2008-Aug-20
by Alan and Mario

August 18, 2009

"As an 'isolated-from-it's-background' shot I think it works very well Adrian. The colours and compo are great. I think that the patch of bright water completes it nicely for me to break up the symmetry a bit ." - Eugene Donohoe on "Chester Zoo (3)"

June 23, 2009

"I'm glad you've decorated your house with window blinds, and even more glad that you've continued this wonderful series. ;-) It took me a few seconds to realize this was a toilet seat (almost laughed out loud!), but this is definitely a beautiful and thoughtful image as opposed to a funny one. I just love all of the overlapping geometric shapes and layers of light, shadow, and line. The 2-D flatness and abstractness are interrupted in a very pleasing way by the glints of lights on the bumper and the very bottom curve of the seat. Impeccably processed and presented, as always, and a worthy inclusion in this amazing series. Interieur (4) remains my favorite, but this is not too far behind." - Elisabeth Spector on "Interieur (08)"

June 2, 2009

"Super photo Geert. You have to have a steady hand to take a photo this sharp, at such a slow shutter speed. I probably would have needed a tripod and cable release to match that. Were you standing on a bridge across the stream? Regards" - Doug Hale on "Evening Falls"

May 13, 2009

"interesting :). certainly very well controlled exposure with attractive light, which puts a very beautiful glow on some of the tulips. the pov and wideangle also brings out the stems in an almost surreal way which I quite like and which suits you well, if I may say so :). all these heads regarding each other, some chatting, some a bit misplaced, some just being there, and this long one overlooking next to us in the back overlooking them all :), like they were all watchers to a scene or play on the piazza or the ground in front of the tree that we can*t see. I am very thankful this is not in colour. I am not so convinced by the inclusion or way of inclusion of the two bottom left and right and the whatever it is bottom middle. maybe it would have been possible to get the pyramid at a slightly different angle or focal length, even wider and more pointed up...not sure of course. I would have liked this to push the surrealty even further, I don*t think the beauty would have suffered. The tree does not bother me so much as without it the image would be more sterile - and another image. I think I would wish for the glowing light effect to be brought out even more on some of the heads. it feels a little inbetween. certainly a purposeful compo :)" - Dorothée Rapp on "Tulips"


May 7, 2009

"Great photo. I like the animated expressions. The contrast between the lively subjects and more "classic" background is unusual and made me stare at the image for a bit longer. Sharpness and DOF are excellent. Actually it's a very good result for such a humble lens. My only comment is the slight over exposure, but that's no big issue." - Shaul Naschitz on "G & S"

April 20, 2009

"I think this blend works really well and I'm a sucker for this kind of thing. The portrait is great and combined with the wonderful lighting it's really quite exceptional. There's something almost yin/yang about it. Looking out but yet looking within with what appears to be a kind of wistfulness in the shadows but hope in the highlights."

"It's the kind of image that has been done before but yet it manages an originality all of its own. Nice one." - Eugene Donohoe on ". . ."

April 14, 2009

"A wonderful smile, and heartbreaking story, Geert."

"Focus is spot-on, but I'm a bit disturbed by his hand being cut off on the left side. Perhaps a closer crop? Just a suggestion."

"I like how the design on his shirt seems to glow... makes him look like a superhero bursting out of his civilian disguise! haha"

"I wish Alain the best of luck in dealing with the state. If only they knew how much pain they cause to good people. And I'm hoping there's another Geert running around Belgium soon!" - Rod Peterson on "Portrait of Alain"

March 31, 2009

"Very nice image of your granddaughter. It's well done and I like the look. Madie is well composed and focus is nicely done. The look in her eyes and the set of her lips is priceless."

"One major distraction for me is the cutout in the doorframe for a hinge. I cropped this out and the main subject immediately became Madie. However the crop leaves the frame too short as the distance is needed for whatever Madie is contemplating."

"Nice otherwise... very nice." - Lars Cousineau on "Madie"

March 17, 2009

"Incredibly beautiful! Very relaxing to look at! The warm colors and the solitude gives you a sence of calmness despite the sweeping motion through the picture. At the same, there is a touch of sadness. Why? Regrets, longing, missing a loved one, bad news...

There seems to be some kind of symbolism with the man having a sad stand, the distinct shadow, the bird, the bird flying against the sweeping "wind" of sadness.

