Michael23's 52! Revised Slide Show Added

A beautiful set of portraits. Lovely composition and excellent use of DOF.

I agree with Tina's comments re exposure, although I can see the lighting conditions were not easy.

I like that it has a sequence and story. Excellent variation in composition and positioning.

Great image(y)
 
Hi Michael,

I think your 'trio' triptych is spot on! I like that there are a variety of compositions and distance from your subject, and the black and white with the black border looks really good. Also great sharpness, DoF and the blurred background looks brilliant (y)

Will :D.
 
Hiya Michael,

Great idea for this week's theme and like the b&w processing, focus and DOF.

However, I am not sure the sequence works for me, I'll explain why .... the middle photo your daughter is on the far right, right above the pole of the bottom photo, which looks odd to me. I think the top photo should be in the middle as that image is the boldest of the three and more central in the frame which would be more condusive taking centre position in the triptych.

Also there are fences in the bottom two and I think the division of the top photo being in the centre would balance the two.

Personally I would have gone with the bottom one at the top, top in the middle and middle at the bottom (if that makes sense). To me it would convey a story of your daughter hiding to the side of the pole, then like someone saying to her 'I can see you', her coming out with her hands over her eyes as though to say 'no you can't' and finishing with her smiling, yet bemused by the whole idea.

Sorry if that all seems like a lot, but I actually saw your photo last night and have been thinking about it today trying to focus on the way I would see the triptych.

Otherwise I think you have some brilliant photos there and it would make a lovely one to frame.

Cheers

Dawn :)
 
Hi Michael!

Your "Finish" photo definitely fits the theme! Congrats on the new kitchen! Bearing in mind you were busy it looks good, but it needs a touch up. The think that bugs me the most watching it is the tilt. If you could just straighten the image it would improve the photo!


The "Trio" photos are just beautiful. The sequence you have selected works for me but it would be nice to see alternatives to it and judge if it will look better. I like the B&W conversion and your model is just gorgeous! (y)

Well done!

Rayna
 
..MD.. said:
I am liking Trio very much buddy... I am very much into my outdoor shots at the moment and these tell a nice story I can see the light was very strong.. So you have done well with these.


MD(y)


I might not comment all the time bud But I look at most of your shots;)
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Cheers Dave, thanks very much for popping by and commenting, much appreciated. (y)

TinaC said:
When i saw the first of the triptych i thought you were going to show "See no evil, hear no evil..."

I notice you were shooting at 400 ISO and from 200mm , any reason? Parts of her face look a little blown and this might be why?

Your middle shot doesn't look quite in focus to my eye.

Having said all that I think this is a lovely idea and I'm not sure i could improve on the sequence, although she looks very playful in the first and rather static in the next two shots so maybe that is why they should flank #1?

I seldom photograph people myself so am rather poor at critiquing such.
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Hi Tina, when I arrived, the light was rather dull and shutter speeds were quite low, so I upped the iso, but by the time I started to photograph my daughter, the sun had come out, and I had forgotten about the iso being set to 400. The lens I used was my 200mm f2.8 prime, which is a cracking lens for outdoor portraits. Many thanks for your comments indeed. :)
PatrickO said:
A beautiful set of portraits. Lovely composition and excellent use of DOF.

I agree with Tina's comments re exposure, although I can see the lighting conditions were not easy.

I like that it has a sequence and story. Excellent variation in composition and positioning.

Great image(y)
Click to expand...
Many thanks Patrick, (y)

Will James said:
Hi Michael,

I think your 'trio' triptych is spot on! I like that there are a variety of compositions and distance from your subject, and the black and white with the black border looks really good. Also great sharpness, DoF and the blurred background looks brilliant (y)

Will :D.
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Thank You!

drodd said:
Hiya Michael,

Great idea for this week's theme and like the b&w processing, focus and DOF.

However, I am not sure the sequence works for me, I'll explain why .... the middle photo your daughter is on the far right, right above the pole of the bottom photo, which looks odd to me. I think the top photo should be in the middle as that image is the boldest of the three and more central in the frame which would be more condusive taking centre position in the triptych.

Also there are fences in the bottom two and I think the division of the top photo being in the centre would balance the two.

Personally I would have gone with the bottom one at the top, top in the middle and middle at the bottom (if that makes sense). To me it would convey a story of your daughter hiding to the side of the pole, then like someone saying to her 'I can see you', her coming out with her hands over her eyes as though to say 'no you can't' and finishing with her smiling, yet bemused by the whole idea.

Sorry if that all seems like a lot, but I actually saw your photo last night and have been thinking about it today trying to focus on the way I would see the triptych.

Otherwise I think you have some brilliant photos there and it would make a lovely one to frame.

