weekly XenosElaine's 52s Thread - Support added

Hi, #1 is a belter. Great eye contact, detai, and colours, but it's #3 for me. It's a little tight but I find it to be a very emotional photograph. I'd like a little more contrast as the blacks are quite gray.

Cheers.
 
Judi said:
Hi Elain,
Like your Altoids image nice clean background sharp good shot(y)
texture the chimp one for me real texture there:)
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Thanks Judi :)
 
posiview said:
Hi, #1 is a belter. Great eye contact, detai, and colours, but it's #3 for me. It's a little tight but I find it to be a very emotional photograph. I'd like a little more contrast as the blacks are quite gray.

Cheers.
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Thanks Andy. If you think the crop of the hand is emotional, you should see the face. I can't look at it without filling up!
 
Hi Elaine. Apologies for taking so long to visit your thread.

Shape: Full marks for taking an adventorous approach to this complex composition. I think it works well and like that all details are visible in the black statue too

Number: Duck for me too. Really fun and interesting to see the work someone has put into decorating the duck :)

Strong: Definitely the mints shot here, though second Lynn's very well considered suggestions for adding extra interest here.

Texture: I like all three shots and particularly like how sharp and vibrant the ostrich and parrots pics are - you certainly nailed these technically.
Chimp pic is really though provoking. I like the textures here too, especially the black finger nails and bald patch on the back of the hand, which makes me wonder how this bald patch came about?

Keep up the good work (y)
 
Hi, three excellent animal pics beautifully sharp love the ostrich such a great face but the chimp is the better one for the theme
if you increase the contrast and blacks assuming you use some version of PS the blackness of the chimp might be better, though it doesn't spoil what is a great image
 
JasonGlyn said:
Hi Elaine. Apologies for taking so long to visit your thread.

Shape: Full marks for taking an adventorous approach to this complex composition. I think it works well and like that all details are visible in the black statue too

Number: Duck for me too. Really fun and interesting to see the work someone has put into decorating the duck :)

Strong: Definitely the mints shot here, though second Lynn's very well considered suggestions for adding extra interest here.

Texture: I like all three shots and particularly like how sharp and vibrant the ostrich and parrots pics are - you certainly nailed these technically.
Chimp pic is really though provoking. I like the textures here too, especially the black finger nails and bald patch on the back of the hand, which makes me wonder how this bald patch came about?

Keep up the good work (y)
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Thanks Jason. That duck was actually one of the least elaborate I saw. People round here take the Duck Race very seriously and some had obviously spent hours painting and dressing their ducks :rolleyes:

I think the patch on the hand is probably mud! That particular chimp was quite old with white whiskers and had virtually no hair at all left either on its arms or the top of its head.
 
alsjazzera said:
Hi, three excellent animal pics beautifully sharp love the ostrich such a great face but the chimp is the better one for the theme
if you increase the contrast and blacks assuming you use some version of PS the blackness of the chimp might be better, though it doesn't spoil what is a great image
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Thanks Allan. I think you may possibly be confusing chimps with gorillas :confused: Whilst gorillas have very black skin, chimps are actually born with very pale skin and it only gradually darkens on the parts that are exposed to sunlight (like their hands and faces) as they get older. I suppose that ones that live in sunny climates eventually get quite dark, but I don't think that applies to ones living in North Wales :D
 
I love that chimps image Elaine. There is something weird about about it I can't explain: it looks so alive and a little creepy.
 
Thanks d00d. I know what you mean and I think it's the almost-but-not-quite human quality of the hands that does it.
 
Hi Elaine, no.3 may well fit the theme better and is a great image but that ostrich shot is a belter (y) :D
 
XenosElaine said:
Thanks Allan. I think you may possibly be confusing chimps with gorillas :confused: Whilst gorillas have very black skin, chimps are actually born with very pale skin and it only gradually darkens on the parts that are exposed to sunlight (like their hands and faces) as they get older. I suppose that ones that live in sunny climates eventually get quite dark, but I don't think that applies to ones living in North Wales :D
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what I was meaning was that you said it was shot through glass and if you increase the contrast, blacks in PS it would counteract the glass a little, I go to chester zoo a lot and find it sometimes helps
 
HI Elaine

3 fab animal shots for the Texture theme.....but for me , the winner by a mile is the Chimps hands......love it :clap:
 
Action - You've caught the action well as the ball is in the shot. For me it needs a shallow DoF though as the background is too prominent in the image

Mono - The pigeon is the shot for me out of these. Looks like you've managed the lighting well as there's certainly detail in the feathers. This would have been easy to over expose

Twisted - I prefer the chimney shot but where the top of the other two LOL

Fresh - Another one well exposed. The vignetting too helps

Shape - The one on the glass table works far better than the other edits in my opinion. I like the sculpture shape mirroring the metal of the table

Number – I #1 & #2 don't do much for me I'm afraid but I like #3 and the clean whites of the door

Strong – #2 is the better of these three. The converging verticals really help strengthen this one

Texture - Great set of three images. Because of the theme I just have to say #3 does it for me. The colour in the twig brings an extra dimension.
 
