Blured Crowd
by dan06

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club Dan, and welcome to DPC.

Keep in mind this is my opinion only

Challenge Results: The score you received for this shot, your first entry, reflects a beating by the DNMC (Does not meet the Challenge) Crowd. Over time you will pick up some of the voters habits and trends.

Many around here will give a 1-4 vote If they have some preconceived notion as to the Challenge Description and we do not meet what they expect. Many voters do not read the Descriptions entirely or read too far into them. This particular challenge, "Still Life" I believe the voters were looking for that defacto standard that we all studied in Highschool Art. The ole table place setting with fruit, flowers, bowls etc.

My take on the challenge was a setting (used loosely) with signs of life (human) but no human presense.

I believe the biggest factor in your score was that the voters felt that it did not meet the challenge.

The Photo: Not bad for a first entry, however there is some room to grow. As you get beyond the DNMC, there are other areas the voters will scrutinize our shots for:

Interest Level: Many on DPC call this the WOW factor, I refer to it as interest level. Does my subject keep me focused on it, or are there other distractions in the shot. Also lessor exciting subjects need to be tack sharp and add some interest to keep the viewer focused.

Focusing on the Dandelion in the front right foreground, my periphial vision also picks up the white tips of the other not quite open and/or already free of the seed pods. These distractions are enough to get my eye wandering about the shot away from the intended subject. There is a nice bokeh in the shot but some things just stand out too much.

Always watch for distractions (especially with basic challenges) reframe the shot as necessary and/or crop the more prominent distractions out of the shot.

This particular shot perhaps I would have used levels and curves (or auto exposure/auto levels) to add a some contrast (to darken and make less interesting) the background to make the foreground dandelion stand out. I also might have applied a final sharpen to crispen up the subject.

Bottom Line: A good first challenge attempt, a first lesson in, wether right or wrong, we have to find that happy medium between what we like to shoot and how the voters (majority) perceive the Challenge Description and submit accordingly.

Andy

So happy together
by AnnaP

Comment:
**Greetings from the Critique Club**

I see here creative and cheerful composition that definately meet the spirit of the challenge as this would be considered an odd couple.

Off the bat, remember this is in my opinion, the shallow Depth of Field is probably the number one factor in the score that you received. There are several areas that are out of focus due to the DOF. They tend to compete with the areas of very sharp focus primarily the faces of our subject.

Our eyes are funny things and want to see everything in focus. The faces of your models are tack sharp and the eye does not need to work to see those clearly but then they catch the large dark area in the foreground that is out of focus. The viewer is immediately drawn away from the subject to that area and trys to make it clear. Once evident that I can't bring that to focus the hand pops out as being unclear.

Shallow DOF creates a Conflict to the viewer in this case. The viewers eyes dart around the composition never staying in one area long enough to put it all together.

It seems there is plenty of light on the subject; so to create a deeper DOF I might have used a smaller Aperture somewhere around f/8 or so. A deeper DOF would bring the foreground into focus making it less a distraction. If the background becomes In focus (because you have it nicely blurred here) I would move the models further away from it.

Other things that we could do to make it more DPC appealing would be a crop that eliminates as much of the OOF are as possible. Or better yet as this was an advanced challenge add a Romantic (soft) effect to the entire shot, by duplicating the entire shot, applying some gaussian blur to the top layer and then making that top layer transparent just to the point where there entire shot is soft but detail of the faces come through.

Final thought would be, beings that this setup appears to be a portrait (I'm assuming because of the background) I think I would use the pose you have but turned the female head to look at the camera.

Just my thoughts...

Andy

Johnny Truant
by BobsterLobster

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club...

Sheesh I couldn't have drawn a better photo from the bunch... One of those guys that I look up to.

Having played in a band and attended a plethera of concents, I can say that you are offering the viewer more than what is seen and/or remembered when one attends a concert such as this.

You have captured a frenzied moment in time, froze the action, concentration of the players, emotion the fans and presented it to us in a highly detailed fashion.

Tonal qualities are excellent, putting the viewer into the dark environmet that usually found in a club environment yet perserving all the needed detail to keep us involved.

Composition is spot on, one couldn't have asked for a better pose from the guitarist. The corrigated ceiling adds to drama. The lines of the ceiling are strong and try to lead me away (upward) but the detail of the the guitarist face and hair draw me back to the center of the shot.

