| C GRADE | |||
| Inside Manchester Cathedral | Unfortunately image quality is very poor and all detail is lost in this image, perhaps because of the way it has been exported or saved. Think of the reason for an image, if it is to remind you of somewhere you have been then the chances are it won’t do well in competition. | No award | |
| Star trails | Daniel Dirks | Take time to learn how to predict exactly the centre point the stars rotate around then consider your composition to take this to the next level. | Accepted |
| Glenorchy | Mike Trushell | Nice subject and wide range of tones, a little underexposed. If you want to take stunning black and white landscapes, study the masters. Ansel Adams is a good standing point. | Accepted |
| Ducklings | Cliff Boddy | Fantastic detail in this image and a full range of tones from pure white to pure black. A high contrast subject, with a bit of humour, makes for a great black and white subject. Unfortunately there is a slight editing issue between the beaks that detracts slightly from a great image. | Honours |
| Big city | Technically this image is very poor quality. When thinking about your final composition consider if there is anything that doesn’t ‘add’ to the image. In this case cropping the sides will give a much more interesting image of a city. | No award | |
| Len Lye Centre | Mike Trushell | This might be a classic image, however, that doesn’t stop it from being a great image. Strong contrast and vertical lines to the clouds work extremely well. | Honours |
| CHCH AIRPORT | Think of this in terms of a portrait and how light can be used to create a dramatic effect. Getting to a point in the day where light is from the side, i.e. early or late in the day will give it more depth. Unfortunately the quality of the image is very poor. | No award | |
| Beach Fishing – Kaikoura | Cliff Boddy | Treatment suits the image, feels cold and desolate. | Accepted |
| Tides of Change | Irene Absalom | Like the subject, feel part of the crowd watching the boat come in. Centre boat has a passenger looking to the crowd which keeps a momentum back and forth in the image. Moving to the left and cropping out the soles of the shoes on the left would have helped. | Accepted |
| B GRADE | |||
| The power of water | David Bayley | Great contrast in this image, not only in tones but also the softness of running water against the strong structure to hold it in place. Plenty of options though to create a really memorable abstract rather than the whole. | Accepted |
| From a forgotten time | On the positive side we have an image that uses the full range of tones from black to white. As an image it is a great one to remember a trip but lacks creativity. There are so many abstract image opportunities to be had in the building structure. | No award | |
| abandoned to the elements | There are times when really strong processing suits an image, unfortunately it really doesn’t work on this one. This is such a harsh image I actually struggle to look at it. | No award | |
| Letting off steam | An image like this needs a strong treatment to really make it pop. At present it is quite a bit underexposed with no whites and probably no highlights making for a very flat image. Increasing exposure and clarity/contrast will do wonders. | No award | |
| Night Fishing | Subject matter is clear and could be stronger with a crop of the left side. No ‘whites’ in this image, try lifting just them and the ripple in the water will have a lot more presence. | No award | |
| Pool Rack Break | Nathan Green | This one takes me back as I took a very similar image 40 years ago, thanks for the memory! When heading up the grades be mindful of making everything symmetrical in an image like this. | Honours |
| Seascape | The challenge of creating an image seen lots of times is to get it perfect. This needs a lot more contrast to elevate it from a greyscale image. | No award | |
| Stormy outside | Arthur Linnell | This really made me smile and very well seen. Unfortunately it is those little things that let it down with a feint lighter strip down the right side and not enough contrast for B&W…..just upping the whites will lift the image and give it more impact. | Accepted |
| Evening Stroll | A lot of potential in this image, unfortunately it misses the mark for me with too many distractions: recycle bins, too many actors on the stage, something odd in the pathway towards the top. Layer an image like this with multiple shots so you can remove unnecessary people, the couple are the story. | No award | |
| Thermal Pool | Nathan Green | Good use of strong contrast in this and I like the flow of the image. Attention to detail by removing the lights on the left side of the image would help. Think of timing as well, someone getting in our out of the pool would add a lot more interest to the story. | Accepted |
| Line power | David Bayley | Great image with strong lines and just pure black and pure white. Very well constructed image. | Honours |
| A GRADE | |||
| Pied Shag | Allan McGregor | So much detail in this image with an almost pure white background that shows off those dark tones beautifully. Classic feel and extremely well executed. | Honours |
| First Church | Nick Hampson | What a stunning image of this fantastic church. Attention to detail though, zoom in to 100% on your image and scan the whole thing before you enter it……you would have seen the white mark at the bottom right…..brightest bit in the whole image. | Accepted |
| Invitation to dinner | Colleen Linnell | Well handled tones with a full range used in this image. Having someone dressed formally putting a glass or plate in place would have taken this image up a notch to complete the story. | Accepted |
