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The Gift of Love
The Gift of Love
Oddfrog


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Clichés and Sayings (Basic Editing III)
Camera: Kodak LS743
Location: Witbank, South Africa
Date: Apr 29, 2006
Aperture: f3.00
ISO: 140
Shutter: 1/2sec
Galleries: Portraiture, Wedding
Date Uploaded: Apr 30, 2006

N/A

Statistics
Place: 255 out of 288
Avg (all users): 4.5083
Avg (commenters): 4.3571
Avg (participants): 4.3462
Avg (non-participants): 4.5864
Views since voting: 544
Views during voting: 334
Votes: 240
Comments: 22
Favorites: 0


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AuthorThread
05/14/2006 10:57:09 PM
CRITIQUE CLUB CRITIQUE
by karmat

Just scanning your comments, I see that you are a member of one of the comment traders, which is great. Having said that, you have probably gotten some great feed back on this shot already, so I will just leave you with my impressions.

The composition and set up is definitely eyecatching and pleasing to me. One thing that helps it in my opinion is that the namecards, box, and people form a triangle which is a "stable shape" of sorts. For me, personally, I would like less foreground and more space at the top and maybe a slightly tighter crop on the left and right.

I saw your comment about white balance adjustment and I think that would have done wonders. Barring that, perhaps converting it to black and white and adjusting the contrast may have help hide the initially obvious flaw in the picture -- the color cast.

Where is Witbank? My foreign geography is terrible, but I have family (actually husband's family) living in Klerksdorp (sp?) right now.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but since you have 8 or 9 people guaranteed to give you good comments, it would help the Critique Club's load if you would not check the box next time. I promise there is no hard feelings (my husband actually started the first one), and I understand that it could have easily been an oversight, just wanted to drop that!

Best wishes in your future challenges!
karmat
  Photographer found comment helpful.
05/14/2006 12:04:36 AM
Greetings from your own critique club.

First Impression
Low light, definately not one of your best shot.
Composition:
Okay, not eye catching. The gift box on right is distracting.
Subject:
Probably not the best for the challenge.
Technical (Colour and light):
The color and lighting is not very good on this one.White balance is off, and lighting is flat.
Improvement:
Different ligtinh, may be multiple lights. Different composition. The gift box on left side.
Summary:
Not one of your best shot. I like the idea, but the execution is not the best.

Best of luck for the future challenges.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
05/11/2006 11:25:38 AM
From the CTP MkII

First Impression: A really nice idea and composition but a bit dark.

Composition: I like composition, with both of you on the corner. Maybe it will improve if you put the names more in diagonal, not so frontal and create a guide line from left down to the present and you.

Subject: OK, but if the present, the gift is the subject it should be more relevant in any way (maybe changing a bit the comosition as suggested).

Technical: Here the image has the main flaw, IMO. The DOF is nice, maybe the focus should be more on the gift and less in the names, but the light is very poor here. You have a problem of light and you didn't repair it in the postprocessing. I had the same problem in some of my first shots for DPC (and some of the late also, LOL). When you learn to PP more, your results improve a lot.

Improvement: Basically light and white balance.

Summary: Don't even feel bad for the score, that's a way of learning, maybe cruel (LOL), but I assure you will improve if follow shooting. Don't stop making photos.

Ãlex
  Photographer found comment helpful.
05/11/2006 02:36:03 AM
Hi! Thanks for the comments:)

This was a quick shot of my boyfriend and I at a friends wedding. I set up the shot and a friend (Roxanne) pressed the button. I didn't really intend on entering it because we did it for a bit of fun. I couldn't find a way to edit the WB in my software so I had to leave it. I now have new software and changed the WB and it lookd much better:)I'm quite happy with the DOF. I diddn't expect it with my little camera....

The names are our place seating cards and the present is what each guest got from the bride and groom, a chocolate.

Thanks again for all the help
05/10/2006 11:54:11 PM
Hello, Oddfrog from karmabreeze via CTP:M2!

There are two very obvious downfalls to this photo. First being that the image is way too dark, and the second being that the foreground subjects aren't crisply focused. It might be nice to see a little extra light splashed across the gifts, particularly the gold ribbon, which would then have a little sparkle. This would also take the couple further into the background. It also looks like there are some noise issues, which could be easily solved with a light run through Neat Image. (If you don't have it, the demo version is free and since that version only works on photos up to 1024 pixels it works well for challenge entries that are limited to 640.)

