Look Folks - No Hands
by michael_p

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: This is where a great idea lost some of its potential points. Your motion blur is terrific, but your focus is off on the rider. Your depth of field complements the blur very nicely, but it may have been one of the main reasons that you lost the crisp focus that this one needed.

Lighting: Your lighting is very nice. The bright background really helps isolate the rider in his dark clothing. You also did a terrific job with the exposure. No important detail was lost to highlights or shadows.

Composition/Content: Great choice of subject for this particular challenge.

My Opinion: As is, this one scored a little higher than I would have expected. You did a great job meeting the challenge, and with the rider in crisp focus, I'd expect to see this one well into the 6 range.

Eric

get to the flower
by alpharich

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: Interesting, but the flower lost some of its crisp focus with the camera movement. I do like your choice of WB, as the colors are nicely captured.

Lighting: Great lighting for the effect you were after. The subject stands nicely off the background that you created.

Composition/Content: I think that this one is a bit too centered. While I am no stickler on the rules of photography, it often helps the image by pulling it out of the center.

My Opinion: I think that this one scored pretty close to its potential. Voters here like vivid colors and high contrast. I do like the idea, and I think that you pulled it off pretty well.

Eric

Moonlit Pier
by kgeary

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

First of all, congrats on your best finish to date, as well as a 6+ score. It takes many of us much longer than three challenges to make that mark.

Camera Work/Technical: First off, I am happy to see the straight horizon line. It is perfect! Accidental horizon tilts are a pet peeve of mine, so I always appreciate a straight one. I also like your depth of field choice for this one. All the rocks are crisply focused, as is the (wonderfully horizontal) horizon and the buoy. I also like your WB choice, giving this a great, moody feel.

Lighting: The light that the moon provided is also very nice. This was a great time of day to provide the great mood that you produced here. I might have used a graduated natural density filter to enhance that sky a little, but I couldn't be sure without being there. Very nice lighting.

Composition/Content: This is one of the main strengths of the image. The rock wall serves very well to pull the viewer deep into the image and feel the mood. Even though it was probably 230 degrees that day, this one produces a cold and lonely feeling.

My Opinion: I think that this one met the challenge in a very creative way. I also believe that it should have scored a bit better, as it is much better, in my opinion, than some of those that finished ahead of it. Voters here like vivid colors, so maybe a red or orange sky would have vaulted it up a bit. Personally, I prefer it just the way you captured it.

Eric

Physics...
by Apee

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: I agree with the General. I would have changed the focus around on this one and used a deeper depth of field. While I can see what's moving, the fret bars are very distracting and compete very heavily with the motion of the subject.

Lighting: Your lighting is very nice and very even. There were no details lost with in the highlights or shadows.

Composition/Content: I also like your angle for this shot. It serves very well to pull the viewer's eye up and into the frame, but the frets take over and pull it away from the subject of the challenge.

My Opinion: I think that this one scored pretty close to its potential as it is. Giving this one a deeper depth of field and a longer exposure would have surely pulled this one out of the sub-5 category.

Eric

Stealth Sedan
by levyj413

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: I think that your focus emphasizes your background a bit too much. If you could have caught the blur on a more shallow depth of field, I believe that your score would have benefited.

Lighting: Your lighting came out terrific. It is the main strength of this image.

Composition/Content: While the pole does give away the fact that the image was shot at a tilt, I do not believe that it detracts from the capture at all. It adds some interest to the photo, and actually helps move the viewer around the frame.

My Opinion: I really like it, but I think that it relied too heavily on the title. Keep in mind that these challenges have 200, 300, even 400 entries, and the voters spend very little time trying to figure out what is in the frame. I think that this image is far better than a 4.8, but it just took too long to figure out what was there. Nice work, and I look forward to more.

Eric

Stealth Sedan
by levyj413

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: I think that your focus emphasizes your background a bit too much. If you could have caught the blur on a more shallow depth of field, I believe that your score would have benefited.

Lighting: Your lighting came out terrific. It is the main strength of this image.

Composition/Content: While the pole does give away the fact that the image was shot at a tilt, I do not believe that it detracts from the capture at all. It adds some interest to the photo, and actually helps move the viewer around the frame.

My Opinion: I really like it, but I think that it relied too heavily on the title. Keep in mind that these challenges have 200, 300, even 400 entries, and the voters spend very little time trying to figure out what is in the frame. I think that this image is far better than a 4.8, but it just took too long to figure out what was there. Nice work, and I look forward to more.

Eric

The past
by Dufus

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: The image is nicely crisp and well-focused, but I think that I'd like to see this one with a much more shallow depth of field. While the background is not terribly overpowering, it is still a bit distracting.

Lighting: I think that the lighting is too harsh. I do like the backlit feeling of the animal skin, and the nicely contrasting shadows cast by her working hands, but the entire frame seems a bit washed out.

Composition/Content: I believe that your choice of subject matter is the strongest element of this image. This is a lady doing something that is well out of the ordinary in today's technology-dependent society. So, terrific subject, but the composition is a bit off. I see some literal framing, but the framed feeling of the image could have used more attention.

My Opinion: Nice work meeting the challenge in a very creative way, and with very creative subject matter. I think this one would have pulled a better score with some lighting adjustments. As it is, I think that it scored pretty close to its potential.

Eric

Cliff and cloudy night II
by MadMan2k

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: I like your focus, including a great depth of field that goes beyond the clouds and nicely exposes the stars in focus. I also like the time of exposure here, catching the ever so slight drifting of the clouds.

Lighting: You did a very nice job in an often difficult, low light condition. You were able to keep the stars and the cloud highlights from losing detail, while also capturing a long enough exposure to paint a very nice red coloring on the cliff.

Composition/Content: This is the one area that I do believe that the original was better. This one is interesting from a minimalist viewpoint, but I find myself feeling like the cliff was accidentally chopped off. I'd really like to see more of it, as the color complements the sky very nicely.

My Opinion: The two shots are vastly different in content and execution. I, against the opinion of the voters, do not see this one as far superior to the original. Rather, I believe that this one scored pretty close to its deserved potential, whereas the initial entry was actually much better than the voters gave it credit.

Eric

Eyes II
by banmorn

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: Your clarity and focus is much, much better than your original entry. Your contrast in this one is also better than the original.

Lighting: In the original, your lighting looked a little flat and hazy. In this one you did a nice job overcoming that.

Composition/Content: This is where I believe the voters scored you lower for this entry. This one seems a bit more crowded with the droplets too close together. The other entry seems a bit more relaxed with the droplet spacing more spread out.

My Opinion: I believe that everything except the composition is better than your original. Unfortunately, the composition was crowded just enough to pull your score down.

Eric

High Contrast Challenge: infernal cat
by dragonlady

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: I see the main focus is one the eye that is in shadow, leaving the bright light a bit soft. I'd like to see that reversed, and even a slightly deeper depth of field.

Lighting: Your lighting is the main strength of this image. You did a very nice job with limited highlights to create a great low key image.

Composition/Content: I like the composition that you chose here. It has a nice centered profile feel to it that really works for this image.

My Opinion: This one is hands down better than the original entry. The first one lost the feeling of a photograph. This is a nice animal portrait, even though I am not a cat person. Well done.

Eric