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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
10/27/2003 5:27:49 AM
Hi Carlos.
This looks like it?s got potential for a really atmospheric shot. However, I?d love to have seen the person the hand belongs to included in the pic. In this shot it is hanging a little in mid-air, making the viewer interested but not telling him or her anything (i.e. leaving questions open). Judging from how it looks I?d say the person is male, older and has had a life of hard work. I bet his face would work very well together with the pot giving us a really good idea of who he is. Keep up the good work.
Greetings
Thomas
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| Photo By: Carlos Marques
(K:-374)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
10/11/2003 8:09:56 AM
Hi Mohammad.
Good job, I like the colours in this one. Have you thought about rotating it 90? so that the ripples are on the left side? I think it gives a different twist to the subject but I?m not sure which orientation I like better...
Greetings
Thomas
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| Photo By: Mohammad Nurpatria
(K:16)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
10/10/2003 4:12:32 AM
This is a really nice underwater-picture, André.
Maybe you want to cut cut off a little of the black space at the top (not mandatory, though) but otherwise really well done. I especially like the lighting - backlit scenes are just unbeatable.
Greetings
Thomas
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| Photo By: A Brito
(K:10699)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
5/5/2003 1:15:12 PM
Hi Cristina.
This one is really beautiful, from composition to exposure everything?s in place. However, the part in the lower right seems a tad too dark to me. Maybe you can lighten it in PS a little. Another thing that I?d like to mention is a question that came to my mind looking at your photo: Do I see a double exposure here? Especially the right half gives me the distinct feeling of looking at more than one picture. I like this as it gives the scene a distinct translucend and not-of-this-earth feeling that goes well together with the rainbow and the golden light. Can you give us some details on how this was done? Keep up the good work.
Thomas
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| Photo By: Cristina Mantovani
(K:972)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
4/12/2003 3:12:29 AM
Hi Jeff.
I really like this sequence as it shows pretty well what snowboarding is all about: fast movement and elegance. However, with a little more post-production you could make this good shot a killer: One thing is that the snow in the lower left part of the pic is a little bright (some curve-adjustment can easily correct this; I have tried in my attachment but I could not change the part with the snowboarder landing; you?d have to do this in a layer where he?s still well in mid-air). Second, the boards on the second and third frame of the sequence overlap strangely (c.f. the circle in my attachment). Third I?d suggest sharpening the picture as a final finish - even though the originals are sharp my slide scans usually look extremely soft until I?ve done that (I have a really bad scanner). Nonetheless a really cool job. Keep up the good work.
Thomas
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| Photo By: Jeff Clegg
(K:6)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
2/21/2003 8:49:22 AM
Hi Timothy.
This one is really good. I don?t mind the softness and I think the composition is fine - It is good that you put the chair out of the center and left enough space for the stainy-texture on the right wall (I think it gives a good impression of how run-down this place is). Taking it away would have destroyed a lot of the feeling. However I would really like to see this one as the setting for a portrait with a person sitting on the chair staring out the door or - even better - looking at the camera, smoking a cigarette. I think that way you could make the mood even more intense. Keep up the good work.
Thomas
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| Photo By: Timothy Sherburne
(K:599)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
2/2/2003 8:44:24 AM
I agree with Petros and Stephen: This one is cool but it should be bigger. I especially like that the "geometrical" look (lots of straight lines) is nicely being broken by the round door. I guess you could give it another interesting twist by having someone sit on the stairs. Good work.
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| Photo By: Gary Auerbach
(K:3935)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
1/31/2003 11:48:17 AM
This is nice. I know those crayons from my childhood, too. (I think I still got some of them lying around in a box somewhere). Was there a special reason why you took the pic in b/w? Do you have a coloured version aswell?
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| Photo By: Autumn Ruhe
(K:993)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
1/30/2003 12:12:32 PM
Hi Dylan. I like the idea of photographing playground-constructions at night with a strong grain - the whole shot has nice eerie feeling to it. However there?s one or two things that might be improved in the darkroom: First I?d get rid of some of the dead dark space on top and try to get more texture into the shadows on the right. Another thing might be to cut off the flare at the left as I find it a little distracting. Nonetheless, this one is really cool. Keep up the good work.
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| Photo By: Dylan Davies
(K:362)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
1/22/2003 12:10:55 PM
Hi Scott.
I?ve had a look at your "leaf"-series and this is the one I like best. In this one the chaotic pattern in the leaf and your framing emphasizing the structure of the broader lines form an interesting contrast. However, I have some suggestions that could help you to get more out of the topic:
- I?d get a good specimen of the leaf. I myself find run-down (is that the word?) things sometimes quite interesting but with a shot like this the big dark spots are quite distracting.
