2020 / 21 POTY 4 “3”
Last night was the review of the images entered for POTY round 4 that had the theme “3”. There were 45 images
Reading comments out of context was slightly worrying as they seemed to refer to questionable activities like nice threesome, getting the last E in
01 1 Down And 1 To Go – Alan Wardropper :
Finished 34 Scored 16.6 Range 6 24 Impact 5.5 Composition 5.27 Technical 5.68
Bit Right heavy. Not sure if would be better flipped. Confusing. Difficult to appreciate 3 elements. The title doesn’t help me either. Not taken at a good angle, dodging and burning could improve impact and technical. Good image, love the colours
02 3 Deer – Chantal Cooper :
Finished 35 Scored 16.57 Range 11 23 Impact 5.43 Composition 5.52 Technical 5.65
Deer soft but background sharp. Nice shot. Good DOF. The subjects stand out from the background. Nice shot. Shame left deer not looking at photographer. Right deer needs brightening. Background nicely out of focus. Shame left deer not looking and they are rather lost in the background. good capture, well processed. lacks focus point
03 3 Local Businesses – Chris Dunne :
Finished 45 Scored 13.76 Range 6 19 Impact 4.13 Composition 4.7 Technical 4.83
Has the sky been changed in post processing? Need to straighten the buildings. A little busy for my liking. Lighting rather flat. Fortunate that no vehicles on forecourt, but that’s COVID for you! Meets the theme in a few ways. Love the road name well captured. Too big in the frame for me, a bit more sky needed maybe. Too tight in frame, could be improved with basic processing. record shot
04 After Christmas – Andy Freeman :
Finished 42 Scored 15.3 Range 8 22 Impact 5.05 Composition 5.18 Technical 5.05
A little too dark, for my taste. Everything soft but perhaps that’s what the author wanted. Good effort but perhaps lighting isn’t good enough on items in front of cloth. Nice set up. Nice ‘warm’ feeling. I’d like a bit more clarity.
05 Balls – Daniel Wood :
Finished 43 Scored 14.67 Range 6 20 Impact 4.7 Composition 4.87 Technical 4.96
Needs a different crop, probably square. The hidden orange ball on the right needed cropping out!. The subjects stand out, but I think just white and orange balls would be better. Subjects would be more obvious. I’d remove the pen marks. Is the image upside down? Would be good if the orange balls all had 3 on. good shot, love the orange triangle, keeps you in the frame. might have been better with just white and orange balls
06 Beach Oasis – Roger Leck :
Finished 31 Scored 17.3 Range 9 28 Impact 5.91 Composition 5.77 Technical 5.73
Great shot!. Makes it look like the trees are falling. Maybe rotate clockwise a few degrees. Nice image. Not as effective as one I’ve seen before. Angle of trees doesn’t really help the image. It was more about the pattern in the sand. Original worked better, trees soft. Perhaps rotate image to straighten
07 Bluebells – Gary Wood :
Finished 32 Scored 16.67 Range 9 24 Impact 5.61 Composition 6 Technical 5.04
Focus slightly soft on the rightmost flower. Over-cropped and not sharp, too big in frame. Simple image but soft, perhaps too shallow depth of field. Needs to be sharp really. Background nicely blurred. Very nice, but not enough sharp points. Nice DOF. good shot, good natural lighting. to central a little soft
08 Botallack Ruins – John Denny :
Finished 16 Scored 19.45 Range 10 26 Impact 6.23 Composition 6.68 Technical 6.41
A bit soft. Good image, love the natural moody sky. Needs much better contrast to make ruins and stone walls stand out in the landscape. Think it needs more contrasts to make it stand out. Lighting a bit flat? Good composition. Very nice moody photo. The dark clouds above the middle building are a bit too dark for me. eye drawn to light horizon not biuldings
09 Boulder Beach
Withheld
10 Carnival Dancers – Al Simms :
Finished 36 Scored 16.5 Range 10 22 Impact 5.41 Composition 5.64 Technical 5.41
Could have been give more impact by blurring background. Possibly waiting a few seconds to get the three characters stacked slightly behind each other and more made of the colourful costumes. Everything but dancers desaturated to emphasise them, which works. Good image nice and sharp, love the desert on the general public. Overall soft, better processing would help make dancers stand out from the background. The background looks desaturated to highlight the subjects, but all the people in the background are still distracting and make it look busy.
