I’ve been there! Yes, millions of tourists stand on Westminster Bridge (not all at once) and to really create something a bit different requires going down to the South Bank at night. This is exactly what Conor has done using his trusty tripod and Canon EOS 400D. It is great to see images from locations I often photograph and this is no exception. The long exposure giving the light trails from the passing vehicles has been extremely effective.

But how can it be improved in my eyes? Firstly I would suggest a small crop off the bottom of the image to make it into a more panoramic image, as this area of the image isn’t doing much. The main thing I would suggest (if you have the opertunity) is go an hour before the sun is due to set, put your camera on the tripod and wait, wait as long as it takes. I have been doing night photography for just over a year and one of the first things I noticed is when I see an interesting sky at dusk, by the time I am outside with my camera it is too late. My opinion is that if this had been taken half an hour earlier, you would have still been able to give a long exposure to get the light trails, but the sky would have been more interesting. If you find things are too bright, stop down the aperture. The above image was f/7.1 - try f/16 or f/22. I did and got the photo below…

If you would like to see more of Conor’s photography please click here to visit his gallery.

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I would like to draw your attention to Dave Austria’s Red Couch Project. His simple idea is to take a picture of as many people as he can on this Red Couch. So far there are 420 photos like the above in the gallery. This is possibly my favourite and shows that a very simple idea can create a lot of interest and creativity. This image isn’t going to get the standard Show It Ed critique because I wanted to simply show you Dave’s idea and help promote his work, as I felt it was really original. You can click here to visit his general gallery, here to go to the red couch project gallery and here to see Dave’s interesting blog.

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Duckhunt Shot by Drew Johnson is a powerful photograph that seems too good to be true. I would love to know more details from Drew about how this was put together before I could give it a full critique. If Drew wanted to I am sure he could make a career out of editorial and portrait photography in this very distinctive style. This is the kind of image that would appear on the front cover of a magazine titled something along the lines of “Shoot to Kill” or “Hunters Weekly”. Seriously though it is very stylish and has a very illustrative feel. This is why I am so kean to hear from Drew how it was made.

The first thing I noticed is the sky and water in the background - it isn’t natural in colour. Second, the grass on the right side of the image looks like a close up of grass, as if not to scale with the person. Thirdly, the model’s face tone and hand tone is a different colour (presumably hunting make up / war paint). Now if am wrong and this isn’t a montage of a number of photographs then I don’t mean to offend. This looks like one of the best Photoshop montages I have seen in a long time. Often I hear comments like, “Photoshop isn’t really photography” - but montages have been around since the earliest days of photography and became increasingly popular during World War II, long before digital photography and Photoshop. Personally, I am of the school that it is the final image that counts, and this one really counts! In my opinion this is one of the most powerful portraits I have seen in a long time. It has the qualities of a photomontage, the qualities of HDR photography and the power of a human expression. Wonderful! If you would like to see more of Drew’s work please click here to visit his gallery.

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No Going Back by Andy Delgado is a dark look at the harsh reality of life, but at the same time a very well seen and well composed photograph. The subject seems to really lend itself to the black and white / monochrome processing. The sign, gravestones, strong directional light and long shadows all combine to create something magical in my opinion. My only thoughts are if Andy took this image in raw mode, because then he could darken the sign by a couple of stops and bring out a touch more detail in the shadows to create something a little more even, although this would need experimenting with as you wouldn’t want to ruin the “mood” that the photograph currently gives. This is an excellent photograph and Andy should be commended for capturing it. If you would like to see more of Andy’s photographs please click here to visit his gallery.

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Ann created this striking image called Flores de Ciruelo and I feel it is a great flower for such a close up / macro view point. The pinks and reds work well with the shape and make for a great photograph. However, the only thing that caught my eye as something I would change is the harsh, bright green in the background. Using Photoshop’s channel mixer or Hue/Saturation adjustments, I would have reduced the saturation of just the green channel, this would have made the green much less vivid and less of a distraction from the flower detail. Apart from this I think Ann has done a fantastic job of the photograph. If you would like to see more of her work please click here to visit her online gallery.

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Jessika Marie is an extremely keen teenage photographer whose work really impressed me, the above example reminds me of something Manchester based photographer Karen McBride would produce. I really like this photograph and rather than critique it, which I think would be pretty impossible because I think the style of the subject suites Jessika’s photographic style perfectly, I want to ask the author a couple of questions.

Why is the amp not plugged in? I presume that it means something as you seem to have gone to a great deal of effort. For me the amp does seem a little too close to the edge of the image and I would have considered moving it towards the top left where there is an area of space behind Mike, however this would make the amp detract from Mike but thought it worth mentioning.

Did you use flash or strobe lighting on this photo? My guess is this is either direct flash or over the shoulder sunlight. Either way the lighting is great for all but a tiny area of the image. In my opinion photos of people are all about the eyes, it doesn’t matter to me if I can only see one eye but Mike’s eyes could do with more light in my opinion. This could be achieved (without affecting the light in other parts of Mike or the background) by using an off camera strobe and a snoot around the light source. Again, you might have wanted Mike to have a dark face as that might be more fitting to his style of music, but it was just a thought I had.

Overall, I think this is a wonderful portrait, the background is fantastically creative and I am sure Mike must love this picture! If you would like to see more of Jessika’s photography please click here to visit her gallery.

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