[Pavel]

I like the colours of the "through-lit" grapes. Looked long and hard for daysto find this. What do you think?

[matthew]

I agree that the translucent grapes are spectacular, but the rest of the photo lets them down. There's far more of it than there needs to be. I would have been very happy to just see a tight composition on those few lit grapes, with perhaps just a hint of the dark ones on the bottom of the frame to give a little context.

I also find the blue haloing that's happening around some of the leaves to be very distracting. I'm not sure what the cause is, but it might be able to be fixed in Lightroom or Photoshop.

[Pavel]

Thanks Mathew, I never thought of isolating just the translucent grapes when I took the photo or during postprocessing. It is an obvious thing to try and I am kicking myself not thinking of it at all. I will try to revise, although this will require a significant crop and I am not sure that the photo can handle it. I also agree about the halo. As allways, your critical comments are very helpful. Pavel

[Pavel]

Is this better?

[enviroguy]

Hi, Pavel!

I agree with Matthew that the ideal of producing a photo of translucent grapes had some potential. But I believe that photo doesn't really work well. The grapes themselves would stand out better if the background was simpler, perhaps against the sky (although that probably wasn't possible at the time). In this case the background is too much in focus and is busy and distracting.

The second crop helps a little, but the foreground grapes are much too dark, and the branch curving into the very dark mass on the right side is unattractive.

Well...you asked me for honest critiques.

BTW, I thought that the landscapes you posted earlier are fantastic. I look forward to seeing more images from Portugal.

Regards.....Dennis

[Pavel]

Thanks for the comments Dennis. I would not want anything but straight from the hip comments from you. I am dissapointed with this shot. I had a greater expectations of it but I do agree with what you and Mathew said. Thanks for commenting. P