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WINNER
Photographer: Aki Kudeken
Title: Brand New Creature and Brand New Parents
Camera: Canon EOS 30D (17mm, 1/15s @ f18)
Comment: Hi Aki, thanks for sending through this photo. I really like it. I am guessing that you are both the subject and the photographer and if that's the case you've done a great job keeping the baby and the mother content throughout the image making process!
Why does this image work? For one, there is good depth-of-field so the image is reasonably sharp from front to back. I also like the way you've converted the image to black and white - a good way to eliminate distracting coloured elements from the scene.
At an emotional level I like the fact that the image tells a story.
The mother's look of contentment really makes the image for me. What would I do to improve this image? Not much really. I find the mobile phone and the computer in the bottom-right of the image a little distracting and I wish you'd moved them before you took the shot. As an exercise have a go at cloning them out to see what a difference it makes.
In our edited image I selected the three faces and added a Curves adjustment to make them lighter and to increase contrast. I also added a vignette and softened that strip of bright light next to the baby's head. All the best in documenting your child's growth. You're off to a great start.
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Photographer: Richard Ryan
Title: Canal Rail
Camera: Konica Minolta Dimage Z2
Comment: Hi Richard, this image would almost work for me however there is one big problem, most of the photograph is out of focus!
Selective focus is regularly used in portraiture; a wide aperture setting keeps our subject in focus but lets the supporting background quietly drop out of focus. As a result viewers' spend more time dwelling on the subject.
Now, lets have a look at this image. The railing in the foreground is in focus but then as soon as I start to look down the path things become blurry and my eyes get grumpy. I immediately have to look back at the bottom left corner again and before long I am getting frustrated. In short, you have created an image that automatically tells your audience's eyes to go and sit in the corner!
Sorry Richard but this is a re-shoot. Next time use a smaller aperture like F/11 or F/16 so viewers' eyes can wander all the way down that path.
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Photographer: Thierry Rocchia
Title: Elegant Pose
Camera: Ricoh R5
Comment: Hi Thierry, I like this image. My usual way of working would see me in amongst the birds with a wide-angle lens but your choice to use a long telephoto lens and compress the birds against that wave works well. That said, there are a couple of things I would do to improve this image.
First, clone out some of those distracting rocks on the sand. That job may prove a little trickier than it looks as some of the rocks are quite close to the pelicans. For that reason I am going to recommend something sneaky. Start by making a duplicate of the background layer (do this by dragging the background layer to the new layer icon). The next thing you are going to do is "roughly" clone out all the rocks and stones near the lower pelicans; what I mean by "roughly" is that you can afford to clone over the top of a pelicans beak or head without worrying about it.
Now for the sneaky part; add a layer mask and then use a small hard paintbrush to paint onto the mask to hide the rough cloning and reveal details of the pelicans again. Use the X key to quickly swap between the white and black brush so that you can quickly amend any errors on the mask.
Now for the second improvement. Use the Lasso tool to highlight the two foreground pelicans and then use the Curves command to very slightly lighten and warm their heads so that they are equal in appearance to the other birds. Just don’t forget to feather (get it!) the selection.
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Photographer: James Whiffin
Title: Model Street
Camera: Fuji Finepix S6500fd
Comment: Hi James, in your email you mention that the inspiration for this image came from our recent profile of "city-shrinking" photographer Ben Thomas.
The "tilt and shift" technique has proved rather popular in recent times, particularly with pro photographers entering the Australian and New Zealand professional photography awards.
I quite like this scene but the treatment is a little coarse. Why? Parts of the houses across the street are sharp, the ute in front of them is out of focus and the rooftop to the right of the frame, which is closer to the camera, is in focus again. This doesn't make sense.
Have another go but this time carefully define the plane of focus and make sure you are careful to observe the optical laws that govern depth of field.
One error and the whole image will look wrong to viewers - even if they can't explain why. Take your time. You're close with this attempt but not close enough. Good luck with "take two".
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Photographer: Tony Reeckman
Title: Lake Moodemere Near Rutherglen at Sunrise
Camera: Olympus E-300
Comment: First off, let me commend you for working in RAW mode. It really is the best way to get the most out of a digital photograph.
Braving a rather cold Victoria morning has provided you with a beautiful sunrise image, and while I like it, I do think there are a couple of things you could have done to make it stronger.
To begin with, the tree in the foreground is too strong. My eye keeps wondering into that black, negative space, and it is not being rewarded for the experience.
The tree needs to be smaller. Moving backwards would do that, but it would also put you further away from the water and the reeds, which would be a shame.
Another option would be to turn the camera to the left and right to capture more images that could be stitched together in post-production to create a panorama. This would have the effect of making the tree smaller in the overall image. Of course, the best option would be to wade into the water. That would fix the problem with the tree, and allow you to capture even more of the sky reflected in the water. Don't be afraid to get your feet wet!
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Photographer: Christine Farmilo
Title: Aboriginal Dancer at Oxley Downs
Camera: Canon EOS 10D
Comment: You've captured a great moment here Christine. Aside from the foot that you've inadvertently cut off on the left of the image, I think the composition is great. I particularly like the expression on your granddaughter's face - she's clearly having a wonderful time.
I do have a problem with the colour shift across the frame. The tonality of the image is warm in the top of the picture and neutral lower down in the frame.
Is this something that you did while tweaking the hue and saturation?
Given the chance I would go back to the original image and retrace your steps. Find out where you went wrong and try to achieve a consistent colour balance across the image. Good luck.
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Photographer: David Houghton
Camera: Canon EOS 400D
Comment: This image is just not working David. The trouble is, there's nothing to hold our attention. The sky is interesting but that foreground, which takes up half the image, is too dark. One aspect you should think about next time you tackle a subject like this is contrast.
High contrast scenes like this one often look better in real life than they do in photos because our eyes can handle a much larger tonal range than cameras can.
In high contrast situations, such as sunsets and sunrises, the camera has to either underexpose the foreground or overexpose the sky. You can get around this by making two exposures, one for the sky and one for the foreground, and stitching the images together in Photoshop. It's a bit sneaky but it will help you get more detail into the image. Good luck.
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Photographer: Tracey Beaumont
Title: Lachlan's Bath Time
Camera: Canon EOS 350D
Comment: Tracey, three things go into a great photograph: design, lighting and emotion. Design is the easiest to manage, it's about how you compose the picture and arrange different elements in relation to each other. Lighting needs little explanation; that said it is commonly ignored by people content to accept the existing lighting conditions or simply use the camera's built-in flash. Then there's emotion, the hardest to explain and the most powerful of three elements. In the context of photography, emotion is the thing that grabs the viewer's heart. It might be created by a mood, a look from
a subject or just a well-caught moment.
Ideally, you want to have all three elements working for you but if you can only manage one it should be emotion.
This image suffers from average design and bad lighting. (On-camera flash rarely produces good results.) It does work, however, on the most important criteria - emotion. That look on the baby's face is priceless. He is obviously a water baby, enjoying every moment of his bath.
Next time, put some more thought into lighting and design and you'll be on your way to a great photograph. By the way, if you want to improve this photo adjust the Levels a little to brighten the skin tones. The easiest way to do this is to open the image in Photoshop and select Edit > Adjustments > Levels in the main menu. Drag the right hand slider to the left to brighten the highlights and mid-tones.
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