Mini Competition #50

[Dave Humphries]

Here's how it works ...

- You good folks post images in the thread (please change your post title to a name for your picture)

- When we get 10 images we will attach a voting poll

- After 3 days the poll closes and the winner is declared!

- If you would especially like some critique after the competition poll closes, please make it known in the post

Too easy eh?

Limit of 1 image per post, and 2 image posts per person.

If there are already 10 in the current comp, please start a new thread in this forum

[ScoutR]

[Benboxer]

[RonH]

Silence is golden

[Jim B.]

[Benboxer]

Another great mini-comp!

[Donald]

[Steve S]

[Doughboy]

Here is my first submission in a few weeks, took this last night, trying to get some night shot practice in.

[peterb533]

Another taken with the Zero Image, this time in Trafalgar Square.

[RobO]

Hi

New to the forums and first posting into the competition.

There's some great work in here.

Here's a shot taken last month on some local sands where theRAF have a bombing practice range. The seals breed here annually and the public visitors often make life for the locals almst unbearable. The reward for going at the right time of year & right time of the day is astounding - we missed the birth of a pup by around 30mins whilst we were gathering information from a warden.

Title: "Mum's Seal of Approval"



Any C&C post closure are very welcome, as usual. Thanks

Rob

[Henrik]

A little bit of work with the polishing cloth keeps the steamroller in good health!

[Dave Humphries]

That's 10 folks.

The legend continues here;
Mini Competition #51 - with an optional UFO / Alien lifeforms theme

[Colin Southern]

A little bit of work with the polishing cloth keeps the steamroller in good health!

Ahh - NOBODY makes a grill like Rolls Royce!

[Donald]

Wendy

Love the composition. It captures the atmosphere of a modern working farm so beautifully. Well done.

[Dave Humphries]

My apologies to many of you, I missed the voting window.

Hi Wendy,

I agree with Donald, good composition and I like the colours (cold ground vs 'warm' sky).
Being super-critical; there's just a touch of halo'ing on the sky at the edges of the buildings which might be avoided in PP, although PP may not be the cause - I can't see the full EXIF data, so I can't advise properly.

Cheers,

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Ben,

Although this captures a nice moment and expression, I'm afraid it has too many distractions for my taste.

I'm going to list them all, so anyone reading this may gain an awareness of what sort of things to look out for in the viewfinder before pressing the shutter button and this may enable the photographer to address as many as possible before taking the shot. This might mean a tidy up, closing a curtain, slight change of framing, asking someone nicely to step back or swing their legs around out of shot - whatever it takes.

That said, I appreciate this was a 'moment in time' shot and may not have looked as good if posed after addressing these points.

So, things that (IMHO) spoil this shot (from left to right) are:
The harsh side lit carpet highlighting all the ruckles, tape and varying textures
The general stuff on the floor in the left corner
The feet and hand of someone just out of frame on left
The stain on the wall distant left
The coat hanging up in the recess behind the darkly dressed nun
The light switch
The bright sunlit patch above central girl's head
The cut off toes of same girl
The brightly lit right hand side wall and different coloured seat cushion below it (these could easily be cropped off)
The nun on the right, particularly as she's holding an incongruous water bottle and blocking the younger girl's feet

While the downward angle of the shot from standing height makes it look very snapshot-ish, it does show what the girls are doing, and crouching down for a lower angle may well have distracted them from their engrossed state.

The noticeboard, while cluttered with further distractions, is important to the context of the shot and, I am guessing, places it in a church hall or convent school setting.


We should also bear in mind that if you know the place or the people, some of these ideas may destroy part of the 'record shot' qualities you value*, but that we, as strangers, do not appreciate.

* For all I know, you may have stuck the tape down on the carpet yourself and this may form a strong memory of the place for you.

Please, please don't be dis-heartened because I have gone into excrutiating detail with my comments here, it just happens to be a good example for showing what to look out for.

I sincerely hope this doesn't offend, but rather inform. Even if you knew many of these things, and just 'had to' take the shot anyway, they may help others develop 'an eye' for these points. I hope you understand.

Maybe I should reserve this level of critique for my own shots only, staged if necessary to demonstrate such points, rather than risk upsetting someone.

Finally, just let me know by PM if you'd like me to remove this post.

[Dave Humphries]

Silence is golden

Hi Ron,

Quite a pleasant scene overall.

It might be improved in PP by cloning out a few quite small distractions, the most evident being the light cloloured oil tank thing on far side of lake.

Compositionally, the yacht is just a tad too central for my liking, but changing your shooting position would have detracted far more from many peripheral compositional elements I like, so on balance, it is good as it stands.

Cheers,

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Steve,

These Mallards, when not in the sunshine causing the green feathers to "iridesce" (is that a word?), can look, as here, quite dull.

I was going to suggest trying fill flash to lift it a little more, but then I saw the specular and I think you may have already tried that - possibly with not quite enough power though.

I find these very difficult to photograph myself, which is why you don't see to many of them here from me.

Cheers,

[Dave Humphries]

Here is my first submission in a few weeks, took this last night, trying to get some night shot practice in.

Hi Bill,

I quite like this, the biggest thing that bugs me is the "wide angle distortion" of the lens. I'm not experienced enought to know if it could be mitigated in PP.

I think the exposure is good and there's lots of nice detail, trees, etc. to look at - just a shame about the fence

Good effort,