> The PhotoForum members' gallery/exhibit space was updated > on display at http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery.html includes: Peeter Vissak - "A hole in the ground" - somewhere I often want to find when I re-read my review comments just after I've hit send :o) Looking at this without context I'm afraid that's pretty much all it is. I can't see it as a pure art work but I do want to know more about what it represents etc from a documentary viewpoint. It's a really curiously shaped hole. An old collapsed mine shaft? A water sink? I don't think I would hang it on the wall but I would like to read the story that surrounds it. Qkano - GB-JZE Taken in Minorca (Mediterranean) in July 1983!!!! And this is the first time anyone bar me has seen the shot. I forgot I'd even taken it till a few weeks ago. Oh the joys of analogue :o) >From a technical point: it was on "Boots" own-brand colourslide film. 22 years later it is still saturated and well balanced colours. Now if only I could scan it as well as I can deal with Fuji!. David Small - Union Square series At first sight, immediate impression, a holy man. Even without the garb I would know this because of the halo all around him. Clearly David has used some sort of blurring (Gaussian blur?) to render the background less distracting and, having seen the original now off-list, I think that was the right thing to do. After all, why throw away a good shot just because you didn't have an f1.4 aperture set? The question for me is whether the halo helps, and if it does not, how to avoid it. I have prepared a page showing the comparison, with and without the halo. If David agrees I'll post the link later. I like the photo and think it worth the work Jeff Spirer - Fingers Yawn. This is getting boring Jeff. Can't you slip a duffer in again so I can have something to criticise? :o) Basically, another excellent shot, well presented. It needs to be dark. It does not contain much info or context the title is nice and neutral so it does not distract me. (Yet again I'm reminded how a title, or lack of it, can make or kill a photo). Well done Jeff. Keep up the good work Someone has to set the standard here :o) Rubin F. Diehl - Good Friday 2005 - Clown Well, I do think Rubin is a good photographer from past work show here but this one comes over to me as little more than a snapshot I'm afraid. Maybe I'm just too much of an old curmudgeon to like clowns and carnival :o) Photographically on my monitor (I can distinguish all the steps on a 26-step greyscale target) it needs a bit of work with levels. I moved the black points up to 16 (18 for red) which made it punchier. I then raised the overall gamma to 1.2 mainly because I want the chaps face to be lighter I also feel it needs a small touch of USM as it looks soft on the (real) clown's face. D.L. Shipman - Venice rookery, Oct 05 Much better than last week's but still a near miss I'm afraid - when judged against the really great shots I've seen of these birds. What is not quite perfect? Well, their heads are both turned away from us. No, it's a nice snapshot of the birds. It has caught them doing something instead of just stood there but it's still not grabbing me as an overall package. The sharp background does not help. Museki Abe - People 1 A nice simple scene. Somebody sitting in a tranquil spot composing haiku? :o) The silhouette of the person is very small in the frame yet is a key element of the picture. I like it. Technically: Another shot that improves (on my monitor) with some tweaking of the levels. The levels adjustment-layer settings I ended up with in PhotoShop were Red 10 - 231 (Black point - white point) Green 12 - 230 Blue 7 - 230 Note: I only include these values to be specific about what I mean by "punchier" . I've seen enough differences between monitors to know pictures can't look good on all of them :o) Emily L. Ferguson - Mist fountain at night I don't think you "mist" it at all, you caught it very very well. I'm very impressed with this apparent change in style Emily. I'm really left wondering what is going on and where it is. The boulder-strewn road evokes "Katrina". There is a smoothness in the mist that speaks of a long exposure but it worked. Morley Roberts - No Duck Could have fun with the title. Why not "No Hippo" or "No Marsh Mugger" ? I like the autumnal colours and the overall feel of the shot but I'm left wondering what it needs. Your title perhaps made me start looking for what is missing, almost as an apology for it. once you start down that road it's hard to turn back. >From: Chelsea for the PF exhibits staff To Arsenal and Manchester United and the other runners up?
