On 28/4/05, Shel Belinkoff, discombobulated, unleashed: >The last photo pales by comparison, and is far below the quality of much of >your other work. The slightly OOF rearmost eye, the too bright highlights, >and the overly contrasty rendering do neither the woman nor the >photographer justice.
Just a few words if I may. I am assuming that you are referring to the technical quality of the presented pic? And with which I would agree with you. I am not assuming that you are referring to any other merits of the picture - for example artistic or otherwise? For the record, let me point out to anyone interested that in offering critique of any of my pics, I would welcome any pointers on technical concerns, especially as represented by Shel above. I knew the jpeg was below par, and I will now go and sort it out and offer it up again in the hope I can improve on it. As for other merits, the last pic (smiley shallow DOF portrait) personally I like the most - I love these sorts of pictures and to me it's the most interesting of the lot - but then again maybe i see too many staged shots of people and things (yes even owls). To quote The Moodys, 'the story is in the eyes'. My goal in these shots is too have only the eyes in focus if possible, and nothing else. I don't want to achieve that through Photoshop - I want to achieve that through camerawork at the taking stage. One of the eyes is soft, but IMO it is passable and I'm more than happy with it, and in the end I only do the pics for myself (even when shooting with someone else in mind like here). The last pic was a grab with a dozen other attempts either side. In thirty seconds it was over. The model is a photographer and as you know they make poor models. I was quick, mercifully. This is neither here nor there as in reviewing the shot, I liked it a lot, and deemed it fit to present, hence I am not going to defend it at all. I love it. The jpeg on someone else's monitor, I can't. But, I choose to diaplay it on your monitor, and so I have to work within this confine, so I better try again and bring it up to scratch. I'm afraid I am not a good technician. In PS on my Mac, it is perfectly displayed with good contrast and good highlights. It has been slaughtered in the process somehow, and when displayed on a PC will no doubt look a bit dark anyway. I've often thought about duplicating my web site with half of it optimised for Mac gamma and the other duplicated half for PC gamma. I might have a go at this in the summer. Meanwhile, I'll work on the owl girl jpeg later today. Thanks Shel. Cheers, Cotty ___/\__ || (O) | People, Places, Pastiche ||=====| http://www.cottysnaps.com _____________________________

