In this first edition of “photo critique” I received 2 wonderful images. Let’s see them.
Alexander Artemenko
Technical Aspects
The image looks sharp, which is important from my point of view. White balance is good: the white is neither bluish nor yellowish. Everything is focused like a landscape should be. There are no overexposed areas, neither underexposed: every detail is visible. There is no visible noise (anyway, in this case, noise might have actually added to the mood of the scene). In other words, technically, this image is perfect.
Visual Aesthetics
The composition is just great: a perfect golden triangle. The scene is eye-catching: you got the wagon, a dramatic sky, snow over the railway. The perspective is somehow common but I can’t figure any better one for this scene. This image has a very dramatic look, which is a very good thing. The dramatic feeling can pop out even more by giving the picture more contrast over the levels adjustment, and then convert it to sepia. But the natural colors of this original image are nice too. There is one element in the picture that I might have removed it with clone and healing brush: the crane over the wagon. Overall, I like this dramatic shot! Keep it so!
Rick Veazey
Made with: Pentax K10D. Pentax DA* 50-135 f2.8 lens at f2.8 1/1000th sec shutter speed. ISO 800.
Technical Aspects
It’s a very good shutter speed you used there: neither the players nor the ball have motion blur. Even if ISO800 is not a low level of sensitivity, there is no visible noise so this is another bonus. I relay like the DOF: not too narrow to completely blur out the tribune, neither too large to make the busy background distract from the main players. White balance, colors and contrast look just fine.
Visual Aesthetics
The first thing I noticed about your image is that you really pushed the shutter at the right time: you got the player in a nice twisted position and you also got the ball in the scene. It would have been even better if you could catch this scene from the opposite position to surprise the player looking more toward you and the viewers of the photograph. However, there is one little thing that disturbs me: the second player is not completely inside the picture. I suppose you were very concentrated on the standing player and the ball and had to be quick to do not miss the opportunity, so you did not have the time to properly compose the picture with the other one inside the frame. Overall it’s a very good sports shot! Congrats!
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