Photo Challenge 9: Judging Round 1

When i joined this board first I wouldve been one of the first to attack Shrimp for what he said, but after being here a fair while at this stage, I can see that most of what he says is completely valid but yet he still gets attacked for it. Which seems to me that people have a personal problem with him more than anything.

And the reason for my B&W choice.

Was walking over town one day and I turned around and the sun was bellowing down the street and up to my feet. I took the shot and after gettin home and looking at it I knew it would be better in B&W because I wanted to "Accentuate" the shadows in the bottom left and right of the pic, and I also wanted to make the Sun less obvious.

Plus because the Street is more or less empty, I knew that B&W would add an element that just wouldnt be there if it was in colour.

Well done to all - fantastic photos all round!!

Feel free to ignore me or write me off as a knowledge-less loony or opinionated tosser or simply just wrong, but I'll give my opinions of a few of the photos in this competition in no particular order. I've picked ones I like so I can be mostly positive and offer what I hope is constructive criticism.

Bear in mind that particularly for B&W photography, the settings on your monitor make a huge difference and my comments are based on what I see on my monitor. It's still quite difficult to get your colour profile to fairly accurately reflect the full colour range (or in this case all the wonderful shdes of grey) even with nift ICM profiles, 3-channel gamma correction++ in video drivers, etc so you may be seeing something quite different to me when you see these photos.

Iniscarra Dam - rymus
I like this photo a lot. The texture of the falling water looks great and the heron(?) in mid-stride is a great touch. There's just enough water at the bottom of the photo for vertical balance.
You can just about make out an impressive stone column to the left of the falling water - I think it'd be better to see this more clearly or to darken the photo so it's not visible at all. As it is, it distracts the eye slightly.
The other side of the water also looks a little strange as the light fades away very smoothly to a large section of darkness. Perhaps if the entire photo were shifted to the right about 7%?

This should definitely be in the top three.

Lifelines - rabbitinlights
The sharp focus on the lifelines on this hand with the rest of the hand out of focus works and makes this a well-titled photo. What doesn't work for me is the motion on the ring finger. It adds a blur to the out-of-focus and takes the emphasis away from the subject (the lifelines).

A good photo.

Black Headed Gull - dalk
The depth-of-field in this photo works well and the gull is captured crisply in mid-flight. If this is a crop of a larger photo, I'd re-crop it to include a little more of the photo above the gull (unless it's too distracting) and a lot less of what's below it, going for a wider aspect to the shot. The in-focus railings under the gull distract too much from the main subject. I'd keep some of them as added interest, but not as many.

Another good photo and a strong contender, should be in the finals.

Aging - laura - megameaty
I like this photo a lot, but find it hard to put into words what I like about it, probably becuase I'm a man and we're not good at expressing our emotions. There's a softness and a sense of empathy that comes across to me. If I were to change it, I'd trim a little off the top and bottom (mostly the bottom) to make it a wider aspect to accentuate the long crease going to the right from the eye.

A good photo that deserves more than the one vote it's gotten so far.

Driftwood - Carrigman
A dramatic sky (but clouds always look dramatic in B&W), great texture in the rock and the perspective adds to the drama. The only problem is that the subject of the photo is a minor character in its own story. The wood blends in a little too much in any but the largest view of the shot. Possibly getting a bit closer to it would help, but the rest of the composition might suffer. This photo probably looks even better in colour as the wood would stand out more.

Another deserving finalist.

no title - Cork_girl
I like trees. I like mountains. I like lakes. Naturally I like this photo. It blends those topics together very well. The framing by the tree on the extreme left is a nice touch. The only problem I'd have with it is that there's a 1-2 degree anti-clockwise tilt which is a minor distraction.

A good photo and probable finalist.

Winter Grasses - John W
Black and White adds an extra touch of cold to this shot. The content is dramatic and the lighting/contrast balance is good. It feels as if the clump of grass in the water towards the bottom on the left should be the main focus of the shot and I'd give it more prominence. It has a great shape and the reflection/shadow in the water looks good too. I think that this photo might look even better in colour. There are blues and yellows reflected from frost that would add extra detail without taking away from the whole.

Another good photo that deserves more than its solitary vote.

the creep - esavole
I'm presuming "the creep" means the act of creeping up a darkened stairway rather than the person holding two young children by the hand being a creep (which makes me feel like I need to wash my brain). Very atmospheric. The highlights on the bannister, the steps and the ivy(?) on the wall are particularly effective. It looks as if there was a bit too much contrast enhancement as the lighting on the steps is quite jagged and lighting on the side of the house is almos solarised. making it look artificial. If that's the point, then that's cool. I think it could do with being tilted even more for extra the extra creepy "The Third Man" feel. I could be wrong about the contrast enhancement - as there's nothing in the photo that's completely black - the artifacts may have creeped in during the resizing process or somewhere else.

This should also probably make it to the finals.

Tree - Enygma
I'm very fond of this shot too. Brings thoughts of "Great Expectations" or "Wuthering Heights" to mind - moors and heaths and other foggy spookiness. The composition is great, the graduation of the background works well agains the silhouette of the tree. Again, I'd do a bit more to accentuate the subject. Either reduce the depth of field to make the background tree not interfere so much on the left or get closer and use a wider lens, but that might make the foreground tree too sharp or a bit fish-eyed.

Definitely deserves more votes.

The Last Patriot - shrimp
I have to include shrimp seeing as he's the one who kinda sparked the conversation, albeit in a not very diplomatic manner.
I'd like to see a larger or colour version of this photo as I'm not entirely sure of the reason for the title. I like shots with more extreme aspect ratios like this one. The curve of the tide looks well and the child's pose, caught mid-throw is good. As I said, I like different wide/tall aspect photos, but I'm not sure about this one. I presume it's meant to mirror the shape of the child, but the top half is essentially blank canvas and doesn't have any reason for you to look at it. Also, the arc of the stone being thrown makes me want to look further to the right to see more of how the moment will unfold. On a technical note, there seem to be artifacts from over sharpening/contrast enhancement. There's a little extra "noise" in the texture of the waves and the sky, slight jaggies in the lines on the childs clothes and definite "halo" artifacts around the poles/lines and trees(?) on the skyline and to a lesser extent around the stone and the child.

It's a good photo, but shrimp has a lot better on his deviantart website - particularly the aptly-named "Urine Alley".

Of course I've named five above who I think should probably be in the finals, so that leaves me out of luck - maybe I'll scrape in joint fifth.

As you can probably tell from my criticisms above, If a photo has a clear subject, I like for it to be strongly represented, and for the rest of the photo to support the subject without detracting from it too much. Maybe that's why I'm particularly drawn to macro photography. If you disagree with my bias towards strong subjects then, to you I'll be talking through some orifice other than my mouth and should be ignored.