| Weathering the Storm | Great subject and composition but the competition is Black and White not Black and Shadow. | No award | |
| Dancer | Lisa Carter | Thank you for entering this image, simple and beautiful. | Honours |
| Tah Dahh | At Grade A this is not good enough. Image quality very poor, main subjects clearly engaged on someone else. An ok record/memory shot but not suitable for comp. | No award | |
| The Art of Reflection | Robyn Young | The quirky sense of humour and a well seen subject was enough to bring this an acceptance. The flowers on the netting make a great garden for the reflected fence and building. Slightly more care lining up would have had the fence railing right on top of the sash in the centre of the window. | Accepted |
| Sammy | Another of the images that came very close to an award but ultimately didn’t quite make it. Lightest part of the model is her chest, really needs to be the face and so easily fixed in post or, preferably, with more careful placement of lighting and reflectors when taking the image. | No award | |
| Vogue | There were a few images which sat on the borderline and unfortunately this one just didn’t quite get there for me. Ultimately the lack of light on the face compared to the rest of the model was the tipping point. | No award | |
| Mesopatamia | Keith Sycamore | Sometimes it is difficult as a judge to overcome your personal taste and just review the image, this is one of those images. It’s an image that draws you in with the track and fence lines then the epic back drop to keep you there. Too harsh for my wall but no doubt it would make for a great canvas. | Honours |
| Bullseye | Sarah Perrins | Strong image, great light. Being super, super picky there are a couple of minor blemishes that could be spot healed. Dark spot in the fur above the eye and a bright bit of hair to the right of the image……picky, but, important. | Honours |
| Brittany | Graham Dean | Nice portrait with good lighting. Small things make such a difference, make sure clothing is sitting flatteringly. There is a really bright spot in the front eye which is out of context with the soft lighting and easily edited out. | Accepted |
| Ripped | Cathy Price | There were very few images which really stood out from the crowd and this was one of them. Being very picky it needs a little more definition on the collar to realise she is holding onto something. As an alternative her hands pulling at the netting would also work very well. Excellent image. | Honours |
| Web nightmare | Sue Titmuss | This isn’t the tidiest composite I’ve seen, however, that perhaps suits the image. The lady does not seem nearly scared enough to be that close to the spider, which makes her more scary than the spider……like the story in this. | Accepted |
| Through the canopy | Pol Syrett | I’m not a fan of busy images but for some reason I kept coming back to this one. The very strong leading lines taking me to the sun burst work very well. | Honours |
| White Faced Heron | Marilyn Holgate | Good isolation of subject from background and a classic simple image which works well. Dragging the blacks down would give this much greater visual punch. | Accepted |
| The Pier | Nice traditional landscape shot, unfortunately nothing magical in this and a very flat image which needs a lot more contrast to lift it into the awards at A grade. | No award | |
| Focused | Sarah Perrins | Quite often less is more and in this case the cloud of chalk dust distracts from rather than adds to the image because it is just around the head which on first glance makes for a frizzy haircut. | Accepted |
| Recumbent Beauty | Rosie Coster | I did struggle with this one but in the end the strong lines and attention to detail won me over. I still can’t work out why she’s in a dress in a bath. | Accepted |
| Little Paradise | Images like this are commonplace so they need to be exceptional just to get into the Acceptance level. A bit more care in composing the photo or some postproduction work could have removed the overlap of two posts in the water. Greater detail in the land behind would also have added balance. | No award | |
| At Peace | There were a few elements that I struggled with on this too much to give an award. Overall the image is very underexposed making little use of highlight information. Placement of lighting causes some difficult shadows making arms look odd. | No award | |
| flower | Jan Driscoll | Lovely study of this flower. Only thing that would have elevated it into Honours would be more light in the centre of the flower. Could be done in post or preferably at the time with a reflector. | Accepted |
| Misty Reflections | Unfortunately not enough to hold my interest. | No award | |
| Ryde Falls | I appreciate nature is rarely tidy, but, a lot can be done in choosing composition and post production to make mother nature look at her best. Waterfall images are very common so need to be exceptional, especially at A grade. | No award | |
| Jess | Steven Webb | Great image but that necklace is so dominant it distracts from what would have been an honours. | Accepted |
| Dominoes Battle | Robyn Carter | Need to be careful with wide angle lenses as they distort the images and can make people look quite odd. In this case though I’m drawn to to distortion and then to the scene before moving over to smiling pedestrian. So much to enjoy in this. | Honours |
| Handsy | Cathy Price | Full of drama/emotion with great editing, awesome image. | Honours |
| Goblins | Pol Syrett | Like the composition of this and nicely handled detail. Main structure is a little dark and would benefit from some isolated dodging and burning to give them more emphasis. | Accepted |