I do think, however, that for wedding photography this is a lovely idea. In terms of the challenge, the cliche isn't half bad in matching the photo, which is more than I can say for a lot of higher scoring photos that only met the cliche halfway.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
05/10/2006 09:48:29 PM
from comment trading post:

I like this idea a lot. The names in the forground with the couple in the background works very well.
The names on the boxes could be a little sharper, though. It looks like maybe this is a tad too underexposed. Adding a little more ligt would help. That might help the overall color of the picture, too, which seems a little dark to me. The color is also too yellow, with little contrast.
With some lighting correction this would be a really nice shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
05/10/2006 08:00:50 PM
Comment from a member of your own commenting club :-)
First impression
1. The picture is to dark. If you were trying to get romantic feeling in it I think that adding a bit of red tone would have done better or just blurr it a bit. (if that is allowed in Basic Editing)
2. I was looking for a hint on what was inside the boxes. Is it chocolate? Is it a jewelry? Are the names on boxes? What is it?
3. Setup is good.
What could be better
1. Applying of rule of thirds is almost ok but the cropping imo should have been to take more of the bottom away and show more of the top.
2. Lighten the picture and correct the colours.
3. The ribbon on the gift is badly done and therefore distracts.
Hope this helps.

Message edited by author 2006-05-10 20:30:09.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
05/10/2006 04:12:47 PM
Greetings from your own critique club.

First Impression:
Muddy/too dark

Composition:
Works fine. My eyes move from left to right without distraction.

Subject:
Good subject, which fits the challenge theme well.

Technical (Colour and light):
The lighting and color really bother me here. The main thing is the lighting. It's just too flat. Maybe try lighting the foreground with candle light. That's a good way to introduce mood to the shot especially one of this nature. Also, with more light in the scene there you'll have better tonal range to work with when adjusting Photoshop levels/curves or similar. With better lighting the color cast could also work although you may want to shoot in RAW so you can fix WB issues in the future or use one of your other WB settings on your camera designed for indoor shots.

Improvement:
Everytime I write these I tend to add the improvements above. :) To recap, play with different light sources to see what works best. What you want to do is just avoid a flat image and highlight areas of interest. So in this case a bit more lighting on the foreground subject would have helped.

Summary:
Good take to the challenge but was lacking too much technically to do well.

That's it. I hope none of this is taken too harshly. It's just my opinion and suggestions. Good luck and I look forward to seeing more of your work!

Edited for clarity.

Message edited by author 2006-05-10 16:17:19.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
05/09/2006 03:56:17 PM
Light needs to be better. A slower shutter would have made the image brighter. Also focus on the names was a bit too soft. Background is okay to be softly focused bur foreground needs sharper focus, or some other point of reference.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
05/08/2006 03:52:55 PM
Maby a bit out of focus or the camera moved a little bit when you took the picture. The names are a bit blurry. You could try to use a tripod when shooting in bad lighting. And set the shooter to release after 2 or 10 second. If you do that you minimize the shaking of the camera. :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
05/08/2006 01:27:45 PM
Not well focused and the coloring is off.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
05/08/2006 02:30:28 AM
would like to see better composition
  Photographer found comment helpful.
05/07/2006 03:41:12 AM
Love
  Photographer found comment helpful.
05/06/2006 02:17:38 PM
The dof is nice but I'm not sure about the composition. :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
05/05/2006 09:33:42 PM
Too dark.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
05/04/2006 03:42:14 PM
This is a good idea. I think a bit of work o the colour balance and contrast would have given it more 'punch'.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
05/03/2006 09:32:29 PM
The set-up and composition is very nice, and the choice of DOF is perfect. The yellow cast is way too heavy however, WB definately needs adjustment.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
05/03/2006 08:48:04 PM
Works every time.....
  Photographer found comment helpful.
05/03/2006 12:49:12 PM
I like the use of DOF to separate the background from the foreground but the focus seems a little off. The image overall is a little dark so maybe it was just too long a shutter speed that caused the image to be soft. There also seems to be a yellow/orange cast to the image. Using the eyedroppers in levels could help correct the white balance.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
05/03/2006 07:21:12 AM
The Point-of-view / depth of field, and composition are affective here ... however, the white balance is off and there is no highlight. Also, it is a little difficult to understand the foreground subjects because there is only one surface visible.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
05/03/2006 01:08:18 AM
I dont like the colour cast.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
05/03/2006 12:27:07 AM
the orange tint distracts frmo the photo...I would have done a white balance
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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