weekly aljazzera's 52 week challenge week 52 BUSY added

Hi Allan

hmmm...choices.... choices....

#1....I love the clarity of the multi colored toy & the wool does indeed look soft enough to cuddle....what I'm wondering about is the rabbit....can't decide whether it should be fully in focus or not there at all .For me I think he should be in focus as well cos he looks even softer (y)

#2....I love the idea ...you've got a nice soft reflection in the largest droplet & love the totally oof BG - possibly a bit noisey though...is it a heavy crop ?

#1 for me I think :)
 
Hi Allan,

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to find your thread.

Shiny - I love what you've done here!

Entrance - I think the insect house entrance is a good, different take and I prefer the abstractness of it to the more obvious archway photo.

Soft - #1 is on theme, but I feel it is lacking something? :thinking: #2 does not say Soft to me personally. Also, as Lynne pointed out, it is really quite noisy.
 
Hmm, I'm torn too. Number 2 is deffinately the better image, but number 1 is more on theme; it just looks a bit, dare I say, uninteresting? I think I have to go with the better photo regardless of theme, so number 2 for me.
 
Thanks for the comments what i was trying to do was have the picture soft in some way too.

I agree No2 is very noisy its a heavy crop and a high iso so to be expected I suppose.

I still don't know I am not happy with either but I think I like 2 better the toys are a bit throwaway as Southdowns and Nathalie said uninteresting and lacking something I agree.

will catch up with everyone else's in the next couple of days not had a lot of time this week
 
Number 1, I think that would be easily sorted by just concentrating on the one soft toy, in this case the cat. Some lovely colours in there which would make for a great pic. Soft toys are awkward to photograph though, I found that when I did my pics.

Number 2, like this, I wonder if a b+w conversion might help with it?
 
Hi Allan. Hope you don't mind, but I had a go at some selective noise reduction in Lightroom. Reasonable results I think given that it's a jpeg file; it'd be a lot better with the raw I think:


7068177159_032ce74f51_o.jpg by MarkBerry1963, on Flickr
 
Last edited:
i cant see the pic, I use Aperture and did some noise reduction on the raw file at least I think i did
 
Sorry, I changed the privacy settings, and forgot that the image URL changes when you do that! It should be there now.

Can't remember if Aperture allows you to brush NR in or not; that's what I did in LR because otherwise too much detail was lost in the in focus droplet.
 
:wave:

Missed you all together.

I'll comment on my top 3 as running a bit late and I'll subscribe for future updates.

Money...just because it's Jonny Cash...and I smiled :D

Secure...simplify. Nice one. I'd like to see it in B&W because there's little colour anyway.

Vice, again humour..well done. Quite like the composition and BG is, just about black.

Good work.

Cheers.
 
Like #1 for entrance, really nice shot. #2 is a good idea but I just prefer #1!

Soft - #1 says soft to me more and its a nice picture, #2 is a cracker but does not scream soft.
 
Lovely ducks and ducklings (y)

I think that the link to pride though is tenuous but I like the cut of your jib :D

Technically I think the second shot is not as good as the first, it's too busy with branches and leaves and the reflection of the water gives it a very one dimensional feel.

The water in the first one isn't reflecting back at us and hence the colour and contrast of the duck and duckling stand out better. I would say that it would be even better if you had managed to place them on the lower third of the shot or alternatively, crop the bottom to just below the small green leaf on the left as it improves the composition.
You're not loosing anything in this case by cropping the reflection of the mother duck in this case.
 
any parent is proud of their brood :)

I think no. 2 is too busy, might have worked if her brood had been in a line behind her :LOL: but no. 1 is spot on, although if you'd got mama duck to pose the same as in shot 2 it would have been perfect :clap: so you just need to perfect your duck talking skills so you can direct their positions next time ( hmmm you do get my sense of humour don't you? lol)
 
Donnie said:
Lovely ducks and ducklings (y)

I think that the link to pride though is tenuous but I like the cut of your jib :D

Technically I think the second shot is not as good as the first, it's too busy with branches and leaves and the reflection of the water gives it a very one dimensional feel.