| Street Style | Aside from not being taken with the pose the model needs more light. You can achieve this in a number of ways during the shoot with reflectors/lights. With this shot though it would be easy to lighten the exposure on the model and still have it look natural. | No award | |
| Thai Girl | Steven Webb | Great image, tightly cropped so no doubt where we should be looking and full use of tones. It’s the tiny details that just keep it out of the honours bucket. If you have LR a reduction in dehaze will do wonders to soften skin, and then use spot edit to remove those tiny blemishes on the face/hair. | Accepted |
| Landscape overpowered | Martin Kircher | Full use of tones and a great scene. When creating something like this take the time to really consider those minor details that can make such a difference, in this case, the pylons aren’t quite lined up….so close. | Accepted |
| Charlotte | Catherine Dalton | There is an honours image in here. Square crop to have the image read circular and get rid of the knot in the sleeve brings all of the attention to the interaction of Mother and Child. Gorgeous and deserves to be on a wall. | Accepted |
| Spitfire | Martin Kircher | Abstract, strong use of form, tones all the way from black to white…….love it. | Honours |
| Young Latin Dancers | This image bounced in and out of Accepted it’s a wonder it didn’t get dizzy itself! Ultimately the blur on the female dance is just too distracting. Forgive me if I’m wrong, but it appears that some motion blur has been added…..it really didn’t need it. | No award | |
| Doubtful Moods | These scenes are very difficult to capture well. Plenty of contrast in this but at the expense of detail. When shooting scenes like this either bracket the exposures and blend for detail or shoot for those highlights to minimise burnout. | No award | |
| Devils Punch Bowl | Rosie Coster | When we see a lot of images of a particular scene it has to be exceptional to make honours. This just does enough technically to make an award, a fraction more underexposed and it would have missed the mark. | Accepted |
| White Heron Dance | Amy Boyce | Absolutely on the cusp of making honours. At some point in this few moments there would have, probably, been a slight gap between the two birds. More importantly though the image is off balance. Cropping from the left balances the two birds and creates a very harmonious image. | Accepted |
| When Paint Drips | Almost made the Accepted cut but like others that did not receive an award this is lacking control over contrast. Lift the whites and crush the blacks will transform this well seen image into a striking black and white one. | No award | |
| Milford Moods | An image of this type of scene needs to be exceptional at Grade A to make the cut. Unfortunately this one is lacking drama and just feels like a colour image turned to black and white. | No award | |
| Boys will be Boys | All of this image is the boys staring at each other and great use of tilting the camera to create extra tension in the scene. Severe cropping would make this a gallery or book worthy image by removing the hands and stripes on the jacket….then it’s all about the faces. | No award | |
| Floral | Veronica Wedlake | Simple, effective and great use of tones. Has the feel of an old film photograph. | Honours |
| Hands of Love | Catherine Dalton | Great use of tones and a lovely concept, but, I am a little concerned for the safety of that baby. Hands coming in from all sides of the image would make it more harmonious, still a great image though. | Accepted |
| motox madness | John Cosgrove | Great timing with the lightest part of the image being on the front rider. Great detail for a full action image. | Honours |
| Khestrel | At this level we really need to see attention to the technical aspects. Lifting the whites to make full use of the tones will completely elevate this beautiful portrait. | No award | |
| Into the Lake | Veronica Wedlake | Wow, what a stunning image and would be fine art……..if some minor distractions tidied. Bubbles in the water at the edge of frame, tiny one to the left of the material in the water, the dark mark below the reflection in the water. This image deserves that extra attention. | Accepted |
| Female Greylard | Allan McGregor | No distractions, simple and full range of tones. Great image. | Honours |
| Cathy | Lots of potential with a very well executed moment. Some elements are distracting though with the hair off of the shoulder going out of frame, plus, this has an old feel with the treatment but a very modern watch…..little things but they make a big impact. | No award | |
| Sad Eyes | There is a great image here, unfortunately it is so dark I struggle to see it. Please when you get home lift the exposure and crush the blacks, the difference will be night and day. | No award | |
| Zoe | Colleen Linnell | Nothing detracts from those eyes, very well executed and engaging image. | Honours |
| Wine | Lisa Carter | Attention to detail is the key to this one. Every element is carefully placed before being photographed, even the wording on the bottle tops is placed so that the the makers name is centred……love it. | Honours |
| dog gone | Great subject let down by image quality with lots of blocky artefacts, need to be careful on editing at this level. | No award | |
| The Christening Gown | Robyn Young | Really like the antique treatment which suits the subject very well. | Accepted |
| Nest Egg | Jan Driscoll | This needs to be in an art gallery, absolutely stunning. | Honours |
| Len Lye Centre | Mike Trushell | Best C Grade | |
| Line power | David Bayley | Best B Grade | |
| Nest Egg | Jan Driscoll | Best A Grade / Champion |