The third I like very much. The backlit chairs are vitally great, and look quite melancholic and lonely, and the way they are arranged makes you wonder what they are facing. You could crop it to make a stronger composition, but maybe the haphazard off-the-cuff approach actually suits it!

The police force has always contained thugs. Look at the 1980s. It's a profession that attracts a certain type of individual. But they have to deal with an increasingly thuggish society, and one which is very conscious of it's 'rights'. Not this lad though, he has been the innocent victim of an unprofessional, stupid and aggressive individual. Any police officer making such a spurious use of the terrorism legislation deserves no less than the sack.

I find the elliptical stamen a visual dead-end, right in the middle of the shot, dominating without being particularly interesting. It's also darker than the background, which I could have appreciated as an abstract on its own, without the stamen.

Scooching round so that the stamen is seen almost from the front, rather than the side, and at an angle which leads the eye into the shot rather from side to side, would have been more successful IMHO, if a little bit predictable.

I think we should heed John R's advice (previous page). He knows the forum pretty well i'd say, and has probably had his eye on these discussions.

If we all stuck to improving our own comments, rather than worrying about what OTHER people have put, we will get along fine. If people start putting more effort into it, it might just catch on! But i'm sure we're all tolerant enough to let the odd flippant comment pass, aren't we?

Re photoshop elements, don't be put off by adobe bridge. Just right click the shot in Finder and open with photoshop elements. It will take you straight to the raw converter.

I agree that it's mainly just the blue light cast by the windows causing the 'problem'. You could try reducing the saturation or lightness of blues using the hue/saturation function in photoshop elements, just select blue from the drop down list of colours and move the sliders. The bin being to fans down the blue a bit while keeping the scene looking natural. Can't beat photoshop, jump onto it as soon as you can.

Good shot... shows that less is more sometimes. I agree with Tim re skewing the shot to get perfect symmetry. I think this sort of shot works better when the composition is anally-retentively spot on.

I agree with all of that George, but I strongly believe we should lead by example rather than ticking off people we think have 'offended'.

I think if you must voice your disagreement with another persons comment, you should try and at least be humble about it, and try not to be personal (as the guideline states). I think doing so will earn you a lot more respect and help give you more authority with other forum members.

You got there before I thought twice and removed that comment G... I realised I was just adding to the madness which has descended on the forum these days.

Forum Guidelines:

And a post from this thread:

I don't think there's a clearer example of the forum guidelines, which are in place to keep this a constructive and convivial site for members, being broken. A gentle steer from the mods would be quite timely I think, because this isn't the first time someone has strayed from the objective of commenting in the photos, and started chiding other people for comments they happen to disagree with.

Andrew there are some real corkers in there. The first two shots, croquet on the lawn, the artist shots, the dandelion shot, all excellent. I like the faded look you have achieved on some of them. The first shot works so much better in mono and with your levels treatment. In the colour version, the dense greens unbalance the composition IMO.

Not quite floating my boat are the shot with ceanothus in front of the window - a little unsatisfying compositionally, for me... the mono lily - the tones are a little flat.... Mahogany and light - the very bright areas are a bit distracting... The shot with the two urns, which is cropped uncomfortably for me through the window behind the urns.

The overall impact of the images is very very good though. I think it would be great to present the cream of the crop directly on the forum.