* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #841 / Revived #061 on 2024 05 29 *

If you wanted to maintain a documentary look then the options are fairly limited but if you wanted to experiment with artistic looks then you could let your imagination run wild with colour grading.

I really like this image because of what it shows and implies: the grey-haired woman contemplating a life in which these colourful glamour dresses are an option.
The uni-colour in every window is efficient in bringing the message across, much more so than when every window would have included dresses in different colours. Now there are four very clear colour segments, one of which is grey.
The only thing that would have made this image even more appealing, would have been a slight step to the right, in order to more completely frame the head within the natural frame of the door, and then a slightly wider crop, leaving room for a perspective correction that made all the squares more perfectly square.
Or maybe not.
Maybe imperfection is part of the message here.

This is straight out of Harold Lloyd, or straight out of the underrated Scorsese movie "Hugo".

While the sunset gives the eyecatching colour, it's the photographer who has done the work that makes the composition work. Careful positioning of the boom frames the key parts of the image and adds an important foreground horizontal line to the many horizontal lines of the clouds, hills and bright strip of ocean. The little inlet of bright water, bottom left, breaks up what would otherwise have been a large and boring foreground shadow.
Add the cluster of vertical identifiably human shapes to the structural vertical lines.
Beautifully done.

I've never been to Ontario but I feel like I have been to this spot. The rounded granite water edge boulders are very similar to what can be found in Tasmania and parts of Victoria.
I feel that you have made a mistake with the camera settings. The repeating shapes of the large foreground boulders are importantb here. The contrast of colour, texture and shape is what makes the image. The problem is that they are out of focus, not much, but enough to noticeably mess up the textures. You have an iso of 125 so the fine textures should have featured. But you have an F stop of 2.8 so you have a quite narrow band of sharp focus and your focus point was selected to keep the background detailed. As the shutter speed is 1/8000 this shot could have been taken at around 1/1000 with an f stop around f8 to give a dof that would enable the rock textures to be pin sharp.

Nope, imperfection certainly wasn't part of the intention here. I agree with all your framing comments. A slight step to the right would have been desirable to better frame the head however it would have created more problems. I was already skewed to the right somewhat and this resulted in all sorts of perspective issues with the window squares and the angle of the verandah. There is quite a bit of space around the edges in the original to play with and I spent considerable time trying to get the rectangles and horizontals looking right. This is as good as I could manage. I'm not good at perspective corrections and I think a better job is almost certainly possible, especially if generative fill is used.

Another good one in this series, thought last week's was my favorite of the two. This is a more relaxed scene, less fierce, and the spectators creeping in from the sides reduce some of the tension.

I know a lot of folks would praise the flare. It seems well managed and interesting. I am not a flare person, I almost always try to rid myself of it, but theres' a whole industry of creating flares that people can add to their photos if they couldn't do it in camera. You've clearly managed to do this with your camera, so congrats on pulling it off.

The geometry and the colors and forms make this immediately interesting to those of us who love shapes. Your model seems to be making decisions and choices about her favorites. I do think I'd correct the perspective (it is easier than it once was) to square up those windows, since balance is a key component here.

A mildly amusing moment of man and bird contemplation and communication.
The tilt of the bird's head and the continuation of that line up through the outstretched arm of the man makes the image. One of those decisive moment captures. Well done.

Nicely composed with excellent almost musical balance between tall and short verticals and the two orangish slight diagonals that run parallel to each other (sky and water). The almost lurid colors barely avoid tipping over into the extreme zone but manage to pull off the drama without going too far. Beautiful image.

I agree pretty much but the only thing I would add is that just like you shouldn't crop people at limb joints - elbows, knees etc - I see the joint of the boom on the very top edge as a minor distraction but a bit of an eye-magnet.

Whether the image was cropped or framed that way it would have been better, imo, to have the joint a little below the top edge.

Just my 2c

I'm a sucker for dogs and Sadie would have trained me very rapidly. It'a story for dog lovers as well.

Fixed it, I hope 😏. It was very confusing who was saying what.

It is a pretty photo with great use of form - big fat round hard boulders in front, distant round fluffy clouds on the other side of some blue blue water. Mike is right about the settings not being optimal for what you're doing here. But the near boulders are close to being sharp enough. If you have one of the good sharpening softwares, that might be enough to get you a tad more. Still a nice picture.

What a fun shot! Great primary colors, an interesting story, and a subtle leading line that starts at the birds tail and continues through the man's arm. We know he is coaxing the bird but we can't see what he has, if anything. Perhaps it is a trick. Perhaps it is a piece of one of the bakery items and he's sampled one before. The man's hand also seems to be nudging the edge of the shelf that serves as a frame for the bird. Interesting and entertaining image.

Your excellent eye for story and composition pay off once again. The positioning of the two silhouetted figures is quite perfect. At first I thought it would be fine to let it go monochrome and let the distant scenery go blurred, but on second look the color is valuable. The slight cyan toning accomplished by the glass/plastic balcony/barrier has impact, as does the muted greens in the distance. The slightly offset lines all around the image become part of the unbalanced look that adds tension and interest. Well done.