All natural light streaming in through 2 windows behind the camera.
Converted from RAW:
adjusted white balance and exposure slightly
PS:
rotated 20 degrees CCW
crop
levels
curves
brightness/contrast
hue/saturation
cloned out a few minor spots
blurred some reflections of the windows on the balls
ran through NI a couple of times
resize
sharpen
save for web
Statistics
Place: 19 out of 177 Avg (all users): 6.2806 Avg (commenters): 7.1765 Avg (participants): 6.0286 Avg (non-participants): 6.4206 Views since voting: 1604 Views during voting: 379 Votes: 196 Comments: 23 Favorites: 1 (view)
First impression - Nice motion blur, a bit too much Neat Image.
The clean blue table top along with the strong lines of the moving balls is perfect for this challenge. I like that the bulk of the exposure was on the rack before the break.
The composition is very nice, too. The eye is lead around the table by all the lines coming from the rack. The only lacking is some other element to show what caused the motion, a queue stick or hand would have added to the context of the image. I think that is perhaps why another shot along the same lines scored a little higher.
Technically the exposure is right on, just long enough to give a good motion effect. The place of the rack in the frame is right along the rule of thirds. I don't always buy into the rule of thirds thing, but it works well here.
A lighter touch on the Neat Image would go a long way. My rule is, if you can tell Neat Image was used, it was probably used too much.
Congratulations on your new personal best! Keep up the strong work.
I hope this was helpful. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
nice finish. after you told me i gave you a good review i wondered which one was yours. I still think this is the best of the pool shots. I hope to do as well in my upcoming challenge.
This works well. The colours are strong, but plausible (just). The blur doesn't detract from or overwhelm the balls themselves, but just imparts a sense of violent movement from the break. Nicely done.
This so far is the best pool shot I've seen. The background isn't noisy or grainy--it's smooth and velvety looking. The movement on the balls look great.
Mediocre break, but beautiful shot conveying sharp static images and blurred moving ones. The rail in the lower right is distracting, but the diagonal angle is less so. The rail in the upper right, on the other hand, is just distracting. Maybe you could've pulled the cue ball closer so you could've cropped it out? Those are nitpicks, though; I'm voting 9. :)
But a nice effect, none-the-less. The balls have a sort of marbled pattern. Is that real or some sort of optical effect? Find it a little distracting. 7.
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