Unfortunately, none of the images that were submitted were what I was looking for.

For sake of time right now, I’m going to have to be very brief.

@blessingscaptured‘s pumpkins looked great, but weren’t suitable for the special simultaneous horizontal and…Read more

Those are some great shots of pumpkins! I really like the last two.

I’d have to take a closer look, but they don’t seem to work really well as a phone wallpaper, which is what the VersePics are all about. It’s really difficult to find photos that look great in both 4:3 and 1:2, so don’t feel bad about that!

Again, the pho…Read more

In any case, that’s a really cool photo, Blossom! Sunsets are pretty epic and are frequently used to represent God. Because of that, though, I think I’d like to steer away from the subject of sunsets for this Shoot to Serve assignm…Read more

Sorry for the delay!

Better. Try to move your text around till the entire design feels evenly visual weighted. By looking at the photo, I can tell it has a strong central weight to it, so I would move the text up even more.

I’ll continue to reply and critique VPs if you’d like to keep revising your submissions, but as it is past the deadline, I’m going to go ahead and wrap this up!

My favorite design submitted so far was one designed by Caitlin Compton.

I like this because of its simplicity.

The strong vertical axis created by the centered subject…Read more

I would definitely echo what I told @blessingscaptured about breaking up text here. You’ve got two words on their own lines, which isn’t ideal. Be careful about how you break up your text.

Your design should always have at least one axis. Think of this axis as an invisible line running through your design that things are…Read more

Your updated, updated version looks a lot better, and the padding around the verse looks MUCH better! 🙂

I’m not totally sold on the display (fancy) typeface for that photo. It feels a little too bold compared to the other typeface for my tastes right now, but that could be a personal preference. Perhaps if you made…Read more

By far I prefer the cropped design. Nice job! It feels much more balanced than the other designs, but still feels a little unbalanced because the tunnel curves away in a certain direction. Perhaps if you right aligned all the text so it matches the exit of the tunnel and moved it over slightly to the left the design would appear…Read more

I definitely like the grey text better than the yellow. Great choice! It’s bright enough to stand out, but doesn’t blind you when you have a bright screen! 😉 (I’ve had some interesting experiences with this.)

I think I like the simple text breakup version you made (#1) better than the more complicated one that followed the…Read more

Sorry I’m so late to get back to this. I got swept into a CRAZY week of school and had to drop everything just to keep up with the assignments.

I’ll be working to comment and get back on track throughout the day.

Hey Morgan!

First, I love the colors of this photograph! That rich golden color mixed with the green from the dramatic side lighting is pretty cool (or, I should say, warm. 😉 )!

Because your subject is looking away from the camera towards the background (directing the viewer’s gaze there as well) and this is a landscape…Read more

Hey Caitlin!

Mountain Design

First, I LOVE that script typeface! It’s very elegant.

Two quick things:

I like that you kept the overlay subtle, but it’s perhaps a little TOO subtle. I’d like to see a slightly darker overlay or a subtle shadow behind the text to help boost legibility. Remember, not everyone who sees…Read more

Hey Aliana!

That’s a nice sunflower!

Couple quick things:

Because the majority of the photo is taken up by the sunflower head bathed in shadow and the exposure is set for the petals and sky, the photo feels a little underexposed. That certainly helps the text stand out, but I do wonder what it would look like if you…Read more

For ease of use, I’ll refer to the bridge/tunnel design as D1 and the dandelion design as D2.

D1

Couple things here:

While I like that you were thinking of an off center subject, this is one photo where a centered composition could have been very effective. Additionally, because you’re not using any of the space off to the…Read more

That’s an awesome woods you’ve got there!

First of all, I like that you put a path in your image to help signify “he shall direct your paths” and that you put your subject off center to help give the verse more prominence. The bokeh is lovely in the background, and the dramatic side lighting is interesting.

While I can see…Read more

I was having a lot of fun photographing my sister’s fish tank decorations before we put them in the tank. I really like the foreground framing in this shot–it pulls the eye to the flower while also making the foreground interesting as well.

I know 800 ISO is a little high, so for some context this lens doesn’t have image…Read more

The whole verse and the reference, please!

@ryanben2

The struggle is real. I’ve had a little experience with trying to get type to stand out against difficult backgrounds, so here are a few tips:

Do not use a script typeface if you are struggling to make text stand out. Its delicate curves and forms are difficult to make out on a clean…Read more

Good Evening Mrs. Parfitt!