- I?d try shooting the leaf from more than one side. How does it look from a different angle? With light falling on it/through it? Backlit? Frontlit?
- The colour of the sky is nice and the white spots on the left remind me of clouds and fine weather - quite nice. But have you tried the leaf in a different surrounding? Maybe still hanging from the twig of a tree? Or fallen into a pond? Lying on a wet pavement? There?s countless surroundings where it could/could not be lying and that could form an interesting contrast.
That?s all I can currently come up with. Keep up the good work - I think you got an eye for it. (Btw: "Shallow D.O.F." has a nice Super-8-feeling)
Greetings
Thomas
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| Photo By: Scott Grewe
(K:541)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
1/22/2003 10:30:19 AM
This one is well seen and composed - I like it, although I have to say that I agree with Harvey on the dark top bench and that I find the wet paper towel in the left half a little disturbing. But this is just minor criticism. I have attached a suggestion for a possible recrop in this one that would push your photo into a more abstract context. Hope you like it. Keep up the good work.
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| Photo By: Candida Pais
(K:53)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
11/17/2002 9:14:53 AM
Hi Donald.
Good shot. I think the cropping is absolutely fine. The only alternative I can come up with would be choosing a square format. That way the two streets would receive more emphasis and the overall composition would get a stronger formalization.
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| Photo By: Donald Holman
(K:884)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
11/9/2002 10:01:50 AM
Cool one. You?ve captured quite a lot of atmosphere there. The only thing I can suggest is maybe closing the aperture one half or one whole step. Thus you?d get more detail into the bright water and you?d make the train and the bridge look more like cut-outs giving them an even stronger focus. However, this is more a question of taste. Another thing that caught my eye was the black line running along the upper and right hand side (I believe this is a product of your scanner). The curve it forms in the upper right corner adds an interesting touch of olden-days-feeling.
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| Photo By: Mark k
(K:31)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
11/3/2002 11:50:25 AM
Really nice. It has a strong feeling of geometry to it that attracted my attention. I especially like the pattern at the "bottom" of the shadow-staircase. Have you tried clone-stamping / removing the 7? In my opinion this might strenghten the abstract feeling. But either way - a really good one.
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| Photo By: Steven B. Poitinger
(K:1757)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
10/19/2002 3:03:39 AM
Hi Debbie. This is a really cool idea - makes me hear the traffic noises from down there and want to read the text on the plaque. I believe what works for me here is the multiple play of contrasts between reality and plaque: day/night, nearby/far away, foreground/background etc. However, the scan looks a bit soft.
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| Photo By: Debbie Groff
(K:9569)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
10/19/2002 2:50:58 AM
This is nice. I agree with Heather: Who said that horizons have to run horizontally and that pictures have to be viewed upside up? Breaking with these standard expectations you have produced a real eye-catcher. Btw: If you squint your eyes a little the abstract-effect intensifies even more. And: Is that colour infrared?
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| Photo By: Rana Dawood
(K:97)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
10/12/2002 11:30:34 AM
Hi Tim.
I?ve had a look at your series and this is the one I like best - it?s the one most puzzling and the one with the broadest possible range of interpretation (the whirling thing in the top right corner can be seen as everything between a cone of ice-cream an a flying saucer...). Plus: The placing of the cone?s tip between the four and the three is well seen. Keep up the good work.
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| Photo By: Tim Dinofa
(K:162)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
10/12/2002 11:15:55 AM
This is really nice. I agree with Kim about the colours and the hue. If you think the tree in the middle makes too much of a heavy centre I?d suggest recropping to a quadratic format using the trees as frames. That way you?d get two good looking pics (one with the sun in the left and one with the sun in the right) out of one goot looking pic. 
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| Photo By: dennis chapin
(K:6)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
10/5/2002 2:08:38 PM
Hallo Wietse.
I?m not sure if using slide film for long-time exposures makes it easier to get a good picture: slide film covers a smaller range of contrast than print film. Because of the richer colours of slides I?d encourage you to try it but you?ll need to take a lot of care with exposure under difficult lighting conditions. (After I changed from prints to slides I personally blew serveral rolls of film until I got the first picture that looked like I wanted it to look - but now I?ve fallen in love with slides)
Judging from what I learned from long-time exposures this might prove helpful: Set the camera to manual exposure and to spot-metering. Then determine the exposure for the snow. As Russ sugested the camera will automatically set the brightness to a point halway between white and black (if you look at the greyscale on the bottom of this page the snow would look like zone V). That way you?d get the snow to look darker and the sky will automatically follow (and turn nearly black). If V ist too dark for you you can easily correct this by choosing a longer exposure time (say 20 or 30 seconds instead of 10) or a bigger aperture (eg. f8 or f11 instead of f22). What Terrence said about bracketing - this is surely a good idea, too.
