This is a first good attempt at portraits but the white fade in totally spoils it for me. You also have a little red eye as previous mentioned. This can be remedied at the time of the shot by using off camera flash or in PS. Unless you are using umbrellas in a pro photo studio it is also too harsh. Try using reflectors - a gold reflector would cast a warm light onto the face. Also Personally I would never use landscape format for a head and shoulders portrait as it leaves too much space at either side which is why the white fade is probably so over powering and distracts from the image. I would like to see the original shot. Also if you use the modification option people can show rather tell you what they mean.

I hope this is helpful and taken in the spirit it is intended.

Ian

Love the contrast between the tones of the bird and the White snowy branches. As suggested the contrast, saturation adjustments would bring out the bird a little more but you would lose the softness -depends what you went for. One other thing to try and Im not saying it would be better is a slightly tighter crop to focus the attention on the pigeon a little more.

Great shot though

Ian

Love the angle but you need to include the whole face including the ears. You could take the same shot including all the face and the front paws sacrificing some of the body which would give much more drama and impact. You also have a little glare from the window in the bg so make sure you take this into account when composing your shot which I realise is not easy when working with animals. on a positive note love the pose, colour and detail (the eyes are sharp which is important in a portrait).

Good attempt and hence a very deserving vote

Ian

Simply a beautiful shot. I love the contrast in colour between the Autumn leaves and the mossy rocks and the way you have composed this and used a long enough shutter speed so that there is just a hint of the water. I also like the comp but wonder what it would look like in a more letter box format with the water running right across the diagonal. That is not a critism but a thought.

Excellent shot

Ian

This is a nice idea but one thing that I would suggest is to clone out the tree branches on the right hand side. An abstract should be something without being anything - if you know what I mean, not sure I know entirely - but the out of focus leaves add too much realism.

The rest is great blue background with a shere of some kind - doesn't have to be a bubble it could be glass for example with just a hint of interest in the bg provided by the white which doesnt have to be cloud. The tree branch however make it obvious the bg is sky.

Not very well put but I have uploaded what I mean.

Ian

I like the effect as it gives the flower a look of luxury velvet however I feel the composition and the isolation of the flower is a little off. Firstly the composition - the image would have looked more balance if the distance from the centre of the petals was the same to the left and to the bottom ie the petals coming together towards the bottom left I would have put right in the corner. The isolation of the flower to make the very dark bg I think has been done too precisely. I use the magic wand tool in PS to isolate the bg but then feather, (5 pixels), the marching ants before taking the bg brightness right down. This will give a less severe edge and make it look more natural.

I like the shot though and the two above things are only minute details.

Ian

Hi Mary

Thought my comment had actually be added just before my internet crashed - obviously not, so here goes again, (its been crashing on and off all night).

I like the shot because of the composition and unusual view point ie the stem and flowers arch into the image towards the viewer. A comment has been made about the over exposure but this could have been done as a high contrast image. Anyway, done deliberately or by accident the high contrast again makes this different from the usual bluebell image.

As for the bg - I'm not sure to be honest, and I would have been tempted to isolate the flower and stem and turn the bg B/W and up the contrast a little to give it that high contrat image look again, which would have fitted nicely with the style of the image. Try enabling modifications if this manipulation thing is a bit of a leap and see what people come up with, asking for a description of what they did.

Ian

Like this very much for a number of reasons. Firstly the DOF is spot on and goes very well with the different textures of the feather ie the more fluffy stuff is in the softer focus. love the composition also - love the way it curves into the frame and as it happens into focus. lastly but not at all the least I love those sheen like rainbow colours.

Excellent Shot

Ian

A nice shot and I liked the other version but I'm gonna be brave and say that the angle of the flower stem to the vase looks awkward. Dont know how you would get around this as I know the flowers hang from a horizontal branch. Maybe a vertical piece of the plant and not just the flowering bit could be included, or a different vase used (something that is longer than it is tall) or the vase could be presented at an angle to the vertical. Its a difficult one.

Hope you dont mind the comment as I really do like your work and think the lighting in this is excellent.

Ian

Like the way this leads the eye in through the DOF and diagonal composition. I would have just cropped the bottom to emphasize that diagonal and give the image a little more balance but apart from that a very good shot.

Ian

I think this has a lot of potential - nice low angle with good colour in the fg and the church in the bg. However this looks like it could be a HDR image, (if not it is overworked), and nothing is quite in focus - the church needs to be pinsharp. Also as suggested by Gary the verticals are not vertical which can be remedied in PS using the transform tool and will greatly improve the image. Also the flower pots take something away from the rest of the flowers and I appreciate that you cant go moving stuff - which would be a lack of respect - but you could thnk a little more about your composition and position when taking the shot as to not include them.

Hope this is useful and please take the critique in the good way it was written.

Ian

Now that is a daffodil photo - they are such a difficult flower to photograph in an interesting way but this has done just that. The daffs you have made almost just an accent to the image which works very well. The only thing I would say is as above it needed more flowers which can be done as above or cloned in PS.

Ian

This may be my eyes but this looks all slightly out of focus and alot of details have been lost especially in the petals. The water drops are a nice touch but again not in focus. also I feel its a little too tightly cropped.

Ian

Hope you dont mind me saying this as its meant in good spirit - this is all wrong for a macro. A macro no matter how close has to have a single point/area of absolute sharpness - in flowers this is usually the stamens when you are so close that yu have a very narrow DOF. For best results you also have to use a tripod to keep things rock steady as the slightest movement is magnified even down to using a remote infrared shutter release so you dont have to touch the camera onece the shot is set up. Use Single point focusing or manual. when using single point AF make sure the camera focuses on the part you want.

The trumpet of the flower being cut on one side also doesnt work as it makes the image unbalanced. crops work best when done on all 4 sides, 3 sides or two sides into a corner.

Hope you dont mind the advice

Ian

A nice shot - try cloning out the imperfections in the petals as these are distracting and look like artifacts on the sensor. I think you will be surprised the difference it makes.

Great shot all the same

Ian

I like the spray of dirt from the rear in this shot - looks very dramatic. Just one little thing - try giving the cars a little more space to drive into as it were - it will give a little more sense of drama and stop the car being so central in the image which should add even more drama to your shots.

Nice shot though and well caught and timed

Ian