I don’t personally use Lightroom, so I’m not totally sure of where exactly in the software you would go to change your ratio to 16:9, but yes, it is a setting in Lightroom.

Look for the crop tool. You should be able to change the ratio and there should be an option for 16:9 in the list of presets. If…Read more

End of Challenge: February 14th

———

Good Morning Lenspirationers!

Back in August, I broke the news that I wouldn’t be able to do any more VersePic Opportunities until I got back from California in April. Some of you suggested that in the VPO’s absence, we run a challenge to let you guys creat…Read more

I apologize for my delay in finishing up this VPO. Things have been crazy over here, and I’m finally getting a chance to sit down and write this!

Congratulations, Caitlin! Your close up photo of the two boys in plaid shirts holding a Bible and pointing to a verse (to be more specific, 20180831-Caitlin Compton-9501) was…Read more

Thankfully, yes, I was able to fix it.

The VPO is now over. I’ll be going through the submissions soon and announcing the winner, so stay tuned for that!

Thank you all for submitting! Andrew and I really appreciate it!

Notifications are thankfully coming through again, so yay! 🙂

Lenspiration hasn’t been sending me notification emails for some reason, so I hadn’t realized that you had submitted photos! I think I might have messed with something in my profile, so I’ll check that out. In the meantime, I’ll try to check every day till the deadline so I’m not missing…Read more

Sorry about the Dropbox Link. It seems to shut down the link after a while. Here’s a new link that should work. https://www.dropbox.com/request/H4VWZ1hE0fEkNxnNOokN

If you can, I’d really appreciate it if you could upload the RAW and JPEG files to the Dropbox folder. The forum has stepped up its…Read more

———

Good Evening Lenspiration!

First, some news. Because of some really big changes in my schedule, this will be the last VersePic Opportunity for a while. Our absence won’t be permanent, though! We’re…Read more

Thank you everyone that submitted! We got some really great, beautiful, and creative submissions this time, and even though I couldn’t have all of you win, both of us here at Sharpening Character really appreciate you all pitching in and spending some of your time to help us out!

Things got really crazy around here in the past weeks…Read more

Just a quick note to let you all know that the VPO is over! I’ll be taking a closer look at the photos and begin working on the VP over this next week. I’ll let you know when a winner has been chosen and then later post some critique on why some photos worked as VP backgrounds and some didn’t!

A HUGE thank you to all of you that…Read more

Just one more day till the deadline’s up! If you have any photos you’d like to submit, please submit them soon!

No more submissions will be accepted past midnight tonight (August 1st).

Thank you to all who already have submitted photos!

Thanks, Lydia! That should help me out a lot.

@creative-click-photography

Wow! Those are some really cool photos, Caitlin! I love how you’ve edited them to appear almost vintage.

That’s fine! I was wondering if that was what was happening or if there were some really interesting cloud formations going on that day! 🙂

If you have the time to upload the un-edited copies, that would be great!

Thanks!

I never really know how close or far away I want subjects to be until I’m actually designing the VP, so the more options, the better! Thanks for submitting those alternate photos!

I did want to ask, though, do you know why there is a dark cloud around the girl in all of the photos? It doesn’t seem to appear in the photos with the…Read more

Thank you for submitting those photos, Josiah! I really like how clean and open that last shot of the field is.

@missyruth

Those are some BEAUTIFUL photos, Missy! Thank you for submitting them! The forum is downsizing and compressing photos that are attached to replies right now, so could you please also submit them via the Dropbox…Read more

For specific examples of how I’ve cropped photos for the VersePics in the past, you can view our large collection of VersePics at sharpeningcharacter.com/versepics.

I’ve attached a photo below that should help to explain what I’m about to say. Essentially, there are three different ratios I keep in mind when selecting photo…Read more

———

Good Evening Lenspiration!

This time, we need photos that fit Ezra 8:22-23:

“… The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him. So we fasted and bes…Read more

First off, thank you for your willingness to help us out! I really appreciate all the support that we’ve gotten, and it means a lot to me.

Every month, I create a new VersePic and about every other month I post a VersePic Opportunity on the Lenspiration Forums. In the VPOs, I give the Lenspiration community a verse that I’d…Read more

The trick there is both cloning AND healing. When you clone, you’re taking the exact pixels from one area of the image and duplicating it to another. The main problem I have with using the cloning feature is that there are often very easily identifiable elements that get cloned. For example, in that photo, after I…Read more