The water in the first one isn't reflecting back at us and hence the colour and contrast of the duck and duckling stand out better. I would say that it would be even better if you had managed to place them on the lower third of the shot or alternatively, crop the bottom to just below the small green leaf on the left as it improves the composition.
You're not loosing anything in this case by cropping the reflection of the mother duck in this case.
Click to expand...

I have now cropped it, you are right about the reflection of the mother duck I did worry that people would say why have you cropped out the reflection so i left it.


duck and duckling (edit) by allanhowe, on Flickr
 
Last edited:
michael23 said:
Love both of those, very nice pictures, I really do like number 1 for its simplicity. Certainly on theme.
Click to expand...

Thanks

sturisoma said:
any parent is proud of their brood :)

I think no. 2 is too busy, might have worked if her brood had been in a line behind her :LOL: but no. 1 is spot on, although if you'd got mama duck to pose the same as in shot 2 it would have been perfect :clap: so you just need to perfect your duck talking skills so you can direct their positions next time ( hmmm you do get my sense of humour don't you? lol)
Click to expand...

the trouble is there is no English - Duck book available i looked;)
 
Two lovely shots, but number 1 says pride to me more than 2, which is more "harassed" I recon!!!

I get what Donnie was saying that prompted the edit, but I can't make my mind up whether it's better than the original or not. I think perhaps not, as to me it now looks a little unbalanced?
 
Hi Allan

knew I'd seen ducks somewhere in this challenge :LOL:

whilst #1 is great for the sharp focus on both mum & offspring I way prefer #2.....absolutely fab natural image & just soo cute :clap: Maybe not technically perfect for lighting & POV but still to me a great capture (y)
 
'Pride' I really like the edited crop. it's a fantastic time of year. nice focus and bang on theme - nick
 
I am not really getting the link to the theme here Allan but it is a well taken photograph all the same.
You've handled what appears to be quite harsh lighting well, composition works well too, just a little busy on the background though.
Out of curiosity, how big/small is this model? It is difficult as a viewer to get a sense of scale. Iain
 
The model is a marionette part of the Sea Odyssey thing which has been in Liverpool for the last 3 days i would say she is about 30 foot high. I used this because as they made their way round the city (there were 3 of them the little girl and her dog and her uncle) they would stop at certain places for a couple of hours and have a short nap hence the short, a bit loose i know;)
It was very hard to get a pic without a cluttered background so i had to crop it slightly.
 
Last edited:
A giant having a short nap (sleep) what is it you don't get?
 
Last edited:
Short nap. Well spotted. Looks freakishly large :exit:

30 foot hight...sheesh. They could quite easily be a few inches...have to say, I'm liking them.

The RH BG is very distracting...could you step right and pan left?

Any reason for f11?

Cheers.
 
posiview said:
Short nap. Well spotted. Looks freakishly large :exit:

30 foot hight...sheesh. They could quite easily be a few inches...have to say, I'm liking them.

The RH BG is very distracting...could you step right and pan left?

Any reason for f11?

Cheers.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the comment
getting a decent view was hard a lot of people there so had to take a gap when I found one.
The only reason i can give for f11 is I wasn't thinking about settings, new to this and only just getting into that way of thinking sometimes I kick myself when i view the pic at home.
 
Short nap works for me, well taken shot it seems to have been very busy around there so well snapped :)
 
I think spot on! The only tiny tiny crit would be that a nicer reflection would be perfect (the reflection is perfectly captured, I just mean I think it could be a reflection of something prettier!), but really that's being incredibly picky! Great shot!
 
Last edited:
Good thinking on the theme. Very nicely shot although I agree with Mark about the reflection. I can't imagine how many shots you had to take to get this. The positioning on the thirds makes it even better.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top