I?m not sure if your photo suffers from reciprocity failure. As far as I know this effect means that when you use very long or very short exposure times (above one minute or below 1/2000 or so) the picture turns out darker than it should - something which did not happen in your case.
Something else that came to my mind while reading the comments: I don?t know if a technically perfect exposed picture (one with dark snow and dark sky) is always the best possible solution. It?s surely one good solution as it tries to get close to reality and I believe your photo would look interesting as well in that exposure. But hey - I had a closer look at your pic because it puzzled me: A scene that nearly looked like daylight but the lights in all the houses were on.... (plus the strange colours) That caught my attention. After all, it?s a quesion of taste but I believe there?s always serveral possible solutions.
Good pic and good luck.
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| Photo By: Wietse de Graaf
(K:136)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
9/23/2002 12:37:25 PM
This is really nice. Is it a reflection behind the window? I think it was a good idea to leave a black space on the upper and lower edge of the pic - together with the thin white and the thick black frame i get the feeling that the picture somehow "coninues" to the left and right outside the frame. Looks like a really rainy day...
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| Photo By: Marleen den Brok
(K:374)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
9/19/2002 11:09:42 AM
Hi Jason.
How did you get these great colours? They look just like taken off some poster for a 1970s wild-west movie. Like it very much.
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| Photo By: Jason Williams
(K:5)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
9/12/2002 1:24:29 PM
Hi Zbigniew.
This one is quite intense. I like the way that the doctor on the left is looking at the obscured patient while working on something else - this evokes the feeling that the person lying there is really seriously injured (because the doctor is obviously too concerned to let him out of his sight). However, the second man from the left who forms one of the main interest points is looking at and reaching for something that cannot be seen which in turn makes me quite curious about what he is doing. A little lowered viewpoint and a step to the let might have helped there. But apart from that it?s a really nice one.
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| Photo By: Zbigniew Biejat
(K:243)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
8/28/2002 2:27:49 PM
Nice concept of radial movement. It illustrates the turning of the shuttle really good. Good choice also to add the moon - the shuttle gets a goal, the picture a story and the otherwise quite big black space on the right is tamed. Do you remember how long you exposed this one? As far as I know it takes hours to move these things just a few metres.
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| Photo By: Greg Suvino
(K:57)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
8/22/2002 12:16:34 PM
Really good. I like the way the bright stones in the foreground lead my view into the upper part of the picture. However, I?d like to see it without the dry brush filter - I believe that this photo doesn?t need digital effects to look cool.
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Photo By: Tony Smallman
(K:23858)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
6/28/2002 4:58:43 AM
I don?t think the man disturbs the picture. In fact I?d say he adds a lot to it. Makes me wonder: Who is she? Who is he? Is he just a passer-by? Do they know each other? Is she waiting for him? What will happen next? The only thing I?d maybe do is to crop off the line of the pavement on the right edge of the picture. Otherwise I?d say: very well done.
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| Photo By: Christopher Chen
(K:21)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
6/6/2002 11:24:39 AM
I like this one - it has a very "floating" feel to it that I find really fascinating. I?m only wondering what this little purple spot in the top left corner is? Keep up the good work!
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| Photo By: Wayne Harridge
(K:18292)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
6/2/2002 3:56:26 PM
I like this one. The three "peaks" at the top of the building make me think of mountains - on the other hand, the picture also reminds me of how the first attempts at 3-D-graphics in computer games during the 1980s looked like. If you?d like to strenghten that "computer"-effect, I?d suggest maybe tilting the camera a little so that the line where the reflections cross divides the image vertically. Thus you?d form an axis of symmetry that would further abstract the content. Btw: The inversion looks really cool and helps a lot to attract attention. Oh, and: I believe, there is a tree in the lower right corner (not really distracting, though).
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| Photo By: Marc Robin
(K:3385)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
5/26/2002 4:04:34 PM
A really nice one. I like the way the tree seems to wind around the sun that forms the centre of the picture (I?m not sure - is it really exactly in the centre?). The under-exposure and the blue colour add a lot to the feeling (freezing cold!). Keep up the good work.
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| Photo By: William R Eastman III
(K:2141)
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Critique By:
T M (K:-183)
4/16/2002 12:46:28 PM
A good picture. Very moody and with a great colour setting. The intermittent lighting constantly keeps drawing my attention "up the road" and makes me wonder what might be hidden in the darker areas. The only thing that I find distracting is maybe this little part of a fence (?) that can be seen in the upper right corner. Cropping the picture just a little bit on this side (or better: eliminating the fence via PS) would probably strengthen its effect enormously.
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| Photo By: Alin Olaru
(K:0)
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