Woophy - CRITICS WORKSHOP: josecps’ Gallery

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josecps Member	# Posted: 3 Nov 09 10:12 - Edited by: josecps Reply IF YOU WANT TO TAKE PART IN THE WORKSHOP PLEASE READ CAREFULLY THE RULES BELOW: 1. Join the workgroup in this link: http://www.woophy.com/forum/12_4440_0.html . The of members list will be open all the time (to get in and to get out). 2. Each member of the workgroup agrees in being a critic for other members (not necessarily all them) and being criticized by the rest of members (not necessarily all them). 3. The main idea is to make a critic of a whole work from a photographer and not only of a picture. It’s aviced to browse to the whole collection of the photographer under critics (but it’s not obligatory, specially considering that there are some very large portafolios). 4. Nevertheless, a sample around 20 pictures selected by the photographer will be posted in the appropriate forum thread in order to highlight which pictures the photographer considers as the best examples of his/her photographic work. The critics will take specially these pictures into account, but all the collection can be browsed and used for the critic’s work. 5. All opinions must be accepted by all members, like it or not. The only limits for the critics is to be sincere, to be polite and to be constructive. This is supposed to be a workshop to learn... if you want flattery just have a look at the normal comments in your pictures. 6. All aspects of photography would be under critics: quality, quantity, originality, subject, composition, light, colour, white balance, edition, etc... But this doesn't mean that you must criticize all these things. Concerning the critics, you will find a very good summary in Miguel's blog here: ".Elements of Analysis 7. This workgroup doesn't intend to be an "exclusive club for experienced photographers". All members are wellcome, with all photographic levels... (If you don't know about white balance, depth of field, ISO, etc... just tell us "I like your collection or I don't like it at all and try to explain why with your own words...) 8. The strategy "you scratch my back and I scratch yours" is not accepted in such a workgroup... Let's be serious... Now some ideas about the way to carry this out: 1st. Join the group in the forum linked before. 2nd. You will be in a queue and you will have to wait to your turn to post your own gallery in a new forum topic. There will be 4 members showing their collections at the same time for one week. 3rd. When it's your turn post a forum topic with the title: "CRITICS WORKSHOP: Member’s nickname gallery". In this topic you will cut and paste these rules and those written above and post around 20 pictures selected from your own collection. It would be nice also if you could write few words about your photographic work: what are you interested in, what do you want to transmit with your pictures, for how long you are a photographer... and whatever you think it’s important to consider for a critic. About me: I THINK I CAN "THINK VISUAL", BUT I'M VERY INAPT CONCERNING TECHNICS... I STILL GO ON PHOTOGRAPHING ON AUTO POSITION AND THEN I DO SOME WORK WITH PICASA AND HELICON PROGRAMS (FOR FRAMES) I chose ten pictures from my worst rated pictures and ten of my top rated pictures for your appreciation: IF YOU WANT TO TAKE PART IN THE WORKSHOP PLEASE READ CAREFULLY THE RULES BELOW: 1. Join the workgroup in this link: http://www.woophy.com/forum/12_4440_0.html . The of members list will be open all the time (to get in and to get out). 2. Each member of the workgroup agrees in being a critic for other members (not necessarily all them) and being criticized by the rest of members (not necessarily all them). 3. The main idea is to make a critic of a whole work from a photographer and not only of a picture. It’s aviced to browse to the whole collection of the photographer under critics (but it’s not obligatory, specially considering that there are some very large portafolios). 4. Nevertheless, a sample around 20 pictures selected by the photographer will be posted in the appropriate forum thread in order to highlight which pictures the photographer considers as the best examples of his/her photographic work. The critics will take specially these pictures into account, but all the collection can be browsed and used for the critic’s work. 5. All opinions must be accepted by all members, like it or not. The only limits for the critics is to be sincere, to be polite and to be constructive. This is supposed to be a workshop to learn... if you want flattery just have a look at the normal comments in your pictures. 6. All aspects of photography would be under critics: quality, quantity, originality, subject, composition, light, colour, white balance, edition, etc... But this doesn't mean that you must criticize all these things. Concerning the critics, you will find a very good summary in Miguel's blog here: ".Elements of Analysis 7. This workgroup doesn't intend to be an "exclusive club for experienced photographers". All members are wellcome, with all photographic levels... (If you don't know about white balance, depth of field, ISO, etc... just tell us "I like your collection or I don't like it at all and try to explain why with your own words...) 8. The strategy "you scratch my back and I scratch yours" is not accepted in such a workgroup... Let's be serious... Now some ideas about the way to carry this out: 1st. Join the group in the forum linked before. 2nd. You will be in a queue and you will have to wait to your turn to post your own gallery in a new forum topic. There will be 4 members showing their collections at the same time for one week. 3rd. When it's your turn post a forum topic with the title: "CRITICS WORKSHOP: Member’s nickname gallery". In this topic you will cut and paste these rules and those written above and post around 20 pictures selected from your own collection. It would be nice also if you could write few words about your photographic work: what are you interested in, what do you want to transmit with your pictures, for how long you are a photographer... and whatever you think it’s important to consider for a critic. About me: I THINK I CAN "THINK VISUAL", BUT I'M VERY INAPT CONCERNING TECHNICS... I STILL GO ON PHOTOGRAPHING ON AUTO POSITION AND THEN I DO SOME WORK WITH PICASA AND HELICON PROGRAMS (FOR FRAMES) I chose ten pictures from my worst rated pictures and ten of my top rated pictures for your appreciation: *From the “worst” rated:* o1 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 *From the "top" rated:* 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 unable to post 697272
josecps Member	# Posted: 3 Nov 09 10:22 Reply Here it is the last one!
