Arts and crafts

Nicely cropped keeping the shape of the final image to the same original ratio, this image has all the right elements to it to show off art and the artist working. Clearly the sun was out that day, and allowing the photographer to use ISO 100. I would advise a smaller aperture, maybe an f/8 or above so even the corners of the shot are in focus, as the shutter speed suggests the light was there for that setting. But love it..

A scene full of chaos and mess, but exactly what the photographer was trying to show, so well done. Looks like the concentrating men are cutting out templates in the process of making the products we see on the walls. Probably low level of light as shot at ISO 14400, so the image will be nice and grainy, but I think that works for this image anyway.

A fab portrait of a proud artist and their work. Lovely soft light, and the subject looking off camera,. The dog being the artwork, proudly sitting as a dog would - by its owner. The texture of the dog is emphasised by the soft materials of the artists clothing. All great settings used for a studio lit shot.

I liked this image as the mood provided from the art installation matches the moody low hanging clouds, but also the position the art installation which was shot just beneath the hills and horizon in the distance. A fairly low shutter speed so perhaps this was shot using a tripod, but if not, the photographer has managed to keep the camera steady, well.

There was a fair amount of pottery imagery in this competition, but I liked this image more than most as it was shot looking down on hands and a spinning wheel. Shooting with F/14 has made the hands and arms really in focus whilst the 1/125th shutter speed was chosen to blur the background. A clever shot and I like it alot.

Question - When taking images of art and their artist at work on the art, what is best to focus the camera on - the artist or the art? Here the photographer has decided to focus on the artist. But as you cannot see the artists's face or much of their hand/arm, perhaps it should have been focused on the art as that is a face? It's a well composed shot, nice textures, and colour.

The attention of everybody in this shot on the making of the glass sculpture is captivating. The balance of where people are in the frame, and glass and the distance away from the photographer, are all just right. It's a high ISO and therefore grainy, but this doesn't matter so much for the subject matter.

I wanted to include this image in the top ten as to describes tattoos as an art form, which it is of course. Being black and white works very well to create the graphic nature of the image and to show off the art. Very often the colour of rubber gloves distracts the eye. A thought out image, using a steady 1/125th shutter, on a subject without a lot of movement.

Anytime I see images where the person is working on a machine in a workshop like this lathe, with shavings of wood being caught in the air, is great. You don't need to see the carpenters face as doing this focuses your attention on the spinning wood and shavings. The shutter of 1/640th is fast enough to capture the shavings just enough with still some movement. Perfect.

I just loved the simplicity of the subject and how this was shot. Black pencils and crayons etc, black table surface and the only colour coming from the wood. Lovely textures picked out by a single source of light. Nice selective focusing too.

This image is a solid one for me, as the artist is positioned dead centre of the shot, surrounded by their art on display, with a light pointing over his shoulder onto the paper he is drawing on. Simple, but very effective. A high ISO due to low light levels, but nicely framed, with lots of faces keeping the viewers attention.

I've highly commended this image purely because of the speciality of the image produced and the processes the photographer had to go through to get this resulting image. It's quite an incredible piece of art. Using 175 images in total and f/10 in order to get the detail and focus right. A fantastic result.