Majestic Aurora Borealis
by shadowdoc31

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

I gave this a 7 during voting, it's a lovely shot with the AB doing its thing - not often that we see them in Southeastern Ontario!

Very nice comp, great colours and I lived in NW BC at one point so I can feel my nose hairs freezing looking at this. But I can also tell straight off that you used a tripod, difficult to get that amount of detail without one. Colours are great, but the big bugaboo with long exposures at night is noise, and if you're not careful the NR software used may remove noise - but then create an effect that is borderline over-sharpened, and sadly other photog moving around didn't help much; though he does add a sense of scale, it may have been best to just clone out him and leave his tripod ;-) I think that's why it finished relatively low.

Pleaser keep up the good work and keep on entering! Feel free to PM me with any questions.

Susan

Majestic Aurora Borealis
by shadowdoc31

Comment by shadowdoc31:
Thanks for all the positive comments; as always, I'd hoped my image would do better but c'est la vie.

To address one of the specific questions: yes, I used a tripod, and the image is definitely in focus (look at the tripod, stars, etc.)
The problem with the man is motion... a 10 sec exposure and the individual didn't cooperate. I prepared a version with the
man taken out, but ultimately thought the image had more "punch" with something in the foreground for scale.

Majestic Aurora Borealis
by shadowdoc31

Comment by jomari:
Fabulous!

Majestic Aurora Borealis
by shadowdoc31

Comment by MeMex2:
wow !!!! amazing!!!

Majestic Aurora Borealis
by shadowdoc31

Comment by Kodak:
Wow. Magnetic. Not sure if you used a tripod for this as the man looks out of focus. Or perhaps that was your intent. I gave you a 7.

Sipping Nature's Nectar
by shadowdoc31

Comment by sidpixel:
Hello from the Critique Club

An appealing image that is deemed to meet the challenge

My own perception of bokeh has always been much more clearly identified with specular highlights as opposed to soft or OOF areas which is where I would place your entry. The challenge brief would also seem to veer more towards the soft focus rendering than my own interpretation so feel free to ignore my comments.

This is a competent image of a feeding humming bird, the focus is good and the composition is good too, the soft focus background is devoid of detail and therefore unobtrusive and serves as a plain background against which the bird shows up well. The body and head are sharply captured and the blur in the bird's wings is very appealing. The exposure is good there is detail throughout but for me there is no bokeh at all.

Thanks for your submission, Sid

Sipping Nature's Nectar
by shadowdoc31

Comment by illini75:
Great movement

Sipping Nature's Nectar
by shadowdoc31

Comment by Revecca:
Really nice capture, but I don't think you have an efficient bokeh.

Sipping Nature's Nectar
by shadowdoc31

Comment by jnenvir:
Lovely image, don't see any bokah, just shallow depth of field

Sipping Nature's Nectar
by shadowdoc31

Comment by Jules1x:
Wow. Great image.