Wind
by choltmeier

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: Excellent use of depth of field, and the main focal plane is exactly where my eye thinks that it should be.

Lighting: I really like the backlighting that you achieved here, though I'd like to see this one exposed just a touch more. I think that I'd like it better with the backlight stronger, as well as seeing the highlights of her profile a little more.

Composition/Content: Your composition and content both provide a good deal of interest to your capture. When I first glanced at it, my thought was "wow, she's hot." Then I read the description. She really is close to looking real. Studying the details of the image makes it a little more apparent that she is just too good to be true.

My Opinion: I like the image and I like your execution. Looking through the other images in the challenge, I think that you were scored and placed appropriately. Well seen and well captured.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide a critique on your entry,
Eric

Holding Hands
by Spongetoast

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: yospiff hit this one on the head. Your compression makes this one very hard to judge or consider the technicals of the image.

Lighting: It is backlit, but the lighting is way too harsh. The sun really washed out your image and created a very distracting lens flare.

Composition/Content: I like what's there, I just don't think that it fits well into this challenge. I know, the challenge is about lighting. Still, I'd like to see this one in a street challenge with better execution.

My Opinion: I think that the score fits, and I think that there is lots to be learned from this one. You did meet the challenge, but execution would have been much stronger. It seems like more of a snapshot that a well thought out image. I think that this capture scored about where it should have.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide a critique on your entry,
Eric

Always Hanging On By A Thread Of Faith
by peter

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

First off, congratulations on your new personal best, and by nearly a full point. Fantastic, and well deserved.

Camera Work/Technical: Near-flawless. Your primary area of focus is directly on that left eye, and exactly where it should be. Your relatively shallow depth of field also creates a very tender feeling with the image, as well as puts the crucifix well into focus. You captured a nice tonal range although I'd like to see this one with a bit more contrast. That is more personal preference than a criticism, though.

Lighting: Your choice to light her from the side produced some terrific shadows that also serve to add to the feeling of your image. My only change would be to back you lighting off of her face just a bit more to avoid blowing that right cheek out. It blends right into her nose and is just a bit distracting to the eye.

Composition/Content: Your composition and content are both amazing for this particular capture. Images with religious tones are hard to place on here, and they seem to span the gamut of scoring. Personally, I try to avoid religion and religious discussions, and I am not a big fan of what I view as diverting from complete self-reliance. HOWEVER, this one even tugs on my heart. The contrasting of what my mind understands as reality comes close to pulling a tear out of this generally poor attitude. You took the innocence of childhood and managed to combine it with the thought that all hope has been lost. What could this child have going on in that little head to have lost all hope? Terrific image, and well scored, in my opinion. Her expression is priceless and you nailed exactly the mood your were looking for. Again, amazing.

My Opinion: Without detracting from the winners of this challenge, I like this one A LOT better than five of the images that scored ahead of you. Saying that, I think that the voters really missed this one. You were probably penalized (especially those 1s, 2s, and 3s) for including religion in your work. As I said, I am no fan of religion, but this would have surely been one of the very few 9s or 10s that I hand out. Wonderful image, and well scored. You should have ribboned in my mind. The only thing that I dislike altogether is the title. Luckily, I rarely look at the titles when voting. Given a specific challenge, I think that you should be able present a title to me without words below the image. Very, very well-done!

Thank you for the opportunity to provide a critique on your entry,
Eric

Red Leaf
by Brin

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: Excellent focus that produced some very nice and very, very crisp lines. The color that you managed to reproduce is beautiful and remarkably vivid. I also like that the eye really only sees three colors in this one; the red, the white, and a burgundy. The technicals are the strength of this image, in my opinion.

Lighting: Wonderfully backlit! I like the fact that the light underneath the leaf almost perfectly silhouetted the veins of the leaf.

Composition/Content: Also very nice. I like the angle that you have composed this as the point of the leaf grabs the eye and pulls it right up to the stem, allowing it to roam through the color and leaf veins as it passes.

My Opinion: 5.88 seems a bit low for this one. It is a very common subject, but it was reproduced very nicely. The voters here rarely subtract for images that have been seen before, and this one was done to meet the challenge very well. Had I voted in this challenge, this would have been one of my 6s, more than likely. The voters' average overall is generally a bit more generous than the votes that I give, so I am surprised that this one didn't finish better.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide a critique on your entry,
Eric

A Study in Backlighting
by SnapperL

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: It's impossible for me to tell where the image focus lies, and the colors are all washed out.

Lighting: While you did indeed achieve backlighting here, it is far too harsh. The face is covered in a lens flare, and the brightness just serves to push my eyes out of the frame.

Composition/Content: I do like the mood that you captured, but the flaws are for too many for mood alone to overcome.

