CHAT - 'SONG TITLE', Weekend Competition 5th/6th December 2009

[HinFrance]

Above and below reviews:

Bob – The Okey Cokey.
Superb output from I presume the new 'toy'. Bright, crisp and almost too sharp, I get the impression that this was a question of fitting a title to one of your weekend commission pictures – and no worse for that. Well deserved top of the heap shot.

Angii – Jonathan Livingstone Seagull.
Perfect depth of field for this subject (the bokeh on the water makes a great backdrop) and the choice of border is well matched to the picture. I for one wouldn't mind knowing where you got that one from . . One the downside it is not perfectly sharp either from a little camera shake or not quite accurate focusing. And, of course, this is actually Geraldine Blakenthorpe Seagull. Probably.

So onto the next one then.

[bsmith]

Well done Jinky , and great to see honesty and fair play in action . I'm happy to do the poll if you like, I set up the first one it was all very logical to me, strange I know, if you want to do it that's also fine by me. I'll lookout for the suggestions.

Thanks to all that voted for me, reviews from me after a very late dinner ( had workmen in and they've just left )

Bob

[chris-p]

I did try to go back and change my vote but there isn't the facility to do that which I suppose makes a kind of sense. I dunno what kind though.

Anyway...

Above:

Beauxreflets - Candle in the Wind - Elton John
This is one of my top 3 this week. Simple idea and well executed. Plenty of detail, well lit and plenty of movement for a still shot. I always find it difficult with flames as I simultaneously want faster shutter speeds to capture the detail of the flame but I want to see some movement as fire is so dynamic. Andy has struck a good balance here.

Below:

Michaelb104 - Flowers in the Window - Travis
The concept is a good one here and the shot fits the bill in terms of theme but it leaves me a little underwhelmed overall. I would like to see less reflection in the window, perhaps the easiest way to achieve this would be with a circular polariser.
Personally I think the shot needs more impact. It could be made a lot more striking if you moved over to the left a little and had the window dead square in the middle of the frame. I feel that this would be a much bolder composition.
Otherwise it's well shot. It's lovely and sharp and the colour is very natural - I'm sick of that "just a slight increase in saturation" craze and it's brilliant to see more realistic colour.

[chris-p]

Originally Posted by beauxreflets

Chris-p - Cocaine - Various To my mind, an image that is perhaps better suited to display in a private collection (as long as it's not mine) than a public space; Hence I refrain from comment other ...

I should say, for the record, that I used baking powder for the shot and I didn't mean to cause any offence so, just in case I did, my apologies (again!)

Originally Posted by chris-p

I should say, for the record, that I used baking powder for the shot and I didn't mean to cause any offence so, just in case I did, my apologies (again!)

I was not personally offended - (It actually gave me the opportunity to discuss the ill's of such drugs with my children as they were curious)

[Sarasocke]

Well done Bob and Paul ! You guys were actually my first two choices. I plumped for Bob as it made me giggle, and I do love a good giggle

Above : Angii JLS - a lovely picture with very soothing colours and excellent shallow DOF. The head could have been a tic sharper however.

Below : Jinky's dice - I loved it. Clever, sharp and I still don't really know how you did it, Paul ....

[bsmith]

My Above and bellow crit.
Tommor: The Beatles, A well exposed image of the Sun with good colour, I found the fence and the Text on the image rather distracting so it didn't grab me the way it could have, sorry Tom. I would add another layer and fade the text so that its more of a water mark and the image will be much better.

Bellow, HinFrance: FireStarter, My mummy told me not to play with matches, your a naughty boy!. A very strong image, very well exposed and setup, the side lighting works very well giving your hand loads of detail. It was in the running for my vote.

Bob

[oggalily]

Great work Jinky and Bob. And thanks to H for trudging through the hard work of setting up the poll.

We do need to get the vote out, so to speak; the poll thread has had 250 views and only 22 votes.

Here's my up and down reviews:
MPelly - not sure whether we ever established what the song was ("Fast Car" possibly) but this is a cool shot and obviously a lot of work went into setting it up. I would have preferred the car bonnet a bit sharper but I love the motion blur and vanishing point. I'm surprised it didn't get any votes; good effort.

Matt Wilson - Red Red Wine - it looks nice and sharp, the composition is good, and you have used flash effectively to freeze motion, but as we all learned last week it is difficult to photograph glass effectively. The black background and low key lighting are problematic, as they cause the bottle and wine to blend into the background. I think this would work better with a white background to bring out the colour of the wine. Also, the direct flash works well on the bottle's neck but is distracting on the label.

OK jinky and Bob, bring on the next one!

[angii]

Originally Posted by HinFrance

Above and below reviews:



Angii – Jonathan Livingstone Seagull.
Perfect depth of field for this subject (the bokeh on the water makes a great backdrop) and the choice of border is well matched to the picture. I for one wouldn't mind knowing where you got that one from . . One the downside it is not perfectly sharp either from a little camera shake or not quite accurate focusing. And, of course, this is actually Geraldine Blakenthorpe Seagull. Probably.

So onto the next one then.

Thanks for the kind comments. It was rather windy that day, so probably camera shake. The border is one from Corel Paint Shop Pro.

[TommoR]

Originally Posted by bsmith

My Above and bellow crit.
Tommor: The Beatles, A well exposed image of the Sun with good colour, I found the fence and the Text on the image rather distracting so it didn't grab me the way it could have, sorry Tom. I would add another layer and fade the text so that its more of a water mark and the image will be much better.

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the advice, you are quite right about the text, probably the rush to process it. It is in Fact an HDR image at -2, -1, 0, 1, 2. My first attempt of using that in anger and was really pleased with the colour.

Tom.