Trevor Cunningham - frangipani leaf silhouette
I love it. Its a fresh composition. The B&W tonal range is spot on. Cudos!
D.L. Shipman - Orchids at a local show.
This is another very pleasing photo. The only issue I have is that as
the petals start to fade to darkness you can still make them out and I
see wisps of background elements that probably could have been clipped
to remove the distractions.
John Palcewski - Self Portrait
Clever composition. I like your hair style! (having recently gone that
way too). The (I assume) camera straps coming out of your ears give you
an alien look. But in the end, the straps are kinda distracting. The
Arrow though provides a great direction to see the rest of the photo.
Overall well done!.
Yoram Gelman - Two Strings
I really wish there was a bigger version. But then the motion blur
might be too much. Stage lighting is tricky and you have gotten a good
exposure. Subject motion in a photo, as you mentioned quivering leaves
can be a positive in a photo. In this case, the mandolin player's hand
is blurred from playing and it brings live to the subject. There are
parts that look very sharp which means you managed your motion rather
well. The other piece is managing the subjects movement and that's a
delicate balance. The mandolin player's head is very soft, but there
isn't enough movement to convey that he is moving. You're almost at a
line between too much or not enough and you need to go a little one way
or the other if that makes any sense. Over all its a good photo.
Pini Vollach - Abstract stairs
Interesting composition. The fissure in the rocks juxtaposes with the
tree trunk. SOAPBOX: I'm glad you're doing some post processing. I've
had numerous discussions with other photographers who say "If I get it
right in the camera then I don't need to do anything else". My take on
that is, sure get it right in the camera, but your dropping your film at
Walmart and oohing at the 4x6's you get back. Getting it right in
camera is half of the process. Post is the other half. Ansel Adams did
his best to get a great negative to work from, but most of his time was
spent breathing dektol and stop bath. It was his endless hours in the
darkroom that made his photos works of art. In the digital world, our
darkroom is Photoshop and you cannot produce the best works without
spending time there. Tone and color adjustments and burning and dodging
are all representative of what we did in the chemical darkroom. A
photographer looking to do their very best will shoot RAW or if they
have to shoot JPEG, will shoot a flat contrast, low sharpness and in a
color space that looks like ick on the web (Adobe RGB) to get the most
data possible for use in post production. OFF SOAPBOX. Thank you for
putting up with my rant.
NOTE: This is assuming you are shooting many photos to get a few to
work with. If you're shooting a wedding where you have to shoot many
photos to get many photos, you want to bump up the sharpening and in
camera contrast and saturation so that you don't have to spend too much
time in post..... Its always a trade off . . . a balance....
Mark Harris - Katy_T with Lace
This is a photo I wish I had taken. Strong composition. Good B&W tonal
range. Good job managing the lighting on the subject. Her playing with
the lace while accomplishing covering up accomplished two things, 1.
covering up, but more importantly 2 providing a soft dynamic to the
photo. Excellent.
--
Rob Miracle
Email: rob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Web: http://www.robmiracle.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/MiracleMan