My Opinion: I do hate that the voters handed you a new personal worst and it makes me unhappy to add that this one was probably scored about where it should have. This entry is well below your potential and capabilities that you have proven with your previous entries.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide a critique on your entry,
Eric

Worship
by obgynluke

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: I like the crispness that you captured.

Lighting: No way is this one overexposed or too bright as some of your voters and commenters have suggested. I think that you captured exactly what you set out to capture.

Composition/Content: Nice composition, as well. The reds and greens are nicely saturated, and the petals do a wonderful job pulling my eye into the frame. The brightness pulls my eye directly to the central subjects, then the petals let me wander through the frame again.

My Opinion: I really, really like this image...I think. The current image sizes that DPC allows for the open challenges are far too small for today's technology, PERIOD. Add to that the fact that you sized this one even smaller than those poor requirements and you have a perfect formula for a poorly scoring image. I bet this one was spectacular on your screen, and I bet that it would look terrific in print as well. It is just hard to see on the size of the monitor that I use.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide a critique on your entry,
Eric

Smirk
by geinafets

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: With the image at this size, it looks like your primary area of focus missed the subject's eyes. As a general rule, and believe me when I say I am not stickler for the 'rules' of photography, portraits should have the most crisp area of focus on the eyes of your subject. I really like the depth of field you created with that wide open aperture. It absolutely adds to the interest of the capture, as well as keeps the viewer's eye from wandering too far off the point of the subject.

Lighting: While I can see that this one is indeed backlit, it just takes too much time to look at the image and figure it out. Your average voter here probably spend about 5 seconds before tossing out a vote for each challenge entry, so it needs to be readily obvious that the challenge has been met. If it isn't, voters usually assume that it is a DNMC and vote it low.

Composition/Content: Fantastic composition. The tight framing added to the smirk that you captured on the face of the subject gives this one nice appeal. It makes my mind wonder what else is going on outside of the frame.

My Opinion: Unfortunately, as votes go around here, 4.33 about hits this one just right. The composition is definitely the strength of the image, but there are too many flaws for just composition alone to overcome.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide a critique on your entry,
Eric

It's Electric
by dwainasaurus

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical:Nice focus, and your tones are very true-to-life.

Lighting: The backlighting is adds a nice glow, but the front of your subject looks too muted for me.

Composition/Content: I like the tight composition that you achieved, but the subject matter lacks the 'wow' that you see in the higher scoring entries.

My Opinion: While the idea was very creative, I think that the overall execution was below the capabilities shown in your previous entries. 5.31 is about where I'd expect this sort of image to score. Just thumbing through the challenge entries, this one speaks to me as more a a family snapshot than a creative challenge entry. Not bad, just also not terrific.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide a critique on your entry,
Eric

Kiwi Glow
by Paul

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

So, its been a really big week for you. Just a few days ago, this was your new personal best, both in score and challenge placement. Then, you had to go and outdo yourself and pull in a ribbon. Nice work.

Camera Work/Technical: Your focus is spot on and exactly where it needs to be. This is one of the major strengths of the image. I also like the tones that you captured. The brightness of the green does nicely against the darkness of the background.

Lighting: Superb. Hollowing out the kiwi did wonders for the lightning.

Composition/Content: I like the composition, but the content is a bit too common for my personal preference. Search kiwi on the site photos and you'll find lots of these. However, your composition shows a more creativity than most, and you captured this one better than most of the others that I looked at while thinking about your image.

My Opinion: I think that the 6.35 is about right for this capture. A top 15 placement is fitting looking at the rest of the challenge entries, and this is one of the better fruit shots in the challenge. Nice work in pulling of a fine image with fairly common subject matter. If I had voted on this challenge, this would have been in the 6 or 7 range. You met the challenge well.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide a critique on your entry,
Eric

A Taste of Yellow
by MsAmbrosia

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: Your depth of field is spectacular, but I do find it difficult to place your primary area of focus. The second flower in the frame serves well to grab the eye and move it around a bit, though it is not overbearing and does not compete with your subject with your use of Bokeh.

Lighting: The lighting is nice, but I'd like to see a little more on the green stem. I think that this one would have popped a bit better if you had reflected a little of the backlighting back onto the front of your subject. This could have been done with the use of a reflector, or using something as simple as a white sheet of paper...even someone standing near it with a white shirt would do the trick.

Composition/Content: The almost-square cropping makes this one look off balanced and tense in my opinion. While I do like your overall composition, the subject matter is just far too common here on DPC.

My Opinion: This image scored near its potential. I think that the scored suffered a little from the awkward framing, but mostly from the commonality of the subject and lack of creativity. I would have given it a 4 or maybe a 5.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide a critique on your entry,
Eric