Dreamin' of Home II
by rayg544

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: Very nice technical work with this image. The ghosting is more effective here with a better play into the image. This feels better than the standing position in the original.

Lighting: The lighting is also better in this image. The side of the building was a bit blown in the original. Not so here. I also like the individual lights that you captured.

Composition/Content: This is where I really like the original. Sure, you took the pole out of your head, but the track played an integral part of the last image. It served well to pull the viewer deep into the image.

My Opinion: I like it, but I still prefer the original. This is a better shot from a technical standpoint, but the composition of the original is better. That is where the voters noticed, I believe.

Eric

Hot Damn ! II (Beverage)
by 3eyedcrow

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: Great focus and very interesting death of field. The quality of this exposure is far better than the original submission. Your choice of ISO 100 produced a much better result.

Lighting: Again, much better than the original. I do think I would prefer the bottle behind the flaming glass to give the label a little light boost.

Composition/Content: While the composition is very similar, the details of the content are much more evident in this capture, thus producing a better image.

My Opinion: I think that this one is better than the voters credited you for. Your lighting change alone is worth more than the small score change they gave you.

Eric

The Santa Maria Revisited
by timfythetoo

Comment:
--Trading Post Comment--

This shot is awesome! There is nothing more or less that I would do to it. Sorry there isn't more critique to offer, but this one is great just the way it is. It really is sitting there with some other great images...right up there where it should! Great work!

A Famous Irish
by Pascal

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: Excellent! Your crisp focus adds to the dramatic feel of this capture. I would like to see the depth of field just a little deeper as the Gui on the left side of the image appears a little soft.

Lighting: Out of the many image strengths, lighting is your strongest here. Wonderful job capturing the perfect amount of each label to capture interest and hold onto the viewer's eye.

Composition/Content: I prefer the composition of the original entry more, but everything else about this one is better. This composition is not bad, by any means, but I like the full frame feeling of the original.

My Opinion: Excellent job improving on a great idea. This may even be one of the most improved in this entire challenge. Wonderful work!

Eric

T A M A R A
by Philos

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: The eyes are beautiful and crisp, but the rest of the image is a bit too soft. I do like images with the angelic blur, but I think that this one is a bit overdone. I am not sure if it was the post-processing or the extremely shallow depth of field, but there is a bit too much of it. It looks like a neat image layer with a mask over the eyes and mouth.

Lighting: Your lighting is pretty nice. Almost everything is nicely exposed with all elements evenly lit. I would like to see that hair lit a little more. Just a little detail was lost there.

Composition/Content: I do prefer this offset composition to the original, more centered composition. You captured a very nice expression that she will love for years.

My Opinion: The coloring and post-processing were better in the original. The composition and lighting in this one was much better. A combination of the two would have probably pushed the top 10.

Eric

Box in the Sky [ reflections without mirrors II reshoot]
by goc

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: Wonderful focus. The windows and corners are all very crisp and make for one of this image's major strengths.

Lighting: The lighting was a bit too harsh for this image. Looking at your settings, I think that it would have helped if you had cranked that aperture down a bit.

Composition/Content: The composition of this image is much stronger and better that the original submission. The lines and corners of the windows work very well to bring the viewer's eye up and into the frame, as well as hold interest.

My Opinion: While it is a far cry from the original, it is far better. Studying both images closely, I can't even make a relation between the two. However, this is a greatly improved image that scored pretty close to its potential.

Eric

What Color Is YOUR Shadow?
by GeneralE

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: Excellent colors that help project the strong message behind the capture. I also like the the vivid background and the fact that it really sets the hands off, giving them nice pop. I also feel that the hand at the upper left corner is just a hair out of focus.

Lighting: Very nice. You did a very nice job with harsh lighting. You kept all the detail in both hands without blowing the bright background. I can even see the veins in the had coming in from the right.

Composition/Content: Nice content, but I think your composition suffered a bit this time. I think that the background is a vast improvement, as is the overall contrast of the image, but the hand positions seem a bit awkward. I know full well how difficult it is to work with the youngsters, so getting in perfect would be near impossible.

My Opinion: I agree with the voters that this is an improvement over the original entry. Nice work taking a really neat idea and improving on the overall execution.

Eric

Blue Eye Beauty
by Neuferland

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Wow! She has grown up over the past year. From the first image, she has changed from a cute kid to beautiful young girl. You did a very nice image capturing her beauty to share with us all.

Camera Work/Technical: Your focus is nice and crisp, while the image looks invitingly soft. Excellent work in both shooting and post-processing to achieve a wonderful portrait.

Lighting: I can find no problems with your lighting. You created a very nice flow from the darkness on the left to the nice highlights on the right. This balances the image very well.

Composition/Content: I have two small issues with the composition. First, the leaf on the right side of the frame behind her left ear is mildly distracting. Once the eye is on that side of the image, that leaf grabs it and competes for attention. The second small issue is at the right ear. I find myself wanting to see the rest of it. Moving that lead would help out a bit.

My Opinion: No offense intended to your other images, but this one is my favorite that you have captured. I fully agree with the voters that this one is even better than a really nice original. I personally think that this one should have scored much better.

Eric

Still Weathered and More Beaten
by dpdave

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: Great focus, as well as a very nice depth of field. I really like the crispness on the nose of the boat face and the nicely blurred background that you can see through the cracked bow.

Lighting: Your lighting looks a little flat and hazy in this one. Looking at the previous entry, it appears that these shots were taken either at different times of the day or with vastly different cloud cover conditions. I think a slight s-curve adjustment on a curves layer would have upped the contrast and pulled some of the murky haze out of the image.

Composition/Content: While I do find the centered composition appealing for this capture, I prefer the angled composition of the original entry. This particular composition puts some limitations on how the viewer's eye flows around the frame.

My Opinion: This is another nice capture, but I agree with the voters. The original entry was a bit better.

Eric

blue ink
by alpharich

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

First of all, congrats on your second highest scoring submission to date. Nice work on improving an idea.

Camera Work/Technical: You captured a very nice and very crisp image here. The detail in the flowing ink is amazing.

Lighting: The lighting looks pretty even, but it almost makes the background difficult to look at. It provides contrast to the image, but almost too much contrast.

Composition/Content: There are several areas that are distracting in this setup. It looks like we can see the outline of the glass on the left. That paired with the sinking ink at the top of the frame provide some pretty strong distractions. I also can't decide if the bottom left is sinking ink or a reflection off the glass, but it is also distracting. Dr.Confuser suggested a tighter crop, but I think you'd lose too much of the great detail if you cropped all that out. I think that you needed a larger glass in which to drop the ink.

My Opinion: You did a great job on improving your original idea. I believe it would have pulled an even better score with a few minor adjustments to the lighting and the composition of the shot.

Eric