• Members 1266 posts
    Oct. 17, 2024, 10:42 p.m.

    Excellent shot and lesson in contrast. If one squints their eyes the buildings look like big pumpkins which is humorous. I like the dark sky as a background.

    Personally, I would remove the cars from the equation, but it's up to image maker...

  • Members 1266 posts
    Oct. 17, 2024, 10:45 p.m.

    Like that panorama shot of a rugged coast. Wish there was more water showing, but...
    Colours are great.

  • Members 353 posts
    Oct. 17, 2024, 10:59 p.m.

    The problem is the lack of details.
    The photo is not sharp and very blurry.

  • Members 3984 posts
    Oct. 17, 2024, 11:01 p.m.

    Thank you again for your opinion.

    On my screen it is very sharp. The full resolution version (12320 x 4832px) is slightly sharper still on my screen.

  • Members 3984 posts
    Oct. 17, 2024, 11:04 p.m.

    Thank you Chris.

    I have more photos to the left and right of this scene which I am still processing. We were down at Cape Schank only last week.

    I will post more as I go through them.

  • Members 1416 posts
    Oct. 18, 2024, 12:02 a.m.

    The drinksellers are key to photo one as well as two. In 1 they are established by the pink colours and central position. The two foreground figures give a line to that centre while adding easily distinguished clothing clues to the holiday atmosphere.
    Number two, on its own, doesn't feel as successful. It lacks the party vibe that the crowd and blue sky brings to 1. The horizontal position of the solitary boat also makes it feel more passive.
    Seen in series with 1 however is a different matter, it becomes additional information to a setting already established. As such, I think it needs the shadows lifted small amount to make the main character's face and the front edge of the boat a bit clearer. Not much.

  • Members 3984 posts
    Oct. 18, 2024, 12:35 a.m.

    I like the second one much more. It's pretty clear what it is without the first image which for me is too "busy".

    But the second one looks a little too flat and dull on my screen for me. I feel it needs a bit of "punch" to make the bar stand out more.

    Something like this works better for me.

    Anyway, just some food for thought 😊


    dprevived.com/media/attachments/b0/c2/9TwvrdDElgNbNley45ZHGCcRdv8zWXVST7vLs2JjEIT8dX7BQhpJUYNvnbbLyBW6/oceanbar.jpg

    oceanBar.jpg

    JPG, 179.9 KB, uploaded by DanHasLeftForum on Oct. 18, 2024.

    oceanBar.jpg

    JPG, 179.1 KB, uploaded by DanHasLeftForum on Oct. 18, 2024.

  • Members 1093 posts
    Oct. 18, 2024, 1:26 a.m.

    Sorry Chris, I replaced the image and broke your reply...

  • Members 1416 posts
    Oct. 18, 2024, 1:52 a.m.

    A project with lots of possibilities. Your choice of B&W is important. If it had been colour, I imagine (I sure don't know) that there might be colour sheens playing a part in the outcome. In B&W, lines, edges, patterns and tones are what we look at.
    Number one doesn't interest me. Too much is out of focus for the main elements to convey much.
    Not so 2 and 3. In both the oil/water mix is creating patterns and lines to be explored.
    The curves and edges of the flower pattern in 2 are replicated in the bubble forms.
    In 3, the drops become lenses of different sizes that give multiple clues to the nature of the bowl.

  • Members 1416 posts
    Oct. 18, 2024, 4:16 a.m.

    Bands of vegetation with differing colours and textures make good subjects. Photography draws our attention to easily overlooked details in grass and grass heads.
    While I like the concept here, I don't feel it quite comes off. It needs to be seen large to bring out the details and edges in the grass. On my viewing, at largest size, the grass edges aren't quite sharp enough and further detail is lost in overexposed grass areas. It is entirely possible that this is caused by cropping and uploading.

  • Members 1416 posts
    Oct. 18, 2024, 4:28 a.m.

    A series with a difference. A puzzle is set up and then solved as we move down the images. That's one of the more original full moon shots I have seen. It must be tempting to cut the spider from the background in 1 and add it to one of the later shots- with a smidge of blur on the background...

  • Members 711 posts
    Oct. 18, 2024, 4:38 a.m.

    Thanks, Mike.

