The Blocking
by tigerluong

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

This image is a very good capture, even in less than perfect lighting conditions. Sometimes you just have to make do with what is available. Personally I find your shutter speed very slow for a basketball game - I would probably shoot at least 1/400 if not faster - but you give no details on camera or lens, so difficult to critique your choices. Did you shoot on *green camera* mode? If so then the camera made all the choices, not you, and you can tell.

The main reason you did poorly, as I see it, is because the image is OK...but you used so much blur in the post processing. If the image itself is not very good, then all the work you do in post only shows up all the more because it is so obvious, as it is here.

This is a very, very competitive site where capturing a good image is first and foremost in people's minds. If the pp work done only highlights the weaknesses in the photo, you will not get a good score.

My apologies if this sounds harsh, but that is how it is.

Feel free to PM me with any questions,

Susan

Temple arch
by tigerluong

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

I see that I gave this a 6 during voting, because I could see some effort was made.

But this is a case of so close, yet so far. Very nice shot of the temple, crisp and sharp. But as already mentioned, the foliage especially in front and middle of the shot ruins the view. This looks to have been shot while you were sitting at a table. Something as simple as just standing up and getting a good, clear, uncluttered shot would have been much more effective.

I can tell from the very high shutter speed that you were probably shooting handheld. Nothing wrong with that, but the temple isn't going anywhere. You need to shoot that fast for, say, most children or animals in motion, but hardly for a building. A slower shutter, even more dof and even more importantly, a tripod would come in handy here.

Hope this has been of help, feel free to PM me.

Susan

Autumn garden
by tigerluong

Comment by sidpixel:
Hello from the Critique club

An interesting image that makes a contribution to the free challenge

It looks an interesting location with some variety of foliage. The time of day has made the light very difficult to work with it is very high contrast and in order to retain some detail in the shadows it looks as though you have probably had to use some plus exposure compensation? This has affected the highlights blowing them in important parts of the image particularly badly on the tree stump. I would suggest that a little less +EC would have been advisable to avoid the overexposure and the shadows have quite some leeway for darkening. You might try reducing the exposure in PS and compare the results I think you will probably favour the darker version?

Thanks for your entry Frank

Sunshine hill
by tigerluong

Comment by sidpixel:
Hello from the Critique club

An appealing image that meets the challenge

The lighting in your landscape has emphasised the undulating nature of the ground producing some lovely shadows giving it all more of a 3D feel. However, I feel the colours have been saturated to the detriment of the overall end result. The strong blue cast especially of the sky and hills also affects the image quality. The white clouds on the right add an interesting counterpoint to the rest of the image

I'm sorry you didn't receive any comments during the challenge I hope this makes up for it, well done, thank you for your entry.

time for home
by tigerluong

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club

Yes, this critique is only about 16 months late, but better late than never :-)

This pic has many elements that both help and detract from the subject. The colours and soft lighting are fantastic and the subject matter intriguing, and you have near-perfect reflections in the water. This should be close to the top of the pile as voters here tend to like the exotic species in their own habitat as opposed to an obvious zoo.

But, you've probably already seen the numerous comments saying that the car in the background, with those bright red taillights, is a HUGE distraction. It gives a sadly modern/urban feel to the shot and takes away from those lovely zebras. I did some informal hand-cropping and had you isolated that group of three zebras at the front, cropping out below those awful taillights so we see only the scenery, the zebras and their diminishing reflections, you could have had a top ten image.

I do hope you're still shooting, and hope that this critique may help lure you back to DPC.

Susan

city in dawn
by tigerluong

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Very interesting POV of a dawn shot, as the sodium lights of the city blend in with the orange hues of dawn. However I can't tell if this is meant to be a shot of the sunrise/dawn, or a cityscape - it seems an uneasy marriage of the two. The horizon splits the image exactly in half, which gives it a bit of a staid, ho-hum quality.

