* Wed C&C (No Theme) Thread, Ed. 281, 13 09 11 *

19andrew47

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Welcome to the Wednesday Comments and Critique (No Theme) thread!

We’re continuing the great tradition of this C&C thread because we’re convinced that looking at and talking about images is vital for better photography, and also useful for understanding and appreciating our gear.

The idea is simple: you post an image and get critique on it, and in return give other people your opinion of their images. Or vice versa: you give others your honest feedback, and in return deserve the right to post your own picture for C&C.

Generally, you should post only one single image for C&C. As an exception, you can post two pictures resulting from one shutter release but with different treatment (for example a color and a black & white version, or a different crop) for us to choose from and comment on.

TWO RULES:

1.If you post an image, you critique at least one other image.

2.Keep your comments honest but polite; if you don’t care for an image, try to explain why. This is neither a “Good shot!” nor an image-bashing thread.

Any style, any camera. It is a peer-to-peer photography workshop!

Feedback is guaranteed (for up to 48 hours after the thread has started)! Though keep in mind that the thread tends to be busiest during the first 24 hours or so, so later image posts may get little feedback.

HOW TO PLAY:

1.Turn on "Threaded view" and reply to this post with a 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.

4.Remember to add the EXIF if your image doesn't embed it as this may help

5.Image posters: please consider telling us what your own opinion on your image is. What prompted you to click that shutter button? What did you see? Why do you like the result? You don't have to explain, but it might be interesting.

6.You are very welcome to post agroup replyto the feedback you have gotten. This could include a new version of your image, taking on board the comments received. Please try not to reply individually to every comment so as not to fill up the thread on your own.

IF THIS IS YOUR FIRST TIME, WELCOME! AND BE SURE TO READ THIS:

•The critique you give (point 3 from the above list) 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, color balance, exposure. If the poster of the image does not object, you may even consider downloading his image and fiddling with it for real, to illustrate your point.

•More general feedback is also welcome. 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? Waste-bin? Snapshot? Could be better? Family Album? Frame on wall? Poster-size frame on wall? Billboard? Reuters? World Press Photo? National Geographic? Museum? (pick your own superlative here)

One of the first replies is “The Related Post”. This is the place to post your general, not image-specific musings about this great enterprise called the C&C Thread.

Another of the first replies includes a link to all previous threads. This is called "Our Archives Vault".

Andrew (19andrew47)
 
I don't normally go for the fancy border and vignetting, but I like this one. Overall, perhaps it could be a touch brighter.
 
Without a name, I suspect it would have an almost alien/abstract quality to it. It looks good, and the hint of something in the background (obscured by both blurring and darkness?) adds a little mystery.
 
When the gut reaction is that the image is beautiful, lonely and almost haunting. Nicely seen and captured.
 
The noise has a pleasant grain to it. It will probably de-noise quite well. In print (A4, or perhaps even A3 ballpark) it might look good as it is.
 
Good shot from an amazing building and the most expensive restaurant in the world and such amounts could cause that it could be me on that stairs :) However I don't smoke and don't drink.

The conqueror and the drunk are unnecessary answers in a decadent and extravagant world with less or no responsibilities, a world of charitable actions to buy this side of their conduct. However showing that part wasn't your intention I guess.

Perdectly captured with beautiful gradients.

Lou

-
RoelHendrickx wrote:

A Las Vegas street photo

(shot at that vague hour between the end of the evening/night and the beginning of a new day - although that distinction and period may be a bit less clear in Sin City than it is elsewhere) :

p2007561361-5.jpg


--
Roel Hendrickx
lots of images: www.roelh.zenfolio.com
my E-3 user field report from Tunisian Sahara: http://www.biofos.com/ukpsg/roel.html
 
That's right Jason, it could be a bit brighter, you've seen that well.

Lou

tinternaut wrote:

I don't normally go for the fancy border and vignetting, but I like this one. Overall, perhaps it could be a touch brighter.

--
Regards
J
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jasonhindleuk
Blog: http://jasonhindle.wordpress.com
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2264/2257681353_3e9d9ca12c.jpg
Photos: http://500px.com/JasonHindle
Gear in profile. Oh, and caveat moron.
 
Roel,
RoelHendrickx wrote:

I'm not a big fan of selective colouring/B&W.
That I already knew
I think I would prefer this view in just colour or just B&W
Either
And maybe cropped to a square, with less empty foreground.
I think a square crop could work as far as the grass edge is more or less ending in the left corner and is build up from there.

Thank you for your input.
--
Roel Hendrickx
lots of images: www.roelh.zenfolio.com
my E-3 user field report from Tunisian Sahara: http://www.biofos.com/ukpsg/roel.html
 
Jason, I find this image more a case for Roel to comment on, as he has a privilege for shots with people.

However I find it an pretty shot, maybe I would have wait for a moment the centre part is free from people to see what activity is behind the girl with the red pants and I would correct the horizontal line of the pavement.

Lou

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tinternaut wrote:

This is certainly an area I've photographed and shown here before. This was taken in harsh, early autumn light, and I took a very different approach to processing it, in order to preserve highlights. I'll not say how, at this point.

City Square Redux, ©2013 Jason Hindle

City Square Redux, ©2013 Jason Hindle

--
Regards
J
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jasonhindleuk
Blog: http://jasonhindle.wordpress.com
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2264/2257681353_3e9d9ca12c.jpg
Photos: http://500px.com/JasonHindle
Gear in profile. Oh, and caveat moron.
 
Minniev you have a feeling for light and this one shows it well. It is a really nice image with a delicate atmosphere. I like it.