11 Caution 3 Steps – Paul Steans :
Finished 39 Scored 15.55 Range 6 21 Impact 5.09 Composition 5.09 Technical 5.18
Good depth of field. Needs straightening. This fulfils the brief, but lacks interest for me. Remove the brown bit, top right. Perhaps better from a different angle. would have liked to have seen more of the steps
12 Chinese Lanterns
Withheld
13 Cranes In Triplicate – Roger Leck :
Finished 38 Scored 15.75 Range 6 20 Impact 5.05 Composition 5.27 Technical 5.18
A record shot of three cranes, probably could improve with some processing, e.g highlights .Bland sky. Fulfils the brief. Slightly interesting, but not enough for me. Nice uniform set of container cranes. Blue sky a good contrast to yellow cranes. Perhaps a bit more space needed on right. Tone down brighter parts of structure to make them more yellow.
14 Dogfight
Withheld
15 Fallow Does
Withheld
16 Fashion Friends – Steve Bexon :
Finished 20 Scored 19 Range 9 25 Impact 6.18 Composition 6.5 Technical 6.14
A bit too busy for me. Maybe blur or change the background behind the subjects to make them stand out more. I like that the person on the wall seems to be looking at the girls. Great colours and very sharp throughout. Areal sense of movement from the girls. Good triangular delineation between wall and pavement and recession. Love the colours and one girl is looking at camera. Very colourful. Everything in focus. Girls positioned nicely just in front of graffiti face looking at them.v
17 Feeding Time
Withheld
18 Fire Buckets – Ken Chesterman :
Finished 29 Scored 17.55 Range 13 21 Impact 5.86 Composition 5.86 Technical 5.77
A newly painted wall with old fire buckets doesn’t really scream character. Fire hydrant sign is distracting. Great use of colour. good processing. I’d prefer this to be face on, rather than having diagonal lines in the brickwork. Good, otherwise. Like minimal pictures but possibly more could be made of the colour and angle of shot. Take a couple of rows of bricks off the top and brighten the reds more as the white wall is very bright. should have gotten the final E in
19 Gap In The Clouds – Andy Freeman :
Finished 19 Scored 19.25 Range 9 22 Impact 6.27 Composition 6.05 Technical 6.59
A bit too dark. Needs more space to fly into and less at the top. Maybe a square crop would be better. The planes are nicely spaced. Portrait sort of works but loses some impact, perhaps a slightly wider crop and more space may have improved it. Title doesn’t really describe the image. If the gap was bigger and planes had been totally in the gap then title ok. Perhaps a square crop might be better? Very sharp image of planes. Is this a cropped part of the full formation? Very good capture. a closer crop makes a better picture and add sky to left. good shot, good natural lighting
20 Getting Shipshape – John Smith :
Finished 24 Scored 18.15 Range 10 26 Impact 5.95 Composition 6.14 Technical 6.05
Colours work but too many distractions in foreground and background for me. Good composition. Good use of colour, HDR a little strong. Nice colourful image, good positioning of people in a triangle. Perhaps the boat in the background is a bit distracting. Rope in foreground is a bit distracting, as is the small dark patch, bottom left. Shame about the boat in the background, top left.
21 Gourds – Peter Lawrance :
Finished 20 Scored 19 Range 8 25 Impact 6.23 Composition 5.86 Technical 6.68
Composition works well but Gourds not as sharp as rest of the scene. The titled foreground object ought to be the sharpest object. Great still life well thought out, great shadows just needs to be a little brighter. Not sure of relevance of gourds to rest of image, apart from colours. I’m looking more at the accordion than the gourds. Very nice colours and lighting. I’d tone down the green bits in the foreground. i like this image, but the gourds are almost incidental. Great shapes and colours. quality photo but lacks focal point
22 Hat Trick – Steve Pears :
Finished 30 Scored 17.35 Range 12 28 Impact 5.59 Composition 6.14 Technical 5.86
Great still life, so simple and well constructed, Good lighting. Needs better contrast and details enhancing to make things stand out more. Nice simple image, but lighting is inconsistent with bottom shelf brightest. Therefore lacking detail in other two hats. Unusual proportions of image, like a vertical panorama. Simple, but very effective. Good lighting. Can see detail in the dark areas. Would work really well as a triptych as very simple subject matter with contrast between three types of hat. In this format would have cropped bottom shelf out and the slight bit of upright on the right. Lighting well handled in the shadows of the shelves. the hats need some sort of frame perhaps if each was in a box
23 I Know My Place – Phil Mallin :
Finished 11 Scored 20.7 Range 15 27 Impact 6.59 Composition 6.91 Technical 7.23
Great still-life, well thought out, great shading and colours. Good lighting. Nice colours. Good lighting. I think I’d crop a little tighter. Simple still life. Is it a composite? Top of the middle vessel seems a bit blurred. Subdued light and colours loses some impact and main objects slightly soft
