devlin

Hi Cathrine, its a beautiful flower , though i think this could have been done better. First of the composition, right now its a little two central i would have preferred a more closer approach basically fill up the frame with just the flower in it, this would allow for one more detail to show up in the flower and make it more prominent in the image, secondly i would go lower down to face the flower at eye level, this would also get rid of the stick (that runs in from the left hand side of the frame and disappears behind the flower) as a distraction from the central theme of your image . It also looks like the focus was on the leaves since they seem to be nice and sharp with more detail than the flower itself.

Cheers

Prabh

Hi Victor,

Welcome to EPZ and the critique gallery, and thanks for the description on your upload, it helps to understand what you were trying to achieve. Keeping in mind your desired intent, i feel the image doesnt convey the story as you would wish it and this is solely down to the way the shot has been composed. The house or box as you put it which is key to the message you were trying to convey needs to be more prominent than it is right now, basically the eye gets drawn to the sky which takes up a large part of your image with the power lines second and then finally the house. For this to work effectively try and visualize a composition which places emphasis on the house and the sky equally, and this can be achieved by changing the point of view, get closer to the house capturing it in its entirety with the sky looming up behind it, go for a lower perspective and try and place the house a little off center and avoiding the power lines.

Cheers and hope this helps

Prabh

caisii, i think this had all the potential of being a super shot, provided it was composed well , as it stands right now the child is 1) too central to the image, 2) there are distractions on the side and in the background. Ideally i would suggest go down to the childs level from a point of view perspective, this would 1) allow you to capture the whole scene without cutting the kid off, 2) try and get her a bit off center 3) would allow more context to the shot by bringing in her surroundings in a more impactfull manner. I have done a mod in an attempt to improve the composition, basically by 1) cropping from the left to bring the child onto a third and creating a diagonal line of sight between her and the kid in the background 2) cloned off the two half cut off figures in the background. mod 2 is a mono conversion.

Cheers and i hope this helps

Prabh

Another potentially good image here Pradyoth, i do have a few pointers :-

1) Placement of the man within the frame is not really ideal, as of now he's too close to the edge, a little more towards the left would place him nicely on a thirds creating more impact
2) The image could do with a little brightening and some contrast adjustments @ 8.00 am in the morning there would be a little more light than what we are seeing here

Cheers and hope this helps

Prabh

Hi Glenn, the settings seem ok to me exposure looks good too. I would though consider:-

1) Cropping a bit from the RHS to get rid of the smoke stack
2) Brighten the image a bit
3) Add some contrast

have done a mod.

Cheers and hope this helps

PS: - As a record shot this works well, but maybe a good idea to give a description of what we are looking at

Prabh

Hi Pradyoth, the image is nicely composed, though i think you need to watch the exposure here,the whites in the wave seem to be overexposed a bit, though i think the comp is ok, it can be further improved if you had placed the lady a bit away from the edge of the frame maybe you can experiment with some crops to see what works best for you.

Cheers

Prabh

Pradhyoth, this has been very well captured, the composition is good and it conveys the early morning calm before the storm which we are all so familiar with in India very nicely, Mono suits this image, iam not too sure though whether or not this has been overexposed though it does look a tad bright, always a good idea to post the original image up as a version when posting in the Critique Gallery it gives an idea as to where an image has been derived from , anyways i have attempted a mod on this and tried to go for an alternative mood to the image.

Cheers and hope this helps

Prabh

Hi Pradyoth, this is well executed concept with the generational contrast coming through nicely. Technically though this could have been better like Frank says above a little fill in flash would have helped here a bit, personally i dont mind the pan over the kids head its an essential part of the image. I have uploaded two mods the first one is been lightened by adding some fill in light to lighten the old ladies face and bring forth some detail, i have also cloned out some distractions from the RHS side of the frame. Mod 2 is a mono conversion as an alternative treatment, though it looks quite good in color too.

Cheers and hope this helps

Prabh

Good one, i like the way eye contact has been made it lends to the overall impact of the shot, would just have preferred the subjects towards the RHS of the frame to avoid the negative space ...

Cheers

Hi Phil, a pleasing set of images, though i think V2 is much better than V1 as i feel that the yacht and the background sort of compete in V1. I think the exposure seems to be ok, but i would probably have underexposed this one slightly or metered for exposing the RHS of the image which due to the concentration of the lights on that side seems a little too bright which sort of gives the impression of one big source of light rather than a chain of light stars, i typically go for manual mode for night shots, to get the exposure right, in this case probably a lower f value of around f/13-16 would have allowed you to take a shorter exposure. I would also try and crop this a bit from the top since the shoreline is a bit distance a letter box crop might bring the subject into more prominance. I have done a rough mod where i tried to lower the temp a bit cloned out the light source (iam assuming its coming from a building) in the top middle of the image and then cropped a bit from the left and the top. Of course these are just my suggestions from my little experience in shooting in the night V2 as it stands looks good too

PS : - Looks like i uploaded the wrong mod, please ignore it # 2 is the correct one.