Cheers

Dawn :)
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Hi Dawn, thank you for your comments, it's not a lot at all You have pretty much nailed the problems I was thinking about, I will certainly do a re-edit on it with the composition you suggested, I want to get it looking right as I do want it printed! (y)

SilentGoddess said:
Hi Michael!

Your "Finish" photo definitely fits the theme! Congrats on the new kitchen! Bearing in mind you were busy it looks good, but it needs a touch up. The think that bugs me the most watching it is the tilt. If you could just straighten the image it would improve the photo!
Thanks for taking a look, i did use a rotate arbitrary function, but couldn't straighten it much, if I get chance I will see what I can do on it.

The "Trio" photos are just beautiful. The sequence you have selected works for me but it would be nice to see alternatives to it and judge if it will look better. I like the B&W conversion and your model is just gorgeous! (y)

Well done!

Rayna
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Glad you like my "trio", I shall do an edit and post it up at some point.

Thank you very much for all of your comments and critique, they are very well received (y)
 
michael23 said:
Only thing bugging me is the layout of the photos, I would be interested to hear opinions on the order of the photos. (y)
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Hi, that's the first thing that caught my attention, apart from your beautiful daughter!.

Think I'd like to see 2, 1 (with top of head in frame..;) then 3.

I do like the film strip processing.

Cheers.
 
Thanks Andy, unfortunately the top of her head is missing, which I hadn't noticed.

Been having a play around and done one as suggested and I have also done a horizontal version, It has been quite hard to decide on my preferred layout, but here are my latest 2 attempts

DPP_0007-vertedit.jpg


DPP_0007-horz.jpg
 
Hiya Michael,

I think that looks better, however the one with the pole is a tricky one to position within the set. I'm not sure if you have cropped the originals, but perhaps if the top photo was cropped so that the pole is further to the right of the frame it would improve the balance through the triptych.

Having said that, I like the landscape version, but think that 1 and 3 would work better swapped around.

Sorry to keep coming up with other suggestions, but it is difficult to imagine how it will look until I see the result.

I know tricky triptychs can be, having done a few myself (hence why I probably didn't do one for this week's theme :D)

Well done for persevering though and I think this will look great framed.

Cheers

Dawn :)
 
Hiya Dawn, none of these of these were cropped. I did try cropping number 3 in the 2 previous sequences, but all that did was totally throw out the lines of the the triptych, all the suggestions are great, I am not always seeing things the way I would like, as it gets quite frustrating at times and nothing looks good during editing, so other peoples perspective is greatly appreciated. Here is the next edit version..

DPP_0077-horz.jpg


I quite like it this way...(y)
 
Hello one and all! I'm a bit late this week, having been ill with some really horrible migraines. So with everything that has put me back, I have managed do to do a reshoot, but decided to dip into my archive for my knowledge photo, as I have just not had any chance to attempt a new photo, and not had much motivation either.

So on to my RESHOOT, I have decided to do another take of my week 1, accommodation, "Where film lives" I have 2 different views,

I quite like the way the lighting has worked on the first one, although it has put a main part of my camera in to shadow, I like the way it has made it stand out, also I have removed the strap this time around (y)

_MG_7920.jpg


_MG_7932.jpg


And this is the original I did for week 1, just for comparison
Accomodation.jpg


Now on to KNOWLEDGE! When I first saw this them, I could just not think of anything, so this is from the 7th September last year, which was my daughters 5th birthday and her 1st day of school, I also took this as her Quest for Knowledge

052.jpg


This was done on my compact Fuji F40, on what was a very manic morning, my daughter running around so happy and excited, only managing to get a few pictures! Hope you like!
Edit, Just noticed the focus is a bit out...
 
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Hi Michael I like the idea behind the last image .." Young child & the school in the b/g"

But as you say you have missed the focus on this one... Shame really..!!


I like the old cameras I see a few every saturday when I go to town as there is a stall with loads of these. & I find myself looking at them and thinking hmmmm I wouldnt mind taking a photo of that...

Anyhow Keep up the good work


Regards MD(y)
 
Nice set so far Michael - I particularly like the horizontal format triptych! I think in theory the vertical layout should work better with landscape orientation shots (and vice versa for portrait orientation) but for some reason I prefer the horizontal - perhaps because it lends better to people shots! :)
 
Hiya Michael,

I like your reshoot of week 1. The backgrounds are much better, although a few minor crits, 1. the shadow in the first (which you already pointed out), 2. The dark shadow/mark to the right of the second, 3. quite a bit of dust on the lens/camera. But otherwise a definite improvement on the first take.

