...for one, there did not have to be a link but I decided to give them a link...
What does comment no. 2 mean Tim?
Image 1 oriental sweetlips
Image 2 Whaleshark
Image 3 Manta Ray
I think I dont see a faulty image thats why I put it up again in the 2nd post...they are sharp Tim
I told you that it wouldn't be nice...
... and you don't have to agree with anything that I've posted, although you
did ask.
Comment no. 2 is actually about the sweetlips, as the manta is first in the post. It isn't on a diagonal, it isn't sitting at an intersection of thirds and it isn't at the "golden mean"; the fish is near or on the boundary of the image at, essentially, random places that impair the aesthetic impact of the image.
It's the difference between this:
and this:
Many judges expect that a portfolio will have some link between the images that is obvious from looking at them, even if it isn't explicit in the competition's rules. Sometimes the link is in the shape of the projected portfolio, a flow from image to image. Trevor Rees' BSoUP portfolios are often brilliantly constructed in this way. It could be colour, it could be aspects of the same animal, lighting
etc, but it does need to be
obvious. My "EMUP for fish" was an attempt at this, where the arrangement of the individual images and the shape within each image are meant to give a visual rhythm to the portfolio.
The manta looks much sharper than the other two images as they appear on my monitor; I agree that that the other images do look sharp when enlarged, but it's the initial appearance that matters when the judges are pruning the field. On my monitor the colour of the whale shark's body is a little odd, a little purple, whereas the manta is beautifully white. The yellow of the sweetlips doesn't sit that well with the blues of the other images. Similarly, the light manta does not sit easily with the dark whale shark and sweetlips. A competition portfolio isn't just a collection of your best images...
If you have struggled to make great images, it is
amazingly unpleasant to have them dissected and rejected - one reason why I'm not a BSoUP member as competitions seem to be paramount in the BSoUP world.
Tim