Excellent shot, love the sharpness of the models eyes and the way the hood is just lit around the outline to make it show.
In terms of critique - maybe only that it all happens in the top LHS, its almost too cluttered all in one space, it could be spread out a tiny bit more. the lower section seems empty and the detail/lace on her top stands out but does not add either a sexy or hard look as it is at the moment.
Also her lipstick seeps to stop with a very hard line - looks odd to me.
- I'm perhaps being over picky here but only to try and critique i think could change for the better.
Kind regards
Stuart

True then eye is drawn into to the shot with this technique, very well done for a compact and its limited DOF.
However for critique, i'd suggest that there is nothing your eye is being drawn in towards, and that the beauty of any one individual fruit is not there to be seen. perhaps next time lift one up to make it stand above the others so it can be seen as well.
Stuart

Good bit of backlight to define the hair and but the soft hazy look is not something i'm a fan of - though its popular on a few recent uploads.
Also the lighting looks quite hard on your face, I'd use a softbox closer up (the further away a light source is the more directional it is).
The pose and the orange work well.

Hi John,

It looks rather like "inflight" but with the eye makeup changed and the reflections on the lower lip gone.

OK if i'm looking for reasons not to choose it as a comp winner - and i'm being over picky here as you work is one of those i aspire too.
The reflection on the top lip is very dominant and almost square, her left eye (as we view it here) is black but the other is blue.
maybe light pink nail polish similiar to her lips would add impact? the light on her left forarm seems to transition from white to grey with quite a hard line - could the grey be lightened just a tad? this may also help keep her arm seperate from the background on that side.

Some other crazy ideas - could the hair be made more blond to match the dress - more like that odd blond curl on top of her head?
Could you clone in more mesh over her left arm to make it seem joined to the dress, the hair is so dominant - could it be blurred just a tad on the far LHS to lessen its impact?

Feel free to ignore all the above as i'm still quite amatuer and have no ide what judges may like.

Best wishes anyway,
Stuart

Hi Steve,

Lovely posed moment captured here, although i think the hard directional light is causing some issues with the texture of her skin. Also around her left eye there seems to be a series of round black dots ( healing brush to lose a hair?) I like how the light on her back shows off her top and bra.

Cheers
Stuart

I like how there are so many angle and frames in this image and also how its processed into almost a statue effect. Even the cloud detail adds to the shot with the model looking up into them - Excellent.

Not sure its exactly fashion, though without stitching fashion is hard - if i had to submit 2 images then i might submit this to make people think, but not as the main shot.
That said i like the composiiton of the shot and the way the hands are lit - though there seems to be quite a lot of saturated colour in the shot and the hands detract from the thread - i wonder if everything apart from the red garment and the thread could be made into a B&W shot? Actually looking at the mods then yes B&W with colour pop on the red.

I love the late summer feel of V1, the expression of warmth and emptyness, softness and hard geometric shape.
v2 is also quite nice, the instant moonlit feel is nice, though the sky becomes a flat textured surface if you look too long, it need to stretch out into the distance. the whole of v2 now looks like a cool blustery day and has a slight odd snowlike quality about the sky - likes and dislikes.
I like the Arty feel of v3, its no longer a photo for me (which is neither good nor bad), its now an image as if viewed out a smeared cafe window. I feel warm as if i'm looking at a tranquil scene from a comfortable position. the horizontal streaks in the sky are nice though the moon light angled beams are at odds with the sun position for me.
V1 still my fav , then v3.

There is a great feel to this portrait and i'd like to just vote for it;
But critique, OK her hair sticks out on camera left and this is drawing my eyes from her captivating eyes. the grey background and grey tshirt are starting to blend, have then wear a darker colour if possible or light the background more.
Crop, i might lose 10-20% on the right and 20-25% on the bottom of the pic as i feel she is looking out of the frame leaving space that's not adding to the image. No one ever always right so ignore comments you don't like.

Nice image in difficult light & wind, sharpness is fine its just that the focal point is too far back into the frame and with the shallow depth of feild from the zoom and wide open aperture only a section will ever be in focus. Maybe you were just a tad too close or the wind / camera shake move the position between you and the flower between focusing and the shutter actually firing.

That said - excellent first upload really does isolate the flower from the background well.

