Markets

The key to the success of this image is the lighting, just strong enough to pick out the features on the lady's face and to show the procuce she is selling on the market, but giving a sense of the dark corner in which she is working. The composition works well, with the fruit in the lower third, and the market trader centrally placed, but with sufficient space around her to avoid the image looking too tightly cropped in. Despite the darkness, the colours are still rich and bold. Well deserving of your top ten finish.

I have surprised myself by selecting a product shot for my winning image, but this is a very attractive and technically accomplished image. Spot on regarding focus, exposure, tonal range and composition etc, with a beautiful quality to the light. What I especially like is the colours, which are wonderfully rich, natural and bright, but you have avoided any temptation to over-saturate them and allow them to become garish. Lovely texture and details visible on the shoes too. Beautiful image, congratulations on your winning image.

This is a lovely image showing an everyday scene in a local street market. You have managed to capture the image during the transaction, which tells more of a story and some meaningful action in the shot. Technically the image may be a little over-sharpened and a little bright and loosing some contrast, but overall it still makes for a great image, well worth a top ten placing. Well done.

I obviously do not know this lady, but the way in which she has been photographed, she has been portrayed as a wise, dignified and beautiful soul, sitting proudly, if a little wearily, behind her stall. I love the limited colour pallate, just the blues and contrasting terracotta. Lighting is lovely, and focus is firmly on the face of this lady, whilst still allowing her immediate surroundings to be viewed. A lovely environmental portrait, well done on your top ten finish.

What a great image of a lady and young child, sitting beside her stall. The image processing style you have used really suits the subject, giving us a fabulous amount of detail, rich colours and a full range of tones from shadows to lighter areas. The balance of the composition works really well too, combining a strong portrait image with a wonderful market scene. Well done.

Many photigraphers will be aware that the lighting can make or break a beautiful landscape image, but here we can see a fine example of the importance of the light in an interior shot too. The light is cast in the perfect place to put this butcher in the spotlight, highlighting the man, the meat and the weighing scales set upon the bare surface. Whilst the man is relatively small within the frame, his sparse surroundings mean he is not lost within the scene. The butcher is the clear focal point, but once we have looked and observed what he is doing, it is a delight to let the eye explore his surroundings and the environmnt in which he works. The colours all work together perfectly too, softly contrasting to compliment the scene. Excellent image, well done on your second place finish.

This character portrait image is especially well composed and framed. We are close enough to the fishmonger to appreciate the image as a strong portrait, but we can also see plenty of his surroundings to give context and a sense of his environment. Use of a very wide aperture accurately puts sharp focus on the gentleman's face, and so allows other elements to gradually fall away from focus - enough details still visible, but not dominating the focal point of the shot. Fabulous environmental portrait, congratulations on your third place finish.

This was a late addition to my top ten, but the more I look at the image, the more I like it. The high angle of view obviously helps create impact, and the stalls placed across the image on diagonals works well in the composition of the scene. There is no obvious focal point, which is some images would be detrimental, but with this subject, I don't think that matters, as it conveys a sense of the busy bustle that exists in many markets. The colours of the fresh produce are rich and vibrant too, without being over-saturated. Well done on your top ten finish.

This is another image which I appreciate more each time I look at it. I am unsure who are the customers and who are the traders, but that matters not, as it conveys a sense of the chaos of the market. You have captured some lovely lighting falling onto the faces of the ladies on the left, and focus there is great too, as it draws us to look first at them, and then explore the rest of the scene. The tight crop puts us in the centre of the action too. Great work.

Whilst this is clearly a posed portrait, it is very natural and has been well captured. Many entries in this contest showed market traders who did not look too happy to be photographed, and for me, that makes rather uncomfortable viewing. This image however is the opposite, the trader looking delighted to be photographed, which in turn makes the image a delight to view. The viewpoint works well, and the fairly tight crop allows us to see just enough surroundings to put this gentleman into context with his market surroundings. Focus, exposure, lighting etc all very well managed. Well done on your top ten placing.