VirgíniaB Member	# Posted: 3 Nov 09 14:16 Reply Josecps, I quit the list as I had no time to comment on so many pics every day. I like your photos because most of them are real scenes of our cities and they also have a postcard quality, which reminds me of those days in which we used to send them to friends whenever we went abroad. Thanks for sharinhg them. Virgínia
ortho158 Member	# Posted: 3 Nov 09 17:27 Reply Hi Jose, Two general remarks: - I think that some of your pics could be sharper. It could possibly be due to Woophy reducing the size of your pics. If that's the case, then it's better to reduce the pic yourself before uploading to Woophy. - There is too much noise in many of your pics. As you don't show the EXIF, I can't say whether it's the camera or the ISO setting. Anyway, I suggest that you use a de-noising program (I use NeatImage). About your pics now ... 1. too centered; noisy sky; not sharp enough (and i's not a question of focus: neither the building nor the lantarns are sharp) 3. overexposed; not sure what I should look at 5. I personally don't like that kind of color manipulation; and it's definitely not sharp 6. cute .. but that's all. 7. looks like abstract; I like it 11.original, but I don't like the elbow on the left; and I don't think that the girl is sharp enough (I suppose the focus was on her) 12. same as 5. 14.good light and colors, but very noisy 15. definitely my favorite: bravo! 16.poor colors and exposure IMO; maybe it could be better in b&w 18.i like the composition 19. good, but very poor sky; maybe could be better in b&w 20. i like it (although I am not a fan of sepia), but it would have been better if the car had not been right in the middle.
Jan Hemels Member	# Posted: 3 Nov 09 19:08 Reply Hi Ze, Having met you in life last year I know your attitude towards photography. For you it is the fun of being out with a purpose of shooting scenes you like. In this you are limited by your photogear but not necessarily by using the Auto Function. Some of your pics are not very well composed and I think you should pay more attention to that when possible. Not all street scenes can be composed as you like but most can. I.m.o. 1, 4, 9 and 13 can be done better in this respect. The strong light also is sometimes a problem in your country certainly between 9.00 and 18.00 o'clock. Nrs. 3, 13, 16 and 19 are examples of this. To overcome this you need filters or you can go over to B&W. Some of the others have a too heavy saturation like 5 and 14 or are rather noisy. You can reduce the noise in your Helicon software where you can also reduce the brighness of the lighter parts! I like your pics 6,7, 14, 17 and 20 very much. To me 15 is absolutely the TOP!! Maybe you can pick up some of the advices you will get from your fellow woophians, if not I know you will still enjoy taking pictures as you like! Have fun!