How is that for enterpretation ;-)

A great image in all aspects!

Best regards // Ola" - Ola Damberg on "Memento"

March 10, 2009

"I do like this one a lot Horst, the light, the shadows, and the wonderful contrasting wood texture. For me the topper is the horse and the way he's facing in the direction of the open door. A perfect pose." - Marianne Decker on "stable (b/w)"


February 21, 2009

"Oh I like this one! It oozes authenticity from the tablecloth in the foreground all the way to the perfect background. the pose seems totally natural and her expression as well. the color of the curlers go well with her dress. Maybe the picture would have been even stronger without the glass but on the other hand she might not have been so totally her natural self without the glass between herself and the camera. Light and exposure is perfect too. The new rating system gives has the option "unique and memorable". I guess that's a good description of this picture." - Klaus Er on "Mi suegra. My mother in law."

January 30, 2009

"Misha, wow, another stunning portrait. I feel as if I should cut and paste 90% of what I wrote the other day about your "Portrait of a Young Lady," but I guess that would be lazy!"

"You have such a talent for making images that a painter would be proud of (and that's about the highest compliment I could give ;-)). Everything is perfectly planned and executed--the turned-shoulder pose, the wonderful window light (Rembrandt *would* be proud!), the background effect, and last of all the processing. The processing manages not to look contrived, and pulls the image into a realm that straddles modernity/reality and a Master's painting. As I said on your other image, I absolutely love the way the edges of the shadowed side seem to merge softly with the background."

"I'm so continually impressed with your portraits, Misha. As with "Portrait of a Young Lady," I wish I could give it more than a 10. :-)" - Elisabeth Spector on "Girl with a white hat"

January 13, 2009

"Don, one of my favorite images of yours of late. I could stare at this for a long time, would make a great screen wallpaper. The foreground has plenty of interest, the detail in the sand really good. The person in the storm stands there to add more interest and color to a pretty sandy seen. There is much depth captured here. More pattern with the sand. The sky again adds color and drama to a stark landscape. And the background is soft and smooth. Really good." - Geno Sajko on "Refugee of the storm"

January 2, 2009

"Bruce, you have really been creating some very good shots lately."

"I love the composition. Perhaps it's a little tall, maybe not though as I'm wanting to see a little more on the sides but what was there may not have been desireable so in that case I would understand."

"What really makes this is the reflection which is wonderful and adds the right color balance."

"Two things keep me from giving this a HOF nomination. As has been said, the blown exposure on El Cap. I would reprocess another layer from RAW (I hope you shoot raw) to get right exposure for that area. Then I would hide that layer completely with a Layer Mask and slowly reveal it until it looks natural with more gold to match the reflection."

"The other area is the branch in the upper right that has the clump of snow. There is some haloing going on around the branches here which unaturally lightend the sky in this area and also the snow here has too much of a cyan cast."

"If these can be fixed, imho this should be in the HOF and would be a shame if not." - Jeff Tangen on "Yosemite Light"

December 19, 2008

Welcome to MFT Handika. Might want to hit the encouragement help category rather than dead honest critique. That way you get more help as I did at the site. Shot has some distracting items in it that if cropped out would help us focus better." - Bruce Wendler on "Sunset outside Ujungberung_1"

December 2, 2008

"it's a scene to die for and an interesting discussion too. for me the left part of the snowy mountains looks fine and fairytale like and it is connecting nicely even through the fot. the right part is just a tad too burnt will say, I don*t get a "fog" impression, I get an "overexposed" impression, if only slightly so. what enhances that impression for me is the reflection which is gorgeous in the mountain part (could shine even more) so that the difference between what I see there and what I do not see in the "real" mountain jumps out at me. hope that makes sense? best wishes" - Dorothée Rapp on "Convict Lake"

November 24, 2008

"yes, let me see,...why is it so good....hmmm.... Maybe because of the composition and processing, maybe because of the tones evident, maybe because there are so many textures that seem to blend in together, and then maybe it is the dark patch of wet sand (or is that an enhanced reflection of the far mountain?) in the pool with the cloud reflections around it that centers the eye and brings everything together. whatever, well worthy of cudos for the skill of the photographer."

