I've submitted my fair share of shots to the Pentax Gallery pages. Do I think I'm good enough for the Premier section? Nope. But they seem to reject just about everything. Since they don't say what they dislike about the shots, I would like to hear what you see in them. Boring? over/under exposures, poor framing? It's often hard to critique your own work, so I want your honest hard hitting thoughts. It won't necessarily change my style as I enjoy what I shoot and I've sold some work over the years. But there's always room for improvement.

I have to post them on the following link because I've almost run out of space here to post pictures. Sorry for the extra link:

Islandviewsphoto - PF Posts

[hamidlmt]

No 1: I like the concept of this shot.... well composed. But, I think it lacks some pop for the gallery.... missing that wow factor. This is the best out of the 3 for me... and, I would have been very pleased had I taken this one myself. This is one that might work well for photographyvoice.com or some other photo of the day site.

No 2: Busy background. The bokeh is also jarring to my eyes. The subject in the foreground is nicely lit... but, the background kills it for me. Could have benefited from a much wider aperture. Curious... what lens was used for this?

No. 3: Just kind of a snapshot with no clear subject.... just too many elements without interesting composition.

Keep on shooting! I've gotten tons of rejects from PPG too... but, it's fun to still submit my favorite shots.

[Marc Langille]

Hi Peter,

I took a brief look and some things stand out for me...

1. The berries image: the background is not out of focus enough and is actually distracting from the subject. Either a shallower DOF or tighter composition would serve this image better.
2. The sunset/tractor image: everything is over to one side in this image - it's beautiful, but lopsided/too heavy of a subject in a small triangle. The rest of the image is "empty"? Perhaps either a different position for the sun, or a tighter crop?
3. The park bench image: beautiful leaves, but the foreground is too dark. IMHO, no clear subject in the shot.

My feeling is that the ideas are good, and the execution/composition is the issue.

Best Regards,
Marc

[Mallee Boy]

Hi Peter,
I really hate doing this c&c thing because it so subjective and I try and see good in most things......BUT...in your case, and because you asked.......

....I'll do no different (not in the nature).
No 1: I absolutely love because I can relate to the whole scene, not only can I see it, thanks to your picture, but I can feel it, smell it and hear it from having been there. But others will see it entirely differently based on their life experiences.

No 2: I found busy, but I appreciate your attempt to capture the available light. But again, what the folk at Pentax are looking for will only be known to them.

No 3: I like it, but it doesn't stand out for some reason, which I can't put my finger on....light a bit 'flat' perhaps. I will sit here and stare at a bit longer to see if anything hits me.

I would hazard a guess the hosts of that site are looking for things that make the shot standout and thus influence some one to go buy a Pentax. The question to you therefore, is, would you buy a Pentax on the strength of your 3 photos.

Cheers.....mate
Grant

[Peter Zack]

This is good stuff and I appreciate it. The suggestions are helpful and well worth thinking about. It is always a learning experience after all. Anyone else can offer their thoughts as well, it's all good.

Betsypdx send this in an email because I had accidentally double posted the thread so I'll add it. It might offer some insights to others as well.

"You did ask for hard hitting comments - not sure these are quite what you want, but . . .

1st - I like the idea, though, I'd like better/brighter sky color and more contrast, plus it seems a little "fuzzy" to me.

2nd shot is my least favorite - too busy, saturated, and noisy (imo). And, you can see the hexagons (heptagons?) in the bokeh. (Plus I think red berries are just incredibly difficult to get right - they always look "wrong" to me).

3rd shot - having the bike (with helmet), the bench and the garbage can under the tree is too many items to look at - one or two could provide some visual interest, but with so many, the eye keeps looking around wondering what the focus should be. The bike alone with the tree would tell a different, more focused, story.

I wouldn't stop trying though."

[Mr Hyde]

I'm just a newbie but here is what I think.

