I'll be sad with you
by Judi

Comment:
The best of the facial expressions, mostly because you didn't over sell it. you depicted a gentle comfortable melancholy with great delicacy, the use of DOF really is superb. Top two for me.

Depression and Disability
by AllenP

Comment:
I like the way you positioned the woman down in the corner, off to the side and neglected, facing off frame; and the reciprocal gesture of the lamp pointing off and away keeps balance beautifully. The rest of the frame is dense and busy with lots of good textures. Top two in my book.

Violence
by NiallOTuama

Comment:
Graphically the best in the challenge. I keep thinking " What no saxaphone? could have been 'Sex and Violence'" . the lighting is well done, all the details are there to enjoy, without strong shadows that would have messed with the repetitive layout you envisioned. Top two in my book.

Eggplant
by neesham

Comment:
clever idea very well carried out. complex without being fussy and the lighting is very deft. I like the way you imitated sunshine without throwing the cut away section into shadow. the only quibble is the way the two roots are standing out from the plane of earth and egg. It is nice to have them in the image, but the way they break the plane steals some of the magic.

One of my top two, ought to ribbon.

untitled
by bspurgeon

Comment:
I like what I can see, but the blacks are so deep that I can't read more than posture and position. The girl's expressions and for that matter their actions remain opaque. One is standing, one is bending over ...something, and reaching for a....something. The mood has eaten the motive.

when are we going to play together?
by lenia

Comment:
I feel that you lost much of the emotive power of this image by putting the nose in focus and having the eye soft. Reverse that and its a much better image.

Wrinkles of time
by Shubhi

Comment:
Some really nice lighting here, but the sharp line where you carved away the background is very distracting. My eye is wandering over the lovely tones and textures on the face and BANG that edge on the right side from his ear to the collar grabs the eye and runs away with it. It is a small part of what is otherwise a very nice image, but everything else is so deftly handled, it sticks out.

2013
by jdannels

Comment:
Ah a nice warm bath at Sutro baths. Perfect amount of micro tweakage.

Let Them Fall where they May
by dali_lama_2k

Comment:
There are sort of two shots going on here. The top part of chips in space is pretty cool, but the lack of any fill or bounce light makes the shadows pretty inky and loses some of the nice shapes you have going on. I would have like to see all of the top boards in the frame (On these shots I shoot really loose and count on wasting a good bit of the frame, even if I burn half my pixels to get the framing I want, Its no big deal when I can only submit 800 pixels anyway).

The lower bit with the two falling boards is dominated my the backdrop and the hints of the fallen. Sadly this half is neither nor. If you had used a GOBO and screened the backdrop off so it was black, it would have been in keeping with the top. Had you had a steady low light in addition to the flash and had a longer exposure so you had the circuit boards in space with the flash, and some falling lines and them in their resting place, that would have worked.

As is, it looks like it might have been a mistake; and anything that is not blatantly clearly intended, gets hammered here. If you back light so it could be seen as a halo, people will rip it as an artifact of editing. To get a good score, I have found you have to be pretty straightforward here.

I noticed that I gave this a 6. It fulfilled the challenge, and it has some interesting stuff going on, and I do love shots that capture the element of time, so the ghosts on the floor worked for me, but seemed a bit weak. Ghostly almost.

Shine
by h2

Comment:
lovely smooth coolness. I do with that band of light wasn't so hot in the reflection, but it was worth it to get those tones out of the lilies.