Landscape Photo Competition 2013 No 5 : Judges Critiques : Page

Great urban scape but doesn’t fit this theme very well.

The first thing one sees when looking at this photo is your name.

There isn’t enough to look at in this shot. Now that you know how to make water move in a photo you need to get out and find a beautiful view to show off some of that water technique. It is the combination of technique and composition which make a strong image. You have the technique…

Great Scottish light and an interesting viewpoint for this shot of the famous Old Man of Storr. It is a shame though that the main rock formation is masked by another. I don’t know if you could have got a better angle with this nice stone in the foreground. I’ll have a look next time I’m up there ☺

This is a beautiful scene and nicely taken shot, up to a point. Your exposure is beautiful with detail in the highlights and shadows. Focussing is sharp all around and the sky brings a great feel of the big outdoors. However the balance of the photo is spoiled by the foreground which is cut off rather insensitively. Either a little more of it or none at all would have been so much nicer. The general view is very important to make a nice landscape but the foreground is what often makes it a great landscape, bringing detail and matter and depth. You were perhaps so taken with the view that you didn’t think too much about what was right in front of you… next time have a look for something to frame up front. A tuft of grass, a branch of fallen wood, an interesting rock, leaves… it looks like you had some nice grass at your feet…

It’s a rainbow and the worthy winner of this round. Let this stunning simplistic photograph be an example to all. A rainbow, or any other one of nature’s incredible turns, make wonderful subjects for a photo, particularly for a nature photo. But you haven’t just photographed a rainbow here, you have kept your cool and found an extraordinary composition where the rainbow fits in as perfectly as a cherry. Beautiful lines and light, a fitting square format and very fine photography technique set you apart from the pack. Big congratulations, this round was pretty tough.

Fabulous work. I love photographs without a “real“  subject where a photographer can really express his or her feelings through creative composition and technique. Beautiful tones and colours, beautiful movement, lovely sky and a very bold centred horizon. Keep ‘em coming!

This is off subject.

Wow! 360 degree imaging can be fascinating and complicated and I am sure you get some great shots with very unusual perspectives. They do look a bit like approaching meteorites but at the right location you could get a great (though unusual) landscape photograph. I appreciate the problems which arise when photographing into and away from the sun at the same time and the stitching/blending issues that may arise. Your sky definitely needs sorting out, and you need to solve some highlight problems, but the style of photo is interesting for this competition.

I would just like to remind you that this is a photography competition and that the most basic of photography techniques like focus for example should be respected if you want to have any chance of getting through the preliminary viewing.