Orange Is no Lemon

The more I look at it then the more I feel it is unbalanced. All the focus is too near the bottom. A simple crop taking out the mid bowl and above, but making sure to leave all the bottom bowl in the picture so that you can see that it IS a bowl of oranges, is probably better.

By: Merlin_k

Don't Burn It

That's a nice touch, thanks.

By: Merlin_k

Horses Eye

Hey you back, didn't realise you were on here!

By: Merlin_k

Jailed

Thanks, that helps actually. Sometimes it's as good having people say they don't like something.

By: Merlin_k

Sharp Morning

Interesting. I have ones without an out of focus teasel but I felt it added to the depth of the picture. I need to go back through them and look again. Thanks for the feedback, it's making me think.

By: Merlin_k

Winters Morning

This seems to be one of those photos that's "almost there". It caught my eye enough in the thumbnails view for me to want to look at it as an individual photo. But then I was oddly disappointed. The easiest thing to spot is that the horizon doesn't appear level, all the water is going to run out of the left side of the picture! I then find that the bottom half of the picture doesn't add anything, and in fact the tiny bit of bank on the righ bottom corner distracts the eye. This could be improved by going for a letterbox format, crop away the dead space. The photograph is called "Sunrise" but the sunrise itself is overexposed so that all the colours and glory of the sun in the right upper quadrant are lost - either a grey grad to tone down the sky or simply underexpose to rectify this (if it was shot in RAW then you might still be able to recover some of it).

By: jimhellier

Yellow

I agree about the stamens, that was why I had already decided that I wasn't going to get it enlarged and framed. This is where I put my hands up and say it had been a really long day and I was shattered so I didn't get the tripod set up and this was shot from hand. Lesson learnt though because looking at it I really wish I had nailed the focus properly.

By: Merlin_k

Old Age

Actually the leaf wasn't that flat. It is curled, and if I try to flatten it then it will break. Hence the difficulty with DOF.

By: Merlin_k

Natures Fingers

Thank you both.

And now I can see the naked female body. Suddenly the veil is lifted from my eyes and I can't look at it WITHOUT it being pornographic! I honestly hadn't seen that when I took it.

By: Merlin_k

Lavendar Junction

I'm not sure. The colours are strong, and it could be bold. But I am uncomfortable with the "junction". I suspect it would work well for me if the lines of lavender were unborken. Instead the two tress seem to be the point that draws my eyes, but they are strong enough to carry it off.

By: hwatt

Arts council

A slightly frustrating shot. I can see what you were trying to achieve but I don't think it's quite there. For a start there is too much blank wall, it squashes everything else down. The top half really neds to be cropped away.

Then I find my eyes are having to search too much. The graffiti itself is the main subject, the ladies are almost incidental. From the title you clearly want us to thiink about them, and what they are doing, but they aren't a focal point for the eye

Overall, for the juxtaposition and humour then I think you need to have the ladies filling the frame, from a lower angle, and the graffiti as the background, possibly even slightly blurred by using a low f number.

By: IgorDrankin

Hiding

Thank you. Actually you reflect what I was already thinking. Not my usual kind of thing and, as such, I wasn't sure if I was missing something. One to delete from my portfolio!

By: Merlin_k

And The Little One Said

Otters. At Twycross zoo

By: Merlin_k

On The Bus(es)

Thank you. I have a similar crop as well where I have taken away the bottom rail and the green nut, I was torn between the two for posting. Thinking about it I suppose I could have put them on as versions couldn't I! However your crop is even more radical taking away the window. Interesting.

By: Merlin_k

great crested grebe

Great picture, lovely use of depth of field.
Can you tell us a bit more - lens and settings used please.

By: ROB1972

Astrological Clock

I always find clock faces hard. The main problem is the edge of the clock, do you show some of the wall behind or crop down to only show the clock. I find that this picture has the same problem.
I would definitely crop away the border (is it a door frame?) on the left. But I would still probably concentrate more on specific elements. The blue is a lovely colour and I would be looking to make more it it to give the picture real presence.
In fact, is this upside down? IIIX doesn't exist as a roman numeral, seven should be VII

By: Pacifica

Christmas

I should know better than to play with colour balance! I am colour blind so normally will just add some vibrance.

Thank you, I will go back to it and tone it down.

By: Merlin_k

God is everywhere

The blurred section is the barrier stopping me go into the demolition site. Didn't have a lot of options. But while not entirely happy with it, I do feel cropping/photoshopping it out then leaves the foreground too empty and the "cross" coming out of nowhere. Ideal world would have been more rubble in the foreground. Probably should have asked them if I could actually go in.

By: Merlin_k

Who Goes There

Hi Adderwatcher. Of course I don't mind you playing with it (although I may not agree with your choices!). I specifically put pictures on for critique and mods rather than for votes becasue I am more interested in seeing how people would do things differently and thus learning.

By: Merlin_k

Street Lamp

It doesn't matter what I do to it in Lightroom, I can't get it to pop out as much as you have.

By: Merlin_k

Golden rails

Interesting. I really like the rails and the path leading down (I want to go there now). However my eyes can't decide if I am supposed to be drawn to the sun or the bottom of the rails. I would crop out the sun to make, in my opinion, a more balanced picture.

By: photodoktor

T Time

Thanks Nick. Interestingly I did try the crop without the very top because I also felt the pole distracted. I didn't like the loss of shape from the top T-shirts, but I know why you suggest it. And I think I will go with your suggestion.

By: Merlin_k

Shine

Thanks Dave. As the wheel was still attached to the car at a show I suspect the owner might not have been too pleased about me giving it a slow spin! However, an interesting idea.

By: Merlin_k

Silent Canal

Thank you NewmanP for your comments. The problem was the bank on the left. It wasn't particulalry photogenic, a rather rough dusty path which detracted from the overall. However I have uploaded the version that excluded the house

By: Merlin_k

The Dam

Lovely reflection but the trees in the background are a bit washed out.
You missed off the bit of the history about the welsh village being destroyed (now sitting under the middle of the lake) in order to provide water for the english in Birmingham.

By: alwolf

Me Myself I

Wow.
Been there myself but I swear never saw it that beautiful. Lovely picture. Thank you

By: hwatt

Trail Away

Thank you all
Patricia - can you tell me what you set the white balance to? Also what you mean by desaturated the snow. I like your mod.

By: Merlin_k

sitting tight

FOr me I'm afraid this doesn't really work. The branches cutting across the head and body are too distracting. I think I can see what you why trying to achieve, framing the head but overall it becomes too cluttered. It is neither a picture of the bird (crested grebe?) or of the branches. either could make an interesting picture but my eye doesn't know what it is supposed to be looking at.

By: sparrowhawk