Hijaaked topic

Post photos that you want feedback about! Please include your details about your rig, and EXIF information for the photo (shutter speed, aperture, camera settings), if possible. It would also be nice to know what post-processing steps you took, if any.

Please post a single photo in each thread. When replying, please do not quote the photo itself (if you quote from the original message).

Constructive criticism only, please! Let's all be polite.

Sorry Eric, didn't mean to get off-topic posting in an announcement. I just got too excited I guess!

Here is a photo for critique. I entered this in the HUPS 1st ever digital contest in the wideangle category. When the photo came up, I heard one of the judges say, "The category is wideangle right?" So, is it? I thought is was a nice close focus wideangle shot:

1/60th @ f8 - Rig = Coolpix 5000 with dual strobes (one big one small). I believe post processing is only auto-levels.

I picked it because it has a nice blue exposure and good colorful foreground.

Cheers

James

Hi James,

I think you have a beautiful shot there, great colors and good job focusing. It may be better if you got a little more coral (since that's the subject) and less blue (since nothing is happening here).

Most people at NCUPS think wide angle is < 20mm, usually around 15mm. That would be hard to do with the focal length multiplier in the current batch of cameras.

BTW. How did HUPS do their digital contests? How often? What's the typical number of entries?

BTW2. You forgot to include your rig and EXIF info.

Just thought of a way I may try to illustrate what I was talking about when I wrote more coral and less blue. I cropped James shot to what I think is a better composition. What do you think? Better? Worse?

It depends on what you want to express.

Herbs cropped version is now focused on the (beautiful) coral, whereas James original picture was a wideangle shot with something colored in the foreground (the coral) and a wreck (?) in the background.

The composition of the cropped version is better (less unused space) but the picture looses information by cropping it that way, i.e. a wideangle scene is turned into a very nice photo of coral. I like both versions.

What i noticed is the vertical arrangement in the photo. I would have prefered a more diagonal arrangement - see my version of the picture (rotated 15 deg to the left and cropped),

Sabine

The version of Sabine is the best composition, my only problem with that version is the it changed the reality of the reef where took his shot, I am not sure if its bad or not so I will stay with the original, Like Sabine wrote is a wideangle with beautiful and colorful corals in the foreground.

btw: in some forums in the net, you have to ask the photographer first if you want to change the original photo since it his creation and he have the rights on it.

btw: in some forums in the net, you have to ask the photographer first if you want to change the original photo since it his creation and he have the rights on it.

I hope James doesn't mind, but its so much easier to show it in a changed version of the photo than by describing it in words (especially if English is not your native language) B)

Sabine

I don't mind.

I'm not sure if in a contest situation you should be able to rotate a photo. I will think about that one.

Also guys, did you notice that you changed the photo's aspect ratio - so that it is no longer 3:2? That may be significant, and it might not. What if I want to print this out as a 4x6? I'm not saying you can't crop, but you have to think about these things when cropping.

Thanks you guys very much for the excellent feedback so far. The photo is definitely improved.

FWIW, that is an Oil Rig in the background and tubastraea sp in the foreground - with some bermuda chubs swimming past.

Oh, I added my shot information to the first post.

Cheers

James

I'm not sure if in a contest situation you should be able to rotate a photo.

Interesting idea, but pictures rotated != 180 deg need a lot of cropping afterwards (as you realised my version wasn't 3:2 anymore) and are probably too small to be submitted anyway.

What i wanted to say is that a strictly vertical composition - as in your photo - sometimes results in a stunning effect but in other situations a (slightly) diagonal composition (of the original picture ) looks even more interesting.

Sabine