Empty Nestors
by whatdewuc

Comment:
Well done. Crop feels a little tight on the top and some of the body feathers are blown out. But among my top picks so far.

.22 Caliber
by LesleyNelson

Comment:
This photo has a good composition and shows promise that some minimal post processing would reveal. Assuming you have Photoshop, I would suggest using levels and/or brightness/contrast to brighten the photo and raise the contrast slightly. You can use the clone stamp to remove the hot pixels (bright spots) and some sensor dust spots which distract. You can use the Sharpen (unsharp mask) filter to sharpen the whole photo slightly. You have desaturated the photo by switching to grayscale color mode. This won't display the same way in your browser as it does in photoshop (looks darker in the browser). I would suggest using Hue/Saturation to desaturate but make sure you leave the photo in RGB color mode for good fidelity with a browser. Finally, I think the copper jackets should be copper colored (my personal taste). You might selectively desaturate to leave them in their original color. I painted them back in because I didn't have your original. I don't want to seem arrogant or hurtful, but if you try these, I think you'll be happy with the results and the improvement in your score. After the challenge, PM me and I'll send you my edited version of your photo.

Dripping from a Fork
by plfg

Comment:
This doesn't appeal to me very much, I am trying to figure out why.

Part of it is lighting. You have nice reflections on top of the fork but they don't carry down to the dripping liquid where they would really make the image pop. Maybe a light source from below and behind the image would have worked. Part has to do with the background. You could have used levels or curves or selective color modification to make the background a more interesting color ... either sharphly contrasting or complimenting the color of the liquid. But as is, the BG color is kind of blah. And finally part has to do with composition. I might have tried different angles on the fork and drips to get more of a triangular composition. And I might have rotated the fork a bit and shallowed the DOF so I had brilliant focus on one drop but softend the focus on the rest. I am not sure if this helps but these might have improved the picture.

Oh, and make it bigger. try to use all the pixels available to you or I can't see the details well enough.

Rainy Day :)
by chesire

Comment:
Harsh lighting, focus issues and severe post processing all move this down in my scoring. Assuming there are more present, showing a couple of more adult toes would alleviate one of my worries.

wheel
by visaksen

Comment:
Nicely composed. Good color saturation. Well focused. But it doesn't "feel" like a macro to me. I fear voters will give it a low score for the same reason.

Hippo
by Rando D300

Comment:
Good photo of one ugly critter! Great focus. Nicely captured textures. It even has an expression I can resonate with. It meets the technical definition of the challenge (close up) and is a lot closer to the beast than I would ever want to be! I fear it will fare poorly in the voting because it won't "feel" like a macro to most folks, however.

ac ·
by Brad

Comment:
Meets the challenge. Nice contrast. Good enough composition, especially with the superscript "1". A good study in DOF. But alas, a subject that doesn't hold my interest or deliver much of an emotional payload.

Lashes
by sbridgwater

Comment:
Clear photo of a pleasing subject. Meets the challenge. But for me, diminished by the unusual border.

Summer Blueberries
by rscorp

Comment:
In this photo the blueberries look massive. Whatever they are resting on undoubtedly contributes to the illusion. Nice to see something a little different executed so well.

daisy impression
by ursula

Comment:
Innovative composition and DOF. Interesting foreground/background patterns. Nicely saturated colors. A creative take on the challenge. It's a splendid addition to the challenge. Good work!