accipiter

A lovely picture of the winelands. There is some color fragmentation in the pink and purple area of the sky which suggest the processing algorithms in your camera are having some difficulty with the contrast or you have exceeded the capacity of your software program. It happens to me often! A

Its a good image of falling water perhaps composed a little too tight. I may have added a bit more, top and bottom, to the composition. How to take these is a matter of personal preference - there is a modern move to flatten out moving water and make it look 'milky' supposedly to 'enhance' the sense of movement. My personal feeling is that the movement is best captured with very little or no milky 'slowing' of the shapes of the water. So here I would probably have increased the ISO to 200 + and increased the aperture to f14 or even f11 to make a higher shutter speed and keep the water clean and crisp. If I have doubts about what would look best I often take several shots at different shutter speeds to give myself options. Personally I think that the use of ND filters to 'slow' water is overrated but does sometimes make stunning seascape compositions. I rarely use slow shutter speeds on streams or waterfalls as I am looking for the 'freshness' of stream water as opposed to the aged and endless feeling I get from the ocean. This is just my opinion - you must look for what you feel is best. Good luck. A

Interesting image Andy - I think I might have tried a shot with the bottle slightly off centre - perhaps crop a bitoff the left and bottom to increase the drama. This fine capture well worth a bit of experimentation. A

The bird is beautifully clear. I don't have a problem with foreground blur but the sheer size of this blurred section I do find a bit distracting. I would probably have tried a change of format ( to square) cropping a little on the left and bottom and quite a lot on the right. I would not remove the blur but reduce its size in comparison with the Hobby and hopefully convert it's potential to distract into a sense of balanced dof. This is a fine capture - my own idea is to always look at ( and try) alternative formats if I have a good image as I can sometimes improve on it even more. A

Another good one Moira. Im not sure what software you use but I find that at ISO 800 I'm still ok with the 7D but I expose to the right (increase exposure) anything from one third to two stops to increase the available tones for adjustment in PS afterwards. You should not delete slightly pale, flat looking shots seen on the camera monitor at the time of taking. They may be your 'best' images to work on once you are back in your software program. This shot looks fine. A

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