Soaring
by alexgurley

Comment:
Great shot, just needed a faster speed, there's some motion blur.

jacked
by MisterMarcus

Comment:
Great pespective, great framing but needs more contrast.

snowbeard
by posthumous

Comment:
Interesting perspective but you lost the focus.
Great tones too.

Wild Tenderness
by Kathe

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club ;)

Cheers Kathe

Lucky me that I got this photo for critique as it's a picture I really enjoy looking at.

Artistic Merit
Pros:
* Beautiful subject. Beeing a nature photographer I'm sure you really enjoyed making this picture.
* Good cropping on almost all corners (I'll get to that ina moment)
* Good job at balance of masses of both subjects. None is more important than the other, they function as a whole, dividing the attention of the viewer.
Cons:
* A tighter crop on the left, hiding the left tiger's leg, might have given this photo more spatial continuity. Even though there is almost no leg to see, it should have worked better with either no leg (my preference) or with a bit more (adding closure to the white space).
* The black frame IMHO doesn't suit it all that well. A brighter one would have worked better. I know there is a need to border the snow but in these cases I find that just a one black pixel inner frame with a thicker white border outside works well.

Technical Merit
Pros:
* Good exposure on an otherwise dificult metering and lighting situation. I'm curious on how you managed to keep the snow from blowing high and still have so much shadow detail.
* Good isolation with pleasant bokeh.

Emotional Merit
Pros:
* To capture such a tender moment from one of the wildest beasts in the animal kigdom, goes straight at the viewer's throat without asking for permission. This is a photo that makes a hit on the viewer instantly.
* The environmentaly cold of the snow also contrasts beautifully with such a warm moment of affection.

Result
Let's get it right:
* It's in the upper tenth of the lot.
* It's your personal best.
* It's a significant step in the direction of one of your goals.
* I liked it best over about one third of the ones that were in front of it.
AND ALL OF THIS IN A FREE STUDY!!!

I'm sure this photo will make you proud for days to come. I know I would be.

All the best
Duarte Bruno

Message edited by author 2010-02-12 20:30:23.

The sea shore of the city
by el3radii

Comment:
I can't see how the perspective dramatizes this photo.

Calling out all werewolves!
by sarampo

Comment:
I must say I would have voted this at least 3 votes over your first try:
, so it's got to be a 10*.

I can't really understand how this one hasn't scored better than the first when it's so much better technically and astisticly.

Message edited by author 2010-02-10 07:36:29.

Escaping from heat
by liangdawei

Comment:
Amazing shot, but why on Earth didn't you crop the bottom third?
I'm so divided I'll have to vote later.
Is that an owl?

Urban Vigil
by Insomniac

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club ;)

Cheers Sam,
a small world this is! :)
Before I say anything else, ti's a tripple honor to get your picture for critique because:
* it's of someone close
* it's one of my favorites
* it's an honorable mention
Having said that, I believe my mission is tree times as hard.

Artistic Merit
Pros:
* Beautiful subject. Striking is is the right word. The hard contrast in the lines of the graffiti makes it look the most life like and the strongest of the whole challenge.
* Excelent toning, even though - as I said in my comment - the general hue is not to my liking, after a while it grows on you and it's one of the factors that really makes this photo work.
Cons:
* Cropping. This is the only thing I have going against this picture. I understand why you went for the Thirds with the lights but a tighter crop on the bottom just marginally below the side walk would have worked even better IMHO. It would have reinforced the triangles: nose tip/eyes and: nose tip/shoulder line, aligning them with the corners of the frame.

Technical Merit
Pros:
* Excelent exposure taking advantage of the passing traffic.
* Excelent job taking care of distortion. Checking the site I believe you had to be creative and environmental friendly at the same time, as there was a small tree half in the way. This looks like a head on shot even though I'm pretty sure it was taken at an angle. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Emotional Merit
Pros:
* This is by far the strongest graffiti in the whole challenge. I'm sure it helped the score too.
* This shift to cold blue/purple gives it an eerie and almost supernatural look which is reinforced by the title of the photo. It has a kind of Bilal look and take it from me, this is no small compliment.
* When I entered "Main Street" I did it because I thought I would have to look too deep to find an interesting graffiti in Lisbon. To realize that this picture was taken as far as a 2 minute drive from my former house (come to think of it, I've signed the contract for that house 70 meters away from this graffiti, amazing coincidence!), just makes me wonder if my eyes have been really open for the last 8 years.
Cons:
* What Cons? The only cons is not knowing the photo details in the voting phase or I would have elevated my score to 8/9 for emotional/technical value this photo now has for me.

Result
You might thank the original artist for the material, but you have played the bigger role that lead you to a honorable mention and grab the 4th place by a pubic hair. The toning and the excellent technical work definitely made it work and score.

Keep up the excellent work you have been doing, I'm sure I'll keep following and getting my kicks out of it in the process.

All the best
Duarte Bruno

A 2006 Vintage Australian Wine
by arron_christensen

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club ;)

Artistic Merit
Pros:
* Good contrast between light/dark, subject/background.
Cons:
* Not enough space for the subject to breathe. A looser crop with all the grapes included and with a bit more space on top of the bottle would benefit the composition IMHO.
* A triangular arrangement of the grapes (with the base on the table) would have been much more stable.
* A whole cluster without loose grapes would have shown more care with the setup and look more natural (this arrangement shows that is was prepared).

Technical Merit
Pros:
* Exposure is spot on.
* Focus is spot on.
* WB is spot on, I don't know if a warmer tone might have worked also.
Cons:
* Lighting needs much improvement. This kind of setup craves for soft light (ideally window light). The apparent use of flash left hard reflexes on all subjects and hard shadows on the grapes.

Emotional Merit
Pros:
* Interesting contrast of subjects: grapes/wine, before/after.
* A much more interesting contrast for me is an Antipodean coincidence, unfortunatelly it will escape 99.9% of the viewers. I would never guessed there was an Australian Wine based on a Portuguese grape variety (Verdelho). BTW, I'm Portuguese. ;)
Cons:
* The grapes and the wine aren't as objectively related as this is a white whine are the grapes are red.

Result
I guess what let you down in the challenge was a combination of composition, arrangement and lighting, where the composition played a smaller role and lighting the bigger one. As you might have noticed, the competition in this challenge was fearless and the top of the pack photographers made almost no mistakes with those issues which in Still Life are paramount.
For the emotional value, I would have scored this picture between 6*-7* according to the overall level.

Keep them coming!
All the best
Duarte Bruno

Message edited by author 2010-02-21 06:11:07.

Mort and Drone
by organic

Comment:
I'm speechless about this score. The best justice you can do it is to print it and hang it.
I might as well start a personal award, this is one deserves it the most.