* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #903 / Revived #123 on 2025 08 06*

Welcome to the Wednesday Comments and Critique (No Theme & No Brand) thread!

We are dedicated to continuing the great tradition of this C&C thread because we are convinced that looking at, and talking about images is vital for better photography.

Our tried and tested concept (almost 17 years and running!) is a weekly "peer-to-peer" photo comments & critique encounter, in which you GIVE and RECEIVE.

The idea is simple: you post a photo or photo-based image that you have made and get critique on it. And in return you give other people your honest but constructive opinion of their images.

Any Theme, Any Camera, Any Style, Any Subject.

We are still figuring out how to create the convenience of threaded view on this new forum.
For now, let us agree that you post an image or essay with a title and short explanation, and that all comments include the image as a quote.
Replies to comments may or may not include quotes.

THREAD GUIDELINES – THE SHORT & SWEET VERSION
• This thread does not care about brands. It’s not about the tool, but the image.
• Post one image or essay that you have made and would like to get comments on.
An entry can either be a single image or a short essay. With an essay we mean not a collection of random images without any connection, seeking C&C on more than one of them. We mean instead a limited number (3 to 10) of connected images that together try to tell a story, create a fuller picture of a situation, event or location, etc.
• Add a clear title to your post to distinguish your entry.
• Look at the other images/essays and give your comments on at least one of those.
• For comments, try to go beyond a simple pat on the back or a short dismissal.
• Do you like an image (or essay) ? Try to explain WHY it appeals to you.
• Negative feedback is OK (we all want to learn), but be polite and constructive. Try to explain why the image (or essay) does not appeal to you and how it might be improved.
• Please stay on topic, i.e. concentrate on the image and the photographic comments, without getting into politics or other distractions. No non-photographic arguments.

The critique you give is vital.
What was your first impression? What catches your eye about an image? Why?
What do you like, and what distracts you? What would you change?

Fiddle with the image in your head - composition, perspective, color balance, exposure.

PLEASE NOTE CLEARLY:
Unless the original poster specifically states (for every individual posting offered for C&C) that they do not want their image(s) to be downloaded, altered or reposted, it is understood that within the context of this thread, other participants are free to download and alter the posted image and repost it in a reply for C&C purposes. That reposted image may remain permanently within the week's thread, or you may remove it after a short period of time if you prefer. The downloaded and altered images are not to be used for any other purposes nor uploaded anywhere else than within the context of the C&C in this thread. No copyright disputes here!

Encourage - it is a scary business putting your work up for other people to judge!

More general feedback is also welcome.
Do you know something about taking the same sort of image that would make matters easier - share your own as an example in your reply.

Have fun, be respectful and let’s stick together!

WÜRZBURG VARIATIONS

Like last week's old images of the Sächsische Schweiz, here is another exercize in getting different images from (roughly) the same spot.

We visited friends south-east of Munich last weekend and to break up the +900 km drive over German highways full of road construction sites, we turned the visit into a four-day mini vacation.

Our one-night stop on the way south was Harburg, a lovely little town dominated by a massive fortress - I may post photos of that place in coming weeks.

On the way back north we decided on Würzburg, a bigger city with a university and rich history, surrounded by the vineyards where the grapes for Frankische Wein are harvested. A very pleasant surprise that will certainly get another visit if we have to travel south or north through Germany again.

The Franconian wine is an ingredient of one of the city's enduring traditions: Brückeschoppen.

Roughly translated as "Bridge-Drinking", it is a phenomenon (Bridge Apero Time) that takes place every evening (already afternoon actually, starting 11.00 AM until 22.00 PM) on the oldest city bridge over the Main (the Alte Mainbrücke). This stone bridge is now strictly pedestrian, with lifesize statues of saints, like on Karoly Most in Prague and Ponte Sant’Angelo in Roma. Locals (and tourists) gather there with BYOB wine (or glasses purchased from the nearby winebars) to celebrate life and toast to … whatever!

We obviously participated, but I also needed some physical action, so while Els enjoyed another glass of Sylvaner or Riesling on the bridge with her book, I hike up the Marienberg on the opposite bank of the historic city center (Altstadt), to get some panoramic views of Würzburg. The Marienberg has impressive fortifications and a Castle that reminded me of the gastle in Budapest. Every available slope of the rocky hill is planted with wine. A great walk.

And as I had anticipated it yielded some pretty good views of the city, first from the top of the Citadel, and then on the way back down through the vineyard..

Here are three of those views, all made with the Iphone (camera photos are still on my SD card and not even on my hard drives yet).

First, a vertical composition overlooking the city from an altitude and concentrating on the Alte Mainbrücke leading into the city to create depth:

Second, a horizontal composition from almost the same altitude but more to the right, focusing on the city's many bell towers within the cityscape (notice how the white Rathaus tower and the cupola of the Neumunster have switched places as compared with previous image), and showing some vineyard and houses on this side of the river:

Third, having descended a bit along the path that meanders through the Marienberg vineyard, a closer look on (most of) the towers (except the red sandstone tower of the Marienkirche and the white belltower of the Rathaus), combined with the nearby church on the foot of the Marienberg. This one was made with the phone's 2x camera from a vantage point where I could get them in a nice alignment:

Another fishing photo, this of grandson #2 bringing his boat into the dock...

Encouraged by the fun my family had with the last batch of fishing photos, I took the camera to my last summer meetup with the 13 yr old. He takes his little john boat out at dawn and fishes his way to the bait shop where there's a great country breakfast. After we fill up on biscuits and eggs he fishes his way back to home. School started next day, so that activity will be shelved for a while. I wished for better atmospherics, wished I'd thought of this earlier in the summer, and hope he doesn't outgrow it before next summer!

