Itsy Bitsy Nightmare
by artvet

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club :)

First of all, congrats on the top 20 placing. Well I didn´t vote in the challenge and if I did, I would probably have scored it pretty highly, a 6-7 most likely depending on how I liked the rest of the challenge.

I like the look of the image, nice touch to make it b/w. The contrast and sharpness are also good and I do like the composition. The shadows on the wall are a nice touch and the spiders on the bed look real enough. Model oddly enough reminds me of fotomann_forever and I would have thought this was his shot if I were voting :)

I think this is a good shot, just not sure what would make it great or what could have helped the score. Maybe if you had put like dozens or even hundreds of spiders around him, that would certainly have put some more wow factor in the shot, maybe even wider too make the person seem smaller and the bed bigger (or did you use the 10mm of the lens already, then backing up would lead to the same effect of course) to emphasize him being small and helpless against the spiders.

Anyway, again, good shot and could have gone even higher in the challenge in my opinion, would not have been surprised to see it in the top 10.

Kind regards from Iceland, Lárus.

Dreamy Sunset
by DigiFotoBuddy

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club :)

Well I didn´t vote in this challenge but I kindof like this shot and would probably have given it a 6. I just like the composition and the color in it, I can´t put my finger on it but it´s sort of grabbing my eye, not really getting a hold on it though and hence "only" a 6.

You have been here long enough to know why this didn´t score too well, my best estimate is the applied gaussian blur + not a strong connection to the challenge theme, I just don´t think you care and submitted anyway and that´s great, respect :)

Kind regards from Iceland, Lárus.

A Country Dream
by jbirkman

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club :)

Well I didn´t vote in this challenge but if I had, this shot would have gotten a 4 from me. I am sorry but it just isn´t appealing to me, it´s not aesthetically pleasing and not interesting either. First off, the lighting. I want to go so far as to say you took this shot completely during the wrong time of day. I say this because of the shadows in the frame, the sun is somewhere to the left/behind the subject and obviously quite high in the sky wich results in these strong shadows from trees to your left wich I don´t find appealing at all. I don´t know wich heading you are facing when shooting this but try taking this photo either around dusk or dawn, whatever works best for this subject, that would lead to much softer shadows and a much more pleasant color tone to the whole scene.

Just compare this shot to this one Ursula took, the biggest difference between them (besides the backround of course) is the lighting/time of day it was taken at.



I am also not really fond of the composition, you cut off the right part of the barn and in the lower left corner there is then a straw, I would much rather have wanted to see you rotate to your right and included the whole barn and excluded that straw. I have often gone to the length of just plain picking up straws like that and reshooting the image if they intrude in my photograph like that :)

To be not so totally negative I do like the location and photograph seems pretty well exposed and the colors are nice (although I would much rather prefer dusk or dawn colors).

Kind regards from Iceland, Lárus.

oh dear! NO.....not the lense..i can use that with my DSLR
by romysree

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club :)

I didn´t vote in this challenge but would probably have given this a 5 or a 6 depending on how I thought it would stack up to the rest of the photo in the challenge. It seems to me to have placed a bit lower than I would have though and I can´t really figure out why. I mean it´s a nice shot tecnically, lighting is totally ok and focus, sharpness and clarity are also good. Perhaps it´s the high key feel to the image/white backround that lowered the votes since most people think of nightmare as something dark and scary and wanted that instead of an advertisement look? Who knows, that is not bothering me but I am just speculating why this didn´t score too well.

Also it kindof lacks wow facor, I mean there is no dynamic in the shot. Maybe if you had taken it so the hand with the hammer had some motion blur, like it was just about to smash the lens or even better, had you just gone all the way and actually smashed it to bits, you would definately had gotten a better score.

Kind regards from Iceland, Lárus.

Roses
by jjusa

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club :)

Well first off, congrats on the top 10 placement. I don´t have terribly much to critique about this photo, I like it pretty much the way it is, it definately meets the challenge and I am not surprised it did well in the challenge. Instead I might just say what I personally would have done diffrently had I taken and processed it.

As far as taking it, it´s top notch, I like the composition, DOF and lighting, good choice to only use ambient lighting.

However, had I processed the shot, I would probably have goen with slightly warmer WB, I would have burned in her shoulder to match the lightness tones of her cheek, because the shoulder is so bright it kindof steals attention from her face and flowers.

That´s pretty much it :) Kind regards from Iceland, Lárus.

