★ Wed C&C No Theme Thread #18 - 080806 ★

Welcome to the Wednesday Comments and Critique No Theme and shelter from all things micro Four Thirds Thread!

Feedback is guaranteed (for up to 36 hours after the thread is started)!

You post an image and get critique on it and in return give other people your opinion of their images. Any style, any camera.

HOW TO PLAY:

1: Turn on Threaded view and reply to this post with a single web-sized image. Change the Title so we can sort different images out easily.

2: Get back to this thread in a minute, an hour or a day or so, and -

3: Still in threaded view, look at one or more pictures of your choice, click reply and critique it

The critique you give is vital. What was your first impression? What catches your eye about an image? Why? What do you like, and what distracts you. What would you change? Fiddle with the image in your head - composition, perspective, colour balance, exposure. Do you know something about taking the same sort of image that would make matters easier - share your own as an example in your reply. Encourage - it is a scary business putting your work up for other people to judge.
Finally what is the verdict.

4: You are now entitled to post another image, in this thread or another week

5: NEW: Remember to add the EXIF if your image doesn't embed it as this may help

6: Image posters - consider telling us what your own take of the image is - what prompted you to click that shutter button. What did you see? You don't have to but it might be interesting.

Here is last weeks thread -
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1022&thread=28790656

Questions? Read the Long version. If you still are confused, mail me. The last version of the Long version was posted here:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1022&message=28086299

Cheers,
-Gautham

This is a placeholder for anything related to the C&C threads. And I mean anything - feel free to start a discussion about the threads, or how you felt when your image was trashed by some mean b@st@rd, or how it feels trying to say something polite about a cr@ppy image posted for review. Or micro Four Thirds if you absolutely must. Or something else. Like asteroids crashing into Thom Hogan's car.

gnarayan said:

(...) Or something
else. Like asteroids crashing into Thom Hogan's car.

Click to expand...

He has a car? Who gave him a driving license? If he drives as one-eyed as he predicts the camera market he should be asked to go by cab and argue with the driver.

And why is the thread this late? G; I always started around 1400 ZULU time. We can't have it this way! Lol.

Cheers,

--
Jonas

Posted this in the street photo thread but thought I'd use it here to see what you think.

Despite appearances it isn't shot from the hip - I knelt and took it quickly and moved on. It isn't technically perfect at all but I thought it was very human for someone perfectly normal sitting on the steps to put his head in his arms, perhaps just tired, after a long day.

EXIF: ISO 800, 25mm/1.4, 1/25th



--
C&C always welcome.
Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gnarayan/

Friends,

After a few weeks with the camera on the shelf, except for some lens testing, I have at least taken a few "real" images. These were mainly some pictures Elisabeth told me to take during a redent trip to the south part of Sweden called Skåne. She wanted some tourist memories. One evening I had a walk by myself and found some motifs myself. So, here is one of my tourist snaps. Lol - remember I am a city boy and to me it was interesting to see this whispering, self moving watering aid a farmer put to action close to were we stayed for the night. Yes, I'm a simple soul and have always liked simple but clever technical constructions. The damp attracted insects and I got stung by things I don't know the name of while trying to get the image. Yeah, vacation memories.

There isn't much to say about the image; it was taken in the mid sunset with a light between sunset and blue hour. It's a 2-pic pano (so the EXIF is lost) taken with a 50mm lens set to f/1.4, ISO200 and 1/30 sec.

Any comment welcome, rip it apart and tell me what I really should have done there out on the field! The PP caused me troubles getting trying to get decent colors, faithful to my memory and at the same time not over the top. Is that part OK?



Cheers,

--
Jonas

(BTW; It was fun taking a few pictures that evening.

@Bill, I read your reply last week. If you held up for a year and then came back with the stuff you do now I'm not worried at all for my lack of inspiration. I should probably just leave it for a looong time, lol.)

Jonas B said:

And why is the thread this late? G; I always started around 1400 ZULU
time. We can't have it this way! Lol.

Click to expand...

Jonas I'm in Massachusetts - I work on EST - that is Eastern Stretchable Time ;-)

--
C&C always welcome.
Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gnarayan/

Nicely snapped. I would have cropped off some of the foreground, though. All that pavement lessens the impact of the photo for me.
--
Cheers,

• Stefan

gnarayan said:

Jonas B said:

And why is the thread this late? G; I always started around 1400 ZULU
time. We can't have it this way! Lol.

Click to expand...

Jonas I'm in Massachusetts - I work on EST - that is Eastern
Stretchable Time ;-)

Click to expand...

OK, I'll adopt, stretching is good. And I'll check out Massachusetts on a map. And maybe I didn't start at 1400 either, it may have been around 1200, lol.

It feels like along time ago anyway - and I'm happy you took on the responsibility for the thread.