The illusion of Chiaroscuro

Yesterday, I went for a walk in the local forest, looking for a photo that is generally relatively dark, but has a bright area that shines out brightly.
I found these two shots.

There is a technique used by artists called Chiaroscuro which uses strong contrasts between light and dark to make the subject really stand out.
Perhaps used many years ago for paintings that were hung in darker places?
I wanted to test this method out and make a large print for a wall in my house that is often only dimly lit,... with the hope that the print will still look bright under those dim conditions. After all everything is relative , right?
I can't add a spotlight to this particular area, so maybe this technique will work instead.
After testing with A3 sized prints The second shot works better than the first; it gives the feeling that the sun is shining and lighting up those leaves despite the dim lighting in the room. (The final print will be 60 x 90cm)
Only problem is that my wife doesn't like it, but I think I'm on the right track.
I'll just have to find something, with a similar lighting effect, but a bit less "messy" and with a simpler somewhat more minimalistic pattern, that fits better to the curtains ;-)

A state of tension

Another collection that might be exercises for comparative discussion in any visual art course. "Art" rather than the more restrictive "photography" in the previous sentence is deliberate.
The portrait format of 1 is suited to the many vertical lines in the foreground and background and the street that gives front to back movement as well. The spire top left adds another vertical that gives balance .
2 gives more prominence o the horizontal lines of the river and grapevines. The background spires are more equal in height and more evenly distributed east-west. Consequently, they are also contributing another horizontal line and the same for the mid ground buildings. A landscape format is appropriate to display all the horizontal lines.
3 works differently. Here we have some strong vertical lines that extend pretty much the full height of the frame. Then we have horizontal lines taking the eye out to the left where a smaller group of vertical lines reflect the spires of the right. If the twomsmall spires , top left, had been cropped out, It would have been a good candidate for a square crop with a balance of vertical and horizontal lines. By including those two towers, more emphasis has been given to the mid ground horizontal line and balance is added to the group on the right.
The restricted colour range is important. In these three, the lines are all important in the composition. The restricted colour range means the lines get our attention. For this reason I feel 1 and 3 are more successful than 2. In 2, the greens feel intrusive on the visual concept.
I'd be very interested in the views of others on this so fire away.

House Porch. Japan.
I edited the original. Version 1 (deleted) needed the shadows raised.

A nice series. Well composed !
Brückeschoppen with the local wines sounds good :-)
Numbers 1 & 3 appeal to me most, #1 The overall view from further up and #3 the vantage point with most of the towers closer up.
In #1 the bridge makes a great leading line that takes you straight to the group of towers that are nicely placed in the image.
#3 is a nice balance of foreground detail of the towers plus a background that provides more depth and further interest, placing us in an old affluent city.

Linescapes

I liked the lines and shapes in these landscapes, which are attractive, even though Mother Nature is less involved than the Human Hand.
And no, they were not taken with drones, but looking down steep hillsides.

Of the 2 I prefer this one. Somehow it's more appealing, less busy, peaceful and the lonely tree plays a major role, to me anyway.

If I can honest the last one is the most successful for me with those towers being so dominant and interesting.

As to #1, I would lop off at least 35% from the bottom ( too many roofs).

And #2 - could do with the crop of 20% on LHS.

But that's me. Maybe using smartphone limits your ability to compose and focus on more specific subjects, don't know. On the other hand it's the prerogative of the picture taker to select what HE feels is the most appropriate frame. We all have different vision...

It's good, but it's stark. To me it's missing something. I know simplicity is the key here, but...

I like that very much. Free flow, eventhough top left and right corners...(lens limitations)?

Great results. I prefer this one and would change nothing. It's magnificent.

Great shot and scenery. There's an amazing atmosphere here, peace and calm water.

Personally, I would crop 20% on LHS and maybe 10 % on RHS and make it more square. Too much trees and greens. Ii would draw more attention to the main subject. But that's me, your vision might be different. Otherwise, an excellent capture.

It's a wonderful image for sure, particularly with the three bright triangular shapes the sky and its reflections create. I also htink it could benefit from a crop, but I would only crop on the left side, so it's more symmetrical (doesn't have to be 100%... just by feeling).

Fully agree. That's a beautiful image with excellent use of lines and a pleasant harmony to it. Very well spotted and framed.

Thanks, it's a big tree standing alone in its part of the woods. We call it "The King of the Forest" :-)

Good idea for adding something interesting to a darker room. Both shots look great. I‘m amazed those stars are as sharply defined. I‘bve never experimented with that… guess I‘ll have to stop down one of my lenses for a change? 😅

Initially I thought this shot might work better when cropped (because the lower third is pretty busy as well) but after some consideration I think you've done the right thing with the nice diagonal the bridge and yellow house provide in the composition. I'd still crop it (very slightly) from below because that bright skylight doesn't add anything and I'd probably also darken that white area in the left corner slightly in post. The more I look at it, the more I think you did an excellent job composing and capturing that scene because it certainly is a challenging one - well done!

Thanks a lot! It would be unfair if I'd call it lens limitations, because I significantly tilted a lens here, which was never intended to be used for that. I've tried to crop it some more initially to get rid of the dark corners, but then I thought I don't mind it at all. It's not meant to look natural as you can probably see in a number of aspects.

Yes, of course you can be honest.
You not only CAN be honest but you SHOULD.
We don't learn anything if we are not honest in our comments.

I really appreciate your input.

These images were all cropped a tiny bit (if only to get verticals straight; I am a lousy straight-keeper while shooting).
But I have kept the original ratio (4:3 on my phone).

However, you make a compelling argument for cropping the first image to square. That is IMHO your best advice.

Also your suggestion for the second image is a valid one, but I would not want to lose the left most tower (absent from #3).