Sacred Watch
by Shelley

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club:

This is a very nice shot overall; most of the issues concern the environment you captured, not your technique.

COMPOSITION: I like the composition you chose, with the balance of the monument and this guard. However, I'm not sure whether water in the reflecting pool would make the eye want to see more over to the right as well. But as taken I like this composition. Before fixing the water, you might also want to clone out that crane!

EXPOSURE AND SHARPNESS: The exposure looks good, and it's leveled well too (except maybe the top of the white wall where he's standing might be a bit overexposed.) Sharpness is good, though hard to judge in this small version.

AESTHETICS: This photo has pretty good aesthetics overall The reflecting pool and crane are the major issues; the pool could have been completely dry, or filled, but I don't like it as it is.

Hope this helps a little. It's hard to critically critique something that doesn't need much of a critique!

Size doesn't matter!
by amazoneea

Comment:
A very funny capture; wish you had a good shot of just a single animal with the bird on the back. (And one facing sideways or you.)

knifes
by tolovemoon

Comment:
How is this propaganda? Otherwise, good shot other than a little glare on the lower left table and knife. By the way, knives is plural for Knife.

Simply Grand
by Everyday Renee

Comment:
Excellent colors and composition.

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
by train

Comment:
It's hard to see that you are "catching" this without the title. If you could have grabbed a shot with the 22 actually in the air, and your hands waiting below, it would have been more dramatic. And while lighting is good, the brigher light might be better placed on the 22.

BTW - that's one of my favorite books from my youth.

The Red and The Black
by Michaels

Comment:
I'm curious: How did you do this within the no-editing rules? 1/20th of a second would not be much time to manually swirl it?

Can't make an omelette without breaking the eggs
by SoulHunter74

Comment:
Good idea, good setup. I think this might have been a little better with more DOF. Also, you might watch your histogram for overexposure, i.e., on the mushrooms. Maybe the point would be better with fewer eggs.

Stranger to the Ground
by JPR

Comment:
Since I have not had a chance to comment on this before, and it seems to be the topic for the day, let me do so now. I gave this an above average score for a photo that meets the challenge (I think scores should be anonymous, with maybe exception of those giving 1s, so I try not to tell). I do like the capture of the diver, and the composition and crop is good. I also like the texture given by the noise, and the colors of the sky.

However, the flare doesn't work at all for me. I think it works for some people because they see it as an "object", as if this was the moon with the diver just below. That would indeed be very nice! But it's flare. ;-) There's also some other small defects which detract and influenced my scoring (which was still pretty good): a large white spot or something like that just above it, and the fact that the diver is oversharpened, which is what makes him stand out with contrast (but unnaturally IMHO).

Stephen King- Firestarter
by neenee1999

Comment:
I think this was a very good attempt to illustrate the book. But you set your JPEG compression ratio too high, and that has degraded the photo. Also, while the effect is nice, the close up, just off center composition isn't as interesting as I think other versions might be. (Actually, it works well as a thumbnail).

The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer
by OneSweetSin

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club:

I really liked this image from book titles, and scored it higher than most if not all other images I scored, so there's not a lot I can say to explain why it didn't place higher. I think the composition is excellent, the choice of B&W as well. Though now, thinking about it, it might have worked even better in sepia for an old fashioned look. Other minor details for perfection: the coveralls could have been a bit rattier, or maybe at least "shorter fitting" and the paint brush could have been visible. Of course, at the risk of ruining a good fence, technically, he should have been whitewashing the fence, so a white pain on the brush might have been a good start, and then just show the bristles.

Lastly, the technical capture is excellent, but maybe some directional lighting and shadows might have given it more pop.

But these are just thoughts to improve an already EXCELLENT photo.