Critique Reqd.

We are having a critique night at the club, so im toying with entering a couple of pics, one of which i have two versions of.

1



2



Please feel free to offer any criticism, ive a hard skin, and which version if any do you like and why.

Must add i know which im going to enter, but it would be nice to see others opinions.

regards brian.

Personally I wouldn't enter either, the "flare" puts me right off. Even without that very little detail is depicted in the picture. There again its personal choice and depends on what you are trying to achieve.

Bazza

No problem Barry, its a deliberate choice as i do wildlife images so my work would be spotted straight away, and no-one will guess its from me. Also its only a night for us to practice critique so its not a prize event merely a bit of fun and hopefully a learning process.

Thanks for your input its appreciated.

No.1 for me, more detail in the shadows.

I have to say that neither did anything for me. I studied both for some time and then gave up as I really couldn't indentify much. Again that is just my personal view and please bare in mind that I'm not of an artistic nature.

I have to say I think both are really good. I like the first better though, that slightly closer crop gives a very 'cluttered' and 'claustrophobic' feel - which really works well, because obviously, there's not much identifiable in the photos. I think the first would be the one I enter.

Well done on the flares, really work well, nicely controlled

xx

ETA - having studied even closer, I can tell that the second appears slightly zoomed in, and the first is a bit further out, but seems to have more of the flare and bokeh - which is probably what actually makes it look more cluttered. I think it has a very interesting feel to it, and is like something from a strange film

Thanks Niko, Richard and Laura, all valuable information. Niko i see what you mean about the detail a good point.

Richard i understand your viewpoint, in fact you articulate one of the reasons im entering this. Its not a good photo and ive messed with it to get some detail back.

Laura glad you mentioned feel, its something i connect with, the guy doing the critique is an avid fan of HDR, and P&P, so it will be interesting to hear his viewpoint.

Eventually we will all take a turn at being the critic, so its a learning curve.

Putting all 'technical' issues to one side and looking at it purely as an image - After chopping and changing by view I'm going to go for number 1 purely because the greener image appeals more to me.

No 2 for me, i think the exposure is more pleasing, ie less detail in shadows, but still puzzled

Thank you Phil and Baz, will be interesting what the guy judging comes up with, it would be easy to enter something straightforward, this should provoke a few viewpoints and give rise to discussion, hopefully we will all learn something.