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.

Lovely colours, but too much foreground in both pictures for me, there is no real main point to catch the eye.
Its also a tad soft you used a 14mm lens so i assume you could have safely taken the shutter speed down to say 1/60th sec without worrying about shake blur. this would have allowed you to use soomething closer to f8 to get a sharper image from the better part of the lens and more depth of feild also to make it sharper.
If you'd gone to ISO200, you might have even got to f11 for better results again - if your sensor is good at ISO 200.
I have these red leaves on my house and love them too, though i have to hard prune them down one or twice a year to stop them taking over the roof too.

Wow you get about, lots of travelling.
You asked for comments, well in photoshop you can rotate by a custom amount of degrees, i'd rotate this shot by about 3 or 4 degrees left just to straighten it. Also i'd try and enhance the colours a bit more with a virbrance or saturation control.
These are lovely places - thanks for sharing.

Brilliantly crisp and powerfull/challenging, but personally the background is too strong for me, your model is almost coming out of the background - i think, looking at your profile, this is your style though and is in its self interesting. I like the lighting and the slight vignette, i might crop a bit of the LHS and bottom and frame around the elbow. The rabbit is quite disturbing but fits the image well. certainly a vote for creativity.

Completly different, nice match with the dress and the background. unconventional hand positions but in this shot why not. I look forward to more alternative shots to come.

Striking image thats not obvious as a thumbnail. Love the colours and composition. the only feed back i'd give is the shadow under the RHS person lip looks messy and the lipstick could be more on the RHS person. Look forward to more of this style.

Hi Mary, I love this type of shot and really like the exposure you have in here there is just enough exposure to show the detail inside.
In terms or critique, i feel the shot looks a little soft, and i'm guessing its done handheld with a wide F4.5 aperture as the RHS seems out of focus compared with the back wall. If this is the case i'd close the aperture down to about f11 or f16. Keep iso at 100 if possible. Now your going to need a tripod (or beanbag) as the shutter speed will be quite slow. retake the shot and it should be much sharper as its tripod mounted and with a smaller aperture for more depth of feild in focus.

This shot would also benefit from HDR processing if your into the software processing side of photographs too. in that case take a few different exposures from the same position.
Kind regards.

A lovely presentation of these flower and their colours.
It looks like the post processing under the shelf was a bit sharp as its cut into the petals' there is a feather option and a shrink/grow option in photoshop lelements that may help get this a bit smoother.
The flower stem without the flower head in the middle of the bunch, i'd typically cut this back so it was less obvious that it was missing.
Agree with Colmar on the flower on the right. Also you aperture is a little wide or the focus is a bit too far back as the flowers bottom front look to be slightly out of focus, unlike the top 2 which are perfectly sharp.
All that said i really love the way this shot is presented.

V1 for me for the size and unnatural view - Also like the shadow reflection (no reflected light) from the rock.
Added a mod - Auto Sharpened twice and vignetted. Slight darken tone change too - i wanted to reduce the amount of grey tones

Thats one way to deal with Seasonal affected disorder, but looking at the light out side she should be out there not under the lamp. Ok seriously - Great photo love the way her body reflects the lamps curve. The rug is neither in nor out so i would lose it completly next time, and maybe clone out the blue lamp securing mounting.
Her reflection in the floor is nice but disipears half way can you dodge this back in? As you not quite parallel to the window you have slightly off lines - could only change this at a different time of day to keep reflections and shadows. Maybe also the wall on the left is cropped a bit tight abd the leaf shadows on the blinds are clonable out? All that said i wish i could shoot shots this good and keep the lamp light in proportion to the sunlight etc.

V1 for me, i like the blue moon light effect. though the light high lights on her face look harsh, could she wear more face powder or could her face be lit with a soft light? Her expression is deep and thoughtful. The dress and outfit is great but could we see all of the skirt next time? it seems a little cramped in the lower left corner. her right foot shoe is lost in the black. Still its the best photo i've seen so far tonight. Cheers.

