Very nice idea, & I like the feel of the shot.

Just a couple of things.
The ambient lighting is way too bright. I'd have turned it down & used a lot more of the candlelight.
The shot isn't sharp, certainly not on the most important part, your model's (very pretty) face.

Just a personal thing, but I'd have asked her to remove the ear furniture too. For me, it again detracts from her face.

There's been some stunning landscapes posted today, & this is way up the list.

My only comment would be that a narrower aperture might have got the foliage in the forground sharp, but then with the wind we've had lately, it may have been blurred anyway due to a longer exposure.

This is one time when you probably couldn't win either way.

It's a beautiful, cute image, & definitely has the "aah" factor.

The focus is slightly off, being on her nose rather than her eyes. Something to watch when your DoF is this narrow.

Great action shot, nicely frozen but with just enough movement in the water.

If there's one criticism, it would be that there's too much space behind him, & not enough in front. It gives you a sense of seeing where he's come from, but not where he's going.

Very well exposed & taken though.

A cracking image.
It doesn't matter that the leading edge of the car isn't sharp, because the point of focus is on the driver.

just a small point, & nothing you did wrong, but there seems to be some colour fringing on the Audi badge & the Hancook logo on the left. If you shoot raw you can correct this during conversion to jpg.

That would have been a very beautiful image. So serene, & the mixed light sources have been well handled.

What spoils it is the blur. I suspect it's motion blur due to hand-holding at a low shutter speed, rather than being out of focus.

If you can, reshoot it with a tripod. You're definitely on to something.

Get's my vote for the idea.

V1 was the wrong one to lead with, for me. There's little in it, & the rest is filled with digital noise.
V2 is much better, & is the pick of the bunch. Perhaps that why you led with V1, so V2 would look so good.
V3 has a fabulous sky & background, but not enough in the foreground.
V4 is a nice close shot, & the crop really works with it.

A good set Barry.

I can see why you went mono, the green is a bit in your face.

I much prefer V1, though you could push the contrast a little more.

I've added a mod, but at the reduced size can't say it's an improvement. It looked better before the site shrank it.

A beautifully shot portrait.

We had a lecture at our club last year on composition (rule of thirds, that stuff). The guy said by preference to put the main subject on the right third, as we read left to right, & it just looks better. I never understood what he meant at the time, but I think I can here. I find my eye running left to right, & stopping in the space, rather than on your lovely model. Not for long, as it is drawn back, but just trying flipping the shot vertically, to see what you think.

That is a helluva lot of hair!!

I have a Sony too, Gordon. Ok, it's a couple of years newer (a550), but I took my recent Glenn Hughes shots at ISO 3200 without any trouble. Perhaps you should have another go. As Dave says, overprocessing can add more noise than just raising ISO.

I use Photoshop, & put in the noise reduction at the raw processing stage (another way you'll get better quality with more latitude, shoot in raw). You don't say what software you use, but Sony do issue a raw processor with their cameras. I'm pretty sure you can update it for free from the website. Older version were rather broken up with floating windows all over the place, but the version I have works more or less like PS's Camera Raw.

I'll be doing some of this myself on Friday.

A good shot, though I'm sure he won't have appreciated the flash. I crank up the ISO to about 800 or 1600. You get the stage lighting too that way. Just don't believe your meter, it'll tell you you're underexposing.

The saddest words in there for me were "closed" & "pub". Two words that should never be in the same sentence. *

I was looking at V1 & thinking what a shame it was nobody had climbed up there and removed that tree. It's starting to do some real damage to the lovely facade.

Versions 1 & 3 look a little oversharpened, or possibly a touch high for contrast. Otherwise they are fine record shots.
V2 is my favourite of the bunch. All it needed was some bored yobbo to heave half a housebrick through the window to complete the look.

As far as manipulation & correction are concerned, there's only one rule; Do I like it?
& only one judge is totally correct about your photos; You.
Don't worry about following rules, unless you intend to enter a competition (when you'll be able to get a set of rules, so you know exactly what you can & can't do). It's all an opinion anyway, as Bren pointed out. & the only one that matters is yours. If someone else likes it too, that's a bonus. Just make sure that first & foremost, you are happy with your photos.


* I got the bus home yesterday, it was only about a 7 mile journey, mostly along a major road where you don't expect to see them, but in that distance I saw 5 pubs, all boarded up. I was inconsolable when I got home. It still brings a shiver to my spine when I think about it.

Excellent shot, & very nice idea with the colour-pop. Works well for me.

It looks like you have a feather along the bottom of her dress that's faded that lovely deep red. Also, though I'm not sure at this size, it looks like the B&W has crept in along the underneath of her right arm, the one against the tree.

Beautifully shot though, with lots of fine detail in the bark of the tree.

Lovely shot. Well caught too, as these little birds don't settle for long.

The focus looks a little soft on the head, probably the AF settled on the body as being slightly closer.

As I said though, you probably didn't have much time to faff. The composition is strong.

The mono version completely changes the shot. I think for the better, myself. I love the low key effect, it throws all the attention on the face, which is very sharp, & shows every detail.

Just a couple of nit-picky things.

Your selection around the left side of his face (our right) has left a small "halo" (above the shoulder, & around the jaw line), caused by some of the old background showing through.

The lower part of his right ear (our left) looks a little angular.

The idea was well executed, as there's just enough separation between his hair & the black background.

Excellent image. Works for me, however you put it together.

I've been told by a mate at camera club that the place command doesn't work properly in CS3. I have CS5, & it works fine, but I'm not convinced it would have done what you wanted anyway. The reason I use it is because it saves me some work resizing competition shots. What I do is this.

Create a new black canvas 1024x768 (the size required by the Lancashire & Cheshire Photographic Union).
Open the new file with the "place" command instead of "open".
This places the new file in the centre of the canvas, & automatically resizes it to fit. It also makes it a smart object rather than a normal layer, whatever that means.
Flatten the image.

If that's what you were trying to do, then this is how it should work, but as I said, I don't think that Adobe got it right until at least CS4.

For composites, I find it better to roughly chop out the bit I want, paste it in as a layer, & use a layer mask to fine tune. Probably as you did.

A complicated image very well executed.
The tiny tiles add to the tunnel vision effect.

As a possible variant, would you have had yourself going into the mirrors infinitely, if you'd taken a step to either side, or did you try that & it didn't work?
Or cropped square, just to the edges of the mirror & to the top of the tiles to enhance the claustrophobic, tunnel-like view through the reflections.

Very serene. I like the sense of peace coming from the shot, and the pastel colours really work with the mood. It could almost be a pictorial rather than a straight record shot, where the colours & forms are more important than the actual subject.

That horizon is seriously wonky though, & since it's water, really needs to be level.

A very well exposed night shot.

Just a couple of suggestions.

The focus is on the foreground, where there's little to see. I'd have gone for the car under the street light.

If the road isn't nusy, you could try merging 2 or more exposures. It's easy enough to do in Photoshop, if that's what you use.
You set the focus & exposure, then switch both to manual, so they don't change.
Take several pictures as traffic passes.
Put them all in PS on separate layers.
Change the blending mode for all layers, apart from background, to lighten.

Hey-presto, instant M25 during rush hour!! (That's a very busy motorway-cum-ring-road around London, in case you didn't know).

Normally I'd say don't loom over the child, get down to his eye level, but there are always exceptions, & this is exceptional. Love that viewpoint, the conversion, everything.

Just watch your focus. His face should be pin sharp but is a little soft. I think the AF has focused on his hair, as that's closer (that's how AF works. It picks the nearest object, if there are several points it can focus on).