Cheers,

--
Jonas

Trying to get this lighting effect down so I had to use the only model I had. She wasn't too happy but I think the lighting worked out OK.



Here's a diagram of the set up:

This summer I have been going around in the area where I live to visit some of the grandure of the local nature, something I have never done before and I can really say that I am quite breathtaken with what has been hiding from my sight in the area.

This place lies outside the small town of Gäddede about 150 km from my home in the same county. It is a breathtaking narrow canyon that had me defy my extreme fear of heights and fear of water to take some possibly interesting snaps and balancing on the edges of death...

The weather was unfortunately not the best with difficult light and very dark shadows down there hidden from the sun.
Exif: ISO100, 14mm, f/7,1 and 1/20s



--
Daniel

gnarayan said:

EXIF: ISO 800, 25mm/1.4, 1/25th

Click to expand...

Gautham,

I saw this in the "Street" thread and my initial impression remains as it did then. Think square!
--
Troll Whisperer
Bill Turner

Recent Images:
Please do not edit my images without asking permission.
Thanks.
http://www.pbase.com/wmdt131

I like this snap as it triggers a lot of thoughts in my twisted mind and the spontanious feel of the composition also makes this image very interesting and impactful.
--
Daniel

Jonas B said:

Click to expand...

Jonas, I like the concept of this image but it feels unbalanced somehow. Perhaps it's the line of the irrigation system and I don't know if a different angle would have made a difference.
--
Troll Whisperer
Bill Turner

Recent Images:
Please do not edit my images without asking permission.
Thanks.
http://www.pbase.com/wmdt131

Camping at Styk River in Alabama.

L1, 8mm FE, 1/500" and f/11



--
Troll Whisperer
Bill Turner

Recent Images:
Please do not edit my images without asking permission.
Thanks.
http://www.pbase.com/wmdt131

gnarayan gave us this:



...and then stated "It isn't technically perfect at all but (...)"

And technically perfect it isn't. Two things about that later.

This is a classic street shot. The man is sitting where people normally just pass, or even rush, by. He doesn't move and it is for us to wonder why. From the other comments this far it seems to work and the image is certainly emotional.

I like the high contrast B&W conversion. I dislike the focus being so off, and I don't like the Panny 25/1.4 bokeh. It isn't easy to do anything about the bokeh but I would suggest selective blurring of the bottom part. The stones signals alot of structure which calls for attention. By blurring them you can give us a fake impression of the subject being more in focus and at the same time make turn the stones into contectual stuff rather than eye-catching.

There is also somebody passing by in the upper left corner. I would prefer to see more of him/her, or nothing at all. For now we see very little of this person and he/she becomes a slight distraction only.

And finally, I like the perspective and the skewed composition. There are too many perfectly straight things in the world.

imho,

--
Jonas

Bootstrap said:

Jonas B said:

Click to expand...

Jonas, I like the concept of this image but it feels unbalanced
somehow. Perhaps it's the line of the irrigation system and I don't
know if a different angle would have made a difference.

Click to expand...

Hi Bill,

Thank you for looking and commenting!

Yes, you are right, I also see some unbalance. The unbalance doesn't worry me as much as "uninteresting" though. Still, thinking of the image as an exercise I'll see if I can do something about the balance in some way.

I think I would have kneeled down unless I stood there in the wet and muddy field with sandals on my feet. I don't know if that would have improved anything though.

Cheers,

--
Jonas

OK, so it's not terribly abstract. Suffice it to say there is some creative tension about the picture in my household. What do you think?



--
Cheers,

• Stefan

Jonas B shared:



Hi Jonas,

Glad you are back taking pictures, I think its a nice slice of life that you captured. It is a very sort of peaceful image that takes you away from the more hectic city. I like the slightly cool choice of white balance here - it does lead you to sunset without overdoing it - it is almost muted compared to most susnet shots so it is not over the top. You could actually dodge the bright area of the water a bit I think. I think its a keeper.

This isn't a critique - more a comment. I think your choice of framing is sort of interesting. I remember your old building post several weeks ago and wondered why you shot that as a pano rather than step back and with a wide, same as here. I can see merit in stepping back with a wide in that you include more of the sky potentially and it is often interesting around sunset, but in some ways that makes it more a scenic shot than a slice of a different life. The sky - what little of it we see though is interesting and it may well be worth having some brighter area above the trees.

The other way I might have thought to is zoom in and get just a few trees and a small section of the sprayer and grass. There you'd get more detail and a potentially less busy image. So what makes you choose the pano format and headaches that go with stitching?

Cheers,
-Gautham

--
C&C always welcome.
Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gnarayan/

A cloudy day shot, that to my eyes has sort of "old timey" colors. I tried many different crops of this to get the boat closer, but the one with the tree mostly shown seemed best. The 14-42 at f8, 14mm, with the 420, then adjusted with ACR+Elements and Picasa.