24 Late Again :
Withheld
25 Light Orbs – Graham Townsend :
Finished 16 Scored 19.45 Range 15 26 Impact 6.5 Composition 6.27 Technical 6.77
Good try at long exposure. Great idea and well executed. A more neutral background would imo improved this as would a more face on angle of shooting. Light Orbs great idea but let down by background fence, light and foreground shadows. Nice idea and use of light painting. Good leading line. Well made light trails although middle one is not as good as outer two. background distracted me
26 Pears – Phil Mallin :
Finished 12 Scored 20.6 Range 14 28 Impact 6.59 Composition 6.95 Technical 7.09
By Steve Pears? Ha ha. Aren’t there usually two in a pear? Simple enough but middle pear seems to be getting most of the light. Good still life, love the symmetry in the floor and pears, good colour matching and sharp. good texture on the background. Looks like an old painting. Very good. Nice light. Good leading lines. Pears lose impact because of detailed foreground which needs to be slightly darker
27 Ragamuffins – Ian Waite :
Finished 15 Scored 19.95 Range 14 24 Impact 6.55 Composition 6.73 Technical 6.59
Good blur, so you focus on the subjects. Shame the girl on the left isn’t facing us. Nice texture added to make it grungy, but perhaps a bit more work needed as there is a missed bit to the left of the girls and between the two on the left. Wrong setting for subject matter so doesn’t work for me, need to wait for taller girl to turn slightly more towards camera. good image, author needs to be careful when using textures (gap on first girl). the children blend into the background to much
28 Red Roses – John Smith :
Finished 25 Scored 18 Range 8 22 Impact 6.14 Composition 5.91 Technical 5.68
Crop too tight, roses not sharp. I don’t like the background. There are some strange green marks, and it needs some blur or texture. Nice detail in the petals. Like the muted background which mirrors the petal shapes. Right side rose not as well lit though. Green leaves at bottom could be cloned out. sharp were needed
29 Rough And Smooth – Paul Steans :
Finished 28 Scored 17.65 Range 8 22 Impact 5.64 Composition 5.95 Technical 5.82
Centre objects detail lost as a little soft and needs some dodging and burning. Nice detail in the leaves. Good light and good vignette.
30 Setee With View – Dave Varnham :
Setee With View-Dave Varnham
Finished 44 Scored 14.5 Range 6 19 Impact 4.77 Composition 4.77 Technical 4.77
Good spot, to find the image, not to see the view! Needs grad on sky and ground colours improving, not much you can do with the composition. Too central. Trees, top left and top right, have been chopped off. They need to be in or out. The greens are maybe a bit too intense. It does make you wonder how it got there. would have liked to see the settees view
31 Spanners (Mostly) – Al Simms :
Finished 22 Scored 18.7 Range 11 25 Impact 6.18 Composition 6.36 Technical 6.09
Creative composition. Good idea, background works well, needs a bit more dodging and burning. Good light, colour and texture. One section in the first E is a bit dark compared with the rest. Great still life, well thought out, good use of natural light. Good colour grading. sharp. Someone used their imagination.
32 Sunset Silhouette
Withheld
33 Swimming Trunks – Debbie Lowe :
Finished 13 Scored 20.55 Range 16 25 Impact 6.91 Composition 6.91 Technical 6.73
Could be improved with basic processing, cropping and removing unwanted object from water. Good distance between the heads of the elephants.
34 Taking Off
Withheld
35 The Bradgate Three – Margaret Waterson :
Finished 23 Scored 18.45 Range 9 23 Impact 6.18 Composition 6.05 Technical 6
Nice capture. Needed a different position to left to get heads in the gap and separate the two deer at the back. Nice sharp image of the deer, but the background is too distracting. Blur, darken or texture it to highlight the subjects. Well spotted shot but needs processing to make the deer stand out from the foreground and background
36 The Home Turn
Withheld
37 Third Class – John Denny :
Finished 26 Scored 17.9 Range 10 23 Impact 5.73 Composition 6.18 Technical 5.86
Good spot. Could have benefited from some side lighting to give a bit more contrast. Very nice textures and colours. Looks slightly blurred in places, e.g. top left. Well spotted, could have used a slightly wider crop to expose an orange brick surround and further detail and colour processing to make the rust and decay stand out more
38 Three Go Paddling – Steve Pears :
Finished 33 Scored 16.65 Range 8 22 Impact 5.55 Composition 5.55 Technical 5.41
Like the picture, remove the corner rocks, take most of the detail out of the sand to match the sky, lower the highlights, then would be an excellent minimalist composition. A nice high key style image. Subjects, although dark, still retain detail. I found the dark rocks, bottom left, too distracting. Could have cropped as not sure what benefit having bottom left is. Also there is a lot of bland sky. Not enough progression from white to back for me. the rocks drag my eyes away from the subject a bit.