This truly is a fun shot to study, as the more one looks the more one sees. The expression of the guy in the front row and the up raised hands shows the devotion these guys have to their idol on stage, who seems to be controlling them with his guitar held high.

All the mechanics play well together to make this a better than live performance shot.

The key points that make this shot what it is for me are the Detail of the guitarist hair (stringy over the face) and face (dark shadows create the detail), the leading lines of the ceiling, and the expression of the gentleman in the front row.

I realize it was a basic challenge as you did, but if there is any thing that I would like to see differently in this shot; it might be toning down a bit the hot spots on the guitarist belly and on the stage.

Also there is some fireflys flying around behind the guitarist legs that tend to distract a tiny bit.

Understanding this is a live performance and we can't say to the bass player "hey could you back up a bit" I might have cropped it to remove his nose and mouth or given us just a little more of his face.

Just my thoughts...

Over all this is a most excellent performance shot and I really enjoyed studying it in depth. Great job Bob.

Andy

ED: Typo

Message edited by author 2006-03-03 22:27:44.

The Approach
by rebs138

Comment:
Over all it is a very nice composition... very calculated. Probably the biggest thing that hurt you in the challenge is that that lights (globes) are too hot (over exposed)... on a calibrated monitor the four bottom globes tend to flow together with not distiction overpowering the shot.

Andy

Shearing Dante The Alpaca
by train

Comment:
Greeting from the Critique Club...

Nice approach to providing the viewer with one of the necessities in life that we don't always see. I believe you are using Dante as the subject and not the shearers due to the crop that you have presented us.

Given the situation that you mentioned in your description the lighting and detail is quite nice. The story you are telling doesn't appear to bad a sad one as Dante does not appear to be fussing about.

In general I would have liked to see just a little (just a tad) more of the hands on right and a lot less of the gentlemen on the left. The amount of white from the gentlemans tee-shirt adds an uneven balance to the natural colors that otherwise fill the frame.

As always, when doing a critique, I will download the shot and while perserving what the shooter originally intended, try different things that I might have done and/or to back my observations.

To ease out some of the white on the left of the frame, I tried a 6x4 crop starting just below the stain on the gentleman's sleeve. For me this accomplished several things, the most obvious being a lot less of the white tee shirt, the stain on the sleeve a small but evidant distraction, the dark area (gentleman's black pants) all but removed from the frame and finally places the subjects eye on the bottom left third of the frame.

The only other thing that I might have done, would be to do a tad bit of Dodging of the eye and just below the nose to bring out Dante's expression a bit.

As to sharpness I will always say a bit more sharpness but realize that softness comes a lot of the time from resizing the image. When submit to challenges my last step after the resize is to sharpen one final time.

A very nice shot, highly fitting of the challenge. Great job.

Andy

ED: to note a strange coincidence... Today (after critiquing this in the morning) I went down to Old Town San Diego to shoot the Mormon Infantry celebration... Long story short they had an Alpaca there that was trimmed up nicely as the one you have in this shot. Not to common a a sight in San Diego...

Message edited by author 2006-02-25 20:35:50.

Waiting for Spring
by brens29

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club.

You have presented us with a wonderful minimalist shot here. At first glance one perceives a cold lonely, abandoned feeling of the piece of farm equipment. Very fitting of the Challenge.

Studying the shot in depth, the time of day that this was shot casts a nice shadow that adds to the effect nicely. The angle and placement of the subject are such that it leads us through the frame which makes this simple shot appealing.

If there is a distraction in this shot, for me it would be the footprints in the snow in the upper right corner. Personally, I would rather see no sign of (recent) life in a shot of this nature. As I'm drawn to the subject, my eye picks up those footprints in the corner and wants to bring them to focus taking us past the subject. The snow covered trails add texture/flow but do not draw attention and are integral to the shot.

Finally I would like to see a little more sharpness on this shot. Not only would it add a little pop to the cold steel equipment but I think it would add a little more life to the snow.

Very nice shot and a tough one (snow) to shot... Congrats on a wonderful shoot.

Andy

Ed: Typo

Message edited by author 2006-02-25 00:53:36.

DEATH & The LOVERS
by mesmeraj

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club.

All the elements and the angle in which the shot was taken make this an excellent composition. There are a few secondary subjects in the shot but the many colors of the Tarot card draw us to those as the main subject. The shot comes across with a less is more feel about it.

