DaveU

I like it Linda, and considering that you've not done much of this sort of work before then it's a damned fine start. Just a couple of minor niggles if I may ..... I'd personally reduce the opacity of the Spitfire more in line with the opacity of the rest of the background. It's maybe just a little too "solid" at the moment and competing for attention with the guy? Secondly it looks like you've left the texture overlay on his face which gives the appearance that he's wearing a weird mask. Maybe better to reduce the opacity of the texture overlay on his face or mask it out altogether? Personal opinion of course as there's no rights or wrongs in this game.

And good to meet you yesterday ..... thanks for the ham

HDR and interiors are just made for each other, like Liz Taylor and Richard Burton or bacon and eggs.

I think that most people when they start off with HDR adopt a fairly heavy hand on the tone-mapping controls and end up with something way OTT for many people's taste. With time they usually become more restrained and go for a more natural looking result.

So this for me is over-processed but that said I like the saturated colours, the viewpoint and the bags of detail. I'd suggest maybe correcting the verticals using the image editing program of your choice as the uprights are all over the place at the minute.

Stick with HDR and enjoy yourself .... it's a wonderful technique.

High-contrast, high quality BW conversion Nick. Very eye-catching.

Maybe worth spending some time with the clone tool though as those white flecks on the guy's jersey and the blackboard are an irritation.

Welcome to EPZ Kathryn and what a mighty fine image to start with. The figure is quite stunning .... haunting almost.

For perfection then I'd suggest you need a little more space to the right of the girl and maybe a touch more below her feet. She just looks a little too crammed in to the corner for comfort.

Looking forward very much to seeing more of your work though ........

Ugly but interesting ..... the reflection of the girl adds a nice twist too.

Odd objects with texture overlays really can make for intriguing images as we've seen quite a lot from Chase recently. What I'm not too keen on here though Pete is the luminous green colour of the background and those splashes of brighter green in the shadow areas. Just doesn't seem to suit the subject matter to me.

Have you thought of a contrasty BW conversion along the lines of my quick mod?

It's a well though out shot, and the "sugar rain" is most effective. Possibly worth tweaking this with a subtle S-curve adjustment layer in the photo-editor of your choice, just to bump up the contrast and saturate the reds and greens a little more. Maybe not quite as pin-sharp on the strawberry itself as it could be though.

I like it though .....

I like this type of shot with people portrayed in their "working" environments. You really do need to spend a bit of time tidying this up though .... looks like it could do with a fair bit of CCW rotation and perhaps a little use of a distort tool to get those uprights upright. Worth spending a little more time on it to polish it off nicely IMO.

It's an attractive looking image, and that bright splash of red in the thumbnail draws the viewer in. Better for me if you'd moved to your left and got the bus on an oblique angle to see a touch more of the side.

You might want to look at the lady with the basket as she looks slightly pasted on, maybe even floating above the ground. Compare the contact shadows where the bus tyres touch the ground with the lack of shadows under her feet.

My but I'm niggling for England today

Quote: How would you go about improving the day to night look?

Not altogether sure Jon as it's not something I've ever tried. The reason I niggled is the inconsistency of the light. It's very dark, almost black, in the top right quarter and quite murky on the RHS where the two ladies and the figures beyond are going down the hill. And yet it's really quite bright in the rest of the image. The streetlights although "lit" aren't contributing any atmosphere to the scene ..... I'd expect to see some pools of light with a fall-off of light away from the lamps.

You could maybe try creating a new layer, filling with a dark blue and setting layer blend mode to multiply. Then reduce the layer opacity till you get the "night-time" look you like, and finesse it by masking out some of the opacity over the lamps to create the impression that they're shining through the darkness.

Just some thoughts seeing as how you asked

Love the clean composition and use of the shadows as an important element in the shot. Just thinking that if she was wearing red shoes and that was a red jacket draped over the back of the chair then this would be a real killer image.

P.S. I think a lot of EPZ'ers have taken a vow of silence as their New Year resolution. It's quiet ..... too damned quiet

A fertile imagination and a clever and good looking image. Can I suggest that you progressively reduce the colour saturation of the clocks and balloons the further back they are from the viewer. Should give more depth and added reality to the image.

Original idea and pretty damned good execution too. Rich has apoint about the gradation (or lack of it) from the greyness of the floor to the sudden whiteness of the milk. Maybe run a subtle grad up to "spread" a little of the floor tone up into the body of the splash. It would need to be subtle though.

Minor niggles apart I do so like this. It's simple, it's clever and it works on so many different levels .... composition, colour contrasts, manipulation etc.

The post-processing work is quite beautiful Jan, excellent in fact. That said, this is the "weakest" one of the three for me as I'm not so sure that the powder compact sits too well in the scene. Or maybe it's the reflection that over-complicates the image? I can't quite put my finger on it but something about the items and their arrangement does'nt quite gel as they did so damned well on the previous two.

Still, I love the background, I love the bottle and I love that old lace.

It's an attractive image and the "heavy" post-processing suits the subject matter very well. Love all the detail in the shop window and the subtle reflections in the wet pavement. Pity that the viewpoint isn't a little more "square on" to lose that annoying triangle of kerb bottom left. Also, the child with the wavy hair could do with it burning in a little ..... just looks a little light for the rest of the image.

See quick mod to try and address the niggles .........

You're onto a good thing with these Janet. Another beautiful image full of interest and mood. You've maybe gone a little OTT with the distressed background as it's a touch heavy at the top of the frame. A wee bit distracting maybe. I'm relieved to see that the flutterby managed to escape

That's a pleasing point of view and pretty well processed too Lesley. The bottom of the ceiling light has gone grey in the tone-mapping process. Try bringing in your -2EV exposure and setting layer blend mode to "Lighten" .... that should brighten it up and make it look a little more realistic. If other areas of the pic go too bright then you can control where it "bites" with a layer mask.

Certainly you've balanced the dynamic range of the scene pretty well. I find that the HDR process inevitably leaves the finished image a little flat and lacking in contrast. Maybe worth adding a little selective contrast back in the image editiing program of your choice?

The main character is a proper treat Dave, but the background lets the image down slighly IMO, being a little cluttered and a tad "modern".

An ideal candidate for cutting out the spivsome fellow and pasting him onto a more fitting background I'd say ..... easily done if you had a mind an an interesting diversion to save for those long cold winter days to come.

It's an interesting shot, and for what looks like quite a tightly confined location then you've got a pretty pleasing composition. What I like most here is the light coming through the window and reflecting on the steps. A lot of people would over-process a shot like this .... "blimey you can't have blown highlights with HDR" .... but you can, and on many an occasion you should otherwise the results look totally unnatural.

I'd maybe just desaturate the colours slightly though, again for a more natural look.

I groaned when I saw the thumbnail as I've seen a few landscapes recently where a heavy texture overlay has been applied and they look ruddy awful. IMO of course.

But this is rather clever Eric and so much more subtle. Natural textures and better than that, local and natural textures. I think there's mileage in doing more of these as I don't think this one is getting the best out of the idea.

The "composition" could be improved as it looks rather abruptly truncated at the top. Also the oblique viewing angle does'nt make for the most comfortable viewing experience. I'd have thought that if you get the timing right then you could take the rock picture at right angles to the face and still get some oblique light giving that feeling of depth.

Sorry to niggle what is a most innovative idea.