    The site is not displaying the image properly. If I click on the image, it displays too large on my screen, beyond the native resolution of the file. And does not look sharp.

    If you click on the named JPEG file in my original post, download that, and look at it in Photoshop or other image editing program at 100%, it will be critically sharp, and quite a bit different from the way it looks as the site renders it.

    Annoying.

    Rich

  • Members 1416 posts
    Oct. 18, 2024, 4:39 a.m.

    There is much that I like in this photo.
    It's unsettling.
    A clouded sky and veiled moon. The inverted cones of light that leave the dark areas and the black shapes of the tree. It feels remote. Not a person in sight.
    The cars are a feature. The repetition of shape and colour gives foreground/backgound visual movement. There are people here - but not many.
    Bates Motel comes to mind.

  • Members 3984 posts
    Oct. 18, 2024, 5:21 a.m.

    There might be an issue with this site atm.

    Kumsal mentioned the image I posted earlier looks blurry on his screen while it looks ok on mine.

    Your image also looks ok on my screen so not sure what is going on.

    The thumbnails in the actual post are generated by the Web page from the uploaded image but if the attached image file in a post is clicked the actual uploaded image is normally displayed in the browser.

  • Members 1416 posts
    Oct. 18, 2024, 5:56 a.m.

    That's better.
    Even so, the grass strands at the back of the golden grass area, the strands picked out against the green behind them, are considerably sharper than the bulk of the stems that are closer to the camera. Again, I may not be seeing it correctly. If what I am seeing is correct, I think the concept would have worked a little better if the focus point had been somewhat closer to the camera. You'd want to keep the green leaves in focus as well so what I'm suggesting would have required a smaller aperture and this may or may not have been possible in the taking conditions.

  • Members 3984 posts
    Oct. 18, 2024, 6:43 a.m.

    Or use focus stacking.

  • Members 1416 posts
    Oct. 18, 2024, 7:47 a.m.

    Thanks Alan, Chris, Roel, minniev and Fireplace.
    What was going on.
    I like the planes of light possibilities in slab concrete structures. It’s something I admire in Minniev’s Dam bird series. This was taken on the Japanese island of Naoshima where I knew there were a number of art galleries and other installation that used massive concrete walls . I’ve posted other shots previously from one of these galleries and grumbled about not knowing that photos couldn’t be taken inside, before I visited. Photos in this gallery are legit.
    To understand what I was trying to do here, you need to grasp the whole experience. It is more than a gallery. It’s a concept that spreads across a lake and a valley and extends into this structure.  I think the whole concept probably owes something to Oscar Wilde, although I didn’t see any credits to him. Wilde argues that in the story of Narcissus, the Lake should get equal billing with Narcissus.
    I’ll attach a couple more photos taken outside. Across the whole installation, which is huge, there are many hundreds, probably thousands. Of highly polished silver balls about 20cm across. Looking at the installation, you are confronted with yourself  from many different angles and in different settings.  The balls move and can float. Those on the Lake are moved by the wind. They form clumps and sound like they are talking as they bump together.
    Exploring the place, eventually you come to the irregular sided concrete building. It has two wings and indirect lighting. This time in the dim light you meet yourself in a much more solitary experience. I thought it was the me that I find when I wake in the early hours.
    I wanted to photograph someone having a similar meeting with themselves so I waited down one arm of the building for someone to turn up and meet and reflect on themselves. There were quite a few failed shots before I got one I was happy with.
    It’s just possible that there is a very indistinct bit of me too at the far end in the bright part of the ball. Too small to really tell.

    The Lake of Narcissus 2.jpgThe Lake of Narcissus 3.jpg

    The Lake of Narcissus 3.jpg

    JPG, 1.5 MB, uploaded by MikeFewster on Oct. 18, 2024.

    The Lake of Narcissus 2.jpg

    JPG, 1.5 MB, uploaded by MikeFewster on Oct. 18, 2024.

  • Members 187 posts
    Oct. 18, 2024, 7:55 a.m.

    Not sure it's the site, I think it's your screen/browser settings. I have a retina 5K and to stop things displaying too small (web pages are still designed for lower res screens) it displays them on the retina at 200%, whereas PS displays the actual 1:1 pixel mapping. You should be able to set your screen to 1:1 mapping, if you want.