The crop provides a well laid out story, I don't believe that I would have done it any differently. The negative space near the top center works wonderfully to force the viewer to sneak a glance at the fortune tellers face every so often.

Many commenters eluded to the light of this shot and you, yourself, pointed out monitor calibration.

When working with dark shots on DPC you really have a small window to work for those who do not calibrate their monitors regularly. I do calibrate mine frequently as I myself have been bitten by the too dark/too light voters.

That being said I think the shot here has very nice lighting that sets the mood that you are trying to convey. However I think that I may have worked the highs/mids just a tad (and I mean tiny bit) to bring up the young lady's face and lighten the white garment to bring the necklace out a bit. At the same time being careful to not lighten the negative space that adds tremendously to the shot.

As I critique these shots I bring them down to my PC and study and adjust without taking away from what I believe the photog intended. In the case of your shot here, the only thing that I might have done differently is to adjust to adjust the highs/mids with the slightest of glow to give it even more mood.

If you have the Virtual Photographer Plug-in for your editor apply the Radiant Filter using the defaults to this and you will can see how a little more softness/light makes the story unfold without sharpening the elements of the shot. The old 50% Transparent Layer + increase the Saturation + Gaussian Blur to that layer trick would also work with shot as well to give us a more somber feeling.

Excellent Composition and Story telling as is...Great Work.

Andy

Window to the outside world.
by docpjv

Comment:
A Friendly opinion from the Critque Club.

The Candy Coating
As a Virgo, being both Logical and Analytical, I tend to place a lot of emphasis on verticals and horizontals. Here you have met that challenge perfectly. The slightest tilt/lean could throw off the balance of the shot, but your alignment is near perfect. This is a pleasent shot to study and becomes deeper the more one looks at.

Hypnotizing and calculated all at the same time. The lines lead us inward to a door that is nicely situated in the shot.

The Reds and Greens contradict each other nicely, especially being seperated by the hypnotizing detailed artwork on the beams as one gets drawn farther into the shot.

The lighting and tonal qualities appear to be spot on as to what you saw when looking down this corridor. I can only imaging others who have stood in the same spot could not have enjoyed it visually as much as the 3-Dimensional reality that you have captured here.

My Nit Picks:
I like the foundations of the pilars and the almost white cement is fine, but I do tend to be stalled as I am drawn into the shot by the two shadows on the floor where it appears that the cement is missing or broken. Perhaps dodging or ligthening those shadows to a light gray might take some of the abruptness off those shadows, rendering them less a distraction.

From about the middle to the top between the left front pilar and the second pilar I am picking up a hint of the same detailed artwork that is garnishing the beams. It is peeking through and appears as spots to the viewer. I might darken that area to a point that they are no longer a distraction.

My final nit pick and in all reality would be taken care of once the shot is matted, are the green verticals near the very top of the shot. Actually the whole space above the first beam seems to be out of place in my mind. Again a Mounting and Matting this shot should come right down to the top edge of the first beam covering that little distraction. The green verticals between the first and second beams are fine as they seem to blend into the illusion.

Superb shot and one to be very proud of. What would be fun is to print this a 16x20 and put it at the end of a hallway of a drab office space, one for the colors but moreso to give the illusion that the hallway keeps going on.

Andy

Fairy of the Forest
by jenesis

Comment:
They can say oh my gosh Brad. No really the first thing that came to mind was Wow when I saw. And just as Brad said the tones and lighting are superb! I really like the lack of color in the shot, couple with the highlights on the faerie this really is a dream.

Slide Rule
by janruss

Comment:
A good shot of a great subject for the challenge. What I believe hindered your score on this shot and I don't see mentioned by commentors is the fall off of your DOF. It is a minimalistic shot with complex details (there isn't such a thing I just made that up) plenty of detail from all the lines on the rule.

Beings how the rule nearly fills the frame the slide becomes the major subject and the eye is drawn to the slide, I immediatly notice all the tack sharp lines beneath and around that area. As I study it more my periphial vision quicky spots the softness of the lines at both ends of the rule.

As close as you are to the subject this is a tough shot to pull off with Sharpness throughout. It appears that you have plenty of light, stopping down the aperture possibly as much as f/11 might have prevented the fall off the DOF.

And then the other approach might be to take the shot from an angle to deliberatly have a shallow dof on one end of the rule or other.

Message edited by author 2005-07-07 03:08:19.