39 Three Leaves To Fall – Margaret Waterson :
Finished 18 Scored 19.4 Range 12 26 Impact 6.18 Composition 6.5 Technical 6.68
Excellent well thought out composition, but find the bottom pile of leaves a little overbearing and takes your eyes away from the ‘three’. Nice image. The background works well with a brighter area in the centre. Unsure about leaves in a pile at the bottom. Simpler image might be to not have them. Very nice colours and good detail. Didn’t hold my interest. I would spread out the bottom leaves more. good still life with added texture. really like the colours in this image
40 Three To Bring Her Home – Alan Wardropper :
Finished 27 Scored 17.7 Range 8 25 Impact 5.73 Composition 6.05 Technical 5.82
Impressive cloud! Might have been better from a lower viewpoint to see the feet of the person on the left? Mono processing could be better with more detail on the ‘three’, not sure whether the author meant it to be a silhouette or not? Nice sky. Good light. Works well in B&W. I’d like more detail on the subjects. Too dark for me, not enough progression from white to black.
41 Three Wheeler – Ken Chesterman :
Finished 40 Scored 15.35 Range 12 21 Impact 5.09 Composition 5.14 Technical 5.23
I can see five wheels!. Needs brightness and contrast lifting, background image not helping composition. Seems to be in shadow/the light isn’t great. The background is distracting. Shame that bike and background overlap. does not stand out from the background
42 Three Wise Men And A Baby – Debbie Lowe :
Finished 40 Scored 15.35 Range 7 21 Impact 5.05 Composition 5.18 Technical 5.24
Good attempt to hide any detail round the edges. Texture helps the nativity display composition
43 Three Wrecks
Withheld
44 Trees – Gary Wood :
Finished 14 Scored 19.95 Range 11 25 Impact 6.57 Composition 6.78 Technical 6.43
A bit over processed. A lot of lead in! Nice colours in sky. Good leading lines. I’d like more space to the left of the curve in the track. The orange colour may be a bit too intense. Perhaps lighten foreground slightly up to the treeline then tone down the greens slightly by desaturation or changing hue to add some yellow to reflect the sky colour. good lead into the image, great reflection of light in the water.
45 Trial End – Dave Varnham :
Finished 37 Scored 16.2 Range 7 22 Impact 5.23 Composition 5.41 Technical 5.41
Could crop off a lot of bottom. Don’t understand the title! The sky needs something/changing. It’s too plain. Good leading lines. The tractors lead me out of the picture. Doesn’t hold my interest, unfortunately. Would be better with basic processing and details enhancing. Crop away some of the grass on right hand side
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14 Dogfight – Ian Waite :
Finished 10 Scored 20.85 Range 10 25 Impact 6.82 Composition 6.77 Technical 6.95
Good image with added texture makes it look old. Like the simplicity so there’s nothing else to take the eye. I really like this. Lovely use of texture to make it look old. Shame about the slight overlap of the first two planes. Nice composite, good use of colour matching and texture use.
Texture added but I don’t think it suits the photo. The texture doesn’t work for me as it takes away some sharpness so losing impact
24 Late Again – Steve Bexon :
Finished 9 Scored 21.25 Range 15 27 Impact 7.09 Composition 6.95 Technical 7.18
Tack sharp and three of lots of things. Lighting extremely well handled as the domes could easily become burnt out here. The man walking seems to be 3 inches off the ground, and that distracts me. it could be an optical illusion, but he seems to be separated from his shadow. Very good lighting. Nice colours. Lots of 3s. Interesting. I don’t think the lines of the platform are straight. Very nice symmetrical image, very clear, although taken slightly off centre. Shame the gentleman wasn’t in the middle! Would have been if it was posed. Anyone think he could be cut and pasted in the middle? I’m sure some of our speakers would do! Not sure about title though.