"have a great day eugene" - george shaw on "Renvyle Beach"

November 12, 2008

"I think the 2nd one has brought out the noise a little too much. The first one is on the soft side. I don't know how finely detailed your full size image is but here is a "resize for web" sharpening technique that works well and does not introduce noise or halos:"

In the Image Size dialog box, type 96 in the Resolution field and type in twice the end result pixel dimension for the long side. So if your desired size is 800x600 type in 1600 on the long side. Now hit OK. Then do a straight Sharpen twice. Now resize down to 800x600. You should now have a very sharp image. If too sharp, back step to your first sharpen. Apply the second one and then fade that back between 80-60%. You'll have to play around with those percentages as it's dependent on the original sharpness of the full size shot." - Jeff Tangen on "One On The Way"

October 27, 2008

"I love this Horst - creative, inventive, striking, original - I could go on. I too didn't see the cyclist straight away, he merges with the background so effectively and just looks like a smear of paint. When you do discover him, it raises it to another level and turns just a bit of street art, into a bit of art created by you"

"This must rate as one of my favourites of yours - deserves more attention to my mind"

"Nice one" - Andy Collin on "With Bike Through The Galaxis"

October 18, 2008 (missed almost two weeks - sorry)

"Since you asked for opinions: when you do make the decision to crop, don't do it half way... either stick to the full image, or crop at full tile. Although it's not a real deal breaker in this image. Other thing that intrigues me: the girl's reaching out there with the wrong hand... which isn't necessarily bad for the image either. The conversion seems as good as it can get to me. But all I can give you for this is a ten; it could have been eleven or twelve if it wasn't for that ambiguous crop ;o)" - Geert Deleu on "Reaching Out For / In Touch With ..."

September 30, 2008

"This is a capture worth its weight in gold. A really gentle capture of a gentle soul in every sense of the word."

"You have without doubt, carved out your expertise here on mft where it comes to people and portraits and this one lives up to your high standards where people are concerned."

"You have a great knack of bringing the best out in people and this one yet again confirms that. As well as the pose being simple and direct, yet full of depth, its simplicity is greatly enhanced by the simple range of muted yet powerful colours that compliment and enhance this wonderful capture, especially where the white and yellow meet and then majestically lead the eye towards that gentle soul."

"Many thanks for sharing Vaggelis." - Eugene Donohoe on "peeking into the world"

September 20, 2008

"A classic composition."

"And more importantly a reminder to all photographers that strive to create a great image in this digital world. A great photograph is always about perfect exposure of the light, how that light reveals those forms we seek to portray and following good compositional rules. So often photographers attempt to create images of "things" rather than the light that reveals those things. No amount of post processing, wishing or prayer, uncountable numbers of additional layers created in Photoshop, canned actions in Lightroom, and no number of vignetting or texture can crate a silk purse..."

"If you have another horizontal image similar to this, I would suggest entering this into the Calendar Competition. I predict it would be accepted and published. This vertical format is not appropriate for the competion though, unfortuantly." - E. Edwin Ennor on "Passua on the Danube"

September 9, 2008

"I really like the tracks and, although I see Doro's point, the echoing of the footprints in the cloud patterns are a very strong part of the shot so I would probably leave it. I do think the horizon is a little sharp. I have sometimes improved things like this by blurring the edges of mountains etc. ever so slightly where they touch the sky. It might work, or you might not agree! On the whole, though, I really like this scene." - adrian tear on "Tracks"

September 3, 2008

"Sweet light on this Bruce. I too am seeing this as soft. For my tripod mounted shots with my E3 I now exclusively use Live View with manual focus at the 10x magnification on the LCD. At that magnification it let's you pinpoint razor sharp focus. You should try this if it's available on the 510. And also with the 14-42 I would not go past f/11. Try to find a review where they find the "sweet spot" f-stop for this lens and use that." - Jeff Tangen on "Supes with Summer Clouds"

August 26, 2008

"I am not a big fan of desaturation and vignetting but this works extremely well here probably most of all because this is anyways such a good layered composition (with horizontal elements and diagonals in both directions) and maybe you could have taken very different approaches to pping this and still have ended up with a striking image." - Klaus Er on "...In the field..."

August 20, 2008

"coming late here Chris - nonetheless I*ll offer my 1c :). the curve is beautiful, the clouds are promising (whatever ;)). the position of the couple is not too happy I think. my idea would be to crop a little from the bottom (so the shoreline ends in the corner) and just to the right of the couple so that the focus is more on them and their direction of looking left..." - Dorothée Rapp on "Strolling"

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