Dan Gingras wrote:
Italy for review
Should I make comments on all three as a set or do I need to do each one with it's own comments? You didn't say what your "intent" was (i.e. why you did these images), perhaps Travel photography (getting published?) or Facebook (impressing friends?), Looking at them individually:
Image 1) Overall idea is really eye catching. There is something in the colosseum that makes it look not quite straight or something in the composition makes it feel that way (right side perspective shift?). That's a distraction. Since it's the main subject, with the car lights adding dynamic interest, try a bit of photoshop to both eliminate that and crop it tighter (get closer).
Images 2&3) The use of selective coloring is an outdated aesthetic. It was first popularized when Photoshop came out. It's pretty distracting. Pictures 3, for example, could get better results by using something subtler with all the image in color. Or try vignetting with the center point being the store and/or bumping up the reds & yellow channels during your b&w conversion. There's light coming from the left that emphasised more would add movement (i.e. something going on in addition to empty store). The empty quality of the shot is one of it's real strengths, emphasise that...makes the thing more mysterious and interesting. The light in the window.
This exercise taught me that three images is way too many to ask someone to comment on in depth. It also made me aware that asking what the intent of the photo is really makes me think about what my own photos are about. As my mother once asked me about a photo I took "What's your point?". Also, I worked it a bit to see if I could do what I was suggesting. That's attached.