Papillon Profile
by Paige

Comment:
Lovely focus on the nose and chin, he looks so soft! The subject here is brown instead of blue, but I love dogs and I love his expression!

Dark Blue Sky
by victor01

Comment:
I love the silhoutte effect here. I think it would be better if you had cropped off the bottom dark area and concentrated on the minoret and the sky.

November Spawn
by kandyj

Comment:
Critique by Natasha

COMPOSITION- CONTENT
The content of the picture is great, this could really be a good picture for a fishing magazine. Eyes are definitely drawn to the fish and the light on the fish helps it stand out in the picture. The rule of thirds has been applied here and this adds to the shot. After the fish, the eyes are drawn to the river bank, and although overall the composition is nice, I think that the river bank isnt needed here. I agree with some of the comments here, a closer crop would have helped the composition, making the fish larger in the frame and excluding some of the extra detail. I think that the idea of making this a vertical crop is a good one, cut off the left of the picture, including the grass, a little bit off the right for balance and then concentrate on the fish, the falling water and then also the bank would add to the framing.

BACKGROUND

I think a lot that I have said in the composition applies here. Although beautiful the background overpowers the point of the picture, being the fish. Decrease the size of the background and the fish will "jump out" even more! LOL.

CAMERA WORK-TECHNICAL
The fast shutter speed here is great, it captures the fish cleanly and in focus, great work! The lighting on the fish and water is lovely, also the background lighting is clear. I would imagine that the water here is pretty dark, hence the "dark" comments. However if you had increased contrast, I think that the water would have got blown out.

DIGITAL PROCESSING-TECHNICAL
I think that you could play around with the contrast a little here, as some people have suggested, try cutting out the background and adding a bit more light. Though, to be honest Ifeel that the lighting is very good here, the water has got a nice clean glow to it.

MY OPINION
This is a great capture and a vey beautiful setting, I think some more cropping would enhance this shot a lot. Perfect timing! I hope that this critique helps!

Christmas Season is Upon Us ( small town news)
by Sonifo

Comment:
I love the effect of the foggy snow here, really looks magical. I would like the background to be a little darker to get rid of the distracting pole.

A City United: Public Transportation Success Story
by magnetic9999

Comment:
The quality of this shot is great, its incredibly crisp clear! The expressions are great and the picture tells a story, but the title doesnt seem to fit the mood of the shot! So far, this is the only shot that I have thought should win. Good Luck Natasha

Picket Line!
by catpixel

Comment:
Great capture, the only drawback is that the flash is a little too bright .

Santa & the sun spotted in Manchester
by Paulk

Comment:
Composition-Content
I loved this picture, the title is great and is really tells the story. I think that cropping a bit off the right of the picture would have helped, would have placed the tower at a "rule of thirds" point. This would also have made Santa appear larger in the frame. I would also have like to have seen the bottom of the statue, so pulling back a little would have included this. At the moment, the tower and the Santa are vying for attention.

Background
The other main point of the story is the blue sky and this has been left nicely clean with no distractions behind the tower etc, so strengthens the overall impact.

Camera Work-Technical
There is some distortion at the ends of the frame where the building appears to curve up, has a slight fish eye effect. More cropping or moving back could have got rid of this. As a said before, I think a closer shot of th tower and Santa would have been good. I also like the idea of making a vertical shot and then these problems would have been helped. On the right frame of the building there is some glare from the sun, so maybe shooting at a different time of day would have got rid of these and also added a bit more colour to the Santa.

My Opinion
I loved this picture, made me laugh. I used to live in Middlesbrough, so I know how rare the sun can be up there! The picture fit the topic well and I can imagine this being used in a local paper. Great Picture! Hope that this helps!

Over the Top.... !!Touchdown!!
by risu81

Comment:
Composition- Content
I think that the composition is pretty good, getting the crowd and the players into the shot adds interest. However, i think cropping off some of the foreground would have brought us closer to the action. Zooming right into the players would also have been interesting.

Background
Overall, I like your decision to include the crowd, however the lack of Depth of Field throws them out of focus, which would have been OK if the players had been in focus!

Camera Work-Technical
The shutter speed was a bit slow here and so didnt stop the action, I think this kind of picture needs good sharp focus. Try setting faster shutter speed, also using a monpod could have helped with camera shake, I have the same problem with my camera, especially with a long zoom.

Digital Processing
Colours are nice and bright, especially the reds.

My opinion
I am not a football fan, so on a personal level, it doesn`t hit me. However, I think you chose a great topic for the challenge and one which does interest many people, so you would reach a big audience with this picture. I am sure you can see for yourself from the comments, what everyone is saying about shutter speed, however you have caught motion well and something along these lines could be good for the motion theme! Good Luck and I hope that this helps!

Homeboy Brings Jobs
by Gotcha

Comment:
What a wonderful shot, very interesting mural. I think that this really needs some people slouched up against the wall though, the human element would have made this a very high score. Natasha 6

Sharing Is Caring
by indigo997

Comment:
Absolutely gorgeous child!