Underwater
by GeneralE

Comment:
The colors of this image are superb - nice pastels. But, there's not much else there for me. Feels like the song, "It that all there is, my friend?"

A Cockatiel
by train

Comment:
Great composition coupled with super lighting make this image a true winner. The textures in the bark and feathers are great as well - with the small patches of moss/lichen adding some additional impact. Finally the model has a nice look of "curiousity." Well done indeed.

Butler County Landmark
by jpochard

Comment:
Your choice of time of day took an "average" subject and propelled it into a work of art. The late sky along with the glowing orangy building really sing. And the green statue on the top is icing on the cake. How can you improve it? The only thing that comes to mind is a person in colorful garb sitting on the platform to the left of the door, but that's not that important. What is important is that your image should finish way up there. Congratulations.

Rush Hour
by moodville

Comment:
Perfect timing! Great composition, exposure nailed. The wisp of smoke from the exhaust falling above the shadowed area adds a special touch. Should finish very high.

New Life
by dagaleaa

Comment:
Excellent catch! Should finish high.

heaven's forward progression
by xburnerx

Comment:
Stunning image. The flat lihting was really your friend on this day.

Vibrant Hydrant
by SharonS

Comment:
A painting with your camera. Superb! Way high in the challenge.

Sleepy Nursery
by trying2bstill

Comment:
Your lighting makes this shot. Well seen, composed and shot.

No Passing Zone
by hannafate

Comment:
* Greetings from the Critique Club *

Proportion was a wonderful challenge - with a great many excellent entries. So - don't feel bad if your entry didn't appear to do well in such stiff competition.

The selection of subject matter was excellent - trying to show the relative size of the bike to the train. Your exposure seems to be near perfect.

I have several suggestions on how this image could have been improved - both during shooting and post-processing.

1. Lighting was not your friend. The sun was high in the sky producing no shadows that would have given a better feeling of depth. Due to this, the colors appear very "flat" and uninteresting. You could try taking the same shot in very early morning or late in the afternoon. (Try taking your rides then!) An alternative could be the use of a warming filter, but I doubt if that would have helped that much.

2. Compositionally - the train track comes very close to duviding the picture in half, which makes the shot very static. Consider this, shoot it VERTICALLY with the bike in the bottom (front) of the frame and the train behind. Move in closer to the bike when you do this.

The yellow "no passing" sign is a bit of a detractor that doesn't help tell the proportion story. If you were using it to show the train was passing the bike in a no passing zone, that's a different challenge. As it is, it just attracts un-deserved attention.

3. Post processing - you have a real mess in the sky area. You most likly tried to compress the jpeg a bit too much. Looking at the image properties, it is just 53K bytes. Suggest you try to save the image in a filesize that is closer to the "limit" of 150k. This will eliminate the jpeg compression problems.

I see this is just your second challenge entry - but hope you will continue to share your vision with us.

Out of Proportion
by dccloss

Comment:
* Greetings from the Critique Club *

This image has a lot going for it - I'm surprised it didn't finish higher. But as you know, there were a great many excellent entries to compete with.

One of the common weaknesses of many entries is the lack of impact - but your image does not suffer from that. It reaches right out to the viewer and shouts "proportion" quite loudly. I don't necessarily agree with the comment that it "barely" shows proportion as the left eye is about 1.5 times the size of the right eye.

Your presentation is well done - placing the subject on a diagonal line adds some tension.

Techically, the exposure looks to be right on and the "printing" shows good black and white qualities - good clean crisp whites and some black blacks with a nice tonal range between.

I'm a bit confused by the tech data shown on the image - an f-stop of 2.8 and a shutter speed of 1/10th. I would not have thought the focus on the right ear would have remained sharp at 2.8 - given the focus is most likely centered on the eyes. And a shutter speed of 1/10 most lkely required a very still model and a tripod.

The lighting is a bit "troublesome" as well - with two catchlights in the larger eye - but just one in the smaller one.

The only minor improvement I would suggest is the removal of the bright spots just to the right of the eyelid and in the upper right corner of the image.

Overall - a great effort all the way.