Thanks for all the comments - especially to Peter for taking the time to go all that way back!

When I saw this week's theme, I thought I'd have some good outdoorsy fun doing it, but the weather forecast for the rest of the week is looking like putting a damper on that idea, so I decided to make the most of the bit of early morning sunshine today and pop next door into the park. Was hoping for frolicking squirrels, but even at 8 am on a Sunday there were too many dogs being walked and all the squirrels were keeping well out of the way, so I've made do with wild ducks and flowers.

#1 I know the light's atrocious on this one, but the only place I could get a reasonable angle on the whole family of mandarin ducklings was from the shade of the bushes with the sun almost directly in front of me and I decided the image was just too cute to leave out :oops: :$

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#2 Think this must be Dad looking very pleased with himself after all his hard work o_O

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#3 Random wildflowers

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#4 Random wildflower with slightly scary-looking insect (think I've probably cropped this a bit too close in pp and lost some of the detail)

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Hi Elaine, pity about the light in the duckling pics would have been a great pic, second one slightly blown highlights too and you have cut off his backside
great colours in him though, the last two are a bit grainy I take it they are heavily cropped
overall the second duck pic because of the colours wins it for me
 
First image is a lovely shot Elaine (y), it has loads of potential to me, lovely reflection, dof :) ........I can't see the exif detail but ( and I'm far from an expert and often get it wrong :D) shooting in manual and raw I would have gone for a slightly under exposed image, (faster shutter speed) getting more detail in the blown areas and making the shadows darker.

In ACR I'm amazed by how much detail can be recovered in the raw image :)

As said, I'm far from an expert and can't tell you if what I'm doing is the 'experts' way, but, on occasions, its worked for me :)
 
I like a bit of strong backlighting, as long as you can get enough brightness into the shadow which you have here. The light coming through the feathers is great.

Daddy duck is a little to tight in the frame but the colours are ace there.

Agree the last is to closely croppedand has sacrificed detail a lot.
 
Hi Elaine :)

Strong - Some lovely bold images there, all nice and bright, for me the 3rd although I like the idea is a bit too grainy and lit unevenly, especially at the bottom, the clear winner for me is the first, a large bold and well lit image, with a nice white background (y)

Wild - Yet again another great bunch of images, I like that tou bring a great selection to us each week... My fav even with the lighting is the first shot, although technically not quite there a great capture (suprised you can't recover a bit more of it...) Love the ducklings on and struggling to get onto the log, the second image is my runner up, lovely colours and love it settled in the big patch of daisy's :)
 
HI Elaine

Mandarin ducks are so pretty , wonderful colors in their feathers which you've caught really well right& focused on the eye just ...the niggle is chopping off his tail feathers...

The Duckling family would be just perfect if not for the harsh light....but sometimes we have to take what we can :)
 
Firstly, I must apologise for the lack of responses and feedback this week. It's been a bit of a busy one, but I do appreciate all the looks and comments!

I'm off on holiday to Greece for a month at the end of the week, so this week will probably be my last submission for a while. I'll be looking in regularly and gathering shots for the latest themes though, so I just hope DK doesn't bin me off his spreadsheet :eek:

After last week's shot of the male mandarin amongst the daisies, I knew exactly what I wanted to do when I saw this week's theme, but it's taken until today for me to get up early enough! But I knew the sun wouldn't last long, so I made the effort and got out while it lasted and before the park filled up with dog walkers disturbing the ducks and geese. This Canada gosling was just a little too awake to keep its eyes closed as I approached it, but I think (hope!) it was still snoozy enough to look reasonably dreamy.

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Lovely cute image indeed, well composed and the light working well for you there. really showing the delicacy of the hairs on his head and back / neck.
 
Wild - The duckling shot has to win because of the aw-factor. The WB feels a bit to green but given so much of it in the reflections it would probably be difficult to adjust for this

Dream - I see what you are saying about it having a dreamy feel to it

Have a great holiday over in Greece
 
Hi, lovely pic of the duckling it does have a dreamy look to it, enjoy your holidays. :)
 
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