Ancient Forrest
by sherpet

Comment:
Sherryl,

I thought this photo was pretty good for the square crop challenge. (I gave it a 5.) The powerful wooden forms on the left interact with the jumble of smaller wooden shapes on the lower right. There is another dynamic relationship between the green leaves in the left foreground and those at a distance in the upper right. The square shape reinforces these relationships--and thus makes this a good entry for the challenge.

So why didn't it do better in the challenge? I've looked at the original that you posted and I think that the basic problem is the lighting rather than over processing. You shot with fill flash but it was too strong to just be a fill for the other light. The wooden shapes on the lower right are very harshly lit with highlights that are almost burned out and rims of dark shadows behind them. You have lost the nice texture that is apparent in the trunks on the left.

This is supposed to be an ancient forest. The natural light in a forest is filtered through the trees and is usually very soft. The light from the flash destroys the forest mood and makes the image look very unnatural.

You also used fill flash on your Odd Couple image. Please also read my comment on it.

--Dan

Portrait of a artist
by djonson

Comment:
I like this very much. It is an excellent portrait of an artist among her sculptures. There are some problems with the placement of the sculptures. Two of them seem to be growing out of the artist's head and the third is cut off in the middle.

Vintage Lines
by esdarby

Comment:
I like the feel of this.

Geometry
by Falc

Comment:
At first I did not care for this--it seemed a bit too obvious to use geometric shapes for a square challenge. But it has grown on me so I'm bumping it up.

Essence
by elsapo

Comment:
I keep coming back to this one so I'm bumping it up. The eyes get me.

Oh, the possibilities
by Elmakias

Comment:
I love it!

A deep, dreamless sleep that lasts forever.
by ksgant

Comment:
This is certainly the closest to the way I see afterlife.

Female nature
by Nuno

Comment:
I think this is a good idea; a breast and hands ought to fit well in a square crop. But these hands don't seem to be expressing female nature. It looks more like someone is holding up a breast in a medical exam and pointing out that something is wrong with the nipple.

Squares in a Square
by BakerBug

Comment:
This is nice but not very exciting. I don't think the square crop enhances it; I wanted to see more on the right.

Industrial Illumination
by Artan

Comment:
This is nice, but I'm not responding very positively to it and I'm not sure why. I think it is a bit over-processed; the lighting and colors don't look natural. The gold reflections in the windows also look a bit strange.