Your knowledge shot is perfect for the theme, like you said, petty about the focus being a bit soft, but nonetheless a lovely reminder of the first day at school.

Well done

Cheers

Dawn :)
 
Hi Michael , that shot of your daughter is going to be a lovely reminder in years to come. Lovely expression and beautiful smile.

You've mentioned the slight OOF. Also I would try to get more light in her eyes.

Really like the camera shots - very sharp and clear.

I've just looked at your triptych again - just brilliant!

Patrick
 
Well, what a mega hard theme it has been for this week! I have been thinking so hard, and not really come up with anything which would be bang on the theme! So instead, I have decided to look at my images taken this week, to see if any would fit the theme, even if it is a very distant relation to moderation, or another form of the word, ie "moderate". I didn't want to play a wild card, as I really wanted to stick with the themes

So here goes my attempts..

Image 1,

_MG_8008_tonemapped.jpg


This photo was processed using photomatix, in it's trial mode hence the watermark. In terms of fitting in with the theme, after looking on google, they have a "moderate" average %age in average efficiency, also I believe these power stations have to moderate temperature as well..........

Now on to image number 2

_MG_8013.jpg


As I was taking this photograph, I was thinking about the pollen count, and the term "moderate" is used a lot in conjunction with this.

I hope you like them, I understand the hdr is not to everyone's taste, and I don't do this sort of processing much, but I kind of like it. Sorry I couldn't come up with anything better for the theme. :LOL:
 
Not really sure about the first one; difficult to see the theme on it. That aside, for me the colours are just not strong enough, I know the light level is low but could do with saturation bumping up a bit.

Second one - much better in terms of colour and composition for me, best of the two. :)
 
Hiya Michael,

Yep, I can see your thought process here, just think that #1 needs some pp attention. I hope you don't mind but I have had a quick play ....

5556477489_c62e4f8963_b.jpg


basically did a slight straighten, adjusted the lighting and shadow, bit of a pop of the colour and added a frame. Just to show you what I had in mind (which I think is a fab idea for a photo) and will remove if you want.

As for your second image, I love that, just think it could do with a tad of a crop from the left.

BTW your camera needs a serious sensor clean, there are loads of dust bunnies abound. Either that or you need to give the glass a bit of a dust. (not evident in the photos you have posted, but when doing an edit I noticed them)

Otherwise I think you have done a great job here regards the thought process.

Cheers

Dawn :)
 
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feriso said:
Not really sure about the first one; difficult to see the theme on it. That aside, for me the colours are just not strong enough, I know the light level is low but could do with saturation bumping up a bit.

Second one - much better in terms of colour and composition for me, best of the two. :)
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Cheers David, will play around with the 1st image more, see what I can get out of it. Glad you like number 2.
 
Hiya Dawn, thanks for doing the edit, as I just scrolled down the page, I realised I had forgotten a border. I have no idea why :LOL: I don't mid your edit at all, thanks very much, will be having a play with this one when I get the chance, and see what I can do with it. The 2nd image is definitely my favourite, lighting wise, I was very pleased with it, just pure sunshine! I will have a go at cropping a little extra of the left hand side and see how it looks.

I am very glad that the thought process has come through! :)
(y)

Edit, thanks for letting me know about the dust bunnies as well, I have got get my camera checked due to a sticky and very awkward shutter button. Sensor clean is on my to do list.
 
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Dawn - much better; thats what I had in mind. however the blue is a bit off-putting
 
feriso said:
Dawn - much better; thats what I had in mind. however the blue is a bit off-putting
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Thanks, I know what you mean, now that I look at it I think I popped it a bit too much. But it was a very quick edit ..... this child of mind is distracting me (not going to sleep tonight :LOL:)

Cheers


Dawn :)
 
Hiya Michael,

Firstly, I'd like to say I think you have done well with your edits of the previous weeks (y)

Onto this week: Wow what a lovely portrait photo, and such a little cutie too. My fav has to be #1 because I love the vivid colours and skin tone and is such a natural looking photo.

The b&w conversion is also good, but I just feel that something is lost in this photo .... perhaps the child-like innocence that one can see in the first image.

For me, the processing in #3 doesn't work (sorry). I think the vignette is too harsh and interferes with some of the great detail in #1.

Overall though I think you have a gorgeous photo here that needs framing (y)

Cheers

Dawn :)
 
Hi Dawn, thankyou for your nice comments, I am glad you like the edits of week 12.
Your thoughts on my 3 photos this week are very helpful indeed. Starting with my last edit first, when I actually processed it, I looked at it and thought now that works, but coming back to it today, I am not so sure, although I do like it. I have also come to the conclusion that the 1st version is my preferred one, mainly for the reasons you say, the vivid colours do make it stand out, and I would imagine that this will be framed. (Once my walls are painted!)
(y)

drodd said:
Hiya Michael,

Firstly, I'd like to say I think you have done well with your edits of the previous weeks (y)

Onto this week: Wow what a lovely portrait photo, and such a little cutie too. My fav has to be #1 because I love the vivid colours and skin tone and is such a natural looking photo.