Lou

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minniev wrote:

I took a bunch of pictures this morning just after sunrise in the swamp up the Trace. I'd been waiting impatiently for a morning with fog to see what the early sun might look like there. It was only a tiny bit of fog & didn't last long. I got eaten alive by mosquitos. Came away with a lot of intriguing shots that I don't know quite what to do with, wish I could post a dozen for your advice. May slip some of them into other threads. I didn't want the big tree on the right but when I moved a bit left the beams went away, so I just accepted it. I'm standing on the second step going down to the bridge, trying to keep the steps out because they are ugly and distracting.

f85d293ee09b4e289f4607f52ca308bf.jpg
 
Well seen Zin, it really has something similar with a soft-ice cream. However the dill plant got more character if it was in color, don't you think? Now it is marginal present without any meaning other than what is told to us by you. Also I am convinced cropping away a bit from the left side will ad to this image which have fantastic textures in the highlight parts.

Lou

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Zindanfel wrote:



With Sigma 17-70 lens.

Work around the homestead recently hasn't afforded much shooting time, so here's one from a few weeks ago, a white rose (non-climbing) which grew high enough for me to snap this picture from our second-floor deck -- around 12 feet (3.6m). A volunteer dill plant matched it for height, which surprised me greatly; when I plant dill seed it's not nearly so successful.

I dithered over where to crop the left side, and whether to do some cleanup clone work in the lower corners, then decided not to bother.

Does the image remind you of soft-serve ice cream?

--
Zin
 
LouHolland wrote:

Well seen Zin, it really has something similar with a soft-ice cream. However the dill plant got more character if it was in color, don't you think? Now it is marginal present without any meaning other than what is told to us by you. Also I am convinced cropping away a bit from the left side will ad to this image which have fantastic textures in the highlight parts.

Lou
Thank you for your comments, Lou. Yes, the dill could be more interesting. However, this was at seed stage, and the dill parts in the picture were only brown / light brown. Another difficulty with that would be that the background is green with brown fenceposts and gray welded-wire mesh. I wouldn't be able to have color in the dill without a background color I didn't want, so monochrome seemed the best choice available.

After seeing more of this for a few days, I agree that the crop you suggest would be better.



-
Zindanfel wrote:



With Sigma 17-70 lens.

Work around the homestead recently hasn't afforded much shooting time, so here's one from a few weeks ago, a white rose (non-climbing) which grew high enough for me to snap this picture from our second-floor deck -- around 12 feet (3.6m). A volunteer dill plant matched it for height, which surprised me greatly; when I plant dill seed it's not nearly so successful.

I dithered over where to crop the left side, and whether to do some cleanup clone work in the lower corners, then decided not to bother.

Does the image remind you of soft-serve ice cream?

--
Zin



--
Zin
 
You have become quite the master of the old car thing. I am trying to fiddle with some but they don't come close to your skills with those things. Maybe I'll throw one in a TrashCan thread sometime and let you do your magic on it. Don't you see some sort of published project coming for this?

I prefer the toned version (#3) because of the old-timey look it has. I would probably clone out that white cloud at the left edge which is more distracting in this version than the others. I might raise the shadow just a bit under the front wheel and that lower side if it could be done without brightening the building in the background which is best left minimized so that all the attention can be on that lovely old vehicle.
 
It looks like Marshmallow Creme! (Not sure if they make that anymore). Like the light/dark and texture of the rose from this non-typical angle. Not sure how I feel about the dill but it does add a little spice to the photo. I might never have seen this shot or its conversion. Nice work by a "good eye", very original.
 
great capture of a scene with so many levels of symbolism and photographic irony. Your photos always require a deeper look to figure out what all is hiding in there, then what else is hiding in there.
 
As far as a published project, I have delusions of grandeur! I will likely select some to print for myself. I like the look of a few of the images together as a single work composed of a group of images, Warhol like I guess. But thanks for commenting, I appreciate it.

Andrew
 
Well I should have read that more closely before posting. Should have been NO delusions of grandeur!!!

Oh well. Freudian slip?

Slightly altered image removing the white blotches from the sky borders and a little less tone and more exposure.

Andrew



c367217b064843bbb66fef812ff1f5ce.jpg
 
Thanks for commenting Stephen. Below is a slightly reworked colour image to give you a better impression of the vehicle. Unfortunately I did all the car towing in the mono image in mono so would have to redo it to get them out of the colour version. One day, but not today!

Andrew



ecc451100bc74445b23ae2f3cd49863e.jpg
 
It's an interesting photo Fixxer. I had to look at the larger image before I saw the value in this composition you chose. The lines of the microphone stand really help make this shot. He's making a lot of noise with that megaphone. The low light isn't apparent until I read the EXIF. At that ISO there is some noise in the exposure with the Canon (APS-H & FOV = 1/3x ?).
 
THANKS! (for responding and for the nice remarks)

I only post images in C&C that I have uncertainty about, and I have learned a lot from your comments. With this one, I was trying to capture the magical feeling I had when in the cypress forest alone at sunrise (despite the mosquitos), and I was unsure about the tree, the half-hidden bridge and of course always unsure about the processing.It sounds like from your feedback that maybe I'm on the right track. It does look a little like Tolkien in there, as Roel noted. I have a decent eye for spotting some of this stuff, but figuring out how to best compose and post process it are ongoing learning experiences. Fixxxer is right that I should've shot some portrait versions, usually I remember to do that (i did on some of the other scenes I got that morning). Guess I just got carried away with that light, it happens.

Probably won't be participating much the next few weeks while I ramble around between Yellowstone and the New England area. May not have much internet access.

min
 

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