Nice image, actually I do like the framing of the Duck – it looks like its going somewhere.
The Reflections are good, though the water has too many ripples to appreciate it.
Colour is nice, but does not pop out of the page.
I’m guessing you took this at the longer end of the zoom range with the duck quite far away, this has two effects,
1. the image is not quite as sharp as it might be probably due to camera shake which is magnified at longer focal lengths, it also might me due to the lens itself being not so sharp at wider apertures – f5.6?. Could try using a smaller aperture, often f8-13 is a sharper area in the lens.
2. the aperture and subject distance dictates depth of field and the water in front and behind is in focus, if you were closer and the aperture was larger (trade of with point 1) then the blurring of the water behind would make the subject stand out more.

In the Mod, I’ve increased the contrast to add more colour (actually over done it to show the point), resharpned it (auto sharpen) to make the duck clearer. Then added a vignette to bring focus to the duck itself rather than the water around. Just to be a pain I added a simple border.
I'm not trying to take away from you initial picture just throw out a load of other optional ideas.

Lovely Image, leaves are great, but not the sharpest image - a tripod or faster shutter speed may help. A blue sky may really add some impact.

I disagree with the 1st 2 comments, whilst normally true about blurring your background this wall is sloping away from you so some of it is always likely to be in focus even at bigger apertures. So better to bring out the fact that the leaves match the lingerie; the statue in the background is a nice feature to include also as it adds balance to the models pose.
Sorry to disagree with Dave, but the model is refreshingly interesting and looks fairly comfortable in the pose. The tattoo in fact also adds for me something in the balance of rebel and angel in us all.
I'd watch the rock by her knee and the leaf on the floor as they distract me. I'd also loosen the hair on the top of her head as its tight and the rest of her is relaxed.
Its nice to see real people in photo’s – like your profile.

Like the idea lots, As you said you like comments - If are you using around f4 then try between f8 & F16 you will get more depth of feild as the fron looks slightly out of focus. The flash is giving really nice textured light but i feel you needmaybe a white paper sheet on thr right to reflect in a bit more light. Over all i'd try and over expose a stop or 2 then pull back the exposure in software to get a wider dynamic range from the sensor.
I like the fact that the background is black and not seen.
Do mention the lens in your shots if you can as its sometimes helpful - from you other shots i'm assuming it the 105mm nikon.
Your gallary is great, i wonder though if using a tripod and a smaller apeture generally might help.
Cheers.

Hi ade,

This is a great image that stand out well as a thumbnail and in Large. I like the light from our lower right picking out the subjects left (our right) eye it really adds a second level of interest or even character to Dave. The light from top left illuminats the neck and top very well and defines the hair, though i'm wondering if a smaller aperture might help bring the high lighted hair into focus and give it more impact as with a black background you don't need to through it out of focus. the light from top front brings out his right eye extremely well and the skin tone range looks perfect, the 2 different catch light positions unbalance the image but i can't really decide if this is a good or bad thing - damm indecision. Is there a 4th snoot over your right shoulder aimed at dave mouth/smoke?
Anyway i can't work the smoke thing out, it nice to see it, its well caught, but no cigerette or pipe; and why is his mouth closed? For me the smoke, though a great effect does not add to this photo.
I'm still in awe of the shot and very much enjoy looking at your work and trying to learn from it. Thanks.

Hi Robin, Re Critique buddies comment.
I liked the idea and even was thinking along the same lines until I saw yours, I like the idea of using multiple bulbs. The different bulb brands don’t work for me at the moment as it’s a distraction to the shape of the image; also as its almost a mono shot anyway I might take it back to black and white as these bulbs now represent the old way of lighting a house.
I note you use f4.8 I’ve not seen that setting before? I’m trying to use F8-F11 on all shots at present as I believe this is viewed as the best performing area of a lens to improve sharpness, as your tripod mounted exposure times can increase so I’d also use a lower ISO, I understand the lowest ISO is the best for quality.
Anyway great idea as I said, I really liked it.