Ice Dolphins

[LLMc]

I took this at a winter festival on the lakefront in Erie. I liked the sculpture as well as the lighting. I intentionally put the sun behind the dolphins. I was really blessed by getting there at a good time to take this. Canon EOS5, Sigma 28-105 f 2.8-4, Epson Perfection 1660 scanner, edited in PSP8.1

[kafin8ed]

I think that was a really good call catching the sun behind the sculpture. The bottom needs to be cropped off where there's just the black stand? or I think that's what it is. This photo doesn't look sharp to me, maybe it just needs a properly applied unsharp mask, I'm not sure. As far as the background goes I think I'd like to see it shot wide open to blurr things more back there, and then I'd also like to shoot it stopped down all the way and compare the two (using a tripod of course). I often bracket aperture like that to have two versions of the same shot on hand to compare. At least if I have a chance to do that anyways.

[gahspidy]

Hmm, something is just not right, not sure exactly what it is. I agree it is not sharp,but that might be because of scanning photos on a flatbed scanner. I have noticed from others using that method that it seems something gets lost there. Scanning the negatives or positves with a dedicated film scanner is the best way to get film into digital.

I also would suggest the background is distracting. Would be better to have it blurred out or so to bring out the subject strong.

[PuckJunkey]

I don't know how large the sculptures were (or what your intent was in composing this shot), but my very first thought was "captured out the window of a boat". Sort of seems like you got behind a miniature dolphin statuette or something, and shot the sunset behind it. Not that it isn't a pleasant image to look at, but I'm not sure the juxtaposition of the dolphins and the background works...

...hard to put my finger on it, but as the earlier poster said, "something isn't quite right".