The b&w conversion is also good, but I just feel that something is lost in this photo .... perhaps the child-like innocence that one can see in the first image.

For me, the processing in #3 doesn't work (sorry). I think the vignette is too harsh and interferes with some of the great detail in #1.

Overall though I think you have a gorgeous photo here that needs framing (y)

Cheers

Dawn :)
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HI Michael, I too prefer the first of the 3. I think the composition is great. I think it may benefit from raising the exposure on the face a little bit with an adjustment brush, at the moment the eyes are more drawn to the prominent bright hat. I think this was the intention when you did the vignet on the 3rd photo, but as Dawn pointed out it's a little too harsh and dark.
 
HI Kaz, many thanks for popping by and taking a look, yes on the 3rd edit, I was trying to just give it some extra impact, but it hasn't really worked as well as I wanted. I just took a look again, the effect is actually a frame in photoscape, it was a gradient frame, I had a little go with the vignetting filter, but I wasnt to sure on the results, so left it as is. (y)
 
Hi, Michael, I like your second take on moderation. I thought that was dew at first. The edited feels better with the crop.

I'm going for your empty in this order: 1, 2, 3....easy!

1 has nice colours, especially in her cheeks. The b&w is also nice as it has some good contrasts.

#3, a tad too much vignette; feel a bit claustrophobic.

I did stare at your daughter for a while trying to figure out what she was thinking about. She seems to be looking down and to the left and I recall reading a book a while ago and part was on eye direction so I had a quick Google:

Down and to the Left
Indicates: Feeling / Kinesthetic (F)
If you asked someone to "Can you remember the smell of a campfire? ",
this would be the direction their eyes moved in while thinking about
the question as they used recalled a smell, feeling, or taste.​

I'm none the wiser, maybe you are...or maybe I'm just a bit tired and :wacky:

Cheers.
 
Hiya Andy, thanks for taking a look, you have got me onto google! Kinesthetic is a new word for me, never heard of it! :LOL:
I am just trying to think what I had said to her before taking the picture, I'm not 100% certain, but she might have asked for an ice cream when we got back, and my answer I think was a no!
(y)
 
Lovely photographs of your daughter - great colours and composition. I like the colour shots best not sure which one to choose but probably number 3 just has it.
 
Hi Michael, Lovely portrait for Empty. I too prefer No1, I really like the vibrance of the colours including the fleshtones.It was a close call for me though between that and No3 as I feel the vignette adds to the Emptiness, but still No1 deffo.
Really good work :clap:

Martin
 
Hi Mike...

Sorry it's taken me so long to comment back on your 52 after you have taken the time frequently to comment on mine!

I love all your shots! There is no dingers in there at all! I'd def go with the B + W for empty...

Keep up the good work!

Mark
 
Marts said:
Hi Michael, Lovely portrait for Empty. I too prefer No1, I really like the vibrance of the colours including the fleshtones.It was a close call for me though between that and No3 as I feel the vignette adds to the Emptiness, but still No1 deffo.
Really good work :clap:

Martin
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Hiya Martin, thanks for your comments, I have noticed as I keep going through my pictures in different lighting situations, I have noticed just how much natural light was affecting my thoughts on this one, it has looked different each time. Thanks again.

markelliot said:
Hi Mike... (y)

Sorry it's taken me so long to comment back on your 52 after you have taken the time frequently to comment on mine!

I love all your shots! There is no dingers in there at all! I'd def go with the B + W for empty...

Keep up the good work!

Mark
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Hiya Mark, no worries, these 5 projects are so popular, it can be tricky to keep up with everyones. Thankyou very much for popping by and taking a look, and for your positive comments.
(y)
 
Well, week 14 is here, and for once I have been able to post earlier than usual. I decided to make use of the lovely sunshine, just before a hail storm! Now as this theme lends it self to so many things, I have gone for 2 subjects over 3 pictures. As you will see I have decided to use the same vignette border as I did in my last portrait of my daughter, I quite like the idea of it, and hopefully I have found another subject that it suits. What do you think of the background in the numbers 2 and 3?
And a little quiz as well, Image number 1, Does anyone fancy guessing what it is? No prizes though :LOL:

_MG_8351 by scilly puffin, on Flickr

_MG_8365 by scilly puffin, on Flickr

_MG_8365 by scilly puffin, on Flickr
 
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