geert geenen Member	# Posted: 3 Nov 09 20:02 - Edited by: geert geenen Reply Hello Josecps, Your collection is showing us that you have a lot of fun being out in the streets and taking photo’s; it’s showing also your good eye for details, lines and shapes, remarkable objects and situations. Good! Your selection is showing something else: your obsession with the rating system. Well, I’d like to say: leave it! And keep having fun in taking photo’s and uploading them. Others as well as yourself have already made remarks on the technical quality of many of your photo’s. There is indeed a lot of noise in several photo’s and un-sharpness too. Yes, I know, you have a cheap camera. But if you avoid zooming, situations with too less or too much light, too much movement, I think you must be able to make more technically good photo’s; even with the automatic function. One of my favourites (not in your selection) is this one: Good subject! And despite the noise, I like it. My absolute favourite from your collection is this one: And though I don’t love flower-pics, I’m fond of this one: They look like toy-soldiers, these flowers. And I’ve enjoyed watching your Prague-photo’s, before visiting that city myself. For instance: Number 15 is (imo) the best one from the 20 selected photo’s: The lines, the light, the almost b&w, the atmosphere; really good! Number 11 is taken from a good, low angle. But indeed: the girl is unsharp; and that elbow! I like this chess-photo more: Number 17 is too noisy, but the composition and subject are good! 6, 7 and 8 are dull photo’s. But I like the sarcasm I read between the lines in the captions that are accompanying 7 and 8. Number 10 I’ve rated 5 because of the accompanying text (and the look in the eyes) in the context of that time. I don’t understand the high ratings of, for instance, the numbers 19 (overexposure in the top), 16 (too much noise and emptiness) and 18 (noisy and dull). 13 has a good lower half, but the upper part shows too much of un-interesting sky. And in general: keep walking, keep taking photo’s, don’t mind the rating system. And keep surprising us so every now and then with a mere beauty (see the examples above).
zoidberg Member	# Posted: 3 Nov 09 22:36 Reply Hi José, I like your way to show us the places you visit. It seems that your only goal is show places, people and scenes that you liked through your eye. Reading previous comments I noticed that maybe it's true that there's some sharpness left, and some of the pictures have some noise, but these are things that can be modified with software tools as Photoshop, Gimp or even Picasa. About your selection for this threat, maybe I would choose some different pictures. I see that pictures I like very much as , , or are not there. I think geert is right when he suggests you to leave all about the rating system… From the worst rated selection, I like , and also, but because different reasons , , and . On the other way, I don't like (because of the compo, maybe with a different angle could be nicest) (I think it's overburden on light places, and sharpness is not good) and (this scene don't say me anything…) From the top rated I like very much the pov of , the edition on , the playing with the light and shadows in , the scenery light and colors in and I love this one , an excellent perspective, very well edited specially in the colors. The other pictures in top rated section I think are beautiful postcards but maybe not the best ones in your collection despite they have a higher score. Cheers
Teresa Soares Member	# Posted: 4 Nov 09 11:59 Reply José take pictures almost as he loves life. I think that people must be loved for the unique reason they exist. So, Ze´s pictures are loved for me for similar reason: your satisfaction in making photos that show the continuing world and people liking. This is the main reason to pay attention in his images and comment the moments he caught with the same honesty you show his work with simple gear and aim to share the fascination concerning all atmospheres you are looking for. But... in world there are no pleasures without pain, mainly when we make public our jobs and project them in community... José is a man that think: to Troia what belongs to Troia! For this reason and an accute sense of integrity (perhaps important in Photography), he suffer with ratings in the site and he is right. In this subject, I underline the words of Geert Geenen, as advice. I read the other members critics - some are right too (noise, composition, and so on...). Now, I don´t would like to remarke these viewpoints. By other hand I would like to enhance the regard, the attitude, the passion of sharing the inherent marvel he imputs and feeel what surround him.
josecps Member	# Posted: 4 Nov 09 16:21 Reply THANK YOU! 1. First of all, to Abílio and Miguel, without whom I was unable to put my pics here, this forum. 2. To ALL comments! I know very well that good tecnic is not enough for a good pic, but I know it's necessary. You are alright: many noise, many unsharp, etc - that's true!Here, on woophy, I love to watch and teach my looking with so many good pics... and, I confesss, find nice honest people everywhere. 3. Not to downraters, not because they do not love my pics , only because they do it hidden, almost always because they think they're the only ones who can WIN something I do not understand... what... But I've no more problems with lower people... I do not care about their cinic narcisic exercices no more! So, my problem was not with my poor art; yes with bad people ... and bad people are disgusting, always!