#1 needs to be cropped to get rid of most of the empty space. I really like this shot but the subject is so small. I downloaded your photo and cropped it and it looks really cool.

#2 I agree with the rest that the background is too distracting, almost to the point that the subject gets lost in the background.

#3 Its a shame that the bicycle was at the angle that it was. If it had been at a diferent angle to catch the light instead of being in the shadow of the tree I think it would have been a better shot.

[and]

I'll add inn but at this point I dont have anything really new to offer...

1. Im not sure what to say, I personally like it.

2. clear example of busy background. also parts of the background are brighter and when I look at it its almost painfull, my eyes dont know where to settle and they are scanning to find those slightly darker berries in all of that. if you keep the composition as it is, you have some options, 1 is very small dof, so the background becomes a blur. 2 is to underexpose the ambient by at least 0.5 stop, prolly 1 stop, and add some light just to the berries that are in focus. perhaps in this case you would need to do a bit of both. when you have a clear focal point like here, it should be brighter than the background, unless you are going for a siluette.

3. I love autumn leaves, very nice tree. but as others have said, no clear subject. you have 3 things on the ground, the bike, the garbage can and the bench, all of those are dark, darker than the tree leaves. the brightest part of the image always attracts attention from the eyes, and when I look at the picture I am drawn to the right side of the tree and those lovely yellow/red leaves, but then what is the point of those objects on the ground.
you could either go just for the tree itself. you could do just the leaves as a closeup. you could choose 1 object, like the bike, and try to move it and see if you could capture light coming down through the leaves and lighting the bike as it leans against the trunk, perhaps youl would need to add some light there. it would be a cool shot to have 1 bike against a tree and either get the camera high or find some low hanging leaves and kinda shoot through the leaves to get some leaves in the foreground and make it look like youve got kinda a sun spotlight on the bike.

[Mallee Boy]

Nothing like a second bite at the cherry.
The third shot has really been bothering me and after much contemplation I wonder what it would have looked like if you had changed the orientation and taken in more of the tree, got rid of the bench (pity the bin couldn't go and the bench stay) and then pumped up the light in post processing.....in my humble opinion....only in my humble opinion.

[mtnbearhug]

Hey Peter..

My first reactions are similiar to some already posted.. but here they are...

1. I had to really look at this picture to know what it was. For me having to concentrate so much on that, took away from the picture.

2. As others said.. it seems busy.. it is hard to focus on the berries....

3. I really like this shot... It's my favorite of the bunch. the color in the trees is very nice with the sun, but then I think the trunks and the ground are too busy and you are left searching for something else besides the pretty leaves...

There you go.. my two cents!!


You work is wonderful!!! Don't let them get you down....

[Peter Zack]

This has been excellent and very instructional. The opinions are remarkably consistent and have given me some valuable food for thought. I could easily recrop the 1st shot and see what it looks like. The 2nd is info for the next time as there's not much that could be done to change or improve the shot and the same goes for 3. I took several versions of this scene, portrait and landscape but the lighting is similar. It was strongly backlite from the setting sun and brightening the darker areas might be possible to a degree but it washed out the leaves. I'll fiddle with it and see what the results are.

Thanks to everyone that took the time to offer a suggestion. That's what I like about this forum. Good solid and constructive C&C.

[roentarre]

Hi Peter. I am not good with critics but a few ideas here.

1. Maybe a tighter crop. Sentiment is there but it does not have the impact.

2. I love it a lot. I know there is a lot of talk about distraction but they are nice bokeh there. I really like the colour of the berry which really stands out for me.

3. This is a classic beautiful autumn country scene photography. Almost like Anne of Green Gable kind of movie scene. But the WB is a bit off and the colour not accurate there. I would love the colour to be more punchy and a bit vignetting to shift the attention to one of the foreground objects.

But they are better qualities than my submissions which are of course all rejected. I am just shooting for hobbies and busy doing my blog thing. hehe

Cheers

James

[gpaual]

..." never give up !"