Maybe also straighten the image, though this will look less dynamic.
Also as the background has a brightish red area top right i'd either dodge/burn this down in intensity and then further blur the background as its detail is too recognisable. Or i'd crop from the top to lose it completly.

Also you can allow modifications, so that we can upload mods sometimes.

Lovely detail, i'd convert this to full mono - that ribbon swarf is (i think) quite beautiful.

Can i say a bit sepia & magenta - Work samsung monitor uncalibrated.
The vertical texture seems to be in conflict with the mostly horizontal line from my POV, i also wonder if the texture is not a bit small for the image, its statring to look like blur not texture.
I've also tried texture but can't get it right, it always seems to soften the whole image, not just where the texture features are.
Thnaks for sharing.

Hi John, lovely capture.

Its a white on white subject and the camera has tried to average the exposure out to the 18% grey thats the average for most images. So the whites have become grey.
If it was against a blue sky it would probally have been fine.

You can brighten this is software as i did in picassa (the 2nd mod).

But you can also brighten it in camera - much harder for a mobile subject like this but you'd want to either use a Av/Tv or P mode with exposure compensation maybe +1.3 ev - but you'll need to try this out to fine tune it.
Or go full manual - and set iso, aperture & exposure.
Say to ISO800, f6.3, 1/500 - but this is a wild guess for the scene you might have been in - again its trial and error and with close observation of the in camera exposure meter.

Another control that can help is white balence, but AWB is usually fine for this type of subject.

Quote: It will be wet print I see what you mean about the light. That is supposed to be part of the project. I can see the lines are out, I dont undestand why. I think I must have taken it at an angle. Thankyou for your comments

As your looking up at the image the lines converge at Top infinity, you need to remove this distortion in say photoshop. Its an old building and the verticals my not be verticle anyway. You could try a dark corner vignette to reduce the images reliance on lines. also the RHS is a bit burnt out for me.
May be i'd instead try just darkening the fore wall to make the back wall seem more seperated.

Unusual angle makes the water look like a waterfall going downstairs.
the f2,8 aperture keeps the background nicely blurred but the slow shutter speed leaves all the water blurred. the detail in the top right is a bit distracting for me. But overall a good interesting shot.

Hi Phil, Lovely rich colours and what a pretty place.
You asked for critique though, and the lovely building is a bit lost in the rest of the shot, this is as the foreground dominates - i've cropped some of the lower section off. Also rotated it a big left to straighten it.
Due to the time of day its a bit dark on the side we are looking at, so i lightened it. and cooled the colour temperature down a bit.
( I love picassa) I also then got carried away and put a graduated tint on it to simulate a polarizer and finally sharpened it.

Hi Simon, you asked for critique of the photo of your lovely child,
I'd want to see you wife's face as well so her hair need tying back. and perhaps a single colour top would not cut the picture as the dual colour top does.
In picassa i've done a crop and a soft focus to draw us just to the child. But when you do take this again your wife and the child's faces.

Hi Kjteng,

Nice profilec, i like your theme area.
In terms of critique for the above photo the bug is too central for me, the rule of 3rds allows us to lose the space above the bug ans draw us into the bug more as well as losing the out of focus area.
In picassa, i've cropped, adjusted the orange to be less intense and sharpened the image.
Does this work for you?

ISO 400 is about limit for anything good out the 400D (i have the same camera and lens). The small aperture is good and such a small aperture gives the great star effect on the lights which reduces as the aperture opens. However f16 is also moving out of the best (f8-f11) part of the lens.
As the foreground has little detail, apart from the water which your bluring with the long exposure, i'm thinking that you don't really nead the deep depth of feild you have selected with f16; So maybe instead f8 or f10 would allow you to step ISO down to 200 for more quality, and may even allow you to shorten your exposure to 15 seconds too - still loads of time to blur the water but less noise will be present (see below) and the shot may end up sharper at the bigger aperture.
The long 30Sec exposure does soften and smooth the water but also adds to noise - there is a custom function to reduce noise for long exposures on the 400D.
I also agree with the comments above on crop and level.
I'd add that if you can get down closer to the water you will get more reflection - then need f16 this will fill the frame more.
Also if you take the same shot a bit earlier in the evening you will still get sone sky light too to add interest.

Please do hit "Mark as Constructive Critique" for those you think are helpful.
Hope to see another version soon, cheers, Stuart.