la rafale Member	# Posted: 10 Nov 09 21:12 Reply hello,Josecps, and first, excuse me for being so late but I was very busy at work and ... on my blog Ortho made the "technical point" (that i wouldn't be able to do) and Geert was here before and he already said (very well) all I think too ; the difference will be ,maybe, on our personal favourites . from your selection, I don't like : ¨n°1 that is a bad shot, n°5 it is a good compo, with a good angle but unsharp and noisy and the editing isn't my taste, n° 16 & 18 that tell me nothing; I like the other ones more because they "have something" ; sometimes, it will be just a detail, showing your "eye" or sometimes it's because you really share your walk with us ; i often feel like sitted with you in some nice cafés or visiting with you some exhibitions (like Munoz) or ... any other occasions. I really love some of your compos like your n°15 (every one seem to love it!) or your n°12 so romantic, shot & caption, and very well done. Ah, le point crucial !! your captions ! I think we could create a new rule giving one more point when a caption is really attractive and i think you would be the great winner ! always well matched with the shot and poetry or humor (et souvent humour noir que j'adore) are often "au rendez-vous " too much noise? well... too much traffic down! is one of the examples I could give une légende savoureuse !! to resumate, I make mine Geert's words : keep walking, keep taking photo’s, don’t mind the rating system. And keep surprising us ! amitiés, brigitte
Zeeg Member	# Posted: 15 Nov 09 23:25 Reply Hi Jose, Sorry, I'm late but I still try to catch up ... Two critics this Week-end !!! I must say that what matters most to me in a picture is emotion or something that catches my attention (a light, a story, something original ...) technical aspects such as sharpness or noise are less important to me. But your pictures could be better about these 2 points. Let’s come to the photos that I prefer in your selection. 07 - I like the graphical aspect and the composition 08 - Nice and sober composition 11 - Interesting POV but too confused 12 - I love the atmosphere that comes with the subtle colors of pink and black and white 14 - Beautiful colors, but I do not like the composition (the church is too centered IMO) 15 - Composition, light and interesting perspective, certainly the best of this selection 17 - Nice set of lights and shadows 20 - Very nice curves that could be better highlighted with more contrast. The people visible in the bottom are annoying, the photo would have been stronger without them. Regards, Zeeg
chevylady Member	# Posted: 17 Jan 10 18:14 Reply We all make poto's for different reasons, some just memories others to play with and others to try to find the perfect shot. So keep going nice foto's some dont apeel to me but like the last one i love it
Dieneke Boonstra Member	# Posted: 8 Feb 10 14:32 Reply Hi Josecps, I've been looking all your 912 photo's and it was pleasant to do! Because most of your photo's are made in Portugal, you gave me a very good impression of the beautiful country you live in.You made a tribute with your pictures of nature, city-and streetviews with the people living there.Although not all the composition are great and technical not perfect, I like them anyway.But I think that your selection doesn't do your portofolio justice. This one I appreciate most of the pureness and simplicety Hope to see much more of your Portugal! Best Regards Dieneke
chevylady Member	# Posted: 8 Feb 10 18:10 Reply Hi josecps, 1. Dont like the cpomposition but the colors are good 2. I think this is very good picture great specialy with the opendoor and sunlight great 3. Nice seneree nice to walk 4. the colors are great but there is a churchtower growing out of his shoulder 5. i love this one nicely framed as well 6. nice cats but picture maybe in black and white 7. Great picture i think its just wonderfull 8. great the colors black white red well done 9 this picture shows the bus but surrounding not the right spot 10 nice picture but not my taste 11.Dept is exelent great position you took 12.Nice the colored leafes and special composition 13.Nice view great dept 14.This one i love the colors the sky the composition everything perfect 15. I love the evening shots with silouttes great 16. nice big bridge with small boat but sky is so dull 17. My fav. i love the composition the shadows the lines perfect big 5 18. Cant waite till we get the blossom here great cpmposition great colors 19. I would crop the bottom side so all the rest will get closer 20. Wonderfull sephia love this picture great job well doe
Hector.O Member	# Posted: 9 Feb 10 15:11 Reply First of all, define worst rated, by worst you meant most down rated?; hope no, the contest for the most down rated is very big, bad joke. My opinions 1 I like the composition, maybe little tight the tower to the lamppost or vice versa 2 Light it is the subject in this photo, well captured on the corridor as brightens and shadows, maybe a bit to sharp 3 nice perspective and view, little over exposed and not sharp enough for me, I think you was walking and do not stop 100%, that happens to me allot 4 interesting compo, modern art and old architecture, I do not like the cropping, to tight, but the idea is very good, I like it 5 perfect compo 6 cute scenes, the cats feels your presence, maybe you need to practice how to walk as a cat 7 a composition lesson, well done 8 beautiful detail, well captured 11 excellent point of view, I most use a minimum deep of field, focusing the scene in one of the pawns, the scene will be stronger, just an idea 12 so beautiful compo, the pov does the scene 14 excellent pov, well composed, good management of color, well done 15, to my fav, love b&w, the fog plays a good roll here, I like when perspective is the master of the scene, leading you trough the photo, well done 16 this is a wonderful example of how it doesn’t matters technique when the scene is good, it is over exposed, maybe was fogy, but it doesn’t matters, the composition is so nice 17 perfect, this was one of my favorite’s compositions in woophy Last one is so beautiful; the sepia was a wonderful idea Best regards my friend

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