Antique Store Glass
by Sheryll

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club :)

Well this certainly fits the challenge. I did not vote in this challenge but if I had, I would probably have given this a 5 or a 6, not really sure wich and would have to compare it to the rest of the challenge to decide fully. That means I think this is a pretty good photo, not bad at all but just isn´t as interesting as the subject could be and seems a bit like a snapshot, a good snapshot but still a snapshot.

Before even reading what you had to say about the photo I got the feeling like you only took a couple of photos and just let that be enough instead of exploring what angle was best for this subject. I can´t put my finger on it but I just get the feeling this was not the best angle or perspective on these bottles. They do seem interesting to me so coudos for spotting them and taking a picture, not sure normal people would do that so great eye to spot them.

I like the colors and DOF, shot is just a tad too dark for my personal taste but nothing that is bothering me. I think the lighting is mostly what´s \"wrong\" with the shot, just compare this glass shot to the one in the 4th place and you should get what I mean. I know you didn´t control the lighting in this shot but that is pretty much the biggest difference between this shot and the one in the 4th place, the feeling of lighting and carefully set up glasses versus your shot.

Anyway, like I said, this shot is allright despite my nitpicking :)

Kind regards from Iceland, Lárus.

Seven Spirits
by darnok

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club :)

Well again I get a shot from the top 5 of this challenge and again I don´t really know what to say, there is pretty much nothing I can critique on this shot. It´s well lit, crystal clear regarding contrast and sharpness, the strong color is very good and well it´s a prett good shot.

Only thing I can say is I have seen "it" (or very similar shots) before and I have a strong feeling I will see 10 or more like it in the Still Life challenge that is open for submission now. Needs something extra to really impress me, like a goldfish in each of the glasses or whatever. Again, very well done on the lighting, I know how hard it can be to light glass.

Kind regards from Iceland, Lárus.

Seven Arches
by BHuseman

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club :)

Well I don´t really know what to say about this image. First off congratulations on the 5th place, this could very well have ribboned in my opinion. I really like the colors, contrast, sharpness and details in this shot and composition is also very good. Only thing that could have made this shot better would have been an absolutely still water reflection and maybe a cloud or two in the vacant sky but that´s hardly for you to control. Can´t really come up with anything I would want to improve with this shot so I´ll just leave it at that.

Congrats again! Kind regards from Iceland, Lárus.

My Body Clock
by manish

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club :)

Now this I like, I don´t love it but if I had voted in the challenge you would probably have gotten a 7 from me. It´s very different and takes a little time to get, wich I personally think is a good thing. However, that is probably what cost you dearly in regards to the score, I think on average the DPC voter spends about 1-2 seconds in viewing each image before voting and I guess most people did not get it.

I am not totally surprised cause I suspect pretty much nobody got that you used 7 pieces to create the clock, I know I didn´t till I read your description of the photo. I think that you should have kept the minute dial on exactly the 12 o´clock position so the hour dial would have shown the time as exactly 7, having it 5 minutes past (or was it supposed to be 7 minutes past?) is just confusing me and I suspect a lot of other people.

Anyway, think the score can mostly be written off on people who use any and every opportunity to find fault in meeting the challenge and voted accordingly. Maybe I am too pessimistic but people like that seem to grow more common here at DPC. At least take comfort in that 17 of the voters really liked your shot and I am not surprised, had I voted they would have been 18.

To get a better score from me though you would have needed to skip that t-shirt or whatever the model was wearing. Also maybe stand up more straight to get a better perspective on the neck, preferrably showing the spine a little bit, at least the angle the photo is shot from makes the model seem a bit hunched over if you get my drift. I like that you made the shot duotone, I don´t think it would have appealed nearly as much to me had it been in color.

Nice work, keep it up!

Kind regards from Iceland, Lárus.

seven petals
by guillermo21

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique club :)

I didn´t vote in this challenge but if I had I probably would have given it a 5. A 5 from me means neither good nor bad.

What I like about the image is that first, it obviously meets the challenge, no doubt about that. The bokeh in the backround and the composition are pretty good. What I dislike however is that the image doesn´t really appear sharp wich is what I have come to expect from "macro "images like this. I don´t know what it is, perhaps it´s the "slight blur" you say you applied to the image in post processing or was it something else, was it really windy when you took this?

Anyway, that is my biggest gripe, the lack of clarity of this image, a bit more contrast and a sharper image and this would have appealed so much more to me personally.

Not much more I can say about the image, like I said earlier, not good but certainly also far from bad :)

Kind regards from Iceland, Lárus.