It isn't a bad image but as commenters have already noted, less sky and more building might help to awe us with the skyline. Exposure is adequate, good to see you used a tripod and went for several seconds. I do like the hues and sense of a great city stirring, but feel that the composition is what's killing you here.

Hope this helps

Susan

Olinda park in spring
by tigerluong

Comment by sidpixel:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique club*

A landscape that contributes little to the open challenge.

You probably felt the scene you had in front of you, colourful and appealing as it was, needed a little help in post processing, however, I feel you need to be made aware that the end result has not worked at all. If, as I suspect, you are relatively new to post processing the temptation is to tweak and then tweak and then tweak some more but you quickly reach a point where it becomes detrimental to the end result, as you have here. Your goal should always be to get the best possible image in camera and if necessary to enhance the quality to extract the very best quality in the end result this requires very subtle processing where less is most definitely more.

The colours are way over saturated, there is probably little resemblance to the original. The image is very heavily pixelated suggesting that the submitted jpeg has been too heavily compressed, there are large swathes of the background that lack any detail, the path in the foreground lacks any detail. If you look carefully you will see sudden transitions from blue to green and these areas form blocks of a single colour, all part of the jpeg compression technique.

All of this is a very tough way for you to learn but, to be honest, the image's quality, or rather lack of, is reflected in the voters perceptions too. Sorry to be so negative but I feel I owe it to you to help you improve. Thanks for your submission, Sid

City after rain
by tigerluong

Comment by sidpixel:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*

A flawed cityscape that makes a mediocre contribution to the open challenge.

The first thing that hits me with your image is that it is tilted and it is tilted to an extent that is evident as a fault rather than a deliberate exaggerated enhancement. If you wanted to use the technique you would use a much more obvious slant that introduces a nother element to the image. The title is also ill-fitted unless we are to believe that all the water we see here is a result of phenomenally heavy rain fall!

The sky is not adding a lot to the image and would benefit from cropping but there are also artefacts throughout particularly noticeable around the buildings. I think more emphasis on the foreground as opposed to the sky would have been better. The reds prove what a dominant colour it is in this near monotones the reds are all very strong and vibrant, I am assuming you didn't saturate the reds specifically?

I think a little more attention to important detail would have helped you here, good luck with your future entries. Apologies for the late critique, but as they say, better late than never, Sid

It is meal time
by tigerluong

Comment by sidpixel:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*

An appealing nature study that meets the open challenge.

Having commented and voted highly I get another opportunity to comment in more detail about your entry! I still like the subject and the way you have captured them but with closer inspection there are also aspects of the processing that I am not so keen on.

I assume you have used flash here which has blown highlights on the edge of the birds beaks and detail on the adult bird. Although you have used a low ISO there appears to be significant noise which is most unexpected it is probably a result of processing which has left quite an unnatural look.

I repeat I do like the subject, given your technical details your camera must have been very closely positioned to them assumedly triggered remotely? I'm sorry you didn't do better with this image but I have to say I think the processing let it down in the end. Thanks for your entry and good luck with your future entries, Sid

Sunset in Tanzania
by tigerluong

Comment by sidpixel:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*

A very appealing sunset assumed to meet the challenge.

What a grab shot! In itself it is a very appealing shot of a lovely location in a good composition. I like both the left and right of the image and the position of the sun.

Like your commenter I have a problem with the sudden transitions they feel unnatural to the overall detriment of the image. You would undoubtedly have had little detail in the shadows and to get it back it looks as though you have pushed the curves beyond normal limits. I am having problems reconciling the feint red trees I am seeing between the silhouetted trees on the right, this may be down to selection problems.

Is that really the colour of the sky? You are in a part of the world I have never experienced and this may well be the case but those, like me, who haven't seen skies of such intensity are bound to ask the same question and unfortunately it may well affect their reaction to it, lovely as it is.

Thank you for submitting an appealing image, Sid