12 Chinese Lanterns – Peter Lawrance :
Finished 8 Scored 21.4 Range 15 30 Impact 7 Composition 7.05 Technical 7.45
Good high key image, Lots of clear detail. Presumably lit from underneath to show off the detail. Key line near edge frames it nicely. Lovely and sharp. I like the white background. The border compliments the image. Stands out well on background, sharp and good composition helped by position of border. great detail, holds the attention really well
32 Sunset Silhouette – Julie Holbeche-Maund :
Finished 7 Scored 21.55 Range 12 27 Impact 7.32 Composition 6.91 Technical 7.14
Great shot. Excellent lighting and composition. I’d chop some off the top to avoid a central horizon. Lovely sunset, but the main subject should be the people, to fit the brief, and I feel they are too small in the picture. Interest on right third, crop out some of left third. Great colours but too dark overall for a sunset, no light on water horizon?? More landscape than ‘3’ which should be the main focus. More about the sunset. 3 people very small in frame.
15 Fallow Does – Chantal Cooper :
Finished 6 Scored 21.57 Range 14 29 Impact 7.26 Composition 7.35 Technical 6.96
Beautiful threesome all looking in the same direction. Maybe crop a little off bottom to make them bigger in the frame and below the centre? Very nice depth of field. Brilliant shot, well processed and well caught. Gorgeous ‘dreamy’ effect. Good composition. Nice colours and lighting. Like the colour treatment and Dog F. Even though deer not looking towards the camera they are all looking the same way which asks the question about what has attracted them. Very lovely photo.
Whatever processing has been used and lost the sharpness in the three Fallow deer, assuming they were sharp originally
17 Feeding Time – James Botterill :
Finished 5 Scored 22.7 Range 16 30 Impact 7.59 Composition 7.55 Technical 7.59
Pity the third one was flying away, trunk too large in frame and dominates image
Really good. know how hard to capture this but…… if only third bird was not flying away. really well captured. great Dof F
Very good. I really like this. I love how sharp it is. It’s been timed well and the subjects have been ‘frozen’. Great DOF.
Very sharp action shot with a subtle amount of blur. With the blue tit flying away it does tell a story.
34 Taking Off – Isobel Chesterman :
Finished 4 Scored 23.05 Range 18 30 Impact 7.73 Composition 7.73 Technical 7.68
Good minimalist processed photo. Two right hand birds works great for me but left hand side bird looks strange with nothing to ground it, would add a small patch of water below it. I really like this. High key is very effective. Good composition. I’d have this on my wall. Love this. Great treatment of colour saturation and just enough water to anchor the images. Would not have worked so well imo without this. Title slightly misleading as bird on left looks to be coming in to land. But marking the image not the title. Nice high key minimalist shot.
36 The Home Turn – Isobel Chesterman :
Finished 3 Scored 23.2 Range 18 30 Impact 7.64 Composition 7.91 Technical 7.73
Brilliant action shot. Everything lined up beautifully. Good expressions on riders and horses. Needs dodging and burning on horses and riders and perhaps a wider crop to the left for more space and a lead-in from the tracks in the sand. Very good capture at speed. Nice and sharp with good DOF. Well caught, background a little muddy in colour
09 Boulder Beach – Julie Holbeche-Maund :
Finished 2 Scored 23.25 Range 13 30 Impact 7.77 Composition 7.55 Technical 7.77
Excellent! Gives you a nice warm, calm feeling. Sky is lovely. Good slow shutter speed. Foreground rock soft, can’t see anything sharp in image. Does it need so much sky at the top. Great colours! Impact and colouring is excellent. Love the recession to the horizon and just the right level for the horizon line given the interest in the sky. good blurring of sand. Very atmospheric. Nice simple image in a style seen before. Looks like a slow shutter but there’s no water! Just patterns in sand. Has it been blurred to give that effect? the long exposure makes the water look out of place .
43 Three Wrecks – James Botterill :
Finished 1 Scored 24.3 Range 19 29 Impact 8.09 Composition 7.91 Technical 8.27
A well done slow shutter shot. Very sharp. Birds are a bonus, nicely being in the lighter parts of the sky. Either very lucky or added in! Good long exposure. love the sneaky introduction of the 3 seagulls. Good processing on the sky. Great colours, great sky and composition but would have removed the extra bits of wreckage for this competition and title. Lovely photo. The water does not look real where the rest of the picture is so sharp. Very nice. Good sky, light and colours. Three birds too. Good reflection. I’d remove the additional bits either side of the wrecks.