Critique of the Week April 30-May 6:Post any Photo for C&C

I just got a 3 stop ND filter...

ISO 100
30mm
f/14
1/8
sigma 30mm f/1.4 prime
7d
Aperture + silver fx pro

I posted a similar image in the POTD thread, but reshot it today. Initially was playing around with a new lens and captured something that kept making me go back and look at it.


D700. 300mm. f/8. 1/250. ISO 400.

I liked the horizontal lines with their tonal gradients. I liked the texture of the wood. I also liked the much lighter vertical lines noted on the right of the image--subtle but for me they added something compared to a version where they were cropped out.

Shot from a window of my house towards a next door house. Camera/lens stabilized on the window. The subject is on the north side of the house, so never receives direct light and only rarely receives side light. Almost always in diffuse light (shade).

Here is a small pic of the shooting scenario:



Didn't do much with the original image in post--basically ran it through Silver Efex Pro 2 to find a B&W version I liked and then made minor tweaks in Aperture.

Suggestions on composition (i.e. does the vertical white area on the right work? Crop to make it a larger part of the image and follow the rule-of-thirds? Leave it out altogether?). Other suggestions?

On a big scale I realize the subject itself may not be appealing for many. But for me I just kept getting drawn back to it for some reason.

^^^

I perfectly understand the idea of being drawn back, again and again, to a particular subject... often one that's close to hand (so I get to see it in different light, etc). And I'm fine with pix that don't have a defined subject... as long as there's enough 'visual stimulus' to let my eyes wander over the surface. The traditional way of shooting this would be to have the repetition interrupted by something - a knot-hole, a resting butterfly, etc - and the eye would be drawn straight to that. But this treatment emphasises the simple enjoyment of line and tone and texture... repetitions uninterrupted...

I didn't even notice the paler 'panel' on the right; the dominant horizontal lines on the left make it kinda irrelevant... so it all but disappears. On the whole, the pic looks to be like an interesting experiment into light, and surfaces, rather than a 'finished product'. A bit too minimalistic, perhaps, for my tastes...

Flowers Along a Path by JonathanVirgiePhotography, on Flickr

cupcakes2000 said:

I just got a 3 stop ND filter...

ISO 100
30mm
f/14
1/8
sigma 30mm f/1.4 prime
7d
Aperture + silver fx pro

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I really like the water but find the shadows to be too black. I would have thought that was longer than a 1/8 second photo. The water must have really been flowing.

Alonzo84 said:

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The lattice and flowers fight for my attention.

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Wednesday night I was in the studio and caught a model adjusting her hat next to a large soft box. In Photoshop I played with the light source but the silhouette is as shot.

Laird Knox said:

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Wednesday night I was in the studio and caught a model adjusting her hat next to a large soft box. In Photoshop I played with the light source but the silhouette is as shot.

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Very nice minimalist photo. I like the colors and graphic quality to it. Well done.

Dale

Perhaps we could make this a fortnightly thread so more submissions can be made in less threads?

TheReef said:

Perhaps we could make this a fortnightly thread so more submissions can be made in less threads?

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Monthly?

Doylem said:

Monthly?

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Yeah, I like it - makes things simple.

You can switch the current thread to the month of May.

So if the thread runs for an entire month, does that mean that each person may submit a photo (or single set of up to three photos) for critique only once per month? I suppose it should work that way in order to keep a good balance between photos and C&C.

Edit: Just noticed Fcortese's intro text above. I think it would be more straightforward if the submission limit matches the time period of the thread: each person may submit once per thread. What does everyone else think?

The Fortnightly Challenge is out of steam and I plan on retiring it when the current set of topics is exhausted. That will reduce the number of photo post threads to three: Contest, POTD and Critique.

Some of the photo threads in the Picture Gallery on MR are reset after a given number of posts and the titles are numbered. Look through the Picture Gallery to see what I mean.

The deciding factor in using monthly or weekly, which is what is being discussed, is how many photos a user is allowed to post. I like weekly, but the issue seems to be that none of us have the power to close a thread and prevent users from keeping the old threads going, which creates clutter. Only a Moderator can close a thread to further comments.

I suppose the thread started could edit the title by adding [Closed] to it when it expires.

Just my 2 €/£/¢ worth

Dale

Designer Dale said:

The Fortnightly Challenge is out of steam and I plan on retiring it when the current set of topics is exhausted. That will reduce the number of photo post threads to three: Contest, POTD and Critique.

Some of the photo threads in the Picture Gallery on MR are reset after a given number of posts and the titles are numbered. Look through the Picture Gallery to see what I mean.

The deciding factor in using monthly or weekly, which is what is being discussed, is how many photos a user is allowed to post. I like weekly, but the issue seems to be that none of us have the power to close a thread and prevent users from keeping the old threads going, which creates clutter. Only a Moderator can close a thread to further comments.

I suppose the thread started could edit the title by adding [Closed] to it when it expires.

Just my 2 €/£/¢ worth

Dale

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I think one week threads would be better too, perhaps somebody could approach a moderator to close it weekly for us..?

cupcakes2000 said:

I think one week threads would be better too, perhaps somebody could approach a moderator to close it weekly for us..?

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A couple of the Mods are regulars in this part of the MR site, but they are kept busy with official duties. The better idea is to unofficially close the thread by just editing the title.

Dale

cupcakes2000 said:

I think one week threads would be better too, perhaps somebody could approach a moderator to close it weekly for us..?

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Designer Dale said:

A couple of the Mods are regulars in this part of the MR site, but they are kept busy with official duties. The better idea is to unofficially close the thread by just editing the title.

Dale

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So we're back to Critique of the Week, then?

Let's just stick with it as for now and see if it gains traction. Weekly Contest has no real set day of the week to get started, so no big deal if the next thread a few days off. Whoever starts the new one can just post a closing comment and a link to the next thread.

Dale

fcortese said:

I was thinking that if we ran it for the month, then anyone could post on a weekly basis. Of course, who would keep track of that??

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Yeah, it's much easier to keep track of posting if the limit is one entry per thread. That makes it very clear, at least.

I had no problem with a weekly C&C. Some weeks were full and some not so full, but I guess we can give it a run of a couple of months and see how it pans out. As for the "monitoring," I think we all should do it and when we realize the week date has passed try to start a new thread and let any late posters know were on to another week or fortnight, whatever.

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I agree. We all do a pretty good job of monitoring POTD, so I'm sure we can do it with a weekly critique thread too.

Designer Dale said:

Let's just stick with it as for now and see if it gains traction. Weekly Contest has no real set day of the week to get started, so no big deal if the next thread a few days off. Whoever starts the new one can just post a closing comment and a link to the next thread.

Dale

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I think that's a good idea. I also like the idea of someone changing the title to say "closed" after the week is up.

This week's thread is now closed. Please post your photos in the current week.

May 10-16

Dale