Tetons Storm Break
by kearock

Comment:
I have a feeling that it would have looked nicer to skip those trees to the left and right in the foreground and instead focuson the small group of trees in the back. What I would have done would have to be a bit closer to those trees and shoot at bit wider angle (stitching would be an option if this was you widest setting - check out autostitch). If possibly it would have been nice to make the rightmost tree in the background more prominent than the others (as it stand apart and has a slightly different color).
I would have placed those trees to the left in the frame and the mountaintop slightly to the right of the trees.
Now, my view of the scene is most certainly not more 'coorect' than yours, however I find that it always fun to see others interpretion of the scene.

However, if we only look at the image you captured instead, the blown out sky is quite distracting here and in my opinion the shadow in the foreground is also a distraction - either it should not be there at all or at least to be a bit darker.
As for nitpicking, I would like the snow on the mountaintop to be slightly brighter and the 'blue' and grey mountains a bit darker to increase contrast. This can be achieved by using dodge and burn (dodge the highlights [snow} and burn the shadows and perhaps the midrange (the mountains).
I think a slightly more sharpening would be in order here, I tried to use 0.2 in radius and 90% using smart sharpening in Photoshop CS2 and felt that was a slight improvement.
A slight S-curve would also be nice to increase the contrast in the image.
I also feel that you should use the sponge tool to increase the saturation in selective arease. In particular the bush under the tree to the right is a bit too desaturated for my taste. Perhaps also the lower dark portion of the rightmost tree?
I think you should have moved one step to the right when taking this photo so the tree to the left in the foreground wouldn't 'blend' with the leftmost tree in the background. A distraction as it is, in my opinion.

I find the signature in the bottom right corner to be quite irritating. At first I thought this white small pattern was a pattern of the picture so I think you either need to make the signature more prominent (and so one can read your name) or forego it.

EDIT: Perhaps being closer to the ground would have been nice?
Here's a quick editing job in Photoshop. (I know the tree to the left is too sharpened in this version.)

Message edited by author 2005-07-31 12:10:51.

Grass explosion!
by LalliSig

Comment:
To answer Andy, Larus and I did indeed go to the same soccer match and we stood right by each other when we took those two, admittedly, similar shots.
It might seem strange that we submit such similar shots even though we went to the same game but I can assure you that this was not planned on our behalf as Larus and I did not know of each other submissions until after the voting had started. Quite a coincidence, eh?
In addition, I might mention that it should be obvious to most people that my picture and Larus's have a quite different look to them (colour etc.) and the background is very different which, to me at least, shows that they were taken from different vantage points and were processed with different methods. Perhaps it's moot to explain this as the site council will undoubtedly see when they receive the original files that these two shots were taken on two different cameras.

(As an aside a similar thing happened to me and another photographer in the 'Abandoned' challenge where the entries in the 3rd and 4th place were of the same house.)

I could also mention that Larus and I were not the only ones to submit photographs from this game as Sjonni and hrutsen also submitted a picture from this exact match.
And to boot Arnit, Siggi and skarason also all submitted photographs from the same game.

Anyway, congratulations for your red ribbon, Larus!!

Message edited by author 2005-07-20 09:54:11.

Tropical Kickboarding
by cloudsme

Comment:
Quite a fun shot. It looks like the woman is swimming towards a gigantic squid just ready to eat her. ;)

Swimming
by bucket

Comment:
Fun concept and water certainly looks nice and strange but what is lacking here is that we really need to see the boy's face and it would also have been nice had you shown more to the left.

big air
by Tom_Robbrecht

Comment:
Very nice! Most certainly one of the better picture in this challenge!
While one could argue that silhouettes have been done to death here on dpc and in photography I still think it is quite tastefully done here and it doesn't detract from the action in the picture.

The composition is quite nice though I wonder if it would have looked better in a square framing where one could see more of the bottom and the top.

However, the main fault I see with picture is that it is somewhat difficult to understand the action in this shot. I noticed earlier this year when photographing snowboarders that they find it essential in snowboarding-photographs to see the ground as to be able to determine how high the snowboarder is jumping and what trick he is doing. Naturally, being someone who doesn't know much about snowboarding I very often failed to do so, much to their dismay.
Anyway, I wouldn't exactly call it a fault with this picture that you don't see the water and therefore it's difficult to determine how high the guy is jumping but it would probably have depicted the action slightly better that way.

One could also argue that the apparant 'grainyness' in the lower half of the picture is quite distracting. At least I most certainly think that many people will give you a lower score than otherwise. However, believe this isn't exactly grain but instead it is the water droplets flying upwards. Am I right here?

Well, enough of this. Job well done!

Running outdoors
by lastef

Comment:
This is a very happy picture as such, e.g. we feel the joy in the kid's face as he is running.
However, I don't connect this picture very much with sports - more with playfulness.
Other than that it's quite frustrating that the right foot is missing in the picture - a wider view would probably have been more optimal here - and to have such an overexposed sky.
I would probably have used slight Shadow/highlight in Photoshop to bring out the detail in the kid's pants.
Sharpening is perhaps a bit too agressive as can especially be seen in the kid's pants.
I also think this picture would have been much nicer in black and white.
�slensk, geri ég ráð fyrir? ;)

asphalt dreams
by pcody

Comment:
Nice capture - good framing and it even looks quite dreamy. I would like the bottom part of the asphalt to be a bit darker though, a slight burning would do nicely.
Perhaps a slightly smaller aperture would have been better, it seems the asphalt above the truck is too much out of focus, though it could just be that it is covered with water?

Closed church
by marvin

Comment:
Wow, I took an exact looking photo of this church last week!
//www.andri.org/ljosmyndakeppni/CRW_0025-copy-2.jpg

As for your picture, the halos around the two crosses are quite irritating. The ground is a tad too dark and I think the sky isn't very appealing. I like how your picture is taken from a higher vantage point than mine though the road doesn't help the picture.

I quite naturally like the framing ! ;-)

Empty
by rubytuesdai

Comment:
What is wrong with this picture? Here is an incomplete list:
a) The horizon is not level. You should have either fixed this in editing or be more careful at shooting time.
b) The picture is too soft. Either the focus is incorrect or you are using too slow shutter speed. A tripod would've helped here. Slight unsharp mask would be nice too (100 in amount, 0.3-0.4 in radius and 0 in threshod would probably help here).
c) The framing is not good enough. What is particularly irritating is that you've failed to include the leftmost part of the building. You might also have either tried to include more the surroundings or perhaps focused strictly on the door and the staircase - that might have been better.
d) The photo is much too grey. Try instead to take photographs when it's not as cloudy as is the case here and take them early in the morning when the sun is low on the sky.

Solitude
by SnapperL

Comment:
It looks as this was shot through a car window - am I right here?

Anyway, I think it would have been better to go a bit to the left and shoot the front of the house straight on. I think that would have looked neat because of the step-like form of the house. Including some background or foreground would also have been helpful here. If the woman on to the right had been somewhat closer to the camera this could have been a nice photo.
It also irritates me a bit that you have angled the camera upwards here. Better to shoot at a greater distance and crop the lower portion off the picture.

In addition the photograph is too soft but I like the toning though the effect is perhaps a tad strong for my taste.