* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #850 / Revived #070 on 2024 07 31 *

Thank you Pete 😊

Yes, my choice of colours was deliberate to help people's eyes move around the scene.

Thank you Roel 😊

I like the "sombre" colour tones used in the first and third images which are consistent with one of the worst times in human and global history.

The compositions send a striking reminder of the horrors of human conflict.

Well captured!!

I like the amount of blur in the background behind the fox which still shows sufficient detail while providing sufficient separation from the fox helping it to stand out more as the subject.

Nice shot. I assume it was shot at an aquarium?

Thank you Dan. Yes, it was shot at the aquarium.

No, it wasn't deleted. It was correctly and justifiably moved to the Dumpster where it belongs for the reason Alan gave in the thread it was removed from.

dprevived.com/t/wednesday-cc-no-theme-thread-849-revived-069-on-2024-07-24/6069/post/82039/

Feel free to continue the discussion in there if you like.

A pretty wonderful set, the dark foreboding bunkers flanking the bright beauty of the period buildings. Overall, the processing helps draw the images into a set. The toning is perfect to my thinking, slightly antique and pleasingly contrasty. The bright but detailed treatment of the clouds in the bunker shots adds to their sober ominous impression. The entire effect is one of beauty mixed with danger.

The scene is quite wonderful, with a perfect composition - a winding river snaking from foreground to background, bisecting a city of ancient and modern architectural marvels, a a fascinating style of boat plying the waters, articles of cultural interest everywhere, even a passerby in a red jacket to match the lamps and boat. The colors and lighting appear unnatural and don't work well together for me. The blue is too purple, the yellow and red are jarring when mixed with the purple. I don't have any objection to color alterations for artistic purposes but this doesn't work for me. (There's also some haloing going on in various places and in various colors but that be fixed fairly easily.) I honestly really like the image, but I don't care for the color and lighting work.

That's an attention grabbing shot! Both Pete and Dan have offered some alternative crops that are equally engaging but they are different images with different stories to tell. In all of them, the excellent composition is replete with leading lines in many forms. In theirs, the story is all about the man whose back is turned to us. In your original the man coming up the stairs is of equal weight and provides balance and tells a different story. The color palette of subdued golds and blues the the slightest undertone of magenta is very pleasing. Excellent image.

Maybe just concentrate your attention and commenting efforts on the more natural looking images that are up for C&C (there are always plenty, every week) and ignore the ones with more extreme processing?

When listening to music, I will be able to enjoy and to say sensible things about songs from the genres that I like, and I just tune out mentally when e.g. a screaming death metal song comes along. It spares me the heartburn of ranting against it.
But I am not going to let that death metal song, nor the people who like it (which they have a right to) drive me away from the radio station that also programs music I enjoy.

Just sayin’.

Lovely duckies, really nice detail. I especially like the blue on the wing that matches the sky. There's even catchlights in their eyes. Well captured.

Winter light in a cloudless sky is harsh and very blue, even at mid day. I often find myself tinkering with white balance to warm the light slightly just because I like it better that way.

The light is pleasingly warm, the walkers look relaxed and enjoying themselves and it makes me feel relaxed to view the scene. It feels too tight to me, though. I wish for more room at the top and bottom - more water, a bit of sky perhaps, and more complete reflections.

Nice sharp capture with the upper school of fish providing a nice compositional element. I'm assuming this was shot in an aquarium, and if so I understand how difficult it can be to get decent images working around the other tourists, the lighting, the reflections, and the whims of the fish. You did well. There is a little bit of a pinkish blob that I think may be a reflection of something, right at the snout of the sting ray. It should be easy to mitigate.

Thank you minniev 🙂

This style normally has a strong impact on most people when they view it the first time - both positive and negative.

Minnie, you scare me. This isn't the first image of mine you have critiqued and absolutely nailed every change I wanted to make if I could reshoot.

The shot was just a grab while I was shooting the Oceanside pier, which is just to the left of this scene. People were walking along the low tide water line and I glanced over and got a few shots while my mind was on the other task. I didn't even remember these few shots until I looked at my SD card in ACR.

As soon as I saw the image, I knew that I had to reshoot it. Not only that, I'm going to have to reshoot it a LOT! Because I see several different results I want to create. As you say, it needs major reframing. I need much more of the reflective foreground. I need to be at a much lower angle of view. The light is great, but it needs to be a little later. More glancing, warmer.

To reshoot this, I need several major conditions and events to happen and cooperate. The time of day has to be early evening. The sky has to be clear with the setting sun close to the horizon. There have to be some small puffy clouds present, catching a magenta glow and reflecting that. There have to be cooperative people strolling along. And the tide has to be very low to get the wide reflective beach "mirror." Not much to ask!

I've got several weeks of tide charts laid out. It's amazing how different the tide can be at places just a few miles apart on the coast!

One of the images I see in my head is somewhat different as it has fog and haze, but still has the low tide reflective beach.

All in all, it might take me a year to get what I want!

Rich