foreground. Perhaps more of the sky could be cropped out and horizon straigtened, but those are minor gripes.

 

Great work.

 

-Brendon

This is a beautiful image, and the technical stuff is very good--well exposed, good white balance and color rendition. I think the people in this photo distract from the composional symmetry and tranquility of the building. The girl running toward a half-seen doorway is a potentially interesting composition in itself, but it competes within the composition for the vanishing point at the center of the photo.

 

Suggestions: Compose with the doorway either in or out of the photo. Wait for the people to leave or move closer to the center of the composition.

 

Regards,

 

Brendon

I'm sure the guests liked the cloudless midday sun, but we photographers sure don't. There's not much you can do about these shadows, the harsh light, and the resultant overexposed highlights, except....

 

put her in the shade! You can try to bounce light from a reflector from below and to your right. You can try fill-flash. But mostly the name of the game is get her out of the harsh direct sunlight.

 

-Brendon

Hi Kim,

I thought I'd leave a comment or two with your actual photos and not on the wedding forum.

 

I thought that in this photo you've got them posed well and smiling nicely, and the exposure seems to be right on.

 

But like one of the forum critiques said, you should move closer and frame tighter. If you do so you will decrease the DOF and blur the background more. (To be very exact: DOF will decrease if you physically move closer to the subject while keeping the focal length and aperature unchanged.) Using a smaller f-stop would help in this regard as well, if it is possible. I think you sharpened this one up a bit much in post-processing.

 

Regards,

 

Brendon

Nice! I like the overall warm tones, the good use of props (They look relaxed and not so obviously posed.), and the background.

...Can you get this sign out of my head? Just kidding.

 

She is a beautiful woman, and seems quite at ease in front of the camera. Nice photos.

 

-Brendon

I agree with the comment above. Magnificent, lovely colors. White balance looks great in what had to have been difficult light.

 

-Brendon

Okay, this series of photos from this wedding is great!!!

 

I am amazed at how much fun the B&G seem to be having. They are beautiful and elegant, and a touch naughty. mUst have been fun to photograph them.

 

-Brendon

This will be a successful marriage. They guy clearly knows who is in charge!

 

On a more serious note:

 

1. The framing could ahve been be changed to eliminate the distracting background. The bride is too small to notice easily in the photo, and I cannot see her expression.

 

-Brendon