Face wash
by nygold

Comment:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*

First impressions are of a challenging moment reasonably well executed that does not meet the challenge. I'm sorry you haven't received any comments, I will do my best to make up for it.

Any action shot has its challenges and may not always turn out as you expect, often worse sometimes better, I'm not sure how you feel it turned out for you but for me it has stopped the action but all the important elements are missing. The main missing elements are the board and the face, without the board he could quite literally be falling from the sky into the water and not be on a board at all. Without the facial expression we are missing the excitement of the moment he is hopefully experiencing making it more difficult for us to engage with the image.

You have done well to capture the moment but the shutter speed is so high that it has stopped all the droplets of water which I know a lot of people like, I, unfortunately, am not one of those, I much prefer to have some motion blur to help me experience the moment of frenzied activity more fully. The composition is too central and would have benefited from a more effective rule of thirds hotspot approach, perhaps the upper right third, you could, of course, crop the image to achieve this if you agree with my idea.

Even with your title which should help, I still cannot see how this can be interpreted as April Fool, I must be missing something and welcome your explanation to help me understand more fully. Thank you for your submission, Sid.

g h o s t • t o w e r
by Ja-9

Comment:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*

First impressions are of a fairly unconventional approach that subtly meets the challenge.

What I like most about this is the sense of mystery that remains once I have climbed those steps to, what? Whatever lies on top or inside the structure and thats where the mystery remains, so it is intriguing and any image that can do that to me will always appeal to me.

However, having said that about the composition I am not at all keen on the processing which has left most of the image looking fake, plastic and unappealing with significant areas of overexposure. I am aware that I appear to be in the minority here with some very positive reaction from your commenters which just goes to show how subjective this wonderful hobby of ours can be where it can elicit such diametrically opposed reactions which is part of what makes photography so exciting and challenging. Keep intriguing me, Sid.

Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 1 in C minor, Op. 4: iv, Presto
by posthumous

Comment:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*

My first impressions are of a poorly executed image that does not the challenge

I'm now looking at your image and really trying to appreciate it and fit it to the challenge, perhaps because I am not familiar with the music and am not, as you suggest, able to play it while I look I still cannot alter my first impressions. Unfortunately, I cannot find anything here that appeals to me so I don't want to rub salt into the wound by detailing everything about it I don't like but its basicly everything, I'm afraid I have to agree with your first commenter.

So, what am I missing about this that holds such appeal to your three other commenters? It now intrigues enormously because I don't know what I don't know. What are these people able to see in it that I am completely blind to? I wish I knew. I would be very grateful to hear anything you or your commenters or anyone else can enlighten me with in order to help me more fully understand and appreciate this image. Please Sid.

No pollution - fresh air - peaceful
by josaa

Comment:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*

My first impressions are of a lovely landscape that meets the challenge but with a lot of overexposure

Air is quite a difficult concept to portray but I think you have been successful with this delightful landscape and, to help the viewer, in your title too. It looks like mono but I see traces of colour in it so I assume it has not been converted to mono but either way it is still very effective. I like the composition and the range of tones throughout

The one thing that really lets this image down is the extensive over-exposure in both the sea and the sky. Unfortunately once you have overexposure the detail is gone for good there is nothing you can do to get it back so its best avoided with some minus exposure compensation. I think you would have been better to combine at least a couple of exposures together one for the highlights and the other for the shadows and you would have got a better end result.

Is that a boat on the water? Its position next to the background landscape makes it difficult to determine. If it is a boat I think it would have worked really well to have paced it in the overexposed part of the water, by either waiting if it was in motion or through choice of your position, where it would have been clearly defined as a silhouette.

It looks a beautiful location, I look forward to more lovely landscapes from you. Sid

e x p a n s i v e
by Ja-9

Comment:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*

First of all, many congratulations on your blue ribbon.

What an impressive location, the avenue of trees are quite amazing. For a shot that is dominated by those trees and the path it says a lot about the overall impact of the shot that it has won this challenge brief of lawns.

I see you have received a comment about it being a rather too central composition but this is one of those situations where this is really the only viable composition, I don't even think a lower viewpoint or reducing the tree canopy would have worked, that would have placed far too much emphasis on the path itself which is obviously a complete no no here. Regarding the path, I see you wish you had put more detail and emphasis on the path, personally, I think the exact opposite especially in relation to the challenge theme I would prefer it even more subdued to reduce its competition with the lawns.

I have to say I'm not keen on the pink that pervades throughout the image, apart from the most obvious areas of the path and the pillars of the house it also seems to be present in the tree trunks too which just gives the image a rather unnatural look. The inclusion of the people, even as minute as they are, adds a welcome human element to the image.

