Chapel at Enfield Shaker Village

The camera was not plumb the photo seems not to be particularly sharp.

@ Claire - Do plumb photographs that are sharp equal good photographs?

I feel the composition is a bit forced, it doesn't feel natural. But I do like the print tone and the texture. The other post feels better, jmal.
- Thomas

Plumb photographs that are sharp do not equal good photographs. They do, however, show that a modicum of care was taken.

I personally feel that a tripod is at least as valuable as an aid to composition as it is a camera stability device.

Thomas would Holgagraphs that are handheld automatically give you better photos?

I don't think that you and I agree on what constitutes a good photograph. I just thought you were rude, that's all.
In my opinion, sharpness and correctness is boring. Do something different. Experiment. Be yourself.
No, hand held holga photographs is not a recipe for good photographs. They are usually pretty interesting, though. But it depends on who uses it, and how they use it, of course.
In summary - I don't care about sharp. I don't care much about straight and plumb. You obviously do.
- Thomas

I do believe that plumbness is important when the subject matter is buildings. Clarity is more often than not an enhancement to my appreciation of a photo...particularly when a great deal of money has been spent in the purchase of the piece of equipment.

When one is asking for a critique, one should expect something critcal to be mentioned. Being critical is not the same as being rude...at least I intended no rudeness.

It is also true I believe that if one would have work viewed for the purpose of a critique by 10 people that the photographer would get quite a variety of opinions.

Claire, Thomas,
Thank you for the comments. FWIW, I take Claire's comments as pointed, or maybe strident, but not rude.
I agree, one shouldn't post in the critique gallery and not be prepared for negative comments.

Yes, it was shot handheld, even on a tripod, I'm not sure it could have been framed in a way to keep everything straight, at least not with the camera I was using. But that sort of stuff is an easy goof for me, and it's good to hear when people notice. In a shot such as this, I do take care to try and keep the back parallel sometimes that loses to framing.

Compared to the other shot, this is heavily cropped. In doing the print, I decided I wanted to emphasize the crack in the composition. I don't know if that's why you feel that it's forced. Maybe you can elaborate on what you mean there.

In looking at a scan of the negative, I don't agree about softness. But there isn't much depth of field. The enlargement, and perhaps the lith to some extent, do soften some of the detail that's present in the negative. Does it soften it to a degree that it detracts?

Again, thanks for the comments. Real discussion is much more valuable than "it's an nice picture".
Barry