This image is tailor made for HDR to bring out the detail but sadly in this case it is overdone. Once you start to get fringing between high contrast areas ( buildings and sky) it is a sure sign you have gone too far with the processing. With HDR less is more. If you have mods enabled I will
Upload a mod.

Ian

Its a shame its blurred and it isnt motion blur so adds nothing to the image of the HOVERFLY not bee. also the insect is on the wrong side of the image and makes it looks unbalanced. with this kind of space the subject should always be moving into the space and not out of it. As the bg is out of focus (which it should be for this type of shot) it would be easy to put the space in front of the hoverfly by extending the image on the right and then cloning more bg into this space using the bg from the left. The image can then be re-cropped to re compose the insect on the left giving it space to fly into. You could also try adding some motion blur to give some sense of that speed mentioned above.

Hope this helps

Ian

A really well posed for portrait. Just a couple of little things. I think the dof is great but I think the focus point is on her hair just above her right eye as we look at the image. This has made her eyes a little soft. In portraits it is the eyes sharpness that really make a image. Because of the pose used and the dof you can forgive the back eye being soft but the front eye needs to be pin sharp. Also I'm not sure about the make-up - she is a beautiful little girl without it and I think child portraits look much better natural. The lighting and warm tones, however, I think you have got spot on.

Just one other thing about composition. The image looks a little bottom heavy because of all the free space above her head. You could try a couple of things here. Just crop the space at the top or crop in such a way that there is no empty space and her hair goes to the edge of the image. This would then also have the effect of really concentrating the viewers eyes on the face and in particular the eyes. It may or may not work but as there is no mod availble I cant upload a version of what I mean.

Overall all though it a pretty good portrait and as I have said I love the lighting.

Hope this is useful

Ian

This is a Black Widow if I am not mistaken. You obviously know what you are doing to get a shot this sharp and knowing to use RAW to give you that post processing power. Did you sharpen it at all? If not most digital photos benefit from some sharpening as the last thing to do in the post processing process. Try 2 pixels at 60%.

Like I say, you have the ability to get the shot sharp in very difficult lighting conditions with longish exposure with a subject that moves. what ISO do you use? Depending on your camera you can go as high as ISO 800 without too much graining. This with a big F number with give you the quickest shutter speed as the dof doesn't need to be that great as fish as fairly flat creatures.

Its a really good shot but if I had one critique it would be that of composition. This would be best done in the post processing as a crop. If you have taken it in RAw, as you have, you can get quite a hefty crop before things deteriorate.

Well done and I hope the advice, if it is indeed that is what it is and you didn't know about the things suggested, is useful.

regards

Ian

I like this alot. Good detail and nice and sharp around the eyes. He also has space to look into which is good for the comp and his own body as the bg is a stroke of genius. Only thing I would say is that it is maybe a little too closely cropped at the top but this may have been to make as much of the bg his body. would have to see more space at top to see which was preferable.

Excellent shot

Ian

This is a great shot and I would give it a tighter crop as suggested above to enhance impact but would go with the portrait format as you have nicely captured enough of the London Eye for everyone to know where it is. The eye makes the buildings and the river a little redundant. I have uploaded a mod for you.

Ian

This is a great idea using the natural and man made stripes. However there are a few things that would improve things; some I have done in my mod.

Firstly this is crying out to be turned mono, secondly the image was unbalanced from top to bottom so I have cropped it to a letter box format.

Things I couldnt put right was that the image needs at least one of the zebra heads to be whole otherwise there is no focal point. You also needed a smaller aperture to give you a larger depth of field as the front zebra is out of focus.

Its also worth remembering that you could hang around a little longer to see if that better shot in terms of comp comes along. I recently spent 90mins in front of the zebra compound at the South Yourkshire Wildlife Park waiting for that perfect comp and eventually ended up getting a head shot of mother and foul together (see my pf).

Hope this has been useful and really like the idea behind the shot.

regards

Ian

Like the movement of the dress. would like to see a version cropped on the right slightly so the swish fills the full third of the bottom of the image. Is such a ggod photo not sure that the frame or texture bg is necessary but cant judge without seeing the original.

Great portrait though

Ian

Nice image and isolation. The wing tips look a little faded though - was it because of the isolation process? Also I would have put an oval marching ants round the subject, put a large feather on it and then with a brush faded the post away from the edge of the image. This would give it more balance top to bottom. To enhance further I would put a Stroke border of about 2pixels around the image. This was suggested to me on a mono giraffe image a couple of days ago and it made all the difference.

Just my thoughts

Ian

I like this image very much and it suits the mono format. I agree with the frame removal around the girls head but it depends on how accurate you want to keep the image.

You are a little close to their feet for me too in the composition and I would have given more space. The frames on the wall give a nice almost 'negatve' lead in as they lead the eye away from the main subject (the girls) which is kinda clever.

You have good dof and everything is pin sharp but you could have tried shooting closer and mire down the wall to give a narrower dof. This may have added more perspective and a little more interest/drama.

Hope this helps

Ian

Hi

I looked at this image because I couldnt quite make it out in the thumbnail and then saw that it was a kinda lighter re-post so visited your pf.

I think you have made a good attempt at varying your self portraits but they are all a little dark and perhaps serious. The best photo I think is your profile photo for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, it is correctly exposed and you have good light from one side (from the window of a train or bus). Secondly, the pose is more candid ie natural and sort of unposed if you know what I mean.

