Riding the evening train
by peete

Comment:
Exceptional use of the silhouette (and shadow!) Lighting is exceptional. The only small point I don't like is the green light near the left edge. Strong submission!

Peace and Quiet?
by Coley

Comment:
Way cool. Great placement.

Twisted Ride
by sahko

Comment:
What a ride. You were very fortunate for such a crisp sky. Excellent composition.

Coming Round The Bend
by Sammie

Comment:
Great train! Nice composition on the curve - but I'l like to see more of the center of the train. Colors a bit washed out, could be an exposure problem.

3 dots
by claudiadf

Comment:
Hi Claudia and * Greetings from the Crique Club *

3 dots

Does it meet the challenge Yes, without any doubt.

Exposure Appears right on, but the reflected light on the dots is a bit distracting due to its brightness.

Focus Great focus on the center dot, but due to the abstract nature of the image - it would probably be stroinger if you could have stopped way down.

Composition Excellent diagonal placement works very well.

Overall impact The image is rather intriguing and mysterious, but lacks that one special thing to give it the "wow" factor. Many voters probably lowered their scores because they could not tell what it was.

Other comments The "Threes" challenge was a very hard one to score well as it had a great number of superb entries.

Keep shooting and sharing!

-Tom-

Vus'musi with Mom Ndula and Aunt Umgani
by dr rick

Comment:
Hi Rick and * Greetings from the Critique Club *

Before I dig a bit into this image - I must tell you that I love your March Free Study and Magic entries! As a fellow Californian, I appeciate how fortunate you were to get the lighting you did on "Between Winter and Spring."

Your threes submission has a great feel to it - a very nice family scene. It's very well done - not much to suggest on the technical side as composition (for threes), exposure and focus are spot on.

Having said that - perhaps my most dominate critique item is the composition for "threes." Due to the separation of the animals, you really have two images here - the two left elephants and the trailing elephant. I hope you tried one focusing on the front two.

A second thing that pops out is the very flat lighting. It would be much stronger if there were some shadows to give it more depth. (Not high noon - but perhaps late in the day.) That would also add some nice warm light to bring out the brown of the mom's skin.

Here's something I toyed with - I know it's cropped way to close in - but perhaps demonstrates the points I made.

//images.dpchallenge.com/images_portfolio/19608/orig/83287.jpg

Have you ever been to the "Roar and Snore" - and if so, do you recommend it?

Good shooting,

-Tom-

sparklers
by shutterfly

Comment:
Hi Wendy and * Greetings from the Critique Club *

Before I dig into the image a bit - congratulations on finishing so high in the "Three's" challenge. That was a very high scoring challenge with loads of superb entries.

Your image is magical and very well done indeed.

Composition: Excellent. May be slightly better if about half of the distance from the spark at the top left were cropped from the left.

Exposure: Perfect - especially for the lighting conditions.

Focus: Spot on.

Meeting the challenge: Without doubt - but if you look at the fingertips - it looks like there are 4 sticks holding sparklers.

Improve it by: Your model's right thumb is not the best for this. If that were a very well manicured hand with nail polish - I bet it would score higher.

Overall - it was my pleasure to examine this image in more detail. Congratulations on coming up with a neat idea and then executing it so well.

Waiting for the Sunset
by mandyp

Comment:
Great lighting - perfect time of day, nice shadows. It does convey a feeling of waiting. Compositionally - it would be tons stronger if the negative space were in FRONT of the model instead of behind.

On Your Marks...Get Set...
by Tranquil

Comment:
You can feel the tension. It's a very good portrait - especially considereong the "high noon" lighting. (You'd bevery please by the feeling of the eaxct same setup taken with late afternoon or early morning light.) The model's face is a bit close on the right side.

Wait Machines
by boomer

Comment:
Yep - time sure does pass slowly at a laundrymat. Classic composition is effective, but I'm not thrilled with the gray/blu/green color cast.