Cheers

Prabh

I think it works, i feel the shadows lead in very nicely to the building...forming a nice centering point with the branches on the two sides on the top. Its also been nicely exposed and composed . I feel though a mono look could also work, have uploaded a mod with some toning to give it a dramatic look. I hope you like it

Cheers

Prabh

Just adding on to Dave above if you get the chance to take this again, i would suggest getting a lower point of view this will unlock the potential of the image from an impact standpoint, for this one i think the mod works best

Cheers

Prabh

Hi Dorian, welcome to the C&G gallery firstly i would recommend you read the guidlines for uploading here in a nutshell provide as much info as you can on the camera settings in terms of aperture, shutter speed, focal lenght used etc

Moving onto the image the colors are definitely improved by the mod already uploaded so thats been addressed, i like the way you have managed to get the exposure right in terms of the whites and the detail in the sky i feel though that this can be improved further compositionally as of now your image is split down the middle in terms of the peaks and the coast line with no one element of interest standing out or in other words the focal point of the image which draws the eyes to the image. If you get the chance to take this again try different angles try focusing on something which provides some interest to the shot overall you could also try stepping back a bit and capture the peaks in their entirety with the coast line providing additonal interest etc...

Cheers and hope this helps

Hi Mozzy, iam not too sure how one goes about photographing train models but to me i dont see much wrong with this image at all, it seems to be well exposed, the lighting seems just about right for what you were trying to achieve..though the misty effect doesnt come through very clearly, from a composition perspective traditionally you would want to see the subject entering the frame rather than going out of it though iam not too sure if this would apply to this. Have done a mod to try and see if it could be made better, by cropping it a bit from the bottom avoiding the cut off grass at the bottom gave it a contrast and a red boost increase to bring out the color of the train.

Thanks for posting this up though cause it generated enough interest for me to research this subject and i came across this site which spoke about techniques specific to train models, if you dont know about this already i hope it helps to further your efforts

Train Models Photography

Cheers and hope this helps

PS: - I also wouldnt worry too much about the votes, with so many images being uploaded its easy to get inundated

Prabh

Hi Heng, Its a well attempted shot, though i think your focus has gone onto the tree with the squirrel (?) coming as a bit soft. Always a good idea to post your camera settings when uploading here to the Critique Gallery it helps to understand what's going on in the Image.

Going on i think the composition could also be improved a bit by cropping from the left and putting the squirrel on a thirds intersect, done a mod and also increased the contrast and saturation a bit and then applied the warming filter in PS

Cheers and hope this helps

Hi Tim-Its been nicely done a left to right diagonal composition and the water's movement has been well frozen, my only suggestion is that the rock protruding up from the bottom of the screen distracts a bit, alternatively i think it would have had good impact if you had stepped back a bit and included it completely in the composition.

Cheers and hope this helps

PS: - Always a good idea to include your camera settings in the description

Nicely done images, and a very interesting concept i like V2 no critique to offer other than to suggest that it may be made better by cropping / cloning out the structures at the bottom of the shot

Cheers and hope this helps

Version 1 works well for me, just feel though that probably theres a a little too much of the sky in the image, personally i would have cropped it down a bit from the top . Other than that i like the image , though i also feel that there could be some more interesting images to be found here by adjusting your point of view maybe a little to the left or try changing the mode to landscape to get what i think is a track running down there.

Cheers and hope this helps

Hi Robin,

Not too sure if this image works, the exposure seems good, and so does the focus, however it leaves a bit to be desired from a composition perspective. Its a bit too close to the edges on the left hand side, and cut off from the bottom, i would suggest you take this again and try and get the model in its entirety with the placement being on a thirds intersect google ROT for more info on this.

Cheers and hope this helps

Hi Ernie,

Exposure seems to be spot on and i like the blue and white colors in this shot. I do have some points though which i feel would improve this shot.
1) There is a shadow that's crept into the frame at the bottom (yours i believe ) which adds to distractions.

2) At both edges of the frame LHS and RHS its a bit cluttered and half cut of cars which distract, i think a closer zoom would have been neater.

3) I feel there is too much space at the bottom of the shot again a closer zoom would sort that one out

I have attempted to correct the above points in the mod. Hope you find this useful.

On a side note the front shop area of the shot in itself would lend to an interesting shot it has a lot of detail and elements which would be of interest and would make a good image , this could also make for an interesting color pop image if you like that kind of thing, with the shop area color popped and everything else in mono

Cheers