One Strange Bird...
by basia03

Comment:
Critique Club Review

The depth of field is just a bit short here. The sharpness of the front of the basket wants to hold the eye there. By the time you get to the back two eggs, things are already getting soft. It also looks like the sharpening tool may have been a bit overused. I would suggest a bit higher vantage point for the camera. The front egg is pretty well hidden, and to see more of the design would be nice. Also a higher vantage point looking a little more downwards would help with the previously mentioned depth of field. The lighting could use some angle to it. As is, the lighting is pretty uniform and flat. More of an angle with a little shadow, would help define the shape of the eggs, and make them pop. Overall exposure, and color rendition is good. I think you have a great idea here, and it could make a really interesting poster.

The World Disappears When I Close My Eyes
by greenem2

Comment:
Critique Club Review

Very good focus and depth of field. Interesting lighting. Very good, but a bit of washout at the base of the neck. With such a severe angle on the lighting, the fingers leave the face in darkness. Perhaps this was a goal for a subtle message, but it also hides the look of despair. With the lighting and angle, this could also be something out of the Aliens movies where they get grabbed by the face. Despair or assault? I think a second, low key light that revealed more of the expression behind the hand, could have been the ticket here.

Can you spot her?
by marbo

Comment:
Along the bottom edge, midway towards the right. Right? 9

Reflection of days end
by togtog

Comment:
Critique Club Review

Great Colors! The angle of the window against the lines of the blocks surrounding it, seems a bit off to me. Perhaps cropping closer to the window itself, or a more "head on" angle would help. About the only other thing I notice is that the focus on the window seems softer than the scene within.

It is hard to recommend much here, as this is already a very good photo.

Inspired
by Ptman

Comment:
Critique Club Review

Definetly a different perspective on things.

The lines of the building tend to guide the eye right past the door and windows, off into an impossibly blue sky. Looks almost like a frame out of a dream sequence. Very disorienting and unusual. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. The focus and depth of field here is excellent. Color renditon is also very realistic. (Well except for the sky anyway.)

Overall I like this picture. However, my eye keeps wishing for something in the sky. (Sun, clouds, birds, God, etc.)

There is a lot of texture to this picture, which I find very enjoyable. The wet looking stone, and arch over the door are fantastic.

Looking Through
by Paige

Comment:
Critique Club Review

I think the Black & White really works here. I think the effect of the fence would really have lost a lot had this been in color. I also like the way the fence is just a touch soft. This helps keep the attention on the subject. As for any suggestions.... I think that lighting that brought out the shadows of the fence on the girls face might have worked well. As it is the lighting is good, but it does make the area on the jaw/cheek to the right of the mouth look like they are slightly out of focus. I am not sure that this is completely a focus issue, as the hair on that side is less focused than to the left, but still within reason.

Her expression really makes this picture. A smile would have really knocked it down a notch or two.

Overall a really good picture.

Old Bridge- New Sign
by scab-lab

Comment:
Critique Club Review

Color, exposure, and focus are all very well done. I had to read your comments to figure out which sign you meant. The only drawback I see to this photo, outside of the fact that a sign was not the object of interest, was that the bridge was vacant. This left a rather large dark cavern right in the middle of the frame. The opening at the other side helps some, but there is still a lot of dark relatively featureless space. Either a different time of day, where the light penetrates deeper into the interior, or a vehicle in the opening might have helped here.

Quantity or Speed
by sulamk

Comment:
Critique Club Review

I can see that the sign was your central focus point. However, there are some many things here competing for attention. The grass is in the way of the sign along the left side, the back lightng calls attention to the wall further on, and in general the light angle from behind the sign, tends to diminish the importance of the sign as all else is brightly lit. Naturally you cannot make the wall go away, but a bit of a different angle could have brought a bit more of the road into play. (It is barely there in this photo.) Also this would be a very good time to use a small f stop to shrink the depth of field. With the background out of focus, and the sign in focus, the sign would not have to compete for attention and at the same time the rural feel would be kept. It also might be the time to tramp down a bit of the weeds trying to cover the sign. The picture does express your title well, and I do like the overall effect.

Olympic Peninsula
by jimmythefish

Comment:
Critique Club Review

It's hard to find anything here to recommend to improve. This is just a really outstanding photo. Any less sky, and you would lose part of the sunset. Perhaps the only possible improvement I would suggest here, is that if the photographer had waited another minute or two to take the picture, the rays of the sun coming over the tops of the hills in the distance might have been even a bit more pronounced. Then again the whole effect could have dissapeared, I wasn't there.

For a cloudless sky, this is just a terrific job on all accounts. Composition, exposure, contrast, color rendition, focus, all are excellent.

Well done!

House in the Snow
by nathaliedoo

Comment:
Critique Club Review

I think that one of the things that might have hurt your score is the picture's size. Smaller pictures tend not to do as well because the details are harder to see. While I am not a rule of thirds purist, the centering of the main focus of this picture results in the building on the right being cut off. It tends to be a small but jarring end to the direction the eye wants to move. The darker patch at the bottom of the screen tends to act as a barrier to the eye. I don't know that cropping it out would have worked better, but it might be something to try, or to have approached the scene at a bit of a different angle to use it to lead the eye into the scene.

Overall this is a very good picture. I believe that your score should have been higher, and as I mentioned before I suspect the size to be part of the cause. I really like the overall exposure. Even though it tends to wash out in places, like the sky above and to the right of the trees, I think with this scene it works quite well. I especially applaud your manipulation of the colors. Had this been straight color, or black and white, this picture would not nearly have been as strong. I really like the mood the coloring sets in this piece. Focus, contrast, and exposure are all very, very, good.