Anyway, once more well done, keep 'em coming! Sid

Do you remember...5,4,3,2,1...Thunderbird are Go !!!!
by clickodak

Comment:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*

A generally well constructed shot that meets the challenge well.

I'm afraid I can only vaguely recall the show, I like the viewpoint you have used and from memory I think you have used a commonly seen composition for your shot, you certainly seem to have convinced your two commenters, so well done for that. The lighting and exposure are good too.

Initially I thought it was a plain blue background but I see there are some subtle clouds there, unfortunately there is also a vapour trail to the lower left which once observed becomes a slight distraction. You have generally done a good job with your editing apart from the red nose cone which has a halo around it and again, once seen becomes more obvious.

I think you've done a good job of it, to be honest there's not a lot more I can add so 5,4,3,2,1â€Â¦ Sid

You Will Not Be Forgotten
by Ja-9

Comment:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*

I'm sorry to see that you didn't receive any comments, hopefully this will make up for it. In terms of the challenge brief, being a monument it obviously fulfils that.

You've chosen a pretty impressive monument for your subject and I like that you have converted it to mono with the most important parts of it standing out from the background. There are however, one or two things I am not keen on and might have done differently.

I am not happy with the overexposed sky but perhaps you gave it some +EC to get more detail into the faces? I'm not sure how close you were and what focal length you were using but looking at your exif there would have been some scope to use a larger aperture to reduce the detail in the background.

As it stands this is pretty much a record shot of a monument in other words it simply records it straight on without a lot of creative input, from this viewpoint I find the reflections in the base distracting. Given the nature of the subject I don't think you even need to include the base and I would have tried it from a position further to your left and closer in to frame them from the guns up using the flag itself as the main background. This position would also have overcome your sky problem and allowed you to get a better exposure of the faces and it would have stamped your own creative input to it.

I hope this helps, Sid

OKC: Remembering When Time Stood Still
by postoakinversion

Comment:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*

First of all, congratulations on your 8th place result. The long exposure has enabled you to create an image with impact that has clearly been appreciated.

For me the sky with its motion blur from the clouds is what gives this image its impact, I also like the startbursts of the lights from the small aperture you have used. I'm not too keen on the wide angle effect on the buildings but I think if you had used perspective control you would have altered the whole image to its detriment. Equally, the more exaggerated an effect is the more acceptable it becomes.

The biggest problem I have here is the amount of overexposure from the illuminated areas. I tend to agree with your commenter that combining separate exposures may have been a better choice or perhaps a reversed graduated filter to reduce the exposure of the lower half may have worked better.

As a stranger, I need your description to confirm that this is indeed a monument, and the time, I assume is not a clock as I thought, but a permanent reminder of the time when the deed was done? So, given all that it obviously fits the challenge well.

All of this is rather academic given your result, well done.

a metaphor for falling
by posthumous

Comment:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*

Sadly, an undervalued image worthy of a much higher score than it received. It displays good creative vision and your title adds another dimension.

I am unfamiliar with your post-processing technique but I always prefer to do my mono conversion in PS. Whatever your technique is it has made, what I suspect was probably a mediocre mono image from the camera into a much stronger image.

The problem with the in-camera mono option is that it throws all of your valuable colour data away thus severely limiting your options, in particular colour filters, which is where all of your tonal possibilities are held.

The foreground leaf grabs your attention and lets you explore the other underwater debris nearby, your eye is then naturally led up the boulder to those absolutely gorgeous ripples after feasting on those slowly drifting up and out of the top of the image. You have a lovely, near full, range of tones, with detail in all areas from the darkest shadows to the bright highlight of the ripple.

Its sad that it scored so low but how on earth anyone can possibly justify the sub fours is way beyond my comprehension, they have managed to completely distort the end result, you have my sympathy.

More of the same please, Sid

Aaaahhh
by texdon

Comment:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*

Let me begin by congratulating you on your yellow ribbon, very well done. What's his name, Rip Van Winkle?

It's such a hard life, having to be so cute 24/7/365! You've done a marvellous job of capturing his or her character here so well, the end result an image that is well deserving of the title and the ribbon.

As has been commented already the way you have got nice sharp focus on the nose and your chosen aperture for sufficeint DOF on the head has all worked really well. Although we can't even see the eyes I think the way the light highlights the nose this more than makes up for such absence.

The colours and tones in the fur are all absolutely gorgeously reproduced. You can't help but wonder what dreams your lovely dog is experiencing, makes you wish we could communicate better with them doesn't it.

Well done, woofâ€Â¦ Sid