Gary Zerbst

Frank  , Your improvements to my yellow tulip photo are  “Spot On”   (IMHO)!    I try to never physically manipulate as scene and  entry into the fields was forbidden (they even had hired a watchmen to assure that no one trespassed into the fields}  so the scrap paper remained in the photo.  I have to admit that it was a distracting  element…[Read more]

Ldenny,  It bothered me that the chair backs in the rear were so much darker than the front column of chairbacks.  I took the liberty of selectively lightening the rear bank of chair backs to more closely match the luminosity of the  front chairs.  Also,I added  a touch more contrast on the rear chair backs.  

Ldenny,  It bothered me that the chair backs in the rear were so much darker than the front column of chairbacks.  I took the liberty of selectively lightening the rear bank of chair backs to more closely match the luminosity of the  front chairs.  Also,I added  a touch more contrast on the rear chair backs.  

What was your vision for the photo? Was it to show the entirety of hte sene or was it to emphasize the two hay cylinders in he centerbotttom. I c hav a hard time forcing my eye beyond the two hay cylinders. If , as I suspect< the intent was to show a bucolic rural agrarian landscape, rather than the two hay cylinders, then I don’t know what could…[Read more]

Is there some way to selectively expand the width of the top parts without effecting the bottom parts?

Tersha, If your title is true , then the clouds should be the hero of the photo.In my opinion, cropping up frpn the bottom to just below the flowers. Using a graduated filter, I have enhanced the sky just a bit. It seems me that the horizon being low in the photo makes he sky more the subject.

Renee,    I liked your yacht regatta photo a lot.  But I nevertheless l played with it a bit in my mind then , believing it to be a viable candidate for my perverse sense of composition, I did a little cropping. as follows:   The horizon in the middle of the frame , while not distracting in this particular photo still makes the scene a little sta…[Read more]

Graham:

The choice of lens was based partly on laziness and lethargy (That lens was already on the camera that I keep on my tripod in readiness for the wild critters that share their space with us humans.  The other considerations were:

Lens sharpness and closest focusing distance.

Limited but controlled (F/10) Depth of field     My out of fo…[Read more]

Graham,  There were several factors that influenced my choice of aperture:

1.  I had the camera on a solid tripod so shutter speed became irrelevant.
2. Even at 210 mm focal length setting on the zoom lens the depth of field was a concern.  I wanted the farthest  fork tine to be sharp as well as the shell texture on the nearest part the lens.  At…

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Thanks for the responses.  I respect the opinions expressed and the expertise behind rthe comments.  I tried to “make a silk purse put of a sow’s ear” but  that degree of alchemy was beyond my reach.    The geometry of the scene does not allow for a critter level shot.  The viewing angle is fixed and the sunken garden with raised flower bed in wh…[Read more]

Beautiful shot. IT conveys a feeling of peace and contentment that everything is as it should be in God’s world. Commdnrts about lightening/ darkening the overall photo reflects individual personal preferences. The correct tonality is what YOU want it to be. IMHO the person makes the photo. When I try to imagine the photo without the person…[Read more]

I don’t understand the request to limit comments to technical issues to the exclusion of artistic values.  The technical  choices that the photographer makes are dependent on the artistic values that the photographer wishes to convey.  Thus any discussion  of technical issues is meaningless unless it is made with knowledge of  of the phot…[Read more]