accipiter

Nice model and nice light - the face and eyes look a bit soft and for me the background screen is a tad complicated and a bit distracting. I think I might have tried this against the simple dark textured wall at the back - same distance away to leave it slightly out of focus.

The panning has helped though even the front of the car is a tad on the soft side. I don't do much of this but I do photograph flying birds a lot and for really fast moving objects you still have to have a very fast shutter speed. You don't give capture data here but Im guessing if you doubled your shutter speed and prefocussed on the spot your panning shots would get better and better. It also helps to use a big aperture so that backgrounds are out of focus anyway. Even so one has to try a lot of shots and then select. Good luck. A

Another nice portrait Michelle - with similar problems to yesterday. Also It would be worth trying different backgrounds - in particular try not to use backgrounds that have very similar tonal density to the subject unless you are doing very high or low key shots - and also try not to have material visible in the background that will distract from the subject. I would crop this image to a fairly tight square format, select the portrait outline for sharpening and then select the inverse (background) and blur it even more.
You have hit the ground running and so I am pushing a little to help you along - enjoy your learning experience and why not try a portrait with eye contact soon! A

A lovely capture with a nicely blurred background habitat - I think if it were mine I would crop out the empty space on both right and left margins and present it as a square format. This would give more strength to the butterfly and remove some of the dead space on the sides. Well worth a try. A

Beautifully captured HDR. The only distraction for me is the lens distortion causing the sides to lean inward - especially the left as it extends down to the level of the pews. I think I would have tried a correction here - maybe even check the difference in appearance by using something simple eg. image>transform>skew and pull out the top corners to have a look - sometimes that saves the grind of delving into more complicated ways of correcting for lens distortion. A

The only Melkbos I know is a beach near Cape Town. The sky, the light and the reflections are lovely, Linda, but the horizon is not straight and can easily be corrected in your software. You can either rotate the picture until the horizon is level and then crop ( this will change your composition slightly) or you can go to adjust/enhance image>transform>skew and pull up the right top corner and down on the left bottom corner until it is level. This will create some distortions of perspective but will hardly be noticeable as there is lot of space in the shot. Welcome and good luck. A

It is a lovely structure and beautifully lit. You have placed it exactly in the middle of the picture and I think it may have been a bit more dramatic if it was a bit off centre and perhaps taken from a little further. It is not always reasonable to use the rule of thirds when taking an architectural image but I think in this case it would be OK. Then you could have moved the point of human interest - the man sitting on the right - further into the picture. Good luck. A

An interesting composition and caption. The only distraction for me is that the picture is tilted to the right and this is worth correcting. The exposure is good and the depth of field shows good definition front and back with some interesting shadows lines adding tension to the composition. Correction of the tilt is easy in software - in elements go to Image > transform > Skew and drag out the top left corner and the bottom right corner a little until you are happy with the verticals. A

Interesting construction. This one would be helped by 'Dodging' the light areas to increase the contrast. This is an adjustment available in most software and allows you to choose which areas to lighten - or which areas to darken if you 'Burn' - an essential skill for Black and white images and one which was used extensively before the advent of digital manipulation. Keep reviewing your images and maybe if you click on the M button on your epz upload page you may persuade someone to modify your image and tell you how he/she did it. Even when you don't like the mod you may learn something about the technique they have used. Cheers. A

Nice evening silhouette shot - if you have photo software you might straighten the horizon just a little - it looks to me to be down a bit on the left. A

You have caught the light beautifully. The only issue I have is that the subject is smack in the middle. I would probably convert this to a square format (unusual but not impossible for a landscape ) by cropping the right hand edge into the middle of the right hand set of foreground rocks. Or you could crop the left side! This is not heavy criticism as it is already a pleasing shot - more of an invitation to play with alternatives. If I think I have a good shot I often copy it then play with the copy to see if I can improve on it in some way. A

I like the image very much and I think your use of the filter has been a success. I hope you tried it without the filter as well.
I do find the composition a little too cluttered by the masts of the foreground yachts - I think you wanted to show the strength and power of the ferry by comparison with the yachts here and I think I might have composed this from further to the right, keeping in the red boat in the left foreground but removing some of the masts from in front of the great side of the ferry, keeping just a few on the left for comparison. Of course I was not there so don't even know if this would have been possible! A

For me v2 shows burnout of the white cloth covering his goods at the back and in one or two other places and I find this distracting. I would probably have aimed to increase the 'Drama' by giving v1 a foreground reduction in brightness before increasing contrast a bit and perhaps giving it a more exotic margin as you have done in v2. A very good street shot any way - the story is there. A

They (reflections) are not easy. I try as often as possible to actually create the reflection ( use mirrors or water surfaces with a background color or any thing you can find that reflects ) before taking the photo! However you can convert a copy of the picture and flip it horizontally, then change the depth of color or transparency either within or after taking it to Layers and positioning it appropriately - objects must be vertically in the same line and the horizon distance to the reflection credible. You can then alter the reflection to give it waves or ripples by experimenting with your filters on the reflection layer. I think your flower here could be bit brighter to allow you to make a stronger and more credible reflection. Best way is to practice - use different methods until you find one you are happy with. Good luck. A

Excellent atmospheric shot. The contrast is similar throughout the depth of the shot and I think I might have been tempted to increase the contrast of the main cross and angel just a little to bring them closer or softened the ones at the back to take them further away. the slight 'lean' of the graveyard symbols is an excellent effect, giving a sense of the beginning of the impermanence of even the memories of the departed built in stone. A

Fine portrait - I find the mono a bit too 'Metallic' - would have liked to see a straight black and white conversion. A

I love the filigree branch reflections in the water droplet. Color and dof is also good but I think there is too much stem on either side and this distracts the eye. I would go to a square crop withe droplet toward the left side as in the picture, to see if that improved it. A

You made a good choice to go B&W here and I think v1 is the best choice. The mods are helpful but I still find the picture/bookcase at the back distracting from this strong face and would probably clone it out altogether. Nice capture and a portrait worth a little effort. A

This is a lovely low light street scene, and well exposed and composed. Unfortunately I am distracted by the fact that lens distortion is causing the buildings to lean in toward the centre, especially on the left hand side. This could easily be corrected in digital software, some of which is very powerful free off the internet ( eg gimp). However a sophisticated and easy program to use would be Photoshop elements - if you have it, open the picture go to Image>transform>skew and drag out the top corners until you are happy with the result. There are other ways to do this of course but this one is easy - and if you already know all this please ignore it. A.

This is a fine image and you have done excellent work. The only problem (minor) that I have is that the color tones of the background and foreground are similar. You could try isolating the branch and wood ears with the lasso, right click inside the lasso and then go to inverse > refine edge (by only one or two pixels) > adjust color > saturation (reduce until you're happy). There are other ways of adjusting this background eg. you could go in to levels and adjust the tone of the entire background as well as brightness and contrast by playing with the sliders. You could also increase the blur of this background in the same lasso by going to Filter > blur > Gaussian Blur ( or try the other blurs!).
Any of these exercise would be aimed at bringing the branch forward in the picture and accentuating it's shape and beauty by changing the color tones and blur between background and foreground. You are doing very well and I hope this encourages you to play and enjoy while you learn - and don't let anybody try and persuade you that this isn't art. A