I would use the profile pic as a reminder to yourself of what looks right when trying to take the more posed for shots ie good light, be relaxed in your shots, almost always smile and make sure the eyes are pin sharp as they are always the point of focus in portraits.

Hope this helps

Ian

I agree with Ade - nice shot and idea but somehow doesnt work and I think its because you have been lazy with your selection technique. Because you have included half the bodies of the people in front of the bus it looks like you have just used the oval marquee tool.

It would have been better as you can see in tigertots mod if it had only been the bus. The positioning of the colour pop is also a bit off being placed in the centre. If you didnt want all of the bus then I would have had the front of the bus in colour fading to B&W towards the back and made sure I didnt include the people.

Try using the polygonal lasso to trace accurately around the area you want in colour and expand the selection by 1 pixel in modify.then return the selected area back to colour this will give a very definate line down the middle of the bus but can then be faded back to B&W using a second selection giving the colour a wide birth apart from the edge half way down the bus; feather the selection and then use the history brush to return to B&W. This should give a nice fade.

Hope this is useful

Ian

This is a great shot Jon. The placing of the plug is spot on in the bottom left and the fact that you have slightly cropped it works well adding to the drama of the flow of water down it. It also gives a great impression of the size of the thing. Your exposure is also great giving just that but of motion blur of the falling water-makes a fantastic concentric pattern. You have also got that great lead in of the dam and a wonderful backdrop to the whole image. The choice of mono for the shot also works well giving good contrast light and tones.

A truly super shot and it's on the shortlist.

Ian

Nice shot and presentation but you have got vignetting around the stamens from over sharpening probably. Best to place the auto focusing point on there at the time of the shot then less if any sharprning will be needed. If you view it large you will see what I mean - its come out as a blue line of pixels surrounding the stamens. If you have to sharpen this much you could always clone the blue pixels out but its tme consuming.

Ian

I like these dark shots with the highlighted areas and I think they work very well on shiny brass instruments. However for me this is a little too dark and would have liked the have seen a little more of the instrument so that the different areas didnt look so disconnected. It would only need to be the very slightest glint as this could easily be contruded as two instruments especially after a couple of glasses of wine.

Altogether though a good shot and good use of light and shadow.

Ian

I agree with Cat_123 in that the focal point was the sole of the shoe of No 73. This has put the rest of the image slightly out of focus but there are other improvements to be made. Firstly the biggest issue for me is that we have no sense of where the players are or are going. Is the ball being defended into touch, or are we on the way to the goal.

Secondly the image is a little flat which is done by both of the players being fairly square to the camera and both running in the same direction together away from the camera. I realise that this is out of your control pretty much but if it was easy we would all be sport photographers. You need to think about where to position yourself on the touch line when you are going to get the most angles, directions and most importantly the most opportunities to get a great shot.

Thridly the composition more than the landscape format is wrong. Always try to get the subjects off center of the shot it makes it much more interesting. Also if the players are on the left it makes the viewer think they are trying to go right - perhaps to the goal. The fact that you have the same space on both sides brings us back to my earlier point that we have no sense of direction. If you leave the space on the right it doesnt matter if they were going that way it will give a sense of it.

Hope this is helpful

Ian

This is a super shot and makes me think of the seaside. You have caught the contrast between the birds orange plummage of the head and the bg perfectly. I also like the comp which has slightly cropped the wing tips but I don't mind because I think you were after us concentrating our attention on the head.

Immediately liked it - well shot

Ian

A good action shot that, knowing how fast this game in being an ex-fan, is well composed. Just a couple of little niggles - have cropped the hull players scate and the action isnt totally frozen on the steeler player needing a faster shutter speed. Like I say just niggles really and very well caught - such a fast game!

Ian

Sorry to say but there are quite a few things wrong here.

Firstly the flower is over exposed and as a result you have lost a lot of detail. Secondly, is is not in focus and it is far too small in the frame.

I,m guessing that this was taken in bright sunshine and hence the overexposure - try waiting until the end of day when the sun isnt so strong or taking a cutting and bringing it indoors and using natural light from a window - but not direct sunlight.

The part of the flower that is usually chosen to be pin sharp are the stamens and really when using a macro lens - which you should be - the camera needs mounting on a tripod.

Composition - the flower tends to look lost in all that space on the left and it just looks like its poking into the frame from the side. Try to fill the frame with the flower - because thats what we want to see and bring it in from a corner rather than the side. A lot of space sometimes works - see my pf - but Im not sure it does here.

In my mod I have cropped, rotated through 45 degrees clockwise and then done a heavy sharpening to bring back some of the detail and to show what has been lost.

Hope this is taken in the spirit it is intended

Ian

Hi

This is a good shot and am glad you uploaded the original image from which I have done my crop in the mod. Had difficulty keeping the sharpness because of the uploaded file size we have to endure but you have the luxury of having the original RAW file so you wont loose any sharpness.

I did the mod the way I did because my only little niggle with this shot is that the pine cones at the bottom looked rather cropped and I have tried to give a sense of where they originate.

However who am I to critisize as I have tried catching these fellows and it is very difficult - they dont stay still for long so well done in the first instance.

Ian