Hi!

I hope you’ve had a great week! We’ve been getting some nice sun here in Michigan, so I’ve been spending some time walking around the neighborhood with my camera and enjoying the weather. The images I come back with aren’t particularly eye-catching, but sometimes it’s just nice - meditative, even - to look through a viewfinder and see the world framed by a rectangle. 

(As an aside, do you prefer to photograph using your camera’s viewfinder or the LCD screen? These days, I use my camera’s viewfinder almost exclusively, but I’m guessing that some folks prefer to use the LCD. Where do you fall?)

Anyway, I’m keeping it simple today - first, I’ll share the bi-weekly challenge, and then I’ll share two more photo critiques. 

Let’s get to it!

The dPS bi-weekly challenge: golden-hour glow

From Sime: 

We're back (well, I'm back!) after a couple of weeks away and we're going to jump straight in with the theme "Golden Hour Glow" from dPS FB Group member, Dennis Maida. Thanks, Dennis. (You can find Dennis' website here)  

Make sure you include the hashtags #dPSWeeklyChallenge and #dPSGoldenHourGlow in your post on the Weekly Challenge page or over on social media. You can tag us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter!

Two more photo critiques!

Thanks so much to everyone who sent in images for critique - and as always, for those of you who would like to see your images critiqued in a future newsletter, feel free to hit Reply to this message and send along a file or two! 

Just make sure you mention that the images are indeed for critique in the email body or subject line, and please make sure the files are JPEGs and at least 1000 pixels on the long end!

(By the way, if you do send images for critique, feel free to share your camera settings as well as any specific questions you have about the photos. I’ll do my best to address those items when critiquing the files!)

First, we have a beautiful long-exposure landscape from Panos G:

What I like:

• First of all, Panos, I love the atmosphere here; the ultra-long exposure combined with the cloudy sky works great, and the black-and-white treatment complements it beautifully.
• I like your choice of sky for this type of image - the clouds contribute to the atmosphere, but the sky also has some definition and tonal contrast, which prevents it from becoming a flat, empty area. 
• I also love the contrast of the white railings and dark platform - those white railings, along with the lighter sky at the top of the frame, help give the image a bit more pop. 
• I like the ship on the horizon; it gives the image a greater sense of depth and scale, plus it prevents the image from becoming too static.

Areas for improvement:

• First, a minor note: The image looks a little crooked. Fortunately, that should be easy to take care of in post-processing!
• I’d be tempted to go slightly tighter in terms of the composition. Not a lot - I like the foreground, and I like the ship in the background, too - but I think that the person on the left-hand side, as well as the white sign just to the right of the person, are a little distracting, especially since they’re placed so close to the edge of the frame. If you were to crop in from the left, and perhaps also slightly in from the right to place the distant ship closer to the edge of the frame, I think the image would be even stronger. 
• I’m noticing some artifacts that likely come from post-processing, especially where the lampposts sit against the sky; there’s some haloing (most noticeable on the left-hand side), while the more distant posts seem strangely soft in comparison. I’d recommend reducing the intensity of your adjustments to make the overall effect more natural. 
• Relatedly, the water and sky don’t seem to have any fine detail, which seems unusual, even for an ultra-long exposure. I’m also seeing a lot of tonal banding when viewing the image large. This might all be due to compression when the image was resized for email, but I wanted to mention it just in case!

Next, we have a compelling frog close-up from Mike C: 

What I like:

• Mike, I love the detail on the frog and especially the great look at those huge eyes!
• You’ve done a great job of ensuring that the frog stands out against both the leaf and the more distant background. The leaf contrasts nicely with the frog’s brown skin, while the detailless black background puts the emphasis on the lovely little scene you’ve captured. 
• Really nice pose from the frog! I like how it’s peeking out over the top of the leaf, with the two front legs completely visible and the head pointed straight at the camera. 
• The water droplets on the leaf are a nice touch!

Areas for improvement:

• On my monitor, the image is a little dark; I’d recommend boosting the exposure a tad to give the shot more pop! Alternatively, you could try boosting the shadows and perhaps the whites while keeping the blacks where they are - that way, you could lift the brightness on the frog and the leaf without losing the intensity of the dark tones. (While you’re at it, you could perhaps bump up the saturation and clarity a bit for even more oomph!)
• I’d be tempted to play with the composition a bit; I like the symmetry you’ve created by centering the frog, and I’m wondering if you could enhance the effect even further by cropping in on the left. There’s more black on the left-hand side than on the right (on the other hand, there’s a bit more leaf on the right than the left, so it’s tough!). 
• Working at such high magnifications, the depth of field is always going to be very thin, even with a narrow aperture, and you’ve done a great job keeping the eyes tack-sharp. That said, I’m wondering if there might be a way to photograph the frog so that the tip of the mouth, as well as the stomach and the front part of the leaf, would be as sharp as the eyes…The lack of sharpness in those areas certainly isn’t a dealbreaker, but if you could narrow the aperture further or use focus stacking (assuming the frog is motionless), that would be fantastic!
• I would encourage you to play with your camera angle a bit, if possible - this looks like it was shot from slightly below the frog’s eye level, and I’d be interested to see what the image would look like if your lens was perfectly level with the frog’s eyes. 

Well, that’s it for now - once again, a big thanks to everyone who sent in photos, and I hope you have a great week ahead!

Talk to you next Saturday,

Jaymes Dempsey and the dPS team