Now, this is a good week! Let´s try some comments, with Darin´s
treatise open in the background... (but I feel I´ll have to start
with my immediate impression for each image....)
3 nov 2007 kl. 14.35 skrev ADavidhazy:
The PhotoForum members' gallery/exhibit space was updated NOV 03
2007. Authors
with work now on display at: http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/
gallery.html include:
Valery Firsov - Horsewoman
My immediate reaction was Wow, I like it a LOT (and I still do; I´ll
test it on my wife who is a horsewoman herself...). Now for Darin´s
points: 1) Technique perfectly suited to the photographer´s intent.
Deliberate (and effective) motion and panning blur, plus a shallow
depth-of-field that simplifies the image while keeping the sense of
being in the woods.
2) Composition very daring; lots of "dismemberments" that definitely
helps the image. And then, the main subject almost completely
hidden, with just enough seen to give the immediate idea of a
horsewoman without putting a particular person in place of that
idea. Absolutely no "distracting elements"; no other cropping is
possible. To add up, those small details: the horse´s eye and ears,
the twin pony tails (absolutely wonderful!), and the whip showing
just over the bright spot in the foliage.
To call this simply "best of the week" would be a gross
understatement. It´s one of the best images ever shown here; it is a
masterpiece!
D.L. Shipman - Stilt House Englewood 2007
Immediate reaction: another IR image... 1)Technique: flawless, except
for the almost burned-out roof and the shrubs in the lower left corner.
2) Composition & aesthetics. Very good composition; the house is
exactly center, but that works here because of the asymmetry of the
vegetation around it. The usual "IR eeriness" is well used, and
helped by the semi-tropical growth (surely this is Englewood, Fla,
not the Chicago area? OTOH, you state that you used "Fiji film", so
that may account for it...;-) ).
Howard Leigh - Hardknott Pas
I want to go to the Lakes again... and those beers wouldn´t be
sneered at either... 1) T: On my monitor, it looks just a tiny bit
washed-out, and not entirely sharp. DoF surely would be sufficient
using a small-sensor camera in good light, but it seems AF has locked
on to the grass in the lower left corner, not the more distant view.
2) C & AE: pleasing composition, with a good sense of depth and a
well placed vanishing point; one wants to walk straight in! The
strip of tarp in the lower right detracts a bit, but just cropping
the entire bottom strip doesn´t work either.
Trevor Cunningham - landslide
Background looks just like a Swedish pine forest, but the foreground
and the lines of the land tells us this is far away... T: Just a
little dark and murky, even given the kind of weather you want to
show. Also, the downsampling has taken away much of the detail that
probably is there in the original. C & AE: the entire image tends
to "fall away" to the left; maybe that´s exactly how you wanted it,
considering the title. The sky and skyline is beautiful, and the
brighter foreground contrasts well with the dark forest.
R. Blakely - Where's that Garter?
Looks like a grab shot of a funny moment; don´t know if it´s some
prank tradition behind it... ;-o
T: sharp, well exposed. Looks like fill flash, but you say available
light. C &AE: tightly and carefully cropped; the stool on the left
actually adds to both the sense of the place and the "snap impression".
Linda Buttstead - TRUST
Show me a cute dog, and I´ll love the picture.... That look of
absolute trust and friendliness is perfecly caught here. T: the fur
on top of the head is overexposed (dog fur is difficult; a white and
a black dog playing is as demanding as a formal bride-and-groom...),
otherwise perfect.
C & AE: very good concentration on what´s important (dog face & hand)
with just enough of the bag shown to round off the story. Eye
perfectly placed in the upper left "thirds point"; the fuzzy lines in
the background parallel with the axis of the bag. Very good work!
Emily L. Ferguson - Cranberry Bog Storage Shed
Judging from your latest 2 contributions, you seem to have moved into
calmer waters.... Suppose cranberry season and Thanksgiving is very
important over there (there are wild cranberries in Sweden too, but
other berries are more important here, like lingonberries and
cloudberries). T: flawless, as behooves a pro... everything is right
there. C &AE: very good; rule-of-thirds repeatedly applied. Good
use of reflections, harmonious colours (luckily, that old school bus
has faded just enough). Can´t identify those small yellow triangles
in (on) the water; I´d have been tempted to clone them out...
Don Draper - Autumn view
The kind of shot most of us just can´t resist when autumn colours
come... T: well exposed, just a tiny bit too contrasty. Sharp main
subject, well toned down background (it should be, with a 900 mm
effective focal length....). C &AE: You´ve managed to fill the
frame with leaves without either cutting to many of them, or getting
unsharp ones intruding in the image, and that that´s quite an
achievement. That said, there seem to be just a little too much
crammed into that rectangle. The "negative space" around just a few
leaves (esp. maple leaves) can be very effective in contrast to a few
bright leaves; here we tend to get dominant clumps of leaves, and
just a little negative space to balance them.
Ouch, Darin, what have you done to us? ;-) This posting took at
least twice the time it used to; is it really twice as good? Others
will have to judge; at least I feel I´ve looked more carefully at
this week´s crop, and that´s alwas a good thing. Part of the
benefits of assessing other work is the improved perspective it gives
on your own.
