A lovely view, Christine, but a little underexposed. Difficult to get the exposure correct when the distance is in sun and the foreground shade. Generally it is better to expose for the highlights as you have done then put some light back into the shady areas in post-processing. Adjusting the vibrancy, saturation and contrast will then put some punch into the image. I would probably crop this image a little to remove the two intrusions on the left edge and bring the right edge in, up to the branches in the sky. I can show you what I meanb in a Mod if you want to enable them (via the options pull down menu).

Dave

Interesting one, Al. They do draw your eye in but then you don't go past them into the hills either. It's a lovely peaceful scene but I think the boats are necessary as points of interest . It's an 'IN' from me.

Dave

Morning, Christine. A lovely vista and very good use of the foreground flowers with the diagonal shape adding height to a mostly horizontal image. The focus is on the flowers and wire which has left the 'view' slightly out of focus. I suspect your camera settings may be fully on auto. If you increased the ISO to 200 the noise (grain) in the image would still be acceptable and reduce the shutter speed to 1/125 which is still easily hand held, then the aperture would get smaller (larger number, eg f11 or f16) and your depth of field of sharpness would be much greater.

Dave

It's recommended that you dial in +1 to 2 stops exposure compensation when shooting snow so it comes out white and not grey/blue. You have a lovely composition which can be lightened with processing, and this scene woyld convert well into mono.

Dave

Quote: Unusual background textures - an excellent mono image. A nasty setback Nathan, take care.

Would maybe have turned the chair so it was facing the scene but a lovely spot and presentation, Nathan.

Dave

A lovely balanced, square composition, Andy. It may be intentional on your part but the snow does look a bit too grey.


Dave

You've captured the detail, Kate, but I'm not quite convinced about the composition, the proportion of background to spoon looks just a bit too much still. Or maybe if you pull that middle top one down and show the whole spoon?

Dave

Beautifully sharp, Ronnie, and the eye stands out so well. The 'over-the-shoulder' pose fits this format perfectly. My only suggestion might be to crop the top so there is the same space from the head to the top as there is to the side (that might be just one of my idiosyncrasies but I find it gives a better balance in many situations).

Dave

The image is nicely apportioned into 3 different blocks. The composition does look balanced but the cut off tree at the top is a slight niggle for me. It's been quite interesting playing with different crops of this image but none look any better than the one you have here.

Dave

Such a strong line from the hole to the boulder, along the reflected light on the ice, to the sky. A well thought out composition but the least strong of the three for me, I think because the hole is so prominent and attracts my vision rather than being allowed to flow into the scene. Still a fine image, just not quite as fine as t'other two

Dave

Shame about the oof foreground twig, but the branches make an excellent frame, and a lovely pose to the bird as well.

Dave

Can't really add to the above, Nathan. I (try) to expose for the highlights in my low light images, then bring back a little detail in PS. I don't think your image needs anything changing at all, the highlights are not blown and the shadows give an excellent dappled effect and texture to the image. If the shadows were lighter I think you would lose this effect. It's always worth bracketing your exposures and going with the best aesthetic effect. If you want more detail throughout you're venturing into the world of HDR and not necessarily for the better.

Dave

A lovely peaceful pastel sky and glossy reflections, Mark. I had a play with it in CS5 and increased the brightness slightly then moving the mid-tone slider to the right gives more depth and richness the colours.

Beautifully done Ann, the shadows look to be in the right places, the lighting and exposure are spot on for me and the peeled orange is the piece de resistance. Now for the but.... if I had to find a niggle it would be that the texture layer is a 2D flat image of the wall and you are imposing it on a 3D image where the bowl is sitting on a platform with the wall behind at 90 degrees. Possibly only a minor point and not that noticeable unless you're critically analysing.

Dave

Nicely re-worked it is, too, Elizabeth. A fine variation, the only slight discordant note is the horizontal line in the bottom left where the bg meets the surface. Could that be 'fused' out.

Have a great New Year, and all the best for 2013.

Dave

A good angle and pose, Simon. Maybe a bit too central (for me) and I would maybe crop the right side to take out the rock and then reverse the image to put the zebra on the left and looking right.

Dave

Very good shapes and patterns, Mark, using the wide angle to great effect. Would love to move that pebble to the left a bit though - take a line from where the horizon meets the right edge, through the centre of the line of seaweed and plonk the pebble on that line equi-distant from the right and bottom edges ..... it's all about the maths

Dave

Lovely tones on the hillside where the mist is rolling down into the valley. Not sure if a step to your left is possible just to take the boulder a bit more off-centre. Beautiful atmospheric image though, Gavin.

Dave

'Frenetic activity' is a very good description by Walter. So many possibilities with the image as well. Maybe crop the top down by a quarter as the roof space doesn't add to the motion much and removes the glare of the right hand strip light. Colour 'popping' with the yellow is a possibility. Mono maybe. Lots to play with.

Dave

Lovely saturated colours, Mark and the sky looks good. Maybe it's the composition that's bugging you. There's no natural framing elements at the sides, the left side has branches but the trunk is off-image, the right has a small section of path that takes you out of the that side. As a result there's nothing to keep your attention focussed in the frame.

Dave